Category Archives: Marketing

8 Effective Online Marketing Techniques Used By Lawyers

Lawyer’s with websites need marketing techniques to introduce prospective clients to their legal services.

Whether you’re small- or medium-sized law firm, the techniques in this article can be used by you or review with your team to create an effective marketing strategy.

Take some time to decide which techniques are worth your time and efforts. You can always get one started and begin testing another later on.

The marketing strategy you create for your law firm will be completely unique to you.

Content Marketing

Content is the key to attracting visitors to your website and generating leads for your firm. Here are a few ways to use your content more effectively:

  • Offer Downloadable PDF. This is a simple way to capturing contact information from those visiting your website. Simply write a guide are common legal concerns, your area of expertise, or a course of action to take in situations requiring legal services. Putting your contact information inside the guide is a great way to encourage readers to contact your firm.
  • Write Quality Content. This can be difficult. Writing blog content that connects with your readers can entice them to share your content on their social media, thereby increasing your exposure and readership. Try focusing on the common concerns your prospective clients may be facing. As well, don’t be afraid to add a “share this with your friends” at the end of each article.
  • Share Your Content. For your content marketing to succeed, you have to share it in different places. Join Facebook groups, online forums, and answer questions on Quora. Once there, you can write responses and insert relevant links from your website.

Online Discussions & Groups

As mentioned previously, joining online communities, active forums, and places like Quora is a great place to share your content. In addition, you can also establish yourself as credible and reliable.

Instead of blasting out promotions to your content and links, maintain an active presence and build relationships with those online. Start by choosing just a few places to dedicate your time like LinkedIn, Facebook Pages, and other forums where discussions are regular.

Social Media

If you don’t have a social media presence, start now. As you share your best legal information online, having a place to reach out to prospects and build a community around you can minimize significant time and resources.

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are still leading social media platforms where you can provide a place to build your online community.

The people who like your page or follow your accounts are likely genuinely interested in your services. Share content directly with them, they are your closest supporters.

Email Marketing

Lawyers using contact forms to collect leads can nurture those prospects through email marketing.

Email marketing is one of the lowest marketing costs and can lead to the highest ROI.

As you build your list of prospective clients, consider sending text-based emails only. Most people are familiar with opening emails from friends, families and business associates.

Emails that appear too noisy or filled with distracting images can immediately lead to the garbage bin, or worse, marked for spam.

Make A Video

In today’s media-rich world, video tends to be the dominating trend for both entertainment and sharing messages with others.

Creating videos can range from expensive high production features or your law firm to simply flipping on the camera and talking about your legal knowledge.

If you’re already blogging, consider turning your blogs into a full feature discussion involving you in your office. Having both videos and content related to the blog is appealing to a wider audience as well as boosts your credibility.

Facebook Ads / Google Adwords

Wondering how to increase your following on Facebook or boost traffic to your free consultation landing page?

Facebook Ads provide a range of possibilities to target prospective clients. You can set up your Facebook Ad account in a few steps. After that, you can begin to explore the demographic targeting feature to share your ads with specific audiences.

You should start with a low budget then adapt your ad campaign according to which ads are returning the most.

With Google Adwords, you can push your website to the top of search engines. Unlike Facebook Ads, your ads will be triggered based on relevant keywords that people are using to search online.

Knowing which keywords people are using can help your marketing attract more visitors to your website. However, something to keep in mind is that these keywords can be very competitive causing the price per click to be very high.

Before starting your first ad campaign, you may want to consider these Ethical Rules that lawyers must follow by the ABA.

SEO

If you’re a lawyer unfamiliar with how websites are ranked by search engines,  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

There are both on-page (i.e. modifications to your website) and off-page (i.e. your activities away from your website) which can influence where your website appears in search results.

Improving the SEO on your website is a great alternative to paying for advertisements because this can get you free traffic. However, the SEO changes you make today may not take effect right away.

Some things you can start doing to improve your SEO are:

  • Creating more backlinks to your website (i.e. sharing your content and pages on forums and other places online)
  • Improve the quality of your articles
  • Perform keyword research and use the appropriate words on your web pages and articles.
  • Improve your website’s page speed (page speed is an important factor that search engines use to rank your website)

Note: As you publish more content on your website, you’ll organically improve your SEO.

Live Chat

 Imagine being able to communicate with your visitors while they’re on your website.

Adding a live chat messaging system to your website can enable you to capture more leads and convert more visitors into clients.

Live chat works by triggering a message like, “How can we help you today?” whenever a visitor arrives at your website. Either you, your staff, or an outsourced agent can interact with that visitor.

During after hours, your live chat can continue to collect leads by providing information to contact you via email. You can return to office the next day and respond to any messages in your inbox.

There are a variety of live chat services dedicated to lawyers which is a consideration to ensure confidentiality and privacy of information shared over the chat system.

by Marketing, Ultimate Guides Leave a comment

How to Create a Multi-Language WordPress Site

Your website is one of the essential elements of your digital marketing strategy. You use it to inform people about your business or brand and to convince them into becoming your customers. Building your website with WordPress comes with a lot of benefits. One of those benefits is that you can easily create a multi-language site.

Having your website translated into multiple languages is a huge business advantage. It’ll help you reach a wider audience, become more dominant in foreign markets, and improve organic traffic. All you have to do is learn how to translate your WordPress site into other languages.

WordPress doesn’t have the translation feature, so you have to use plugins or other techniques to translate your website. But, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.

Here’s how to create a multi-language WordPress site.

1. Human Translation

The first option you need to consider is translating your site by using human translations.

The advantage of human translation over machine translation is the following:

  • better quality of the translation
  • no literal translations
  • adaptation of the content to suit the target language

Naturally, if you don’t speak the target language yourself, you’ll have to hire a professional translator. Still, if you have the resources to do it, we highly recommend that you do.

Apart from translating the content of your website, you’ll also need to add different language options to your website.  You can use the different plugins to help you out.

Polylang

Polylang is a great option for incorporating translations into your website and making it multilingual.

After installing the plugin, visit Settings and choose Languages to configure it. Within the Language settings, you’ll be able to:

  • add different target languages you want to use on your website
  • translate site title
  • translate site description
  • chose date and time format
  • choose the default language

Once you finish with the settings, you’ll be able to add posts on different languages. All you have to do is:

  • select a language
  • create a post
  • add different translations to different posts

So, the plugin doesn’t automatically translate your content and human translation is required. Still, it enables you to make the translations visible and smoothly incorporated into your website.

WPML

The WPML plugin is one of the best known, and most widely used WordPress multilingual plugins. It’s a premium plugin, which means it’s paid.

There are three options:

  • Multilingual Blog, $29
  • Multilingual CMS, $79
  • Multilingual Agency, $159

The plugin offers full-time technical support and a 30 days money-back guarantee.

Here’s what the plugin offers and what makes it one of the best plugins for turning your site multilingual:

  • over 40 languages
  • adding your language variants
  • translate every element of your website
  • compatible with other WordPress plugins
  • supports most WordPress themes
  • ordinary WordPress users can be assigned as translators
  • offers professional translators
  • set translation deadlines
  • media translation

So, the plugin is perfect for making everything ready for adding translations. Still, it doesn’t translate the content itself.

You have to translate the content or hire someone to do it for you. You can consider an online translation service such as Pick Writers.

Also, you can turn to machine translations and then paste the content to your dashboard.

But, there are plugins that offer automatic machine translations. Let’s take a look.

2. Automatic Translation

If you’re looking for an easier way to turn your website into a multilingual one, there are WordPress plugins that can help you out.

Weglot

Weglot is one of the best multilingual plugins available today.

It’s simple to use and it turns your website into a multilingual one in just a few minutes. Here’s how to use it:

  • install and activate the plugin
  • set the original and destinations languages
  • translate

A language selection bar will be available at the corner of your website. People will be able to choose which language they prefer to read in.

Naturally, you can edit your translations to make sure everything is just the way you want it to be. You’ll be redirected to your Weglot account. You’ll be able to use a Dashboard with all your translations.

Here’s a couple of more Weglot features that might pleasantly surprise you:

  • no coding needed
  • delivers clean source code
  • indexed by Googe
  • customizable language button

Weglot is a simple plugin that can turn your site multilingual n just a few clicks. It allows you to edit the translated content and revise it all in a single dashboard.

Google Language Translator

Google Language Translator is another machine translation plugin that enables you to turn your website multilingual.

While most of the essential features are free, there’s the advanced paid version which comes with additional useful features.

The free version offers automatic translation of posts, pages, tags, widgets, etc. The paid version comes with additional great features such as:

  • SEO indexing
  • URLs translation
  • manual translation correction
  • translating metadata

  • live chat support

This plugin can be a good addition to your digital marketing strategy, and help you expand your reach with translations.

However, be careful, since not all translations make sense and sometimes can be of poor quality.

Let’s Rewind

As you can see you have two options when it comes to turning your site multilingual.

If you have the knowledge or the resources for human translation, it’s a better option since it will provide accurate, adapted, and adjusted translations.

If you don’t speak the language and don’t have the resources for hiring translators, go for the machine translations.

There’s a plugin for each purpose, so you won’t have to go through too much trouble.

Final Thoughts

A multilingual website is inviting and welcoming to a wider audience. It helps you expand your target audience and reach out to them with confidence. It’s a valuable part of your digital marketing strategy.

Use the advice above to select the option that suits you the best. Turn your website into a multilingual one and you’ll see it was worth the effort.

Author
At a relatively young age, Donald Fomby has already amassed impressive experience as a freelance writer. Donald studied Computer Science at Texas A&M. He has a passion for technology, social media and travel.

by Marketing Leave a comment

6 Reasons Why Lawyers Should Use Facebook Ads

Getting your law firm noticed can be one of the most challenging parts of your legal service. While traditional methods of advertisement (i.e. newspaper, radio, etc.) may still have some effect, in today’s smartphone-driven world, lawyers using Facebook Ads can give them an added advantage. We suggest hiring one of the best Facebook advertising agency to get you up to speed.

Before getting started, you may want to review this article about Facebook Ads. It’s an overview of Facebook Ads and can help you get started.

In this article, let’s look at the reasons why lawyers should be using Facebook Ads and how it can benefit the firm.

Access to Prospective Clients

Facebook is more than just a place to communicate with friends and share cute videos of cats. Many businesses are using Facebook because of the possibility of building strong relationships with their customers and clients.

Start with a Facebook page. Then share relevant content that people will want to read. Let your law firm website be the place where you advertise your services and your Facebook presence be where you establish a connection.

Facebook is a huge marketplace where people are sharing personal information about their daily lives. From their upcoming divorce to a recent car accident, Facebook gives you access to many prospective clients.

Target Specific People

Looking at the advertising potential of Facebook, the ability to create demographic specific ads allows you to target more people likely to use your legal services.

Facebook Ads has evolved significantly in recent years. They continue to make modifications and improvements to the way you can set up your ads.

For local businesses, the benefits are big. Being able to target specific regions of a city or groups of people experiencing similar problems can guide you toward a more effective Facebook Ad campaign.

Unlimited Customization

Aside from the targeting abilities Facebook Ads provides, you also have unlimited potential for customizing your ad campaigns.

Consider creating a unique landing page on your website that directs people clicking your ad. Send them to an email list subscriber or request a phone call right away.

The most important thing to do is to have a landing page that is related to the Facebook ad you use. Here are a few things you can put on your landing page to improve your ads performance:

  1. A short (~2 minute) video detailing your legal services
  2. 4 to 7 pieces of important information
  3. Your call to action (i.e. submit your email or give us a call).

Keep your landing page short and to the point. The purpose of Facebook advertising is to direct prospective clients toward contacting your law firm. If you have too much on your landing page, it can be overwhelming and cause visitors to leave right away.

An alternative to the landing page approach may be to send those who click your ad on your Facebook Fan Page. When they’re there, you can offer a valuable piece of content for their contact information.

Affordable

Unlike Google PPC, which has competitive keywords costing more than $100 per click, Facebook Ads can be very cost-effective and you can find some of the best google adwords agencies that can help you execute these campaigns.

If you’re doing the advertising yourself, it may take some time to find the right combinations before you discover an effective ad result.

In contrast, there are many digital marketing services that can offer their expertise in creating a campaign that fits your budget.

Whether you want to spend a few hundred dollars per month or significantly more, you can set up a campaign and measure the results. Knowing where your budget is going and evaluating the return on investment is just another get advantage that Facebook Ads has for lawyers.

Share Your Expertise

Let’s face it, people are using Facebook to be entertained and stay connected with their loved ones. They don’t enjoy being bombarded by advertisements selling products and services.

If you’re going to be using Facebook Ads to attract clients to your law firm, you’ll have to provide valuable information.

If you’re a personal injury lawyer, consider sharing an article like:

  • Car accidents occur daily and studies have shown that most accidents occur because of these major reasons.We discuss 7 reasons how personal injury lawyers help and how you can reduce the stresses that come with getting in an accident.

If your focus is a divorce lawyer, you may want to try:

  • Studies show that children live unsatisfying lives and perform poorly in school when their parents are conflicting at home.We discuss 5 reasons why children can benefit from divorce and live happier, more successful lives.

Providing posts like these for Facebook users allows you to interact directly with prospective clients. Instead of selling your services you can create a relationship that makes you an expert on the legal practice you specialize in.

Build Community Awareness

Even though you are sharing content and providing valuable information, people may not inquire about your legal services right away.

From a consumer’s perspective, it takes multiple encounters with a brand before they make the decision to purchase. With the impacts of marketing and the skepticism of today’s consumers, that number continues to increase.

As you build awareness within the community, you’ll be able to stand apart from other law firms that don’t offer additional information to those on Facebook.

Facebook Ads is just one way to get people to recognize your legal services. You should also consider an Instagram advertising agency as they work hand in hand with Facebook. When people start reading your articles, they may have questions related to their situation. Having other tools on your website, such as a Customer Response Management app, can help answer their questions and set up a consultation at your office.

Check out this article on CRMs for lawyers to use in combination with your Facebook Ad campaigns.

by Marketing, Social Media Leave a comment

Best Digital Marketing Podcasts

Whether you’re looking to launch a brand new business or you’re hoping to grow your already successful firm even more, great marketing is key. One of the best ways to learn from the experts is to listen to a podcast while you’re commuting, working or relaxing. We’ve rounded up ten of the top digital marketing podcasts out there today for you. Make sure you check these out and find a new (and often quite entertaining) digital marketing informational resource.

Best Digital Marketing Podcasts

  1. Digital Marketing Fastlane – This podcast isn’t afraid to “get real” to help you achieve real results. Hosted by Kevin Urrutia who is also the CEO of Voy Media and is Facebook Ads Agency, Digital Marketing Fastlane offers proven strategies and real success stories that are useful for both new marketers and those who are a bit more experienced in the game. These quick podcasts do not bog you down with useless information, but instead get to the meat of the matter quickly so that you can learn what it takes to succeed in today’s competitive digital marketplace. Plus, they are a fun listen too!
  2. Duct Tape Marketing – If you’ve spent any time looking at podcasts in this area, you’ve probably come across this one. As a podcast that has been around for more than a decade, this one has a proven track record of success. You’ll enjoy the guest appearances from popular marketing gurus and helpful advice that is specifically targeted to beginning and novice marketers. This podcast covers a wide range of topics that are useful to nearly any marketer, however.
  3. AskGaryVee – One of the few digital marketers that has transcended the marketing world into the public eye, Gary Vee is almost a household name. The AskGaryVee podcast is an interesting and entertaining look at the world behind the motivational speaker and digital marketing guru. This podcast does go “off the rails” at times, but there is so much great information that it is well worth a listen, and it is lots of fun too.
  4. Mad Marketing podcast  – This podcast, hosted by Marcus Sheridan, who is a partner of HubSpot, focuses on SEO and content marketing. Based on his affiliation with HubSpot, that only makes sense. Marcus is an entertaining guy, and the show is straightforward to listen to as he is very high energy and adds plenty of personal stories to the mix. You may get started on this show for its entertainment value, but you’ll be hooked by the excellent knowledge he brings to the table.
  5. Social Media Examiner – This is a big one if you are interested in the social media side of things at all. Social Media Examiner runs a website and hosts, on average, two podcasts per week that are chock full of information on how to take advantage of everything social media has to offer today. Hosted by Michael Stelzner, anyone who wants to grow their presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other platforms can’t miss this podcast.
  6. Smart Passive Income – Pat Flynn has hosted the Smart Passive Income podcast for several years now. While it may have less to do with straight digital marketing, it is a great source for inspiration as he is a wonderful source for success stories, many involving digital marketing in one way or another. Plus, almost every episode has a few “hidden” digital marketing tips scattered in among the success stories, so it is worth a listen just for that.
  7. Marketing Scoop – Marketing Scoop is a straight news podcast focusing on what is new and hot in the world of digital marketing. If you are worried about being the last to know about what’s happening in the marketing world, adding this to your playlist is certainly recommended. Hosted by the same people who bring you SEMRush, you’ll not only hear the news you need to stay ahead of the game, you will get interviews from some of the big names in the business too, so even the older episodes are worth a listen!
  8. ProBlogger Podcast – Based off the successful blog of the same name, this podcast is for bloggers who are looking to scale-up in the business. The host, Darren Rowse has been blogging since 2004 and shares all his knowledge on how to succeed. With over 270 episodes already in the archives, there is plenty of older content available to listen to if you’re hoping to use blogging as a way to increase engagement, grow traffic and market your company or your brand to an even larger audience.
  9. Online Marketing Made Easy – More so than any other podcast, the episodes of Online Marketing Made Easy that are hosted by Amy Porterfield feel like they are mini classes. Not only does she teach you lessons on how to market your business and grow your audience but at the end of every episode, she gives you an assignment on how you can take action and make a change right away. If you’re looking for something to truly motivate you to make changes right away, the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast could be just what you’ve been looking for.
  10. Marketing Over Coffee – For a more relaxed approach to marketing, why not try marketing over coffee? This is a “coffee talk” so to speak about the marketing topics that matter most to you. Hosted by Christopher Penn and John Wall, you’ll learn plenty without feeling bogged down. They want you to see that marketing really does have a lighter side, even as you’re learning more about how to grow your business.

Technology has made it easier than ever to learn from experts and in turn, grow your business. With all of these podcasts, you have access to some of the greatest minds in digital marketing today–that you can listen to 24 hours a day! Take advantage and you’re sure to advance your knowledge of digital marketing so that you can achieve amazing things.

by Marketing Leave a comment

Why Should Lawyers Use Live Chat On Their Law Firm’s Website

If your firm has a law website, having a way to instantly communicate with visitors can increase your firm’s intake of new clients.

Live chat software is a smart solution when it comes to your online marketing and advertising efforts. When a visitor engages with your live chat, you can quickly and immediately address their questions or schedule a consultation.

Before going on about the benefits live chat provides a law firm’s website, there are ethical issues to consider. While you may be eager to use clever marketing techniques to convert visitors into your next client, the American Bar Association has outlined some ethical rules for lawyer’s websites.

With an understanding of what you can and cannot do, the following five points will review the top benefits of using live chat.

Easy to Get Started

Worried that installing live chat on your law firm’s website will require technical knowledge?

Many live chat services can get their software running on your website in just a few clicks. Whether you have computer knowledge or not, once live chat is installed on your website, the next thing to do is to get ready for visitors to your website.

When a visitor arrives at your website, they will receive a notification that you (or qualified staff) is standing by to offer assistance. If the visitor engages with the live chat messenger, you will be immediately notified and a live chat session can begin.

All live chat services offer varying packages and features. Some can provide pre-scripted bots which allow you to direct visitors using prompted questions, toward providing their contact information.

Establish Trust and a Good First Impression

In a lawyer’s line of work, you know that most people do not enjoy the legal process. When it comes to finding a lawyer for their situation, people want to alleviate their problems and quickly as possible.

Live chat allows you to set a good impression the moment a prospective client lands on your website. You can quickly engage in a conversation and build trust by addressing their needs. You can respond to visitors specific needs and prepare them for intake.

When your prospective clients end the live chat session, they will feel listened to and relieved. This is a much better alternative to filling out contact forms and waiting anxiously for your phone call.

Differentiate Your Legal Services

Law firms are constantly searching for new ways to differentiate themselves from their competition. With live chat, law firms can provide a 24/7 reception and continue to collect leads for prospective clients after hours.

In certain situations that require legal services, prospective clients are often enduring emotional situations and want immediate assistance. Those recovering from a personal injury, going through a divorce, or on the brink of bankruptcy are looking for a solution as soon as possible.

Imagine being frustrated, sad, or extraordinarily angry, if you can’t find what you’re looking for on a website within a few seconds, you’ll likely go to another lawyer’s website with the solution.

Having live chat on your website is a sure way to address the immediacy and urgency of your prospective client’s situation.

Reduce Intake Time

In case you find yourself preoccupied with client’s cases and your staff is busy with administrative tasks, you can still use live chat to continue intaking.

Some live chat companies offer a unique service allowing you to have 24/7 live chat on a per-lead-basis. This means that whenever a visitor comes to your website, uses the live chat, and provide their contact information (i.e. e-mail, phone number, etc.), you pay the live chat company.

This is both time efficient and cost-effective as you won’t have to hire another receptionist or staff to handle inquiries at odd hours. Often, people are too preoccupied during typical work hours to contact your office. Live chat allows you to collect leads even after you have closed the office.

Another beneficial feature is that should the live chat provide a lead or begin intaking a client, you can receive an immediate notification. This allows you to respond either by email or phone call to that prospective client following their inquiry to your law firm.

Increased ROI and Conversion Rates

This is likely to be the most valued part of any live chat software. When you have a successful website with traffic coming in, converting them into clients is the next thing to do.

All that money you invested in web design, hosting and creative advertisements would be for nothing if visitors weren’t becoming your client. Live chat has a proven ability to increase conversion rates on websites.

Obtaining answers to problems is a high priority for people browsing online. Instead of wasting time search through help forums, FAQs, or irrelevant articles, live chat solves problems quickly.

In addition, live chat providers offer fair pricing and may even go so far as to guarantee an increase in conversions or your money back. Having this kind of promise allows your website to focus on what matters most: finding new clients.

Final Thoughts

If you’re using Facebook Ads or Google Adwords to promote your law firm the live chat icon on your website can improve your ROI. However, the American Bar Association (ABA) has stated a few rules about using live chats on a law firm’s website. To review these ethical rules, please see ABA Rules for Websites and Advertising.

by Marketing Leave a comment

Solo Lawyer’s Guide To Websites

Being a solo practitioner comes with added obstacles and challenges that established law firms may not experience. From office administration to employee management to client intake, there are many tasks that must be performed in order for a legal service to succeed.

This article will focus on the importance of lawyer websites and why having one would benefit a solo lawyer.

Here’s a quick overview of everything this solo lawyer’s guide will cover:

  • Getting a website
  • Finding web design ideas
  • Starting a blog
  • Promoting the website
  • Improving the website’s performance

Reasons Solo Lawyers Need A Website

Solo lawyers have the ability to choose their own hours, select who they work with, and decide which cases they want to work on. While this may sound appealing at first, the additional work required to run a law firm by yourself can take a considerable amount of extra time.

To reduce some of the inevitable work, solo lawyers can use a website to delegate many of their regular office tasks.

Here are a few benefits solo lawyers can get with their website:

  1. Advertise Legal Services.
  2. Find New Clients
  3. Establish a Brand / Reputation.
  4. Improve Intaking.
  5. Share Professional Legal Knowledge

There are some DIY website builders or if you don’t have the time to build a website yourself, you can hire a professional developer.

Website Design for Solo Lawyers

Although a website should provide useful information, the design and functionality can affect whether a visitor will use your legal services or search somewhere else.

Most visitors coming to any website will be searching for the information they need right away. If your solo lawyer website takes too long to load, has an unattractive design, or is confusing to navigate, expect visitors to leave before ever inquiring about your practice.

Designing a website with your prospective clients in mind will have greater benefits in the long term. Here are a few tips to guide you toward a good website for your solo service:

  • Choose A Good Design. The aesthetics of your solo lawyer website is important. Consider the look and feel of your website. Ask yourself, does it showcase your professionalism? Expertise?
  • Don’t Confuse Visitors. When visitors come to your website, keep the message clear and make your pages easy to navigate. Nothing is more frustrating to someone online than landing on a website and not knowing what to do or where to go.
  • Offer Quality Content. While it may be useful to have a website featuring your office hours and contact information, you can improve your website’s performance by adding a blog and providing helpful information.
  • Have A CTA. You need a Call To Action on your website. This could be an onscreen pop-up requesting an email or your contact number in large font that offers the visitor a free consultation if the contact you today.

When you discuss your website with a web designer, remember to focus on the website’s function while paying attention to the overall aesthetic and design. To get more ideas for you website design, check out 2017’s best lawyer websites or 2018’s best law firm websites.

Blogging About Law

Solo lawyers with a blog on their website can improve their reach for prospective clients. Blogs are a great way to share informal information, showcase your expertise in your area of law, and build an online reputation.

Blogs allow solo lawyers with competitive strategy for marketing their legal services. For example, the information and expertise about the law may be unique to you. Sharing some tips, such as what to do after getting in a car accident, can help you stand out against other law firms in your area.

To create a successful lawyer blog, you’ll want to consider the keywords people are using in search engines. For example, if you’re a solo lawyer practicing divorce law in California, you’ll want to write an article with similar words inside. Keep reading to learn how keywords in your website can improve its performance. 

Promoting Your Legal Services

In order for a solo lawyer website to serve its purpose, finding new clients, it is going to need visitors. Paid promotions can be an effective method toward promoting your legal services and finding your next client.

To get started, two of the most common places to promote a website include Google PPC and Facebook Ads.

Google uses competitive keywords to provide ads on the first page of their results to people making searches related your selected words. Facebook offers this same feature, however, it has an even more powerful tool for targeting the perfect audience.

Depending on your budget and goals, Google PPC and Facebook Ads can have different results. For more information about which one you should use to promote your website, go to Google PPC for Lawyers or Facebook Ads for Lawyers.

Improving Your Website’s Performance 

For alternatives to paid promotions, you can make a few modifications to your website to improve the performance. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a method of making your website better recognized by search engines which presents your website to more people.

As mentioned before, having a blog is one way to improve your SEO. Blogs allow you to add various keyword rich pages to your website which can improve the likelihood of your website being discovered.

Other methods of improving your solo lawyer website’s SEO includes:

  • Obtain backlinks from other websites
  • Perform competitive keyword research
  • Add titles, sub-headers, and meta-information
  • Submit website to directories

Improving the SEO of a website can be both technical and confusing. To get a better understanding of SEO and the things you can do to improve your website go to SEO for Lawyers.

by Branding, Business, Marketing, SEO, Ultimate Guides, Websites Leave a comment

When Is the Best Time to Post on Facebook

You’ve created a brilliant content strategy that has great posts to share on social media. It’s full of compelling tidbits, news, information and high-value posts that will attract new customers and bring existing customers back.

Now the question is: When should you post the content on Facebook?

Why Does Facebook Post Timing Matter?

Analysts are constantly trying to discern the algorithms Facebook uses for content sharing on one’s stream. If you’re not using paid advertising on Facebook, then it can become a bit of a guessing game to determine when to put your content out in the open.

Facebook does appear to favor posts by friends and family, making it more challenging for organic business posts to be seen. One study of 43 million posts by the top 20,000 brands found that there had been a 50 percent drop in engagement (measured in likes, shares, comments and reactions) from the start of 2017 to the middle of 2018.

With more than 80 million business pages on the platform, that’s a lot of noise to fight against to get your content seen.

What can you do to determine the best time to post on Facebook? Part of the challenge is the various recommendations afloat on the web. Consider the various time recommendations below:

  • 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday (Sprout Social)
  • 9 a.m., 11 a.m. to 12 noon with Thursday and Sunday the best days (HubSpot)
  • 8 p.m. on Thursday (TrackMaven)

Here’s a closer look at the logic behind the selected dates for several of the studies noted above.

Sprout Social. While the Wednesday times were among the most optimal, there are other factors. Broadly, the most regular engagement occurs Tuesdays to Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with much lower engagement on the weekends, before 7 a.m. and after 5 p.m.

HubSpot. The early morning and midday times are when people first arrive in the office or are about to break for lunch.

What Are the Suggested Best Times by Sector?

Many of these studies break down the optimal times by industry or demographic. Here’s a look at some sector breakdowns.

Best Times to Post on Facebook for B2C

According to CoSchedule, the best times to post are when workers typically have breaks or are at the end of their day – 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., 11 a.m. to 12 noon and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sprout Social recommends posting on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and Friday at 11 a.m.

Best Times to Post on Facebook for B2B

CoSchedule recommends posting at 9 a.m. or 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Here are some of the best times for specific industries, according to Sprout Social:

  • Education: Wednesday at 9 a.m. or Saturday at 5 p.m.
  • Finance: Wednesday at 12 noon
  • Healthcare: Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon
  • Media: Tuesday through Thursday at 9 a.m. or Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
  • Nonprofits: Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
  • Recreation: Tuesday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 11 a.m.
  • Technology: Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon

What Is Facebook Audience Insights?

Facebook offers users a powerful tool to use in determining the right time to post. Audience Insights is a free tool to provide you actionable intelligence about your audience, prospects or all of Facebook. It is typically used to target ad buys on the platform, but can also be used to understand better when to launch content.

You can select from three options for audience – everyone on Facebook, people connected to your page or a custom audience. You can also set various demographic criteria, including age, gender, location, language, relationships, education, market segments and interests.

One of the best features of Facebook Audience Insights is its Relevance and Affinity measures. Relevance shows you the Facebook pages relevant to your chosen audience based on page size, affinity and people in your audience who already like a page. The Affinity measure indicates how likely an audience is to like a page compared to the entirety of Facebook users.

There’s also Facebook Insights, which can give you information about your posts. You access the feature at the top of your Business page. You can look when your page’s fans are online and which of your posts are the most successful.

What Social Media Platforms Can My Business Use to Manage Facebook Posts?

There are plenty of options for businesses looking to automate your Facebook posting calendar. Each of these platforms allows you to schedule times, provides analysis and metrics, and simplifies your content management strategy. Here is a look at a few of the most popular:

  • Buffer. Buffer automates your social posting by adding content to a queue. The tool posts at times you predetermine. The paid version of the service includes analytics.
  • Hootsuite. One of the oldest social media management platforms, Hootsuite includes scheduling options and content curation, allowing you to tag and search for content to use across media and streams while managing usage across teams. The tool also tracks social conversations about your content.
  • Loomly. Started in 2015, this site offers automated publishing, collaboration tools and multi-account management. It simplifies workflows and provides more structure via a strong social media calendaring solution.
  • PromoRepublic. This tool will recommend a posting schedule and suggest content for each social media platform using an artificial intelligence tool that analyzes your audience’s engagement patterns.

How Can I Determine the Best Times to Post on Facebook?

There is clearly no one definitive answer on when to post to Facebook. The optimal time depends on the audience you’re seeking to attract and engage, the content you’re using and the industry you’re in.

Here are a couple of recommendations.

1. Use the Data to Inform Your Decisions

Facebook data and information you glean from a posting platform are plentiful. It’s best to understand your own audience demographics and how your content performs to inform future posting times.

2. Timing Is Everything. Relevance Matters

Sports teams don’t wait to post boxscores. News outlets share breaking news as fast as possible.

You will likely be guided by when you think it’s most relevant. Some content only matters when it’s posted in a timely manner. New product announcements, sales, timing with ad campaigns in other media all should inform when you post. Don’t be afraid to experiment and track the results … giving you more data.

Facebook is a powerful medium, enabling your business to attract customers, fans and followers. Using insights, data and tools can give your business the intel to help create and schedule content to have the greatest impact.

by Marketing, Social Media Leave a comment

9 Skills Of A Successful Lawyer

There are some who have it and some who don’t. Having the right set of skills of a lawyer can lead a career of abundance and great success. If you’re looking to brush up your skills, here’s a list of 9 skills to become a better lawyer.

1. Strong Communication Skills

Lawyers must have strong oral communication skills and written communication skills to accurately relay critical legal information. As well, a significant portion of a lawyer’s job is to create strong and convincing arguments which are presented in the courtroom. Judges and juries all have their own opinions, beliefs, and backgrounds so a lawyer’s ability must be able to reach out to all of them and convince accordingly.

In addition, good listening skills are found in a successful lawyer. Every client has their own version of their situation. Lawyers must listen carefully to the details and analyze what their clients need and how to take action.

2. People Skills

Lawyers are in constant contact with people with is why people skills are required. The entire system of law has engagement with people. Judges, clerks, senior partners, barristers, and other legal workers are just some of the people lawyers will encounter on a daily basis. Being able to be relatable, polite, respectful and interesting some skills to consider.

If this is a skill lacking in a lawyer, it can lead to some very nasty situations with clients seeking retribution for their perceived mistreatment. Regardless of how good a lawyer may be at formulating arguments and winning cases, maintaining good relationship develops a deeper sense of professionalism

3. Time Management Skills

Lawyer’s have a heavy workload and can experience demanding deadlines at short notice. Having the right time management and organizational skills allows for a lawyer’s work to be performed more effortlessly and efficiently.

Time management is the core of a lawyer’s work ethics. Lawyers who prioritize their work and stay ahead of their tasks can lead to more time to enjoy extracurriculars or taking on more cases.

4. Research Skills

Lawyers will spend a lot of time digging around in archives and reading up on old cases. Research skills include the ability to read large amounts of information in short time, understanding facts, figures, and charts, and analyzing matter in a way that can be used later are vital features of a lawyer.

Research skills should be honed early in a lawyer’s career. To do so, make a habit of summarizing a few important points from large documents and articles. This is extremely advantageous when caseloads increase which require more background details, legal document drafting, and prepare advice for clients.

5. Detail Oriented

All lawyers have to have an eye for details. Accuracy and precision is needed to become a successful lawyer. If a lawyer makes a mistake on a single word it can change the entire meaning of a contract or a clause. Lawyers must ensure all their communications, such as email, letters, lawyer websites and legal documents, are always perfect for giving them to a client.

Small mistakes can lead to a bad impression on a client and a bad experience for a lawyer. The worst case scenario would be a lawyer getting sued for malpractice for mistakes that could have been avoided.   

6. Creativity

The fundamental part of a lawyer’s job is to win cases for their clients or protect their client’s interests. Being creative is a skill needed by successful lawyers because it allows for flexibility and a wide range of possible solutions when working on a case.

Lawyers have to be both logical and analytical. However, they should not ignore their creativity. Having that creative edge allows for a lawyer to outmaneuver any situation, in and out of the courtroom.

7. Judgement

Although creativity is important, a lawyer also requires strong judgment at the core of their practice. Lawyers need the ability to logically and reasonably draw conclusions based on the limited amount of information they receive.

Throughout a court hearing, lawyers must be aware of the arguments their opponents are making which finding weaknesses and flaws in logic through the hearings.

8. Stress Management

Lawyers spend a great amount of time listening to client’s and trying to solve their problems. There are some clients who have often experienced an extreme incident which creates a difficult and stressful situation for themselves and the lawyer. Mentioned early was the importance of having both people and communication skills. It is during these high-stress situations that these skills are needed to help handle a client’s stress.

In fact, these same skills are critical for lawyer’s themselves. Lawyers will occasionally take on the stresses of their clients. Having the ability to manage stress, both in clients and within themselves, is a valuable skill to maintain a long-lasting career as a lawyer.

9. Business Skills

Every lawyer, whether working at a firm or solo practitioner, must be aware of the business side of their practice. Law is a billable service that receives the majority of their income by the hours they can bill. If lawyers lack the necessary business skills to bill their clients accordingly, it could lead to significant losses for the firm or personal practice.

Being able to explain your hourly rates, additional charges, and contracting with clients is critical for a lawyer to continue to practice law. However, billing is just one aspect that has to be learned. Marketing, networking, and accounting for lawyers are equally important.

by Marketing Leave a comment

MuteSix Reviews

MuteSix bills itself as an ad agency that focuses on providing value-driven, full funnel services for its clients. An award-winning company, MuteSix uses data-driven analysis and creative, targeted media buying that supports client goals.

As pioneers in the brand response marketing space, this agency was chosen as the Best Creative Agency by DesignRush.com in 2018. MuteSix was also the National Winner of the American Advertising Awards that same year.

Compared to other agencies, MuteSix is recognized in more Facebook Success Stories. It was also listed on Inc. magazine’s 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in 2019, nabbing the number 15 slot. Also in 2019, MuteSix was listed in the first annual global ranking by Adweek. Securing the number 10 spot in the Adweek 100: Fastest Growing Agencies, MuteSix experienced a 770 percent jump in growth.

About MuteSix

Founded in 2014 by two entrepreneurs who knew they wanted to approach the ad industry in a different way than anyone else in the industry. Steve Weiss, CEO and founder, along with Daniel Rutberg, COO and founder, head a diverse, creative, passionate and highly-tenured team of 150+ talented individuals at the MuteSix headquarters in sunny Los Angeles, California.

MuteSix has been named in Inc. magazine’s best places to work and gives back to the community. For example, in 2020 MuteSix choose to support Wags & Walks, a non-profit rescue group dedicated to finding Los Angeles-shelter dogs their forever homes.

A Premier Google Partner, Shopify Plus partner and certified in Facebook Ads Blueprint, MuteSix has also been featured in Forbes, Facebook Business, Huffpost and more.

Clients MuteSix Has Worked With

MuteSix has worked with some of the biggest names on the planet including GNC, Condé Nast, Adidas, Ring and Quicken Loans. This agency doesn’t just work with established, household names, though.

It also helps up-and-coming brands get the results they need to scale. goPuff, an on-demand personal convenience store, and MeUndies, a popular underwear brand, are just two MuteSix clients that benefitted greatly from the agency’s ultra-personalized services.

Types of Clients MuteSix Serves

MuteSix delivers its innovative creative marketing, digital strategies and video production services to a wide swath of both B2B and B2C industries. These include diverse sectors such as sports, financial services, e-commerce, luxury, retail, non-profit, technology, publishing and more.

Specialties

Understanding that its clients need a multi-prong approach to marketing that harnesses the power of the digital landscape and utilizes cutting-edge data, MuteSix offers a wide range of evolving specialties. These include Creative Studio, conversion rate optimization, influencer marketing management as well as those listed below:

Amazon Management

With about half of all product searches beginning with Amazon, brands need to stay ahead of their competition and maximize their Amazon visibility to meet their sales growth goals. Working with MuteSix ensures that the agency’s many years of proven growth and experience with Amazon’s reps is funneled to their clients.

Facebook and Instagram Advertising

Arguably the two most influential social media companies in the world, harnessing the power of Facebook and Instagram advertising is crucial to the success and growth of today’s companies — large and small. Utilizing big data, psychological drivers and other proven strategies, Mutesix develops a persona-driven and client-centric strategy that fosters deep connections and understanding that clients need with their customers.

Google and Youtube Advertising

Mutesix understands the drivers behind retail due to its deep and robust insight and experience. Driving return on investment (ROI) with a series of precise advertising campaigns that use a scientific approach perfected as a Google Premier Partner, Mutesix identifies, attracts and converts customers for its clients.

StudioSix

StudiosSix is the in-house video production team at Mutesix. Because this sector is located right within the Mutesix team, the agency’s clients have instant access to professional-grade video services that are held to the exacting standards that MuteSix is proud of.

The quality, detail and precision that is evident in the videos MuteSix produces is unparalleled. It’s this quality that prompts so many of their clients to mention the MuteSix video production skills in their reviews.

Email and Messenger Marketing

MuteSix realizes that context is what matters in today’s busy and fast-paced world that includes cluttered inboxes. That being said, email is understood to be a brand’s single largest driver of revenue. Understanding how to create campaigns that hook a customer and prompt them to click-through are the key to harnessing the power of email.

MuteSix uses an approach that is driven by context with ROI as the ultimate goal. Psychological drivers partner with a deep understanding of each brand’s customers — factors that MuteSix leverages to get its clients’ customers to open emails, click through and make that crucial purchase to complete the sales loop.

Messengers campaigns that are high-performing use the same strategy to bring their clients the success they need to scale, grow and expand to meet their goals.

MuteSix Reviews

MuteSix has five stars on its Facebook page, as well as on Yelp and Google Reviews. Many reviewers lauded the agency’s team for its talent, knowledge and skills in areas such as video production and Facebook ads.

In addition, MuteSix was noted as being easy to work with. Each client receives access to a dedicated campaign manager who heads a full team that handles optimization, creatives and targeting. With access to the campaign team 24/7 and the ability to be as involved or as hands-off as the client desires, MuteSix possesses the flexibility to work with a range of clients.

Dan King, director of marketing for MeUndies, noted in a typical review that the brand uses both Instagram and Facebook to build connections with current customers as well as acquire new ones. With plans to continue using social media to spearhead their aggressive goals for customer acquisition, founder of MeUndies, Jonathan Shokrian, noted that MuteSix has been instrumental in helping the brand scale their channel, hone its strategy and assist with attribution.

Daniel Snow, co-founder of The Snow Agency and GOATcase, a brand of premium phone accessories, gave MuteSix a five-star review on the agency’s Facebook page. He noted that the agency is transparent, communicative and efficient. Additionally, he highly recommended the Mutesix team to brands who want to outsource their marketing strategy.

by Marketing Leave a comment

30 Marketing Tips For Lawyers

Marketing your law firm can take up a lot of time and money, but it doesn’t have to. You don’t have to be a sales expert, naturally outgoing, or excessively charming either. Instead, growing your law firm starts with a strong marketing plan that uses successful strategies targeted at the right audience and performed consistently. While you may not see results overnight, given time, new clients will be calling up your office.

To help you develop the right marketing plan for your business, here’s a list of marketing tips and ideas specifically for you.

    1. Meet with referral contacts regularly. No matter how busy you are, take the time to meet or contact your referrals personally to remind them that your services are ready and available.
    2. Know your target market. Obviously, if you’re a divorce lawyer you won’t be searching for a client with workplace injuries. However, you’ll want to know everything possible about your target audience and tailor your marketing plan to them.
    3. Attend annual/monthly dinners with colleagues and law school classmates. Even as you pursue your career in law, it’s important to reach out to old classmates and build upon your referral network.
    4. Study more briefs and related cases. The more you know about the cases you intend to provide legal services for, the more knowledge and expertise you will have. This is critical for building trust with potential clients and answering questions backed by the research you performed.
    5. Put your law firm on social media. Social media is a smart way to reach out to communities and specific groups of people to inform them of your legal expertise.
    6. Get a website for your law firm. If you haven’t done so already, having an attorney website for your law firm can increase client intake by finding new clients searching for lawyers online.
    7. Make networking a priority. This should be a habit. Go out and meet people every day even when you don’t feel like it.
    8. Start a law blog. Writing articles and guest posts on other blogs is a great way to share your expertise in your area of law.
    9. Create a content marketing strategy. Once your blog is filled with quality content, you’ll need a smart marketing strategy to reach out to people interested in reading it.
    10. Offer free consultations. Everybody loves free stuff. If you can give a few free minutes of your time, you can use this as an introduction to yourself and a chance to sell your legal services.
    11. Have a unique and compelling CTA. Your call to action, either on your website or throughout social media, should be clear when telling readers what to do (i.e. call today for a free consultation about your personal injury).
    12. Attend public events with an attitude to give, instead of receiving. Often, the most successful lawyers are those with a giving mindset rather than taking from every opportunity they see.
    13. Know your USP. What is your Unique Selling Point? Remember, people are hiring lawyers to work for them, not the law firm itself. What makes you so special?
    14. Create a brand and spread it. Consider developing a stationary set with your business logo and some short descriptions that capture what you can do.
    15. Use Facebook Ads. You can set up cost-effective and highly targeted Facebook Ads to find new clients.
    16. Start a drip marketing campaign. When you start collecting contact information for potential clients, you can create a series of timely messages to nurture them into new clients.
    17. Give away free resources. While you may want to bill for every minute of your time, consider taking a moment to put together some free resources (i.e. pamphlet, ebook, etc.).
    18. Be helpful to those in your community. When you meet new people in your community, find a way to give a helping hand. Sometimes it pays to be helpful.
    19. Market your law firm if it feels right to you. Don’t think that you have to commit to every marketing method available. For example, if you don’t like social media, don’t use it.
    20. Make sure it’s easy to reach you. Similar to having a strong CTA, you should have a distinct and easy way for people to get in contact with you.
    21. Use accounting software programs for lawyers. There are a few accounting software programs that can automate your entire firm and all you more time to focus on finding more clients.
    22. Start a Google PPC campaign. There are a lot of competitive keywords that can be expensive. However, if you use the right words you can increase traffic to your website and leads for your legal services.
    23. Ensure that your content is shareable. If you do have a blog, be sure social media share buttons are visible and don’t be afraid to ask readers to share it when they reach the end.
    24. Understand the basics of SEO. Learn how to make the necessary changes to your website to increase your ranking in search engines.
    25. Focus on getting referrals. Getting referred clients makes the intake process so much easier. Plus, referred clients tend to be more loyal and more likely to provide you with referrals in the future.
    26. Send referrals to other lawyers. You can send referrals to others in your network (i.e. when your too busy with other cases or a prospective client asks for work in a different area of law). If karma exists, you can expect these favors to be returned to you.
    27. Don’t be shy, ask directly if your clients know anyone who needs you. Perhaps others people your client knows needs your services but they’ve been too focused on their case to see it.
    28. Release content on social media at specific days and times. Sometimes the mornings get more engagement than the evenings and vice versa.
    29. Volunteer at various legal groups and activities in your community. It doesn’t have to be specific to law, you can join an organization to give back to your community while getting your name and legal services out there.
    30. Go to bar association events. Whenever there are events from your local bar association go and network to again, build your referral network.
by Marketing, Ultimate Guides Leave a comment