Law Firm Digital Marketing vs Word of Mouth

Is referral marketing helping you get all the calls and cases in your area?

For a long time, law firms have depended on networking and referral marketing to get more clients through WOM, word of mouth. A big part of this tactic revolves around investing in personal relationships in order to grow. To date, this has always meant attending conferences, fundraisers, chamber of commerce gatherings, workshops, and more. And while networking is still a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy, it comes at a cost: time. 

Today, especially after recent events that have changed the way we function as a society (yes, we’re mainly talking about the pandemic), this is changing. Client WOM goes beyond in-person meetings and is now shifting over to the digital realm at an increasingly fast pace. 

This is good news! It means the marketing arena is opening up to more ways in which your firm can excel and get the new business you’re looking for. New challenges bring new opportunities, they say. Networking and referral marketing in this day and age require firms to navigate new territories and find up-to-date tools to grow, and there are perhaps even more than you might think! One way you can amp up your referral game is through your digital presence on social media. You could also start by investing more time in your blog or maybe even pick up podcasting! The options are countless, and the more focus you dedicate to how you look and what you offer prospects online, the better your chances of getting noticed and talked about. 

While investing time in personal relationships is still great, your firm’s steady growth requires more than just referrals and networking. Consider them valuable additions that should support your overall marketing strategy, as opposed to your full marketing strategy. 

 

WOM vs Digital Marketing. Should my firm go for one or the other?

Word of mouth has been the catalyst for most law firm’s networking and referral marketing strategies. Seeing consumers that are using or have used your services in the past voluntarily share how happy they are with you as a firm with their network is a beautiful and humbling thing, particularly because it just works to get you more new business.

The main reason this is so powerful is that it positions your clients like your best marketers – and free of cost! When former clients tell their family, friends, and acquaintances about the excellent job that an attorney did, it will typically result in new leads coming your way. Additionally, WOM already brings in clients with an increased level of trust, leading to a more positive attorney-client relationship.

There’s a caveat, though. Relying exclusively on word of mouth basically means you are leaving the control of acquiring cases and calls in your clients’ hands. Let’s keep in mind that no matter how talented of an attorney you are, you just can’t please’em all! Negative comments and opinions on your firm will always exist, and this is what makes depending on WOM to get business through the door so risky. With digital marketing, the power is in your hands. By this, we mean that you can control what content goes where, with what approach and with what intensity your target audience will be served this content. Your competitors are already in line doing just the same, and as the saying goes, where the bait lies, sharks will come. This is not to say your clients are necessarily bait, but the fierce competition in the legal industry has definitely turned attorneys into sharks. It’s all a matter of Darwin’s law, just applied to the digital marketing world. 

According to a recent study, the primary source the majority of searchers (86%) use when researching a lawyer is Google. Let’s stretch out the bait/shark analogy a little further, shall we? If you’re after new business, and online is where the sharks are, you will need to be the strongest one in order to take the biggest share. This means adapting to your surroundings and being where your prospects are.  Don’t be intimidated to embrace new technology as it comes out. Rather, jump on the bandwagon as soon as you can! The more steps ahead you are of your competition, the more likely it is that potential clients will find you and ultimately sign with you.

With that said, WOM and digital marketing are most efficient when they work hand-in-hand. Here’s an overview of some of the benefits:

• Heightened awareness of your firm.
• Promotion of your services. 
• Highlight of your expertise and USP, unique selling points. 
• Strengthened client-lawyer relationship.
• Increased brand awareness and trust.

 

Introducing eWOM. 

eWOM refers to any positive or negative statement made by customers about your firm which is available to multiple people and/or institutions and is spread over the internet. It comes in many forms, but the most significant are online reviews.

Online reviews are a must because they increase your rankings, trustworthiness, visibility and generate even more. Therefore, actively seeking them out online is critical for your firm’s growth. 

 The marketplace is, always has been and always will be, heavily influenced by what people say. Seeing as the digital landscape is expanding at a formidable rate each day, and there are more and more users online that search for both services and products on the web, the traditional market has shifted into a digital one. People trust others on the Internet, even if they don’t personally know them on the grounds of them having left behind a review without much, or anything to gain.  According to a recent survey, 93% of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions. Online testimony of your services can legitimize your work, and just like referrals and traditional WOM, it comes from the clients themselves. 

Reviews can help for a number of reasons, including: 

• Improvement of your visibility. 
• Higher rankings on SERPs, (search engine results pages.) 
• Heightened trust. 
• Increased calls to your firm from interested prospects.

Fun fact: 98% of potential clients research the online reviews of an attorney before hiring them. Because of this, your firm should learn how to seek positive online reviews actively. 

 

Boosting your firm’s online presence. 

Networking, referral, and digital marketing equally depend on providing the best customer experience. To do so, you’ll need to constantly evolve, meet the clients where they are, and tap into their pains and desires. On top of that, the need for more calls and cases is pushing many attorneys to find new ways to advertise, which means establishing an online presence is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity.

However, we understand learning the ropes of digital marketing requires time. Time you likely don’t have enough of as it is! Because of this, we’ve created a checklist with some best practices you can start with: 

• Add your NAP+W (name, address, phone number) and website in directories in listings like Avvo, Lawyers.com, and Justia. 
• Claim your business on GMB, Google My Business.
• Build a social media content strategy. This is the perfect avenue to lend a helping hand to users by providing answers to some of their basic legal problems. For example, you can create a blog explaining what a contingency fee arrangement is. 
• Incorporate an SEO strategy to boost your organic rankings on search engines like Google. 
• Network with other professionals on social media platforms like LinkedIn.
• Attend online webinars and conferences. 

Venture uncharted territories and find more clients.

Your clients can be your best marketers offline and online. There are many ways to stay ahead of the game in the current virtual landscape, and one of the most powerful is allowing your clients to speak for you. Having said this, remember that it is very risky to rely solely on this type of strategy and we highly recommend incorporating your positive reviews in a fully stacked digital marketing strategy. Not only will you be able to balance out any negative reviews you may have received, but your efforts will be more targeted and efficient in getting your firm the calls it needs. 

As you find new ways to grow your firm online, you may find yourself struggling to keep up with the intricacies of digital marketing and your legal responsibilities simultaneously. We know that time is precious and therefore, stretch out a helping hand. We have a team of seasoned digital marketing experts that are ready to set your firm up for success. While you focus on closing cases, we can help your firm navigate the digital realm. 

 

 

 

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Clutch Lists Consultwebs as a Top SEO Company in North Carolina for 2021

Nowadays, digital marketing plays a vital role in your business’s success. Having a website is not enough. Thus, your presence must be boosted online to reach your target customers. This is where SEO comes into play. With over two decades of expertise, we are here to help you.

Located in Raleigh, North Carolina, Consultwebs offers a full range of services and brings unique value to our clients and their marketing campaigns. Our team is expert with the following services:

 

• PPC Campaigns
• SEO Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
• Web Design and Development
• Marketing
• Public Relations
• Online Strategies, and;
• Programming

 

We are a dedicated team that works closely with clients to craft and execute custom campaigns based on their brands, markets, and goals. We strive to help our clients grow and celebrate success.

Today, we are thrilled and delighted to share a huge success with all of you! According to Clutch’s research on top providers, Consultwebs was announced as one of the top SEO companies in North Carolina for 2021!

To know more about Clutch, it is hugely respected within the B2B space for connecting small, mid-market, and enterprise businesses with service providers that fit their needs. They evaluate technology service and solutions companies based on the quality of work, thought leadership, and client reviews. 

We would like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to the whole team at Clutch for recognizing our dedication. Most importantly, our amazing clients who took the time to leave reviews on our Clutch profile. Without you, this milestone wouldn’t have been possible.

 

Here are what  some of our clients had to say about working with us:

“I was impressed with the professionalism of the team.”

 — President, Advocates of Positive Change

 

“They come up with creative projects to extend our branding goals and to maximize our advertising dollars.” 

— Vice-President, Younce, Vtipil & Baznik P.A.

 

Are you looking for a result-driven partner? Contact us today, and let’s get started.

 

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How law firms can use video marketing to win more clients

Videos: The most popular content type 

We learn and retain new information in countless ways, but perhaps the most powerful way is through visuals. Most of us prefer to process information through videos that simplify topics enough for us to digest with ease.  

One caveat to take into consideration here, however, is that as much as we appreciate video content, we have also learned how to “declutter” from a phenomenon we face today called, ‘digital information overload.’ Thanks to all of the devices we have access to in this digital era, such as phones, tablets, and computers, we have immediate and endless sources of information, videos, images, etc., at our fingertips. Examples of this phenomenon include consuming too much information, receiving too much information, and feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of knowledge we are bombarded with. What happens when we feel this way? We shut off. 

What does this mean for your law firm? 

To acquire and retain prospects and clients, your firm’s digital content needs optimization, and this includes your video content. Just to put it into perspective, here are some of the benefits video can bring your firm:

• Boost conversions.
• Increase in retained clients on your firm’s page. 
• Improved trust.
• Reduction of unqualified leads!

 

In order to make sure your video strategy is successful, you will need to think about aspects like budget and time, as well as:  

• What kind of video content should your firm place focus on? 
• Where should the videos be published? 
• How can you assure your video’s top quality? 

 

Stay tuned as we uncover some of the best practices your firm can start applying. 

 

“Don’t overthink it. Keep it Simple.”

This is one of the many tips and tricks Kara Prior gives. Kara, president of James Publishing, recently sat down with us to discuss how law firms can use video marketing to win more clients. 

Videos enhance your firm’s personalization strategies, which are critical to getting past the much-dreaded disease that is digital information overload. It is also a competitive advantage you can have over other law firms because not many have yet jumped aboard this movement. 

Specifically for firms, there are numerous topics you can cover with a content video strategy, and one relevant tactic Kara mentions is telling stories about cases you have handled in the past. 

Story-telling in general is a great way to keep viewers engaged, and story-telling specifically about previous cases you have successfully taken on signals prospects that you have the expertise to handle their issues as well. It really is a win/win situation if you think about it: you get your message across and you position yourself as an industry leader, and your prospects feel reassured that if they choose to sign with you, they will be in good hands.  Technical aspects you should keep in mind with these types of videos are: 

• Covering one case study per video 
• Unfold the story in chronological order in 2 to 3 minutes. 

 

The Power of FAQs. 

FAQs, frequently asked questions, are also a great source to find out what video content you should put out next.  FAQs are a must for several reasons, time-saving reasons being the ones that stand out the most. Fun fact: Around half of all businesses rely on videos to reduce support queries. 

In the legal industry, prospects looking for law firms need extra reassurance. They want to make sure they make the right decisions in critical times. Because of this, they might also search your website to see if you provide any answers. This is where a FAQs section is handy.

Users searching for FAQs are also known as ‘pre-legal intent searchers.’ These types of users are in the exploration and evaluation process of the sales funnel. They are looking for answers to specific questions. 

Often, many clients looking for law firms do not understand the whole process in the legal industry. Your firm can filter out quality leads versus leads in the evaluation process by providing answers to questions that are frequently asked. Additionally, FAQs can create a ‘snowball effect. Initially, it will save your firm time since you won’t have to answer the same questions verbally. It then creates a snowball effect with your client because 

• Prospects know what lies ahead for them. 
• Prospects come to your firm more educated. 

 

And the snowball effect continues.

Some legal FAQs examples are:

• What cases does your firm generally handle? 
• What are the fees and costs? And, how are they billed? 
• How do I know if I have a possible case? 
• How will I be informed of my case’s process? 

 

Where should you post your videos? 

Since we have covered the ‘what’ of video marketing for firms, the next step would be to decide the ‘where’. Where should you post your videos? 

The businesses that have taken the wise decision to embark on a video-content-creating journey of their own many times forget to share their productions on all their channels. Your website, YouTube, social media platforms like Facebook, and emails are a good place to start sharing them with your contacts and the world! 

For videos on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, you can include a thumbnail, a compressed preview image. Think of thumbnails as the equivalent of the cover art for books. (Remember, people do judge books by their covers!)

As for emails, your firm can add media links to your firm’s signature or embed the video in the email at the beginning or the middle of the body. No matter where you place the video, sharing videos is part of the game. Around 84% of people say they are convinced to purchase a service by watching the videos they are sent.   

 

How can you make sure your video is top-quality?

Your firm can follow a handful of best practices to ensure the videos are top-quality. To mention a few:

• Make sure to focus on the story, not selling. As previously mentioned, most prospects looking at videos are not yet ready to use your firm’s services. 
• Grab the user’s attention in the first seconds. This attention grabber is known as a “hook.” Since the human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds since the beginning of the digital era, you need to make sure the first 5-8 seconds start strong. 
• Use subtitles. Most videos today are, ironically, played without sound. Your firm might want to make sure the videos work without sound by adding images and subtitles. 
• Include calls to action. Your videos should redirect the prospects to an action you want them to take. Not all actions are meant to sell. Other actions you can push for are: subscribe, follow, like, etc. 

 

Bonus Tip! 

If your firm doesn’t have enough case studies or cannot disclose relevant information, you can also try implementing explainer videos. Explainer videos rely on text/presentation rather than having a person in front of the camera. They educate your prospects on complex subjects in the legal industry. 

The process in explainer videos is very flexible and doesn’t require any live production or filming. Therefore, you can accommodate a presentation, graphics, infographics, and other visuals to explain just about anything you deem necessary.

 

Maximize your firm’s image. 

Finding out where to start with your firm’s video strategy is the first step. The second step is the actual production. 

Videos, like all other content, require an ongoing process and constant updates. But when executed correctly, videos can work in your firm’s favor for a plethora of reasons. 

If you want your firm to maximize its image, clientele list and stay ahead of the competition, you can have it all in the palm of your hand. 

Learn how to craft a video marketing strategy that maximizes your firm’s ROI. Talk to the experts.

 

 

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How to Create an SEO-driven Blogging Strategy

Think of blogs as your firm’s digital backbone and an extension of your firm’s online personality. 

Blogging has evolved from a personal pastime to an increasingly professional strategy. Although blogs originally started with individuals sharing insights into their lives, they have become a key part of a business’ growth strategy. 

Here are just some of the benefits keeping a legal blog on your site can bring you: 

• Drive traffic (and converting traffic into quality leads).
• Strengthen your social media strategy. 
• Impact long-term success.
• Link you and other platforms.
• Give you a space to voice opinions/ideas/news. 

 

Our favorite benefit is that strategically planned out blog posts and topics can also help your site rank higher on the SERP. How? 

Think about it, if you’re maintaining your blog updated, your firm’s site is constantly receiving additional content. This informs search engines like Google that your firm’s website is active and that it has valuable and relevant information that answers users’ questions. 

Your blog has to cater first to readers and then to the search engines in order for it to rank. Because of this, the first step is making sure the content is relevant to your audience. The second step is optimizing your content with some SEO best practices. Stay with us as we unfold SEO practices you can incorporate in your firm’s blog section.

 

Write for humans first

One of the biggest challenges in SEO for blogs is making sure the content ranks with search engines and appeals to the users. If you find yourself at a crossroads, the best practice here is to write for humans first. 

With that said, your firm’s blog strategy should have the following purposes in mind: 

1. Inform the reader of your firm’s services and solve a problem. 
2. Offer appealing information for the reader (answer questions, give them new relevant information, current legal matters they should know about, etc.)
3. Drive new traffic.

 

You can then go in-depth into what the purpose of the blog will be:

• Will the purpose be to educate? Inform? 
• Why do your clients need this blog section?
• What are you trying to enhance with your blog posts?
• What actions do you expect the reader to take? 
• How will the readers benefit from the information you post?

 

These are questions you should ask yourself beforehand. They will give your firm’s blog section a direction when coming up with topic ideas. 

Additionally, it is imperative to think of the user intent: 

1. Navigational intent – The user is looking for a specific page. 
2. Informational intent – The user is looking for information. 
3. Transactional intent – User wants to purchase your service. 

 

This background information can help you speak directly to your prospects by addressing their needs and capturing their attention in their search journey.

 

Research the keywords

Keywords can give you a jumpstart with your content writing. 

You can plan content around keywords that are relevant in the legal industry. An example of a tool you can use to find out what keywords are trending is Google’s keyword planner. No matter which platform you pick, keyword research is a must.

After finding the right keywords, you can get additional information such as word difficulty, ranking, cost-per-click, bidding price, and overall volume. Your firm can also find the “SEO difficulty,” also known as keyword competition. It will help discover how your keyword(s) rank on Google’s organic search results page. 

Your firm can also implement long-tail keywords. These are long specific keywords. They are easier to rank and highly targeted.

Once you find a set of keywords to use, you can add keywords in the following blog sections: 

• Blog post headline. 
• Blog post headings. 
• Introduction and body of the post. 
• Conclusion of the blog post (helps re-emphasize).

 

Create a structure that works

There are many best practices when it comes to the structure of your blog post. But, the following are the basic foundations to improve rankings:

1. Headline – Headline tips your firm can follow include mixing the keywords and writing several headline options to test out. The title should be in H1 tag and a character length between 20-70. 
2. Paragraphs – Keep the paragraphs short and simple. You can cut them out into smaller sections or add lists, bullet points. Furthermore, add bold, Italic, and/or underline to emphasize specific points. 
3. Link building – Linking to high-authority sites gives search engines like Google the signal that you’ve done the research and provide quality and new information. 
4. ContentLength – According to research, “For SEO, the ideal blog post length should be 2,100-2,400. But there isn’t a “best” approach to this. Google does not consider word count in its ranking factors.
5. Meta Title – The meta title needs to describe your page using 56-62 characters. It is important to keep keywords you want to rank for at the beginning of the title.
6. Meta description – This description should be 150 – 156 characters and usually appears like the following image in Google: 

Everybody loves quality (Even Google)

One of Google’s top-ranking factors is content quality. 

You can also learn how to compile a “power page” to grow your firm. Your firm’s content production should be top-notch. To ensure this, you need to offer relevant, new insights and solutions. 

There are several reasons you need to keep your content up-to-date, but an indispensable reason is to increase your firm’s number of pages in Google’s index. This improves your firm’s website and strengthens your firm’s domain. 

Besides quality, your blog should also remain consistent. Search engines feed off fresh content. By pushing quality content, you are signaling Google’s search engine that your content is helping the user. 

As for how often you should post, there is no correct formula for this. But, as a rule of thumb, you should “maintain quantity without sacrificing quality.” Therefore, experiment posting, i.e., once a week or once a month, and see what works specifically for your firm. 

 

Blogs can be your firm’s digital backbone

Blogs allow you to build and also control your firm’s voice online. They give you the personal space to share information, updates, and just about any information you want to share with your audience. 

Aside from all other digital marketing efforts, having a blog section helps you build authority online. But, a successful blog isn’t static. It requires constant updates, content creation, and SEO optimization to rank and stay relevant. 

While we know blogging isn’t part of your job description, it can be your weapon to laser target your market online. 

If you are curious to know how blogs can help establish your firm as an authority online, our team of experts is on call and ready to help you. 

 

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How to Generate Positive Reviews for your Law Firm

5 Ways to Generate Positive Reviews for your Law Firm

 

Trust in the online world doesn’t come easy. Users aren’t likely to trust what businesses claim they can do online, no matter how many benefits and features they offer. They are innately skeptical of brands/services at first glance, but there is one factor they have always trusted: the opinion of other users. 

Today’s online culture is run by experiences and comments. Whether you enter social media platforms, business platforms, or search engines like Google, you will find that reviews matter a great deal. 

Online reviews are the perfect union of our online world and traditional “word of mouth,” and this joint occurrence is now known as eWOM. eWOM is user-generated communication online, and while it comes in many forms, the most significant is, quite arguably, reviews. 

Reviews are essential to your firm for several reasons like: 

• Driving calls and cases. 
• Improving your visibility.
• Boosting your firm’s SEO ranking in Google’s SERP.
• Building on your trustworthiness. 
• Allowing the user to voice their opinions.

They can indicate that your firm is offering quality service, and most importantly, online reviews can give extra reassurance to prospects that are on the verge of choosing between your firm and another. 

So, we know that positive comments left behind on your socials, Yelp, Google My Business, and the like, are what can get prospects to come a-knocking on your door. But, just how much do these positive reviews really help? To give you a better idea, 92% of users will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating. 

And while this all sounds great, the process of acquiring positive reviews takes work. Stay with us as we give you the top five actionable steps your firm can take to earn more positive reviews. 

 

The top five actionable steps your firm can take to earn more positive reviews

 

1. Identify the right moment

When asking for a review, timing is everything. There isn’t a standardized time that works for every firm. However, here are some ways you can determine some of the best times to ask for reviews: 

• After you help your client succeed in a case. 
• When a client expresses satisfaction with your firm’s service. 
• If a client is spending time on your website browsing your services.
• If a client refers others to your firm. 
• And if the client comes back with yet another case. 

 

2. Ask

You can ask clients to review your firm 3 to 5 days after having closed their case. This gives the clients a few days in between so your firm doesn’t come off as pushy. Additionally, asking a few days after means the client’s perception of your firm is still fresh in their minds. 

If you are meeting the client in person, you can also directly ask them for a review in a face-to-face conversation. A great scenario to ask will be if you find that you’re meeting your client’s needs and have good news on their case. Take advantage of this opportunity and follow up by showing you’d appreciate them putting a good word in. 

Asking clients can feel difficult because most might not want to state their private legal matters publicly. To tackle this issue, you can guide their response by giving them a writing prompt with general questions that protect their case’s privacy. More on this in the following section. 

3. Start a conversation

As mentioned, directly asking the client to review your firm can be challenging. Provided that’s the case, then starting with a conversation might be the solution. By keeping the dialogue conversational, you can find areas of strength and weaknesses. But, how should you start? Open-ended questions are your way to go. 

Open-ended questions allow a free form of response. These questions go beyond a vague “yes,” “no,” “maybe” answer. There are two  benefits of asking your clients open-ended questions:

1. Open-ended questions are an excellent source for customer feedback. They are a source of finding out your firm’s “tips and tops.” 
2. Open-ended questions avoid forming preconceived notions.

Some examples of open-ended questions are: 

• How would you describe your experience with our firm? 
• What were the main reasons you chose us as your legal representatives? 
• How do you feel about our firm’s overall service? 
• How was your most recent interaction with our firm’s customer service? 

 

4. Give the client options

Most clients won’t want to go out of their way for extra-actions like reviews. Nonetheless, they will most likely review your firm if it’s conveniently placed along their way. Because of this, you should give options on how and where to leave a review.

Convenience is key. Therefore your firm can:

• Link different platforms with the review form so it is available at the click of a button.
• Add a direct link to the page so they can leave a review. 
• Add a pop-up widget to your website. 
• Give the client a prompt on what to write (this is related to open questions).
• Let them know how long it will take (the quicker, the better).
• Add a short review section on a ‘thank you’ page after they use your service. 

 

5. Build a culture around reviews

Offering incentives to clients for leaving behind their reviews might be counterproductive, as search engines like Google prefer when reviews are “honest” and “unbiased.” Google even states, “business owners shouldn’t offer incentives to customers in exchange for reviews.” 

However, you can create an incentive in your firm’s environment. For example, you can organize a quarterly team goal of getting X amount of client feedback and provide some form of reward for doing so. In return, this motivates your firm’s staff to put in extra effort when acquiring reviews.

Additionally, creating a company culture around getting reviews can give your employees a drive to get to know the clients better, i.e., the preferred method of communication (email, text, or phone) and work a plan around that channel. 

You can think outside the box and use other review prompts that don’t require the client to write. One example would be to implement NPS, net promoter score. It will give clients a metric from 1-10. And based on the average response, you can calculate using the following formula: 

On a scale of 1-10 you have: 

• Detractors on the scale from 0 – 6 
• Passives on the scale of 7 – 8 
• Promoters on the scale of 9 – 10 

 

To calculate the Net Promoter Score (NPS) all you need to do is subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. 

Your firm can use this to determine what clients think of staff friendliness, assistance, communication, Etc.  

 

Bet on your clients  

It is critical that your firm bets on its clients and prospects….at the end of the day, this is where your money is. Like we said earlier, clients can be your firm’s best sales representatives. With the help of reviews, they can convince other prospects to pick you. 

What you say of your firm online matters, but what others say of your firm online matters even more. 

On top of that, reviews need constant updates. Although all reviews are welcome; outdated reviews are much weaker than recent ones. To keep the conversation alive, your firm needs to actively seek out new positive reviews.

Learn how your firm can create a plan of action to drive more sales. Consult the experts. 

 

 

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Profit from Email Marketing the Most Powerful Channel

It is no surprise that new media efforts have pushed traditional media almost out the door but out of all media channels, one of them, in particular, has stood the test of time. Emails.  And they are here to stay. 

Email marketing still ranks as the most effective marketing effort, even above social media and other related marketing techniques. How so, you ask? A strong point favoring email marketing over social media is the fact that despite the multitude of algorithm changes, emails remain essentially the same. 

Speaking of algorithms, social media platforms constantly go through changes on theirs to stay ahead of their competition. As a result, social media marketers have to find ways to outsmart and stay on top of the constant updates. With emails, you can own and manage your strategy. If you’ve been ignoring your email marketing strategy, now is the best time to jump back on this massive opportunity! 

Some additional benefits email marketing can have on your business include: 

• Reaching a wider audience. 
• Driving sales.
• Recovering the users in the sales funnel (i.e., the users who were about to schedule a call) 
• Developing your relationship with clients beyond a call. 
• Pushing your firm’s customer acquisition and retention.

 

And perhaps the most relevant benefit is that it is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies. To give you one email marketing statistic, you could see an ROI of up $42 for every $1 spent! On top of that, around 60% of consumers purchase a product/service as a result of a marketing email they’ve received. 

So, does email marketing really work? Should businesses place their time and effort into an email strategy? 100% yes. 

Stay with us as we dive deep into the top email marketing strategies you can start implementing today. 

Even though there isn’t an exact formula that works for all businesses, there are still general best practices to follow. 

 

Keep Your Clients Engaged With the Perfect Email Marketing Strategy. 

To date, most businesses still don’t know how to optimize an email marketing strategy into one that works for them. The biggest downfalls here are missing out on client retention and losing prospects on the verge of using your services.

The following are the top actionable steps you can start implementing now:

 

1. Plan your work ahead

Before diving into the actual work behind email marketing, it is essential to take a step back and create an email marketing plan around your target audience. 

First, you will need to define your audience(s). Usually, you will have more than one audience because different sales funnel stages require different solutions. For example, your audience in the ‘awareness’ phase of the sales funnel is looking for more information. Meanwhile, the audience between the ‘evaluation’ and ‘purchase’ stages needs just one last extra push of persuasion to convert into a client. Their various wants and needs mean their emails require separate copy with differing tones. 

Second, it is crucial to know where users are signing up to receive emails. For example, are people signing up via your website? A sign-up sheet? Social media platforms? It’s important to know where users are coming from to push more efforts in acquiring more users there. 

Third, you’ll need to decide what to write and how often you will send out emails. This comes hand-in-hand with your overall content marketing efforts. Your frequency will depend on your goals, but the average customer expects at least a monthly email. Your email needs to:

• Add value.
• Provide benefits. 
• Push users to take action. 

 

2. Power in personalization

Using your existing customer data can help your email’s personalized message. There are many ways you can personalize your message, but the most evident is to address the client by their name. 

Other ways you can personalize your message is through: 

 

• Using HTML campaigns (personalizing messages/ images/ fonts and layout of the email.)
• Using their name/company name/location in sign up forms 
• Using an actual email to reply (avoiding i.e., donotreply@emailsample.com) 
• Using your factual information in the signature at the bottom of the email. This also gives the reader contact information.

3. Segmentation matters… a lot

Segmentation in email marketing means dividing and organizing the subscribers into different groups. 

Some ways you can segment each group according to demographics, industry, size of the business, or sales cycle. Of course, there are other ways you can segment emails. 

Nevertheless, segmentation matters a lot. According to research, some benefits of segmenting your email in different categories include: 

• Increased open rates. 
• Greater relevance and therefore increasing open-rate. 
• Higher opt-in rates. 
• Increasing sales leads and thus increasing your revenue. 

 

4. Your Key? Mobile-friendliness and Automation

Despite the fact that there are many best practices to optimize your email marketing, two critical ones are: 

A. Mobile-friendliness optimization 

B. Automation

Every day, more and more people are switching to mobile. In fact, cell phones are one of the first things people check in the morning for messages, calls, and, yes, even emails. Therefore, adjusting to a mobile-friendly email format is the way to go – especially if you’re aiming for a higher ROI.

You can implement the RED (responsive email design) technique. Most ESP (email service providers) already have RED in their design. But you can make sure to follow some of the best practices like: 

• Adjusting the email to a single column layout no wider than 600 to 640 pixels.
• Keeping your message concise.
• Making sure the links and buttons are a minimum area of 44×44 pixels. 
• Keeping the subject line short. 
• Making the CTA (calls-to-action) short. 

 

On the other hand, email automation helps you send trigger-based emails automatically. Some examples of trigger-based emails you can already set up are welcome emails, re-activation emails, birthday emails, thank you, and transactional emails. 

Other important email automation includes the following: 

• Win-back trigger-based emails – This is helpful when a client is approaching the end of their contract. It can increase your customer retention. 
• Surprise trigger-based emails – Who doesn’t love freebies? By creating a surprise email with a free gift i.e., a free guidebook, you can increase your customer loyalty. 

 

5. Measure Your Success

In order to grow, you need to find out what works and what doesn’t, and A/B testing can be your solution for this. With A/B testing, you are able to create different versions of an email to determine the best performance. 

A note to keep in mind is that first impressions matter. A/B testing the subject line can be a good first step, as this is the first thing your email recipients will see. 

Other email A/B testings you can do besides the subject line are: 

• Word order (i.e. Get 25% off today versus Today you can get 25% off) 
• Plain text versus HTML campaigns – Sending an email without images/design versus sending an email with HTML campaigns like illustrations/designs/highlights etc. 
• Changing the “from” – Do you want the email to be sent from a specific person in the company? Or the company as a whole? 
• Long-form / short form emails  

 

Small Steps Towards Significant Impact

 

To this day, email marketing is one of the most powerful channels, and one whose potential your firm will want to squeeze to the last drop.  

With a high-quality email marketing strategy, you can build conversion-rich relationships with all your audiences.

While we have mentioned some of the best email marketing practices proven by research, there isn’t a blueprint that fits all businesses alike. A high-quality email marketing strategy constantly evolves and adapts to what the clients currently want and need. 

Learn how you can outperform beyond your expectations and competitors. Talk to the experts. 

 

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Create Customer-centric & SEO-driven Content with Client Personas

The concept of buyer personas is crucial for all businesses and law firms. They are fictional characters, created by your firm to represent your ideal clients and they shed light on the general demographics, interests, and common behavioral traits your audience has. You can think of your personas as the map guiding you through your targeted content and consequently converting prospects into customers. 

 

Recognizing the importance of customer personas in your digital marketing efforts is a big step forward. 

 

It has become an essential part of the marketing strategy in recent years, and it is here to stay. Constructing content around a specific target audience can bring your firm a number of benefits such as:

• Developing a deeper understanding of your ideal persona’s wants and needs.
• Connecting with your audience on an emotional level. 
• Giving your law firm reference points of its buyer persona.
• Improving your content strategy.
• Increasing campaign efficiency.
• Identifying who you should and shouldn’t target. 

 

And perhaps the most critical benefit of customer personas is more leads.

 

Creating a buyer persona, or many personas, to better visualize who you want to reach out with your marketing efforts can help your law firm push the personalized aspect of your firm’s marketing. Personalization is important because it shows your firm would go the extra mile to give customers what they need and want. And customers appreciate this. Around 80% of users are more likely to use a service that provides a personalized experience. 

 

Overall, personas are your firm’s North Star towards more calls and cases. If you’re wondering how buyer personas are the secret to your firm’s success, then read on. We’ll explain the buyer persona, how the buyer persona drives engagement, and how it pushes your SEO to exceed your expectations. 

Is the buyer persona the same as the target audience? 

 

 Not quite. The buyer persona is a different concept than the target audience. It can be easy to interchange both terms, but your firm must note the differences. 

 

A target audience gives you a general idea of a specific group of people and includes basic demographic information like age, gender, and education. On the other hand, buyer personas go more in-depth and touch on demographics and behavioral aspects. Some of the more in-depth information buyer personas include lifestyles, interests, specific needs, and psychographics. They even have names!

 

In addition to this, a buyer persona changes throughout the sales funnel. Potential customers looking for information have different wants and needs than a prospect that is ready to call and book your firm’s services. For this reason, law firms can have different personas. Here’s an example: Ready Ronald, who is prepared to take the big step and sign with your firm will not have the same needs as Cautious Carol, who is just starting to research what she might need from an attorney.

 

Having at least one standardized buyer persona helps shape your firm’s goals and expectations. It can help answer the question, “Does everyone in my firm have the same vision of our ideal customer?” 

 

To help answer this, you can begin crafting your ideal customer with the following buyer persona type of questions: 

• Job/Industry questions, i.e., What are the customer’s most significant challenges? How does their typical day look? What are some of their interests?
• Learning questions, i.e., Where does the customer get their information? Who influences their decision-making?
• Personal background questions, i.e., What are their personal and career goals? What are some of the customer’s pain points?
• Shopping preferences questions, i.e., What pushes personas to pick one product or service over another? What’s their preferred form of communication? 

 

While there are plenty more psychographic questions you can ask, these are just a few examples that can help your firm create a marketing strategy that will cater to your audience across the different stages of the customer journey.  

 

Your key to creating fresh content 

Buyer personas help in the creation of many elements within your firm’s content marketing, and the most crucial one is the customized content itself! 

 

Personalized content helps your firm:

• Identify your prospects’ pain points, i.e., bad customer service or late responses.
• Understand customer habits – i.e., is the average persona impulsive, or do they take their time? How long does the persona usually take to make a decision?
• Understand customer expectations – i.e., what do they expect from your firm in terms of service and results?

 

To gather this information, your firm can use two different methods: either directly asking clients or using existing customer analytics. The latter works best. 

 

Evaluating your firm through analytics insights gives you more information about your client’s behavior and makes it easier for marketing and sales campaigns. For example, the analysis will help your firm identify and develop a messaging strategy that speaks to your persona.

 

You can analyze the existing data of your emails, advertisements, PPC, calls-to-action, social media, and other campaigns. 

 

Your firm can then implement updated content strategies in: 

• Webinars: increases engagement and authority of your firm. 
• Interactive content: also increases engagement and builds on trust. 
• Emails: emphasizes your firm’s care and consistency. 
• Podcasts: increases and retains users in the learning and awareness phases of the sales funnel.
• Videos: increases your firm’s traffic and gives users a push in their decision-making. 
• Social media: emphasizes consistency and engagement. 

Using the buyer persona to increase your firm’s rankings 

Although many SEO factors make up your firm’s successful marketing, the buyer persona helps tailor the content, so your ideal clients can find you. 

The buyer persona gives your firm a push in your SEO strategy by:

• Placing relevant keywords for your client’s research.
• Identifying the pages that get more traffic. 
• Helping your SEO optimization, i.e., the SEO schema markup and SEO meta descriptions. 
• Optimizing the user experience with design, i.e., preferred colors, calls to action, navigation route, and other design elements. 

 

Besides this, the buyer persona can help your blog posts. By adding a blog section with legal industry-related content, you can get more traffic to your site. It might be challenging to start or remain consistent with this type of content. However, the buyer persona can help you pinpoint topics of interest.

 

Be there for your clients at the right place and at the right time

With the buyer persona, you can position your firm to be in the right place at the right time for your clients. Creating a persona and keeping it optimized requires constant updates if you want to meet your clients where they are, though. 

 

Strategizing a buyer persona plan, implementing it, and gathering all the results are necessary actions your firm needs to do to guarantee quality content and rankings. But we understand your time is valuable, and these tasks add pressure.

 

If you’re curious to know how your firm can implement buyer personas, talk to us today. 

 

The post Create Customer-centric & SEO-driven Content with Client Personas appeared first on Consultwebs.

from Consultwebs https://www.consultwebs.com/blog/buyer-persona-seo-driven-content
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