Friday, October 29, 2021

LinkedIn for Lawyers: Stand Out and Cater to Your Firm’s Ideal Client

LinkedIn is a unique platform. Built for professionals, it’s halfway between a social media platform and a professional contact list. Businesses use it as the phonebook of resumes, and professionals use it to keep in touch and look up employers. At the same time, many professional companies bring in clients through LinkedIn because potential customers will look up to the firm and partners before deciding.

For law firms, LinkedIn is the social networking channel for lawyers. According to ABA, LinkedIn continues to be the leading platform in the legal profession. In addition, around 88% of attorneys maintain a personal LinkedIn presence for professional reasons, and it’s no surprise the percentage is this high. A thoroughly optimized LinkedIn profile can bring you a great deal of benefits, including:

Establishing your online presence in the leading platform for lawyers.
Improving your professional and firm’s visibility.
Connecting you to other professionals and, most importantly, potential clients.
Managing your reputation.
Recruiting top talent.
Interacting with the most extensive net of professionals in the legal profession.
Acquiring clients and retaining them.

A best practice is to think of LinkedIn as an extension of your resume and overall business. It would help if you created a LinkedIn profile prospects want to see. They’re looking for law firms; more specifically, they have an issue at hand and need a problem-solver. In addition, they want to know their case would be in the hands of the very best.

Attorneys opting in on this powerful channel should present themselves as available, reliable, and problem-solving-oriented. With that said, let’s dive into how and why your firm should get started with LinkedIn.

How LinkedIn Helps Prospects and Attorneys in the Legal Profession

When a person or business is looking to hire a lawyer, they’ll do extensive research. Few people today find a name and trust them with their case. The reason is that the stakes are high for prospects with a legal issue, and they’re probably enduring a great deal of pressure and stress. With that, users will begin by searching for questions, answers, and similar cases. Once they more or less know what they are looking for and decide to keep your firm as one of their top options, their customer journey begins with your firm.

The customer journey today is not linear. Not all prospects have the same journey; some will jump from your website to other external pages or vice versa. They’ll go from other external pages to specific pages on your site.

To paint the picture, let’s say Bob is a potential client looking for a family law firm, and he already knows what he needs; he’s just looking for the best attorney to handle his case. Bob might go from your website to the FAQs section and then jump to an attorney’s profile and investigate their education and additional information. Once Bob is in the attorney’s profile, they can click on the lawyer’s LinkedIn. Here, Bob can look into that specific attorney, the skills, achievements, posts, activities, etc. As we said before, think of this channel as an extension of your resume.

With this example, it’s clear that customers aren’t linear; Bob and other prospects will jump from one page to another if deemed necessary. As a consequence of this, the best practice is to cover your LinkedIn base.

The Best Practices to Build the Best Attorney Profile in LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most powerful social network in the legal profession. Interestingly, your audience of future clients is not the entirety of your audience. You may notice that other groups take an interest in your content. Another business, for example, might investigate your firm and the lawyers therein in preparation to form a business partnership. In reality, the possibilities are pretty much endless in this channel. However, there are unwritten rules that’ll help you amp up your profile. Here are the best LinkedIn practices:

1. Ensure you have a quality profile picture.

The LinkedIn photo is incredibly important. This is your first impression. Make sure your image is recent, high-quality, and has a light background to ensure a solid first impression. As another best practice, avoid group photos at all costs. Remember, prospects are looking for your information.

2. Make use of the profile background image.

Although some users leave their profile background blank, don’t be afraid to market yourself here! This is one of the first things prospects will notice. Therefore, as a rule of thumb, try to include the most vital information here: practice areas, external links, and contact information.

3. List your experience in detail.

Do you want to make sure you’re attracting the right people? By listing your previous experiences, you can highlight what you do now and ensure you’re speaking to the right audience. People who are quickly going through your profile should be able to find out the relevant experience you’ve had and how that’ll help their case.

4. Follow ABA’s Rule 7.4.

This is important to note. Lawyers who want to position themselves as specialists on LinkedIn (and other channels) should abide by ABA’s Rule 7.4:

A lawyer cannot state they’re a specialist unless the lawyer has been certified a specialist by state authority, District of Columbia, or the American Bar Association.

5. Connect your contact list.

Want to get started with connecting with your immediate contact list now? That’s possible! LinkedIn allows you to import your contact list.

6. Start following other professionals.

Want to connect with other professionals outside your contact list? That’s also possible! LinkedIn has three different types of connections:

1st-degree connections: These are people you directly connected with, e.g., from your contact list.
2nd-degree connections: These are people connected to your 1st-degree connection. You can also connect with them by clicking on their page and sending them a request.
3rd-degree connections: These are people connected to your 2nd-degree connection. You can also reach out to them and connect.

Writing Impactful Content that Your Audience Will Value

People do business with people. When doing business with others, we want to see how much of an expert they are, and one-way attorneys can position themselves as so is through the added value of content.

So how do you create a LinkedIn content strategy that appeals to your audience? In LinkedIn, it’s not just the word count that matters. It’s the readability and valuable tips that count. LinkedIn is meant to be by professionals, for professionals. Some professionals might have more time in their hands to read while others are on the go and seek to read short content pieces.

Instead of focusing on long articles, focus on shorter, compact pieces that deliver information quickly. Feel free to separate articles into easy-to-digest paragraphs with eye-catching and informative headers. Answer questions with both bullet-points and expounded answer meanings. If you’re writing a pillar page, break it up into categories and subtopics. Write in simple terms but use them to convey complex concepts. Remember, you’re appealing to professionals and clients on their level, so make the content packed with valuable information and easy to consume.

In need of content inspiration now? Grab some inspiration from our content list below:

Relevant updates in your practice area, e.g., change in policies.
What to bring and expect from the first attorney-client meeting.
How your payment system works, e.g., the contingency fee.
What cases do you handle? Add a case study.
Your firm’s history, e.g., how long have you been in business?
How long does the X process take?

Although these are generally legal topics, feel free to take what works for you and adjust accordingly. If you are in a specific practice area(s), look into FAQs (frequently asked questions) you get and create content around those questions. This will educate prospects even before they step into your office, save you time, and help position you as an expert.

Ensure your Law Firm’s LinkedIn Branding Stands Out

LinkedIn focuses on placing you as your own product. When used correctly, LinkedIn can bring clients to your door. It can also be the make or break between prospects picking your firm versus your competitors.

Your profile must be one people want to look at, and this is possible by optimizing your profile, actively connecting with others, and interacting with your ideal clients. However, we understand that doing so requires a great deal of time and dedication. If you would like to explore your law firm’s content strategy further, ask more questions, or help you get started, let’s have a chat. We can help you brand your personality, craft content, and overall work smarter with a stronger audience focus.

The post LinkedIn for Lawyers: Stand Out and Cater to Your Firm’s Ideal Client appeared first on Consultwebs.

from Consultwebs https://www.consultwebs.com/blog/linkedin-for-lawyers
via https://www.consultwebs.com

Friday, October 22, 2021

KPIs: The Only 4-Step Plan of Action You Will Ever Need

How’s your firm’s pulse looking?

Is it strong? Weak? Slow? Normal? Not sure?

You can keep track of this with key performance indicators. KPIs are performance measurements that help you understand how your firm is doing at the department level (marketing, finances, business development, etc.). Think of KPIs as the doctor that regularly checks on your digital well-being.

Ultimately, these performance indicators are meant to help your firm track wins and show you what works to get more. It’s a simple yet effective way to incentivize hard work. There is no one right way to go by this task, however, and it’s best to handpick the most suitable indicators for your specific situation. By doing so, expect the following:

Simplification of the decision-making process since you’re armed with analytical data.
Presentation of how collective group efforts impact the firm’s progress.
Ease to evaluate results.
Identification of strengths/weaknesses within your current strategy.
Alignment of the marketing and sales efforts.
Money savings.

To reap the rewards to the fullest potential, it’s best to follow a plan of action. And we’ve lined one out for you here:

Step 1 – Establishing goals and objectives

It’s fairly easy to fall down the Internet rabbit hole when searching for possible KPIs to implement. There are virtually hundreds of different approaches you could take, and it all depends on your firm’s specific needs and your priorities. A good thing to keep in mind is that KPIs are flexible, and they can (and should) be adjusted as your goals and objectives change.

When interlinking KPIs with the targets, it’s fundamental to think about two factors:

Analyze how your firm is different from the competition.
Consider the target audience and what’s in it for them.

Once you’ve figured out these two elements, they can serve as the foundation of your goals and objectives section, a necessary ingredient in the recipe that is efficient performance measurements.

A goal is a broad statement of what you’d like to accomplish, in other words, where you see yourself in the future. If you had a roadmap to follow, goals would be your destination.

Your goals are the equivalent of your mission and vision.
They are focused on long-term solutions.

On the other hand, an objective is a narrow statement that defines the strategies that’ll help you reach set goals. Going back to the roadmap example, the objectives would be the route you take in order to get to the destination (your goals).

It’s a short statement emphasizing what, when and how you’ll achieve the set targets.
Provides exact actionable steps.

Step 2 – Tracking your KPIs

While there are hundreds of KPIs, it’s best to start small and scale from there. The following are 5 KPIs your law firm can begin with:

1. Organic traffic – This correlates with the SEO strategy. Here you can measure the monthly search volume of your firm’s name along with other primary keywords. High organic traffic is a good sign that people are searching your website on their own.

How will this help the decision-making process? The level of organic traffic will indicate if your content is speaking to the right audience. Hence, helping you make smarter decisions with your content strategy.

2. Traffic to lead ratio – Knowing where traffic is coming from is key. Are they coming from social channels? Organic? Direct? Referrals? Paid ads? If traffic is high, but the lead ratio is low, this is a sign that perhaps there is some misalignment.

An example of misalignment would be if the user has different expectations of what happens after they click on a CTA from what actually happens (e.g. is the right content being sent out?). Analyzing these signals can help you identify which pages need further optimization, e.g., changing calls-to-action, design, copy, etc.

How will this help the decision-making process? The pages where traffic turns into leads can guide you towards where you can invest a little more of your time and money.

3. Lead to customer ratio – This is a critical turning point from MQL to SQL. MQLs, marketing qualified leads, refer to a lead that is more likely to become a customer than other leads. In spite of this, only some MQLs turn into SQLs, sales-qualified leads. These are likely to convert to potential customers. An example of an MQL turning into a SQL would be a user filling out the contact form on your website.

How will this help the decision-making process? This is the pivotal stage where the marketing and sales teams can fortify the bridge between leads and customers. It’ll also help you find out further information about the objections MQLs have.

4. GMB (Google My Business) insights – Not all visitors come upon your website immediately. Some turn to Google and may look into the GMB information you have provided. On account of this, you should evaluate the performance of:

Online customer reviews.
Phone call volume and click-to-call rates.
Search rankings.
Requests for driving directions.

How will this help the decision-making process? Measuring the presence of your firm on Google’s SERP correlates with brand awareness. By looking into the GMB insights, you can actively optimize your it according to what works best – thus reinforcing the branding.

5. Mobile website performance – Mobile is king. In 2020, Mobile devices drove 61% of visits to U.S. websites, and it’ll keep growing. With that said, two mobile KPIs you shouldn’t miss out on are:

Responsiveness: A responsive website adapts to any device: mobile, tablet, and desktop.
Site speed: Page loading time should be under two seconds.

How will this help the decision-making process? Your mobile performance will help you visualize the functionality and performance of your website. By monitoring this, you can actively adjust the site as you go.

Step 3 – Building a report with data visualization

How can you keep track of all your KPIs?

With a scorecard. Monitoring the performance supplies the entire team with valuable data, thus increasing productivity and making sure everyone is on the same (Google Sheets) page: the scorecard.

The KPIs have to work hand-in-hand with targets. For example, if you would like to increase active customers from 800 to 850 in the next 4 months, you’ll need to measure this progress on a weekly/monthly basis for the next 4 months, and beyond! Remember: this is like checking your pulse.

This is paramount for two reasons:

It gives the entire team an easy-to-understand visual representation of where you all want to be.
Empowers the staff to become better decision-makers.

Please keep in mind; a scorecard is different from a dashboard. A dashboard focuses on short-term, real-time data analysis, while a scorecard focuses on long-term goals measured through periodic progress.

Step 4 – Hiring experts that’ll do the work for you

Hiring and/or training your entire staff is possible, but it’s time and cost-consuming.

However, don’t lose hope. Say it with us: securing your firm’s present and future is possible today. How, may you ask?

When hiring digital marketing specialists, you’re not just hiring one individual. You’re dealing with an entire team that’s ideally 110% committed to your firm’s success and that is composed of web designers, copywriters, data analysts, PPC advertisers, social media experts, content creators, SEO specialists, and more.

More specifically, hiring a digital marketing agency focused solely on law firms, like Consultwebs, means investing and securing your firm’s present and future. Additionally, teaming up with a marketing agency means you are skipping the daunting path down digital marketing lane and heading straight to making smart driven decisions backed up by facts and figures.

With us, you can expect to:

Get results without the headaches.
Grow your client base.
Save time, the most valuable currency of all.
Rest easy at night, knowing experts are already handling everything.

The secret is in the sauce.

The ingredients for your success in decision-making should include 1 tablespoon of metrics, 1 cup of tracking, 1 scorecard… and the secret must-have ingredient? 1 full-flavored bag of KPIs!

Despite everything, there are hundreds of performance indicators mentioned on the web. For this reason, your firm must cook the secret sauce with the ingredients that are the most appealing to your consumers, the people eating from your plate.

Don’t leave your marketing investments on the back burner. Talk to us, and together let’s cook up the feast that is your success.

The post KPIs: The Only 4-Step Plan of Action You Will Ever Need appeared first on Consultwebs.

from Consultwebs https://www.consultwebs.com/blog/kpis-in-a-4-step-plan
via https://www.consultwebs.com

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

How attorneys can find purpose in their practice area(s) with Leigh Daniel from Leigh Daniel Law

Tanner Jones, your host and Vice President of Business Development at Consultwebs, welcomes you to another episode of the LAWsome Podcast by Consultwebs.

In today’s episode, Tanner is accompanied by Leigh Daniel. She has been practicing law since 1994 and currently runs her own law firm Leigh Daniel Law specializing in family law. Her firm, Leigh Daniel, is located in Huntsville, Alabama.

Together, they have gathered to discuss how attorneys can find purpose in their practice area in order to build and maintain continued satisfaction in their legal work.

Key Takeaways:

[0:18] Introduction

[0:55] What does a sense of purpose mean to you in the practice of law?

[1:30] Why is having a sense of purpose in work important?

[2:30] What benefits have you seen in your practice from being clear with your purpose?

[3:50] What impact does having a sense of purpose have on your team?

[4:40] Is there delineation between a businesses’ purpose and its culture?

[5:40] How firms can start reinforcing the sense of purpose in the office.

[6:45] Advice for attorney’s struggling to find a sense of purpose.

[8:30] Leigh Daniel shares her story of overcoming challenges and finding purpose.

[10:15] Giving up certain things in order to get where you want to be.

[12:05] Tanner asks Leigh if there’s any particular practice she implements to help her focus on the positive?

[14:10] What advice would Leigh give to attorneys struggling to find purpose?

[15:18] What question would Leigh ask herself around the topic of purpose?

[16:25] Closing statement.

Best way to contact Leigh Daniel:

leigh@leighdaniellaw.com

Discover More About the Podcast and Consultwebs:

Subscribe to the LAWsome Podcast by Consultwebs on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify

Visit the LAWsome website

Follow Consultwebs on social for legal marketing updates:

Learn more about Consultwebs at the links below.

Law Firm Marketing Agency Services

Law Firm SEO

Law Firm Web Design

Law Firm PPC

Law Firm Social Media

Law Firm Email Marketing

Law Firm Digital Marketing

Consultwebs

8601 Six Forks Rd #400, Raleigh, NC 27615

(800) 872-6590

https://www.consultwebs.com

https://www.google.com/maps?cid=13646648339910389351

The post How attorneys can find purpose in their practice area(s) with Leigh Daniel from Leigh Daniel Law appeared first on Consultwebs.

from Consultwebs https://www.consultwebs.com/blog/attorneys-find-purpose-in-their-practice-areas
via https://www.consultwebs.com

Thursday, October 14, 2021

The key to choosing the best SEO agency for Lawyers

Is your firm on ‘the yellow pages of the Internet?

We’re going to say it right off the bat – the legal sector faces some of the fiercest competition offline and online. According to ABA, 87% of respondents reported that their firm has a website, and the number will most likely keep on growing.

As a growing number of attorneys up their digital marketing game, the question arises, how can your firm catch more, if not the biggest, fish? The answer is SEO, search engine optimization.

SEO, by definition, refers to the process of improving a website to increase visibility when users search for services related to your business in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. More precisely, law firm SEO refers to optimizing an attorney’s website. This technique helps businesses achieve better organic positions and increases the likelihood of attracting more visitors and turning them into calls and cases. Overall, think of it as the new digital form of yellow pages.

While optimization may seem like it’s a set-and-done deal once relevant keywords are placed on a site, it encompasses much more than that. To hit the homerun, firms need to equip themselves with the following:

Top-notch content.
High-quality link building.
A smooth UX, user experience.

Even though there are hundreds of other specific SEO tactics, e.g., adding SEO elements to your blog section, it’s best to start small and scale from there.

Once you decide to opt-in on a thorough optimization, you can expect the following:

Reaching more users.
Generating quality leads.
Boosting credibility.
Maximizing the PPC campaign.
Staying ahead of the competition.

Sounds powerful, right? It is indeed, and your firm can be a big hitter with the help of SEO. Now that the first base is covered, we can move on to the next ones and prepare your firm, so it’s ready for action.

The Basis of Law Firm SEO: Clients

The second base is: what’s all the buzz surrounding SEO for lawyers? Why should the legal sector care about optimization? Let’s look at this from another perspective: the prospective clients.

Kim, a prospective client, has been thoroughly investigating an estate planning firm that can handle her investments, taxes, and overall estate. She has previously asked her circle of friends and family for relevant recommendations. She’s heard all of their suggestions, wrote them down, and now she would like to do a little research on her own, so she grabs her phone and… Do you know what happens next? That’s right. She ‘Googles’ it. She’s doing secondary research to validate the referrals she gathered from her circle.

Will your firm appear among the search results? Most importantly, will it be visible on Kim’s first page? What’s more, if she clicks on the website, will her user experience be smooth sailing? Firms must be visible in the places people need them the most, and that is online. This is where SEO is no longer a luxury but rather a necessity.

With that said, remember the previous ABA statistic at the beginning about 87% of firms having a website? Well, it turns out that fewer than 20% have a thoroughly optimized website. This includes incorporating elements like:

Community announcements.
The profile of paralegals.
Guides.
Staff profiles.
Legal articles.
Legal updates.

Hold on. There’s more. Besides pushing quality content, firms must establish a strong foundation by adding elements that’ll ease and enhance the user experience. This includes technical SEO elements like:

URL structure.
Page Titles.
*Alt text.
H1 Tags.
Meta Descriptions.
Keywords.

If you’re thinking, “Okay, nice, can you translate that into English, please?” Below you can find an example of one of our client’s websites where the essential SEO components are covered:

*Please note: Alt text is also called alt tags. It refers to the written copy that appears in an image if it fails to load on a user’s screen. In this case, it is there, but it’s not visible in this section for a good reason: all the images load correctly.

With a robust SEO plan of action, your firm can rise to the occasion (and perhaps even above that 20%.) Despite that, law firms need to incorporate plenty of efforts in areas outside the practice of law, including digital marketing. Therefore, the question that arises next is the following…

How can attorneys choose a legal SEO agency?

Congratulations, we have now reached the third base: how can attorneys start handpicking the best of the best in legal SEO? Ironically, the answer is to start with questions. There are two main reasons why doing cross-examination is critical at this stage.

Ensuring the agency has experience in SEO, specifically the legal industry.
Verifying the company understands all the latest ins and outs of law firm marketing.

On that premise, start by self-assessing: “What do I want to accomplish with an SEO strategy?”

Additionally, it’s possible (and recommended) to flip the coin and ask the agency questions. It’s best to do this before settling for a law firm SEO agency because not all of them are equipped to meet your specific goals. To get started, we’ve created this FREE checklist of questions you can ask to get to know the agency better as well as your firm’s current state. It goes as follows:

Facts, Tips & Tricks:
Before settling with an SEO agency, it’s crucial law firms ask: “Will I be the owner of my entire website?“
The reality is that not all marketing agencies allow their clients to own the assets created. Psst….with Consultwebs, you have the FULL ownership.

Ensure your firm hits it out of the park

Way to go, we’re nearing the home run! Whether you’re a firm that’s in the “major league” or a smaller one that’s “going out of the league,” you can throw a curveball at the competitors by partnering with experts. This is where we come in to help you go from first, second, or even third base all the way to the home plate. You’ll be able to round up on all the bases without having to sweat it out. Let us elaborate.

At Consultwebs, we have been playing the digital marketing game for decades. More specifically, 110% of our efforts focus on digital marketing for law firms. Our legal SEO professionals are the professionals in all that legal SEO entails, from creative to technical skills. We continuously work in the most competitive fields in law firm marketing, including the areas of:

Personal injury
Family law
Criminal defense
Bankruptcy
Estate planning

But enough about us. Let’s talk about what you can get out of a partnership with us. We understand you need an agency that thoroughly understands and customizes a plan that fits your firm’s wants and needs. For example, a personal injury law firm primarily focusing on truck accidents will want to hire a company that:

Tailors the SEO and relevant campaigns for truck accidents.
Understands the ins and outs of acquiring leads interested in experts in this practice area.

So, what’s secured when working with us?

Increasing credibility and rankings.
Acquiring quality traffic and leads.
Integrating local, off-page, and on-page SEO.
Improving the user experience.

The most crucial guarantee? Constantly hit home runs without having to sweat it out. We’ll be the ones actively maintaining the rankings, traffic, and leads.

Ready to step up to the plate?

In the hyper-competitive field that is SEO for lawyers, it’s best if you’re equipped with the experts in the game so when it’s time to step on the plate, you’ll be 100% sure the field is yours to take.

As more and more law firms enter the digital world and up their game, a good call is to stay ahead of the rest and guarantee you can bring home the bacon today and tomorrow.

While we have provided heaps of optimization hacks, we have only scratched the surface of it all. Would you like to work towards positioning your firm as a clear-cut leader in search engines online and offline? Let’s talk, and let’s do this together.

The post The key to choosing the best SEO agency for Lawyers appeared first on Consultwebs.

from Consultwebs https://www.consultwebs.com/blog/choosing-the-best-seo-agency
via https://www.consultwebs.com

Friday, October 8, 2021

Is Your Firm Preparing for a Cookie-less Future?

The cookie culture is crumbling

Google’s new privacy policies, also known as the privacy sandbox, are going through significant changes. By the end of the year 2023, Google plans to stop third-party cookies on the Chrome browser. They will end decades of data-driven targeting advertising, describing this modification as one of the most important steps towards greater privacy.

Before diving into what this entails for the legal marketing sector, let’s quickly look at what cookies are. They are blocks of data that are created by servers to track users’ activity online and give advertising platforms relevant information for target advertising.

With that being said, what does a cookie-less future mean for law firms?

Trends in technology that were perhaps years away are currently developing, thus pushing law firms to ride the wave of change and prepare a new kind of marketing strategy.

While companies can take a “let’s wait to see what happens” approach, this attitude could result in last-minute frustrations and pains, which can easily be avoided. We would like to provide a solid explanation of the current environment, what a cookie-less world means, and actionable steps your firm can take in order to ensure your marketing isn’t “half-baked.”

Getting acquainted with the new rules

First thing’s first, Google’s plan to remove third-party cookies doesn’t mean law firms will go through a sudden cookie-apocalypse. In reality, this change was inevitable and was going to take place sooner or later. Why? Factors like data leaks and privacy concerns have been pushing clients towards more private options, like the incognito mode on their browser, no-tracking devices, and ad blockers. Now, the people have spoken, and they are rightfully demanding more data transparency.

According to recent privacy studies, 81% of people feel they have no control over what businesses do with their data, and almost equally (79%) are concerned with how companies use this data. It is clear to see that the old cookie method of collecting information needs to change.

With that said, does that mean that all cookies will disappear? The answer is no; only third-party ones will be gone. Let’s take a look at the three types of cookies to understand better what’s to come.

First-party cookies: They are stored under the same domain you are visiting. Examples include remembering selected preferences or storing your shopping cart.
Second-party cookies: In a way, a subset of first-party cookies and are data that is shared with two or more partners. Like when an airline shares database information, such as first name and emails, with a trusted hotel chain to use for ad targeting.
Third-party cookies: These are stored in a different domain. They track users on many other websites. Uses include retargeting campaigns and cross-site tracking.

While third-party cookies have helped businesses’ targeting strategies for decades, they’ve been far from perfect. There are challenges and gaps to third-party data, including:

Gaps in the data research when these aren’t passed from one platform to another.
Fractures in the customer journey when a user jumps from, e.g., desktop to a mobile device.

The challenge that arises is that despite the fact that we’re living in a digital data-driven world where users expect a personalized customer experience, they also have high standards for their data privacy.

That raises the question for businesses, “how can we offer a personalized and customized experience whilst also protecting the consumer’s privacy?”

This is a great time to test new marketing methods.

Moving towards a people-based marketing future

People-based marketing refers to the creation of a cohesive customer-centric marketing strategy based on real-time data behavior. This method does not rely on third-party cookies.

The benefits of people-based marketing include:

Better understanding of the clients’ preferences, behaviors, etc.
Effective targeting.
An omnichannel approach.
More control of your data.

This type of marketing is composed of three elements:

Identification: Businesses should be able to recognize their customers across different channels.
Data: Gather data through interactions on platforms like your website.
Automation: This entails creating an omnichannel marketing approach, in other words, focusing on CRM (customer relationship management) platforms.

Consolidating the CRM tool across all your organization’s channels can help you create a better messaging strategy aligned with the different target segmentations.

In addition to this, you can get creative and offer content in exchange for some user information like name and email address; this is known as gated content. However, this should provide value above all. To ensure this is the case, ask yourself, “what benefits am I offering clients?” Make it all about them. For example:

Suppose you’re offering a free webinar/ workshop. Reassess, what is so valuable about this workshop? What are the customers getting out of this?
If you want them to “download a free ebook,” you should analyze; what do clients have to gain from this? How is this content going to make their lives easier/better?

Maximizing first-party data

Although third-party cookies will be gone, you’ll still be able to track the trail of crumbs from first-party cookies; data collected from domains such as your website. It includes information such as demographics, purchase history, interactions on-site, and session duration.

The first step is to encourage visitors to authenticate themselves. Here are some ways to entice users to take action:

Add a user registration form. This includes any creative method that will push users towards authenticating themselves before entering your website. A few pro tips when working with these forms include adding the necessary fields on the ‘required fields’ section and keeping the layout as clean and straightforward as possible.
Test out other channels outside your website, like social media channels.
Leverage targeted email messaging. This means separating audiences and sending out tailored messages according to that group’s specific wants and needs. This can additionally improve the ROI, retention, and relationship with clients.
Place timely ads. Do you want to place ads on your website? If so, it’s key to analyze where and when the ads should be placed. Remember, not everyone will have the same customer journey. Therefore, deciding where to put an ad is key. In addition to this, when to place the ad is equally important. If there are higher peaks of engagement during certain days or months, make sure you take advantage of this season.

Keep your marketing from crumbling apart

Even though Google’s third-party cookies will be around until 2023, it’s best to avoid the “wait-and-see what happens” approach. Preparing for the future today means your invested time and money are well-spent.

The cookie-less times ahead will bring new changes. More so, it’ll hold opportunities for your firm to ride the wave of change and pave its path. To secure your firm’s long-term success, it’s critical you partner up with a team that’ll be in the trenches with you. Want to safeguard your firm’s future? Talk to us today.

The post Is Your Firm Preparing for a Cookie-less Future? appeared first on Consultwebs.

from Consultwebs https://www.consultwebs.com/blog/preparing-for-cookie-less-future
via https://www.consultwebs.com

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

How the right data can give litigation attorneys a competitive edge in winning more lawsuits

Tanner Jones, your host and Vice President of Business Development at Consultwebs, welcomes you to another episode of the LAWsome Podcast by Consultwebs.

In today’s episode, Tanner is accompanied by Carla Rydholm, Director of Product Management at Lex Machina. Together, they gather to discuss how the right data can give litigation attorneys a competitive edge in winning more lawsuits. This determines which clients to pursue, what claims to include in a complaint, and win the settlement among many other things.

Key Takeaways:

[0:46] Introducing data usage and litigation.

[1:45] What kind of data can litigation attorneys use?

[3:00] Case Study 1 on how data has given litigation attorneys a competitive advantage to win a particular case/ lawsuit for their client.

[4:30] Digging into underlying cases.

[4:55] Case Study 1 – how data has given litigation attorneys a competitive advantage to win a lawsuit.

[6:00] How judges react to certain situations and cases in the past that pushes attorneys in the future.

[7:18] How can data help attorneys find the right clients?

[9:30] Carla discusses the strategy attorneys should follow to find out which cases to take.

[10:15] Is there a way to use data to understand legal competitors?

[12:00] What data points matter when trying to understand opponents better?

[14:40] How individual personal injury firms can have a competitive advantage with data.

[16:40] How individual mass torts/ product liability firms can have a competitive advantage with data.

[18:00] Carla introduces Lex Machina’s new project: Bankruptcy firms.

[20:15] Carla shared bits of pieces of advice in regards to data for employment litigators.

[22:44] One question Carla would ask herself.

[24:05] Closing thoughts.

Best way to contact Carla Rydholm:

Discover More About the Podcast and Consultwebs: