Category Archives: Marketing

Best Pinterest Marketing Agencies

Advertising on social media grows every year. As the cheapest option to advertise, it’s becoming more and more popular. Advertisements are still challenging to connect to the correct people and convert their interest into sales. In this article, I’ll be discussing the difficulties with advertising by yourself, and the top 5 advertising agencies you should be using for Pinterest.

Advertising on Pinterest and the Challenges it Presents

Pinterest has integrated their ads to look exactly like other pins; gathering more eyes to the ad and spreading the brand. Because of this integration, people are using Pinterest more and more to share their company. Over 61 percent of Pinterest users have made a purchase after seeing an advertisement on the social media site.

Pinterest has also designed their site to be able to save the advertisement to view later; just like a regular picture you liked. This allows for a database of shoppers, browsing through content catered to you, so you can purchase what you like.

This social design is what makes Pinterest so great for advertising your brand; a unique display of content catered to specific demographics, guaranteed to make a purchase. Although for advertisers this has benefited them greatly, it still can be extremely difficult to spread your brand yourself.

Some of the problems you could run into are:

  • Getting enough people to see your ads
  • Getting people to pin your ads
  • Getting people to make a purchase
  • Advertising to the right people

This is where advertising yourself gets difficult; although the system is catered to a smooth ad-base, it isn’t easy. It’s very common for users not to be able to get enough eyes on their content. Pinterest is massive, with over 250 million active users, and ranked as the 4th largest social medium. So, getting your advertisements to spark and go viral isn’t an easy task.

You also have to make sure your advertisements are hitting the correct demographics. Spreading your content can be simple enough by pinning onto certain forums, but if you’re selling the newest First-Person Shooter to women over 55, you’re not going to see many sales.

Which Advertising Agency is best for Pinterest?

Using an advertising agency for Pinterest can change the way you spread your brand, and more importantly, a team of professional staff can guarantee that you’re spreading your brand to the right people.  They can study and strategize exactly who needs to see your content to make sure you’ll meet your goals.

While using an advertising agency for Pinterest can greatly expand your brand, it has its challenges as well. Some of the challenges you might face are:

  • Choosing the right agency for your goals
  • Budgeting for the right agency
  • Strengths and weaknesses of that agency

By far the greatest challenge you‘ll have when picking an ad agency for your business is simply that; choosing. There are so many options that specialize in Pinterest and other social media that scraping away between the hundreds can seem like a chore. So, which one works for you? This is entirely up to you and what you’ve set forth to accomplish.

Budgeting is also a common hill you’ll have to climb. Once you have decided who you want to partner with to benefit your brand, you’ll have to decide if that budget is right for you. Is the price worth the risk? Luckily, there are ways to limit the risk.

Go with an agency that has proven results across the country. Make sure they have their unique strategies to ensure you’re getting the best financial investment when partnering with them. Many good ones will have percentages of the success to show that your risk is very low when investing.

Should you be overwhelmed? If you feel that way, my goal here is to make it easier. The number of hills you have to climb can leave you wondering if it’s worth it. I’ve put together the top 5 agencies you should use when advertising on Pinterest. These are ranked in order from best to last:

I’ll explain each of their strengths, so you can decide which one will best help you meet your financial goals on Pinterest. Advertising can be complicated, and these agencies take the stress away.

Digital Marketing Agency

There are some incredible Pinterest advertising agencies, but the one that sticks out as the best option for you is DMA. While the agencies we’ll talk about also provide a sense of dedication, none provided the innovation DMA does.

They are constantly updating their strategies and practices to make your search results are meeting the right demographics. They are always finding the best option for Pinterest users to see your brand through the best message.

They’ll focus on your target audience, driving in on the base that will be most likely to make you financially successful. Their team follows the relevant users to make sure they’re the ones coming back; the ones more likely to be interested in your brand.

If you’re looking for a focus-driven advertisement agency that can help grow your Pinterest viewers and your brand, go with DMA. Their team of innovators is sure not to disappoint.

Taktical Digital

Coming in at a close second is Taktical Digital. They are experts of all thing social media, especially Pinterest. They’re recognized partners of all the major advertising platforms, and the awards speak for themselves.

Pinterest has over 175 million active monthly users, and it’s continuing to grow. This is why Taktical Digital has chosen to expertise in sites like Pinterest; making sure their investment is your investment.

There were over 2 billion searches on Pinterest every month, so demographics are a big part of Taktical Digital’s advertising strategy. They want to find the best audience for you to target for, so choosing keywords that fit your brand is a major focus for them.

After the strategy is set, they’ll follow your viewers, what’s working and what isn’t. And adapt to fix the problems. Your success is their success, so making sure each day you’re getting the eyes you want on their brand is a priority.

This is the type of work you get with Taktical Digital, a specialization of all things social media. They want to provide data that proves the success and why you’re succeeding when using them. Even though Taktical Digital is second on my list overall, they are the best company when it comes to a reliable relationship.

Ignite

Ignite came in as the Social Media Agency of the Year in 2016, so their work will speak for themselves. This is partly because they are only social. Social media is their passion, so the focus will be driven for success in sites like Pinterest.

They’ve been growing for over seven years, and continue to hire social media experts to find the best way to market your brand. They’ve worked with notable brands like Staples, World Kitchen, and Crocs. While Ignite is 3rd on my list, they’re first when it comes to their drive and attention to detail.

They’ve proven to provide the best social media strategies on the market and have shown success every day. Whether it’s specific content creation that you need or just a solid strategy to guarantee success, their staff is eagerly waiting.

One review said, “The company has adapted to a changing industry and is always seeking how to improve and deliver value to clients.” This review speaks volumes to the quality you’ll get from Ignite.

Passion is where they thrive. If you’re looking for a social media-driven agency that is guaranteed to be passionate about spreading your brand through Pinterest, you can’t go wrong with Ignite.

Tailwind

Tailwind brings a unique side to the Pinterest advertising market by helping you monitor your competitors. They help you study the followers of your brands to spread your market across more demographics.

They’ll also want you actively engaged with your competitors. Following trends and topics to make sure you’re up to date with where you need to be advertising. Where they thrive is your voice. They want to spread your voice to outshine competitors in your field.

It’s a much more battle-oriented marketing agency, following other competitors to see how their success can be your success.

They’ll help with finding keywords to best suit your market. They’ll also manage the conversations about your brand to make sure they stay up to date with how people talk about your business.

This will give them active data to best engage with your brand in real time. They can use that info to utilize the best way to pin your brand across Pinterest. They’re goal oriented, with a step by step program to push you across the market.

They’re partnered with Pinterest marketing, and use this to follow the most popular interests across the site. Their unique strategy is what gets Tailwind on my list of the best Pinterest ad agencies for you to try.

Perfect Search Engine

Last but not least is Perfect Search Engine, based out of Chicago. What they lack in a large group of clients, they make up for in a personal relationship. Too many this could be negative, but to others, it’s a positive. You won’t get a staff full of decades of credentials, but you will get personal clients.

To companies like Perfect Search Engine, there is potential to get even better results. With larger advertising agencies, they sometimes can get overwhelmed. So, it’s worth not just overlooking Perfect Search Engine when searching for the right agency.

They make up for their smaller team with a large boost of creativity. With fewer clients, you’re getting more personal results that you might not be able to get from a company like DMA. They also have a primary focus on content.

They say “quality content is kind of our thing” on their website, and it shows. Perfect Search Engine’s small staff is all certified with Google Analytics and HubSpot Content Marketing. So even though the numbers might not be there just yet, they are more than qualified to spread your brand all across Pinterest.

Final Thoughts

You may be thinking that neither choice is easy. It’s difficult to advertise by myself, and it’s difficult to pick an advertising agency to help me on Pinterest. While both can seem like chores, the former is far more difficult.

When advertising yourself, you simply won’t have the data to help you guarantee success. You won’t be able to track your results and won’t be able to see who you’re advertising for. This can leave you feeling hopeless waiting for your brand to spread across Pinterest.

You also won’t have a proven strategy that can help you know the right demographics are seeing your content. If you’re not advertising to the right group of people, then the ads are pointless. It can be seen by 1000 people, but if that group isn’t interested in your content, it’s a waste.

I’ve made this list of the top 5 to make it easier for you when you finally choose which agency is right for you. The decision still might not be as easy as you hoped for. Each advertising agency brings a unique strategy for promoting the best way across Pinterest.

If you’re looking for proven, successful staff to help promote your brand, go with DMA, but if you want to make sure you’re getting a personal relationship for the long-term, go with Perfect Search Engine. These are all important things to consider when choosing.

Pinterest is the simplest social medium to promote content online. Their integration through the app makes it hard for users even to know when they are looking at an advertisement. This is all the more reason to guarantee you’re spreading your brand the best you can.

Pinterest is growing and growing; make sure your business is too.

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Best Twitter Advertising Agencies 2019

Best Twitter Marketing Agencies 2019

Social media has taken the world by a storm, and along with it have come to a plethora of advertising opportunities. Advertising agencies across the country have been taking advantage of the growing social media platforms and can help you better be seen. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best advertising agencies designed for Twitter to help build your brand.

Advertising on Twitter and the Challenges it Presents

There are over 260 million Twitter accounts, and the number continues to grow. But advertising on Twitter yourself can be extremely challenging. Some of the frustrations you could run into are:

  • Getting your tweets spread more
  • Budgeting to advertise to your needs
  • Building up a base of viewers

Although Twitter is a massive medium with great potential, many people find it extremely difficult to advertise their business through tweets on their own. Simply put, it’s tough to get your tweets spread through a wide range.

You’ll also need to consider budgeting when you’re getting your ads out there. Building a base to meet your goals can be difficult, especially when you feel at a loss for getting eyes to see your tweets. In this article, I’ll talk about the growing challenges when choosing an advertising agency for Twitter, and the top 5 to help make that easier.

While advertising your business yourself can feel like a hopeless chore on Twitter, it’s just as challenging choosing an agency to help you. Some of the problems you could run into are:

  • Strengths and weaknesses of each agency.
  • How much you’re willing to spend.
  • Deciding which advertising agency is right for your business.

Which Advertising Agency is Best for Twitter?

While many marketing agencies can feel the same, when you learn more about the details of their strategy, it’s noticeably different. For instance, many agencies will focus on trends and the changing attitudes throughout social media, while others could prioritize awareness in the blogging community.

While each agency will utilize both these strategies, it’s important to know which you prioritize to find an agency that will do the same.

When it comes to budgeting, advertising on Twitter is a great choice. Social media ads are the most cost-effective way to advertise. For instance, you could spend nearly 1000 dollars on a billboard that potentially could only be seen by less than 1000 people. But with social media, you could spend 3 dollars for an ad seen by 1000.

The most challenging part of picking an ad agency for your business is exactly that, choosing. There are so many options that specialize in social media and can meet your goals. So which one works for you? It’s entirely up to you and what goals you have.

To help simplify the process, I’ve made a list of the top 5 advertising agencies for Twitter, in order of best to last, to make it easier for you to decide:

I’ll explain their strengths so you can decide which one will best help you exceed your goals on Twitter. Advertising can be complicated; these agencies will take the stress away and help you spread your brand.

LYFE Marketing

In my research of the best advertising agencies to choose from, the one that stuck out the most is LYFE Marketing. LYFE focuses on an affordable but goal-driven advertising strategy that stands out from the other options.

They aim to boost the traffic to your site in an exponential way that makes your money worthwhile. They stuck out to me as an agency that you can count on, and while others can meet your goals, LYFE seems to exceed them.

One customer said, “ Anytime I had a question or problem, LYFE knew exactly how to solve it.” LYFE focuses on quality and precision.

They start by launching an advertising campaign. The strategy targets the exact audience that you need to spread your business, including your contacts, website audience, and demographics of the people you advertise too.

They also track throughout your advertising to know when and what to keep. LYFE identifies what is working and what isn’t to make sure they’re advertising the best way to meet your goals. Best of all, they’re low-risk.

Their contracts last three months, and if you aren’t pleased, you can cancel with a months’ notice. With all the benefits available, and the low-risk, this was the best advertising agency I found to spread your business through Twitter.

Taktical Digital

Coming in second through my research is Taktical Digital.  While LYFE specialized in all types of digital marketing, Taktical Digital has a focus on social media including Twitter, Google, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Taktical Digital found that Twitter’s large base is why it’s so appealing to social media marketers, including them. Their size alone makes it a prime spot to advertise across the country. Demographics are a big part of their advertising strategy.

They found that African- American and Hispanic users made up 14 percent of Twitter’s base, with over 37 percent of the total base between the ages of 18-29. Taktical Digital uses this data to ensure your advertising is reaching an age that is likely to be interested in your business on Twitter.

This is the type of work you get with Taktical Digital, a specialization of all things social media. According to a poll, “(63.5%) of respondents said Twitter produced the best ROI.” ROI is a return on investment. Taktical Digital knows this and makes social media marketing their primary goal.

They want to provide hard data to back up their success to each of their clients. When it comes to advertising on Twitter, they hold to their promise that the data is accurate, and improves to make sure your business is thriving and meeting its goals.

Thanks to their knowledge in social media advertising, they’ve simplified their strategy into three ways you can advertise on Twitter:

  • Promoted Tweets
  • Promoted Accounts
  • Promoted Trends

The tweets show up at the top; they’re the simplest way to spread to your target audience. The accounts are on the sidebar, and this spreads an entire profile rather than one tweeted product. The trends are when you utilize a hashtag to spread your brand.

And this is just a tiny example of the expertise you’ll get from Taktical Digital.

Thrive Agency

It’s hard to top what LYFE and Taktical Digital bring to the complicated medium of Twitter advertising, but Thrive makes a strong case for why they’re a great choice for your agency.

Thrive runs off a single monthly price, a price they don’t think you’ll regret. On their website, they state, “A shiny new website is worthless if it doesn’t help you reach your goals.” They understand that flashiness isn’t everything. You have goals in my mind, and that’s their priority.

This is why Thrive steals my #3 spot of the best agencies available. They don’t try to sell you on a flashy lie of what you’ll get from them. If you have a goal and revenue in mind, that’s what they’ll get you. Twitter’s ad revenue reaches upward of 600 million, and it’s on the rise. Thrive is a great choice, you want profit, and they do too.

They start with increasing your Twitter following to make sure you’re getting the eyes that you need. Their goal is to add followers by the hundreds across the world to make sure your business spreads on Twitter the way you want.

They’ll then focus on locating your ideal customer. They don’t want to spread to a few eyes across the world. They want to locate who is interested in your product and bull’s-eye that demographic to make sure you’re spreading your business.

 Viral In Nature

“Capturing the POWER of SOCIAL MEDIA for the benefit of our clients.” This is Viral in Nature’s mission statement. Located in Calgary, their goal is to spread your business through Twitter and social media sites across the globe.

The awards speak for themselves. They’ve won numerous awards for social media marketing from GoodFirms and Clutch awarding them the top digital marketing company.

This is why Viral in Nature made the list, simplicity. With all the other options you will get results much like this one, but not with the simplicity Viral in Nature can offer. They want to give results with as little or as much input you feel like giving.

They start with the usual. Identifying your specific goals and finding a strategy to meet those goals. Then content is the priority. For Twitter, they strategize the best way to advertise on the site to best spread your business.

One customer said, “They’re great at listening and executing what I ask them.” Although a simple review, I think it sums up perfectly what Viral in Nature is all about. They’ll listen to your requests and make sure you’re getting quality results.

The best results will come from their “Monitor & Engage” section of the partnership. They analyze what worked and what didn’t. They analyze this from 9 am – 9 pm, 7 days a week.  There is a sense of dedication that I felt like Viral in Nature deserved to make this list.

They seem to be a great option for advertising on Twitter, and their awards echo volumes what they bring to the table. For Twitter, a personal medium, Viral in Nature might just be the person you need for your business.

Socially in

While this wasn’t the best option I found available on the market; they were a close second due to their exceptionally creative team. If creativity is your #1 priority on Twitter, Socially it may be the best choice for you.

They’re staff consists of artists, designers, writers, and photographers; all lead by professional strategists guaranteeing you quality results. They focus on passion; your passion. The creative blend of their staff with your goal in mind makes it easy to answer if this is the right agency for you.

Socially in follows a motto; “Ideas + Execution = Connection.” And they stuck by this motto and managed to stretch across companies including Birmingham Business Journal, ADWEEK, and Chief Marketer. The downside is their lack of experience compared to the other companies.

What they shine on is passion, what they lack are clients and experience. This may not necessarily be a bad thing; you could get a more personal relationship with working with them. But it may not be the right choice for you.

However, if you’re looking for a smaller team of dedicated creative members, Socially in could be your agency. They may not have as many numbers to show, but they have a commitment; a commitment that might not be matched with the other choices.

Final Thoughts

By now you might feel how complicated it is to advertise on Twitter. The best results require professionals, and professionals require an agency.

Twitter is growing and growing, along with ad revenue. And agencies are capitalizing on this. If they succeed, you succeed. Their strategies are all unique and bring different expertise to the table.

This will be the most challenging choice for you, what do I go with? It’s important to remember the stress you have when deciding is nothing compared to advertising your business on Twitter by yourself. Advertising agencies make it their priority that you succeed stress-free.

They’ll find exactly what strategy will work you to ensure you’re getting your business out there to the over 260 million Twitter accounts.

Whether you want a guaranteed large group of professionals with LYFE Marketing, or a more personal approach with Socially I, there’s an agency out there to suit everyone’s needs.

Advertising is complicated and hard to achieve correctly. But the good news is the market knows this and benefits from it. Twitter’s popularity is only benefiting the number of choices you have for which agency you can choose from.

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The Biggest Mistakes Lawyers Make With Advertisements

Lawyers depend on advertisements to build an awareness of their legal services and attract new clients to their firm. While traditional methods are still in use, online marketing (via hiring the best Facebook Ads agency and the best Google Adwords marketing agency) are becoming the common trend for advertising.

If you’re considering to use advertisements for your law firm, here are some of the biggest mistakes lawyers make and what you can do to avoid them.

Unfocused Marketing Campaigns

You may have a large budget to spend on marketing your law firm, but if you don’t have a focal point you’ll be spending your money on nothing. You can create a generic “contact for a free consultation” marketing message and take anything that comes in the door.

Or, you can segment your marketing message and target the specific legal services you offer. Invest your time and money creating marketing messages related to the specific cases your law firm handles.

Once you concentrate your marketing efforts you can find the right prospects for your firm.

Poorly Written Content

The content you publish on your website is a representation of you and your law firm. The internet is filled with spammy websites and people know when they’re being sold to.

Your content should be informative, error-free, and relatable to the people you think will read it.

Also, to improve the effectiveness of your content, add logical and emotional reasons to hire you. People are searching for someone who can truly help them with their problems.

Use your content to tell people you understand what they are dealing with and that your legal services are here to help.

Asking For Too Much

Your advertising efforts may be effective and delivering high traffic to your website. However, you may find that no one is contacting you for more information or to start a consultation.

If you’re asking prospective clients too much information in your contact boxes, many prospects are likely to turn away. People are constantly concerned about their privacy and with the rise of identity theft, there is a hesitancy to sharing personal information online.

Nonetheless, lawyers require some information to begin evaluating their case and being able to respond to it. Only ask for as much as you need and after receiving their contact information you can begin to ask the questions needed to get their case started.

Complex Web Design

There’s nothing more frustrating for a visitor to a website than a complex and confusing web design. This is known as your bounce rate, which is the number of visitors that come to your website then leave right away.

When you’re putting your legal services online, consider your visitors. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What is the most useful information my visitors need?
  • Does my law firm web design have a clear call to action (i.e. call for a free consultation)?
  • Is my contact information easy to access or will a visitor have difficulty finding it?
  • Does my website invite visitors to join my social?
  • Would adding a pop-up lead capture improve my conversions from visitors to clients?

If you’re struggling to come up with an effective web design for your law firm, consider these best law firm websites from 2017.

Also, if you have analytics set up on your website (i.e. to monitor where visitors are coming from and where they are frequently visiting) find your best content and feature them in the sidebar of your content pages.

Spending Your Entire Marketing Budget

Whether you’re using Facebook Ads, Google Adwords or and Instagram advertising agency, you have complete control over the duration and style of your marketing campaign. If you spend your entire budget without testing different ideas, you may end up with a lower return than you hoped for.

Start by setting your budget low and creating a series of tests to see which messages make the most impact on your target audience. The analytics offered in Facebook Ads and your Google account can help you determine which campaign is effective and could use more of your marketing budget.

Incongruent Landing Pages

In the world of advertising, having a congruent message is crucial. You’re marketing message and your landing pages should live up to the promise you’re making.

Advertising something like, “Steps to take after getting in a car accident,” then sending them to a landing page with a promotion to your service may not deliver the best results.

The purpose of proving valuable content online is to establish yourself as an authority in law as well as trustworthy.

Use your landing pages to capture leads in exchange for content that people are looking for.

Not Focused On Converting Visitors

You can spend thousands of dollars on advertising to get traffic to your website. However, if your website is not developed to turn those visitors into clients, you’ll be wasting your marketing budget.

The purpose of any website, especially a lawyer’s website, is to convert visitors into clients. There are many ways to do this. You can send visitors clicking on your Facebook Ads to a landing page requesting their email in exchange for valuable content.

Or, perhaps the most effective method of converting traffic, is by adding live chat to your website. Having the ability to communicate with visitors while they are live on your site allows you to address any questions they may have and arrange a consultation immediately.

The alternative would be to hope they find your contact page and send you an inquiry.

Not Having A Unique Selling Point

Having a distinct call to action is an important feature for any lawyer’s website. In addition to that, your website should have a unique selling point which differentiates your legal services from others online.

What makes you different from other law firms? How can you help more than other law firms with the same legal services?

Having case studies and client referrals on your homepage are one way of showcasing your legal abilities to prospective clients. However, you should take a moment and ask yourself what can you offer that differentiates you from your competitors.

Now that you know some of the mistakes lawyers are making with their advertisements, you may want to review advertising regulations from the State Bar.

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Best YouTube Marketing Agencies 2019

YouTube advertising is one of the best mediums for companies and brands to reach millions or hundreds of millions of potential customers. It’s cheaper and more engaging than TV or radio advertising, and unlike traditional mediums, YouTube advertising works with the fastest-growing market segment of media consumption: mobile devices.

According to a recent study by Ipsos, viewers only pay attention to 45% of TV advertising, but they pay attention to 83% of YouTube mobile advertising. That’s nearly double the bang for your buck, and YouTube is cheaper for you, the advertiser than TV.

YouTube is one of the world’s largest search engines, second only to Google itself (Google Ads). YouTube has over a billion unique users, with a billion hours of video watched every day, and a hundred hours of videos uploaded every minute. That’s more users and view time than either Facebook videos or Netflix.

Unfortunately, other than the occasional self-made “YouTube celebrity,” very few regular people can figure out how to advertise or gain popularity on YouTube all by themselves.

If you already spend your time running a successful business or company and want to harness YouTube to increase your growth or improve your revenue, you need to consider outsourcing the task to experienced professionals.

Here’s what goes into running a successful YouTube campaign:

  • Devising a strategy based on objectives that make sense for your business
  • Creating high-quality content consistently
  • Staying engaged with subscribers and commenters
  • Search engine optimization of your channel and videos for the YouTube search engine
  • Measuring key performance indicators (KPI) to gauge the success of your efforts

Running a YouTube campaign can mean juggling a lot of different tasks to ensure you achieve the desired outcomes. That’s why going with an agency makes the most sense for an established business.

But with hundreds of different agencies all claiming to be the best, it can be difficult for anyone inexperienced with YouTube to choose the right agency to manage their digital marketing

I’ve created a list of the top YouTube advertising agencies in the world, so you can delegate your YouTube ad campaign to them and focus on running your business as it grows. This guide’s purpose is to give you precisely the right information you need to understand YouTube advertising, so you can run a highly effective campaign without wasting time or money.

What You Need to Know About YouTube Ad Agencies

Here’s what you need to know about how YouTube video advertising and digital marketing work, and what an agency can do for your business.

Defining Objectives and Discussing Strategy

Before you begin looking for a YouTube advertising agency, it pays to consider objectives for your business. When you do choose an agency, you’ll spend time together devising a strategy based on goals you’d like to achieve for your business.

You should also consider your objectives first because it will help you choose the right agency. Different agencies have different strengths. Here are some examples of objectives or goals that businesses can achieve through YouTube marketing:

  • Improve brand awareness by getting new subscribers
  • Boost site traffic
  • Increase user engagement
  • Launch a new product
  • Promote your existing videos
  • Boost brand awareness
  • Increase online sales or revenue

Getting clear on your objectives is the essential step in devising a strategy together with the agency you choose. A good digital marketing firm can help you come up with goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant, as well as determine a date by which to achieve them.

Budgeting and Keeping Costs Down

As a business owner or director of marketing, you possess the ability to define a budget for your YouTube advertising campaign. Because agencies vary in their budgetary requirements to work with companies, you must determine your total budget (per month, quarter, or annum) before you peruse agencies to hire.

Once you choose a company that matches your budget, you need to discuss with them whether your objectives are realistic while staying within your budget. An agency can help you revise your objectives or timeline, if necessary, based on your budget.

Some agencies also offer contracts that “lock in” rates and other billing conditions, such as outcomes based on key performance indicators (KPIs), over a set period of time.

Channel Activity vs. TrueView vs. Bumper Ads

YouTube offers advertisers three main avenues for promoting their brand. Channel activity refers to the traditional strategy of creating a channel, posting videos, and gaining a following.

TrueView ads play before videos or are displayed within search results, and allow users to choose whether to watch or skip. Bumper ads are six-second ads that play before other videos and cannot be skipped.

Starting and maintaining a YouTube channel is the old-school YouTube strategy for reaching customers and followers, and it still works. Unlike the other options, though, making your channel popular takes time.

A TrueView campaign is a quicker way to get results from YouTube. TrueView bills based on cost-per-view (CPV), so if a user skips or doesn’t click your ad, you don’t get billed within the TrueView model.

YouTube bills advertisers for the shorter six-second bumper ads by CPM (cost per thousand impressions). It’s best to use bumper ads as an add-on option to boost the reach of your primary campaign tactics.

You don’t need to choose just one tactic for YouTube promotion. A professional agency can help you decide how to combine tactics and how best to allocate your budget and other resources.

Channel and Video SEO

YouTube assesses several critical factors to assign your channel and videos search result rankings. A digital advertising agency will help you determine, measure, analyze, and revise these variables to promote your YouTube content.

Keywords are topics people search for; by including keywords relevant to your target audience in all video titles and descriptions, you can achieve a massive uptick in YouTube traffic. Tags are similar to keywords but are visible to users.

YouTube allows users to explore channels based on tags, so you should use tags that other channels similar to your use, including competitors’ channels.

The concept of “quality” is ambiguous but important in YouTube optimization and other SEO endeavors. Google and YouTube determine the quality of your YouTube channel and videos by likes, shares, time users spend watching, favorites, subscribers, and other metrics. Branding, consistency, and user engagement are the best ways to boost the quality of your channel and videos.

Off-site SEO is an important but often-overlooked aspect of successful YouTube campaigns. An agency can help you with off-site SEO, Instagram advertising or using AdWords to drive traffic to your YouTube channel.

Staying Engaged

User engagement is a great way you or your agency of choice can increase the visibility of your YouTube videos. Here are the most important steps to maintain a high level of user engagement:

  • Moderate comments and decide what to publish, and when
  • Respond to negative comments
  • Ensure replies showcase the tone, level of expertise, and branding you want to associate with your company
  • Subscribe to notifications about your brand name on YouTube to keep track of mentions

Achieving the right kind of engagement boosts your visibility and credibility, which translates to loyal subscribers who have a relationship with your brand.

Top FIVE YouTube Advertising Agencies

Now that you the ins and outs of YouTube advertising, you will be in a better position to choose an agency to coordinate your next advertising campaign. After looking at hundreds of websites and thousands of reviews, I’ve written this section to save you hours of combing through agencies.

#1 DMA Digital Marketing Agency

Our top pick for best YouTube advertising agency is DMA Digital Marketing Agency. Founded in 2002 in Chicago, this legendary agency has behemoth clients like Jet.com, TripAdvisor.com, Williams Sonoma, and Avvo.com. If you’re a more prominent firm looking for a high-value agency to take care of your YouTube needs, you can’t go wrong with DMA.

They are known for stellar YouTube marketing results, and they also offer traditional SEO, PPC management, social media marketing, and reputation management.

Pamela D. promoted her new website through Digital Marketing Agency’s YouTube campaign services. The campaign had a measurable positive impact on her sales, reported to her by DMA, and increased their team’s confidence to push themselves. Pamela says her team is revitalized and “no longer stuck in the 1990s.”

Digital Marketing Agency has the perfect blend of tailored solutions and strategy, best practices and innovations, and transparent communication with clients. All of that translates to a high return on investment (ROI) and return on ad spend (RoAS).

#2 Sparx IT Solutions

Sparx IT Solutions is a leading marketing firm based in India. Their objective is to provide the best possible services and improve your overall growth while keeping the lowest prices in a cut-throat market.

In addition to YouTube advertising, they also assist clients with branding and identity services, web and UI design, web development, mobile app development, e-commerce portals, and online marketing.

As a business owner Tiffany R. says she’s smart enough to know when to delegate, but she was having trouble deciding to whom to delegate a task outside her comfort zone: video marketing and promotion. She chose Sparx IT Solutions to help catapult her brand, Pilates Mastery, and she is a satisfied customer – she says it’s a “total no-brainer” to collaborate with Sparx.

Unlike most American, UK, and European agencies, Sparx IT Solutions runs promotions with discount coupons regularly. Check their site around holidays and other special dates for significant discounts.

#3 Passion Digital

Passion Digital is a London-based firm founded in 2012 that was selected as a UK Agency 2018 award finalist. As a full-service digital marketing agency, Passion has a strong focus on YouTube and video advertising.

Their other services include conversion, pay per click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, social media marketing (SMM), and web design and development, and influencer marketing.

After working with Passion, Ayla V. says they are “the best digital company to trust my business with.” Alya shares that Passion Digital helped her obtain immediate, positive, and lasting results on various digital platforms thanks to their thoughtful and systematic planning and execution.

Passion Digital’s focus is on talent and relationships. They hire, retain, and nurture some of the most talented and creative minds in the digital marketing space while cultivating relationships with ambitious clients to deliver business-changing results.

#4 Factor One

Factor One is a digital marketing agency located in Calgary Alberta. Their focus is on paid search marketing on the Google platform including, YouTube, Adwords, Remarketing, Mobile, and Display. Factor one is a certified Google Partner agency.

Factor One specializes in offering online marketing solutions to businesses in need of more leads and sales. Their marketing professionals embed on the teams of client companies, working as an outsourced team member. Factor One is trained and certified as a Google Partner and stays on top of industry trends and new beta-testing opportunities.

If you have a retail business, this agency can grow your customer base by invigorating your online presence, driving web sales and increasing in-store sales. They also offer service-based clients more leads, and conversion tracking. Factor One analyzes web traffic, measures Return on Ad Spend (RoAS), and defines and targets the best audience to up the number of actions taken on website visits or phone calls.

Factor One are experts in video advertising, paid search traffic, search engine optimization, website development, and online review management

#5 Vireo Video

Vireo Video is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based full-service video marketing firm. Staffed by YouTube Certified Experts, Vireo assists their clients with social media marketing and video advertising on Google display networks (including YouTube), as well as Facebook.

Vireo strategizes together with clients for long-term success, then runs an initial pilot campaign before shifting to campaign maintenance which includes A/B ad testing, overhauls of copy and targeting, and utilization of new strategies and tools as YouTube releases them.

Lucas R., CEO of Macinhome consulting, says it was his absolute pleasure to hire Vireo. According to Lucas, with help from Vireo, he “had an unprecedented 500% growth in followers on our YouTube page! They also produced four short social media style videos that [his] audience loved and engaged with.” He recommends Vireo “to all types of businesses.”

If you need help devising and implementing an extensive long-term video advertising campaign on YouTube, Vireo is a perfect choice for that type of work. If you aren’t quite ready to dive in fully, Vireo also offers consultations and educational resources to help you figure out things like what video equipment to purchase, and what to say on camera.

Wrapping Up

With a third of internet users watching YouTube regularly, advertisers are flocking to the platform as a better choice than traditional media like TV or radio. Once you decide to move forward with YouTube advertising, the next thing to do is choose an agency so you can delegate the creation and management of YouTube videos or ads to a trustworthy professional.

As you choose between agencies, remember to consider the most important factors: your budget, your objectives, and whether an agency can devise a strategy that meets your goals while staying within your budget.

If you are a large and successful company with a generous budget, looking for an agency that will deliver high-value results, DMA Digital Marketing agency is your best bet.

If you are up-and-coming or run a small business with limited funds, you should consider Sparx IT Solutions. Sparx is based in India and runs regular discounts; they are the most budget-friendly choice among top YouTube agencies, but they deliver extraordinary results.

Advertising Guides

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Best Snapchat Advertising Agencies
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Best Live Chat For Lawyer Websites

Choosing the best live chat for your law firm’s website may come down to pricing, support, and functionality. Before reviewing a few live chats you can use for your website, let’s look at a few key features to help in your decision making.

The first thing to understand is what you can do with live:

  • Pre-chat Message: provide a pop-up to a visitor to prompt them toward clicking the button and starting the live chat session.
  • Pre-chat script: provide a series of questions the visitor must answer before the live chat session begins.
  • Proactive Live Chat: offering a live chat session to a visitor upon arrival.
  • Reactive Chat: waiting for a visitor to initiate the live chat button.
  • Unavailable Chat: when live agents are not available, an optional form is sent to the visitor to provide their email.

Next, in the marketing world, turning a website visitor into a paying customer (or client) is known as a conversion. Live chats are a great tool to increase conversions if you know how to use them.

Quick Tips for Live Chat

Take into consideration the following when choosing and setting up a live chat solution on your law firmès website:

  1. Who Will Be Responding to Chat Requests? Will you be handling the chat notifications or an assistant? There is also the option of hiring a virtual receptionist and outsourcing. Are you aware of the ethical implications to answer legal related questions?
  2. How Are Chats Being Answered? If you understand the ABA’s ethics rules for lawyers, you’ll know what kind of information you can or cannot collect during a live chat. If you have chosen a live chat with outsourced assistance, will they be given a script? Are they proficient in English? How should they handle sensitive information?
  3. What Are Your Costs? There are many live chat solutions available and prices range from completely free to high hourly rates for active chat agents. You may also find the option to pay per lead or to pay per chat.

Now that you have an idea what to look for in a live chat software for your website, let’s look at a few options.

Live Chat for Lawyer Websites

Client Chat Live

Overview: Client Chat Live offers live chat solutions for small business, medical practices, and legal practices.

Installation: Their installation team provides you with the HTML to include on your website and simple steps to get started.

Features:

  • Proactive Pop-ups: invites visitors to start using the chat messenger
  • Branded chat boxes
  • Monthly chat reports (include all chats, summary of visitor details, and analytics)
  • Custom scripts for their operators
  • Live phone transfer
  • CRM Integration
  • 24/7 operator availability

Languages: Available in English and Spanish  

Pricing: Contact the company for a free quote. 

Legal Chat 24/7

Overview: Legal 24/7 is a live chat provider dedicated exclusively to lawyers. They offer a team of trained operators capable of using legal language. They can also assist in designing custom chat scripts that suit your law firm’s style.

Installation:  N/A

Features:

  • Legal training operators with focus on conversion
  • Live phone call transfer
  • Live chat 24/7/365
  • Branded chat boxes
  • Analytics
  • CRM integration
  • Lead notification (email, phone call, etc.)

Languages: Available in English and Spanish

Pricing: Pay per lead. Contact the company for more details.

Apex Chat

Overview: Apex Chat offers both live chat software and professional agents 24/7/365. They have agents specialized in personal injury, criminal defense, bankruptcy, family law, immigration, estate planning, and other legal areas. Apex Chat is a leading provider of live chat solutions for lawyers.

Installation: N/A

Features:

  • Multiple chat agents available 24/7
  • Live phone call transfer
  • Practice area trained operators
  • Pre-defined scripts
  • Customizable messenger (for branding)
  • CRM Integration
  • Geo-mapping and routing
  • Detailed reporting

Language: Available in English and Spanish

Pricing: Pay per lead, with the ability to cap billing. For more information, contact their sales team.

The following live chat providers are not specific for legal services.

Chat.io

Overview: Chat.io offers a highly functional live chat messenger for your website. You’ll see a simple chat messenger in the bottom right corner of your website with the option to add the chat agent’s image and personalized message. They also offer 14-day free trial.

Installation: After you sign up for your account, you’ll receive an HTML code to place on your attorney website. They offer easy-to-understand instructions for this task.

Features:

  • Create canned messages
  • Check chat status
  • Share files
  • Create smart or manual chat (for offline)
  • Use on multiple websites and integrate into Facebook
  • Receive chat ratings
  • Access to agent profiles and transparency
  • Only $10 per teammate/month

Please note, this chat service only offers access to their live chat software. If you need agents, you may have to outsource.

Other live chat software similar to Chat.io include:

These live chat services offer manual live chat solutions. If you don’t have the staff to manage your live chats, you can outsource and provide scripts or set up an autoresponder requesting contact information.

Overall, the benefits of using non-legal focused live chats would be their affordability. However, the inability to hire staff available 24/7 can lead to missed leads and prospective clients.

In contrast, the live chat services devoted to the legal industry include operators who can speak both Spanish and English. In addition, with pricing being pay-per-lead from talented operators focused on conversions, you’ll get exactly what you pay for.

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8 Steps To Creating A Law Firm Blog That People Want to Read

Thinking of starting a blog on your law firm’s website? That’s great. Not sure where to start? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’re going to share eight easy steps to creating a useful and popular blog. Let’s go!

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Don’t Speak in Legalese

dont-speak-legaliseImage Courtesy of CT Employment Law Blog

Depositions, adjudications, affidavits, oh my! Unless fellow lawyers are your intended audience, tone down the law speak. Your clients will quickly feel overwhelmed by legal terms that they don’t understand.

Here’s the caveat: you should use it as a relevant keyword initially– somewhere in the first couple of paragraphs in your blog post. Then, define the keyword and break it down so that your audience understands what it means.

Here’s an example:

A prospective client arrives on your blog after searching for the term “expungement dallas, tx.” This person has a fuzzy idea of what expungement means. They only happened upon the term when asking around about removing a youthful indiscretion from their permanent criminal record. Your site needs to educate them on the bare basics of expungement and then provide relevant insight you’d like to include, based on what a prospective client will understand.

Always keep your intended audience in mind.

Click To Tweet

Always keep your intended audience in mind. Adjust your conversation accordingly.

Focus on Only a Few Topics

focus-on-onlyfew-tipsImage Courtesy of California Labor and Employment Law

You may be multi-passionate, but you might excel at one specific area of law. This is where you probably focus your practice and where you should also focus your blog.

Instead of trying to be all things to all people, zoom in on the one topic (or handful of topics) that your audience wants to know more about.

How do you determine the best topics to tackle in your law blog?

Consider what your clients or colleagues (depending on your audience) ask you about the most. There has to be recurring questions that you get asked frequently: that’s the place to start. As you fill up your blog with content, people will ask you more questions. Of course, that can also inspire new posts.

The bottom line: start by the answering the questions people ask you most, no matter how basic.

Add Images

add-imagesImage courtesy of China Law Blog

No one wants to look at a wall of text, no matter how engaging. You’ve got to break it up with imagery to keep your audience’s attention. Imagery also helps illustrate ideas and convey your tone– whether it’s funny, pensive, or artsy.

I have a secret source of free images– actually, it’s not secret at all, and of course it’s legal. There are hundreds of amazing stock libraries available with 100% free images to spruce up your site.

All you have to do is visit one of the sites below, save the image you like, and then upload it into the body of your post when you’re ready to add it.

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t add this note: check copyright usage. Most of the images in these stock libraries are under the Creative Commons license, which allows you to use the images for free. Some photographers or websites require a link back (attribution). The usage requirements are always listed, but are subject to change.

So, here are my favorite stock libraries:

  1. Foter
  2. Gratisography
  3. Pixabay
  4. Magdeleine
  5. Unsplash

And if you’re looking for something a little more local, a little more personal, check out Flickr as well. It’s a little murkier when it comes to licensing, but here’s a guide to finding free blog post images for your firm.

Make it More Readable

make-it-more-readableImage Courtesy of Richard Harris Law

Images aren’t the only way to add visual interest to your blog. There’s yet another way to increase the readability of your blog: white space. Instead of lengthy, five-to-seven-sentence paragraphs, chop it up into bite-sized nuggets.

Now, I know this goes against everything you learned in grammar class, but remember this: you’re not writing a dissertation, you’re writing a blog post. Unlike your college professor, website visitors don’t have any incentive to read your entire blog post. If it looks long and tedious, it’s going to get passed up.

Take a look at how I’ve structured this blog, for an example. You may notice that there are no large clumps of text. Most paragraphs are three or four sentences long, but I may throw in a one sentence “paragraph” for emphasis and variety.

Like so.

Breaking up your text in this way makes it easier for visitors to read your content.

Post Frequently

post-frequentlyImage Courtesy of Ohio Employer’s Law Blog

There’s nothing worse than coming to a blog, loving it, and then realizing it hasn’t been updated since 2009. Helloooo… Where did you go? It’s lonely in here.

You don’t want your visitors to feel that way.

Your visitors rely on you to keep your blog current and relevant to their needs. Once you start a blog, commit to regular posting, even if you don’t have many (or any) visitors at first. If you post regularly and follow the other steps in this guide, they will come.

Plus, a regular posting schedule will entice visitors to subscribe to your blog, and return often.

Choose Clever Titles

choose-clever-titlesImage Courtesy of Lowering the Bar

Before people actually read your post, they’re going to read your title. Does it draw them in?

Your title doesn’t need to be packed with keywords to grab attention. Funny phrases, interesting questions, and controversial statements can all engage the reader. Here are a few considerations for a great title:

  • Create a list post (i.e. 10 Reasons Why, 7 Things to Consider…)
  • Create a how-to post (i.e. How to Hire a…, How to Find…)
  • Add a benefit to your post (i.e. Here’s What You Need to Know About X…)
  • Keep it simple but catchy. The reader should be know what the topic is about before clicking.
  • Keep it short. Nothing longer than 60 characters, or under 10 words.

Create Categories

create-categoriesImage Courtesy of Cruise Law News

People come onto your law blog for very specific reasons. Let’s say you have a family law practice. Some visitors may want to learn about adoption, and others about child support. You specialize in both.

To accommodate visitors, create categories that make it easy for them to isolate posts of one topic. They should be able to find more of what they’re looking for by clicking on the category section and selecting a topic.

When you’re creating your blog posts, make sure that you’ve created and then selected specific categories.

Consider creating at least three categories for your blog. If you’re stuck, I’d start out with: advice, opinions, and news.

Be a Source of News

be-a-source-of-newsImage Courtesy of Overlawyered

As a lawyer, it’s your job to stay up-to-date on the most relevant news stories. If you work as an immigration attorney, you’ll probably have an opinion on the current political discourse about refugees.

Bring it on. That’s what a blog is for– it’s a place to add your commentary and unique perspective to the conversation.

Don’t be afraid to insert your take on hot topics.

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Why You Need An Email List For Your Law Firm & 7 Easy Strategies To Create One

Law firm website? Check!

Social media profiles? Check!

Email list? Huh?

Maybe you’ve heard of email lists but you don’t know where to start. Maybe you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about it, but it sounds like something you should know.

Wherever you are on the spectrum, this post will help. We’ll discuss everything you need to get started on building an email list for your law firm along with why you should build an email list to begin with.

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What’s an Email List?

An email list is a collection of people who’ve given you their email addresses so that they can stay in touch with your law firm.

Why Do You Need an Email List?

why-do-you-need-an-email-list

An email list is the most valuable marketing resource you have. Your email list represents people who want to have a relationship with your law firm – subscribers. These subscribers want to know what you have to say about hot topics and enjoy reading your advice.

Let’s take a look at the main benefits of creating an email list:

Top of mind awareness

An email list keeps your law firm at the top of subscribers’ minds. They may not need your legal services now or even six months from now. However, when the need arises, you’ll be the first (or only) law firm your subscriber will think of.

You own the list

You may be thinking, Isn’t my social media platform good enough? I already have a ton of fans and followers on social media.

Although a social media presence is important, it’s inferior to creating an email list. The main reason is that you don’t own that list of fans and followers. If Facebook or Twitter decides to delete your account tomorrow, everyone who follows you will go bye-bye, whether that’s 10 people or 10,000.

When you own an email list, you won’t ever have to worry about losing your subscribers.

Promote your services

Did you know that email is one of the best ways to market your law firm? That’s because your list contains people who actually want to be on it. It’s not just random people who stumbled onto your website via an ad or review site.

The people on your email list are highly interested in the services that you provide. It stands to reason that the people who took their time to sign up for your email newsletters actually want to hear from you.

In your email, discuss what you offer. Highlight key services. Describe these services in plain English.

You may think, why do I need an email list now? My site is brand new and I don’t have a lot of traffic.

If you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to set up an email list.

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Now is the perfect time to set up an email list. You want to have a method in place to catch any and every visitor who arrives on your site and wants to subscribe.

Think about people who visit your site and then leave. They’ll never return– not because they don’t want to, but because they’ve forgotten. They may love your site and want to receive more content from you, but you don’t have a way to ask for their email address.

So, now that you know why you need an email list, let’s talk about how to create a successful one.

Email Newsletter Best Practices

1. Choose your subject line carefully

The success of your email newsletter rests solely on your subject line. Choose a subject line that makes your subscribers want to click on it.

Get them interested

Why should the subscriber open this email? How will it benefit them? Using a subject like “Granger & Associates Newsletter: June 2016” won’t move the needle, I assure you. However, a subject like, “Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About PreNups” is interesting and makes your subscribers think, hmm… what don’t I know about prenups?

It’s all about getting your subscriber to actually open your email.

Keep it short

The ideal length for an email subject line is between 50 to 70 characters. Many email service providers cut off the subject line after 70 characters. This is approximately eight words. Eight words seems short, but there’s a lot you can do in that space when you’re creative.

Avoid certain words

Creativity in word choice is a must, but you’ll want to steer clear of certain overused or spammy words and phrases. These words make your email look like spam to humans, and can also trip an email service’s spam filters. If that happens, your email won’t even make it to the inbox.

avoid-certain-words

Here’s a partial list of words you should avoid in your subject line:

Free

Donate

% Off

$$$

Cheap

W o r d s  w i t h  g a p s

Help

Amanda MacArthur at Mequoda has a list of the most offensive spam trigger words.

2. Choose your sender email address and name carefully, too

Chose a sender name that reminds the subscriber who you are. You may choose to use the name of your law firm (P&R Law), your own name (Debra Smarts, esq.), or a combination of the two (Debra Smarts from P&R Law). I’m partial to the third option because it provides maximum identification.

You should also choose an email address that sounds welcoming. Instead of using a donotreply@your-email.com as your email address, choose something like holly@your-email.com.

3. Don’t get too wordy

dont-get-too-wordy

We’ve already discussed keeping it short on your subject line. You should also adopt this mentality in the body of your email.

Attention spans are short in inboxes. Your subscribers don’t want to spend 30 minutes reading your newsletter, and they won’t.

Instead of creating a lengthy email newsletter, provide short and easy-to-consume content. Direct them out of the inbox and onto your blog or website to get the full scoop. Email is a quick burst of information, but it shouldn’t attempt to tell the whole story.

4. Include a call to action for each email

Piggybacking off of the above practice, use a strong call to action in your emails to bring people back to your website. At the end of each section of your newsletter, include a button or a link that tells your subscriber what to do next, i.e. “Read the rest on my blog…” or “Sign up for my upcoming class here.”

5. Segment

Have you ever heard of segmenting? Segmenting is the process of taking one email list and grouping subscribers based on demographics or other criteria. For example, you can group everyone who signed up from your blog post about adoption law into one segment and everyone who signed up from your blog post about divorce law onto another segment.

What’s the value of segmenting? In the example above, you can see how a family hoping to learn more about adoption won’t necessarily be interested in advice to divorcees.

By segmenting, you can create specific newsletters for each group. Your subscribers win because they’ll get relevant content they can actually use.

6. Come Up with an Interesting Topic

come-up-with-an-interesting-topic

There are so many great ideas that you can use to create content for your email newsletter. Here are some of my favorites:

  • Answer frequently asked questions
  • Highlight success stories (with your client’s permission, of course)
  • Discuss hot topics/current news
  • Tease your most recent blog post
  • Ask for feedback and reviews
  • Share company news
  • Highlight a member of your staff
  • Share the details of upcoming events (webinars, clinics, meet and greets)
  • Write a newsletter about past events you’ve hosted (charity drives, classes, etc)

Set up an editorial calendar on a spreadsheet and list all the ideas you have for your newsletters. Choose a frequency (once a week, bi-weekly, or once a month). Then, come up with an idea for each newsletter. By working in batches, it’s easier to brainstorm ideas.

7. Remember Your Audience

Who are your subscribers? Speak directly to them. Tone down any legalese because they won’t understand all the fancy lawyer-speak (unless they are lawyers also).

Along these same lines, choose subjects that matter to your subscribers. They may not care to know the finer details of the law. They simply want to know how a law will affect them.

Final Thoughts

Remember that an email list is a crucial part of your ongoing marketing efforts. It’s never too soon to start capturing email addresses from your site’s visitors.

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Fresh coffee in hand, ready to start marketing your firm.

Real Digital Marketing Tactics For Solo Attorneys

Starting your own firm is hard work. You don’t have the same resources that big firms have to market yourself. But luckily, what you lack in budget you gain in scrappiness. You can move quicker and with less oversight. You can ditch the BigLaw stuffiness and appeal directly to the clients you want to help.

Here’s our promise. We will deliver an actionable plan every week that can be implemented in less than 30 minutes a day, that, applied consistently, will provide you with an audience of prospective clients that lets you focus on the law instead of glad-handing at every networking event that rolls through town.

Remember, consistency is key if you want to build up that consistent stream of clients. Consider us your coach. We’ll give you a plan, every week.

Want to get early access to these tactics? Sign up for the email list and we’ll deliver them right to your inbox, every Monday morning. If not, check back on Fridays for that week’s plan.

Photo Credit: 55Laney69 used under CC
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How to Find Qualified Clients

Whether you have a small or medium-size law firm, one need remains the same: clients. But not just any warm body will do. You need to find clients who are qualified and have a need for your services. That’s a tall order, but one that we’ll fill by the end of this post.

Stick around to find out how you can use the magic of the Internet to find qualified clients for your legal practice. Let’s discuss!

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Identify Your Ideal Client

The best way to start is by identifying your ideal client. To aid in this, I’ve provided a list of questions to help:

Who are they? Include basic demographics such as age, gender, location, and income.

What do they need from you? How likely are they to reach out to you?

Why do they need your service? If you offer more than one service, consider creating a client persona for each.

Where do they live online? Are they mostly on Facebook, Google (everyone’s on Google), Instagram, LinkedIn, Yelp, Avvo Law, or Pinterest? If you’d like to know which platform you’d be more likely to find clients, check out this post on Choosing the Best Social Media Platform for your Law Firm.

When do they research lawyers? Does your target client wait until the last minute? When they do reach out, what time do you get the majority of your calls? Is it 10 AM? 3 PM? This can indicate a lot about your average client.

Create a Website

Now that you’ve compiled a client persona, it’s time to create a marketing strategy to welcome those clients in.

When trying to find and nurture clients, always start with a website.

Remember, it’s not the 90s anymore. Folks use the Internet (not the Yellow Pages) to find everything from appliances to Zumba. As an attorney, you’ve got to make sure that your services are represented online, too. The way to do that is with a website.

A website is like an “always on” salesperson. Your website works for you even at midnight and on holidays. If you plan it right, your website can provide just as much information as your front office staff (but don’t tell them I said that).

On your website, be sure to create a blog that people actually want to read. Blogs are a powerful tool that can help you educate your site visitors and establish yourself as the knowledgeable pro that you are.

Use Paid Advertising

We’ve discussed how to use paid advertising before, so I won’t rehash it here. Check out how to use paid advertising to dominate the local search listings. Be sure to click on that link because there we discuss what SEO and search advertising really means for your law firm. I also give you the exact formula for how to get on a first-page listing on Google’s search results.

Create a Call-Only Ad Campaign

Have you ever searched on the Internet with your smartphone? Chances are, you’ve seen a little call button to the right side of the top few listings. That’s little button is going to transform your online marketing campaign, and here’s how:

People who search for lawyers with their smartphones are motivated to go beyond “research mode” and into results mode. They want to speak to a live person. Instead of directing them to a webpage, you should offer a call button for quick access.

People who search for lawyers with their smartphones go beyond research mode and into results mode.

Click To Tweet

This is known as a call-only ad campaign.

It costs the same as a regular headline click, but you’ll have a much more engaged prospective client who wants to act now.

In the order of things:

website < phone call < consultation < representation

add-phone-number

Here’s how to create a call-only ad campaign with Google.

By the way, don’t forget about Bing. While Google is the undisputed giant in Internet search, Bing does have 20% of the market share. You can follow these same steps on Bing to find qualified clients there, too. And it may even be cheaper.

Provide Enhanced User Experience

Did you know that a bad first impression of your website can lower your chances of getting clients? It’s true that you can lose site visitors just by a slow website– and by slow, I mean a site that takes three seconds or longer to load.

Three seconds.

No one wants to wait for answers. You’ve got to make sure that your website is fast load and provides all of the answers your prospective clients need immediately.

Even worse than a slow-loading website is one that’s completely disorganized and hard to navigate. If your site visitors have to click a lot of links trying to find the answers they’re looking for, they’re going to give up and hit the back button.

Here’s how to prevent a disorganized website:

Get clear about what information you’d like to share on your website. Here’s a good idea of where to start:

On your Homepage: Discuss what services you offer and who would benefit most from them. Keep it short, simple, and clean.

On your About page: Discuss who you are but keep it client-focused. Craft your About page to help the prospect understand why they should choose you. It’s good to underscore the kind of cases and clients you often work with in this page.

On your Services page: Be very clear about what services you offer and then break it down even further. Remember, your prospective client probably doesn’t know much about law, they just know that they need a lawyer. Use language they would understand. Oftentimes, a layman doesn’t know exactly what something’s called. Here’s your chance to educate and empower them to figure out what service they need from you.

You may also find it helpful to create a separate page for each service that you offer.

Prepare a Thorough FAQ Page: A lot of folks head straight for the frequently asked questions page, if you have one, to decide whether they need your services. This is yet another golden opportunity to answer common questions that you’d normally discuss over the phone. It’ll free up your phone lines for more specific questions, and provide a valuable resource to online prospective customers who are searching for answers.

faq

Image Courtesy of Thurman Law

Follow Up Immediately on the Phone

There are times when you’re just not available. For example, maybe the caller left a message after hours. Perhaps you’re on another line. Whatever the case, don’t let that prospect fade– be sure to follow up immediately whenever possible.

Here’s the thing to keep in mind: a prospective client who doesn’t reach you will oftentimes go to the next attorney on the list. Boo. But, that doesn’t automatically mean you’re out. By calling that person back in a reasonable timeframe (by the end of the business day), you may be able to persuade them to choose you – especially if you’re presenting yourself as friendly and helpful.

Unlike emails and voicemails, phone calls are great for gauging interest.

Push the In-Office Consultation

Of course, you don’t want to give away everything in a phone call. It’s so crucial to get the caller into an in-office consultation. This is where you’ll be able to separate those who just want free legal advice from actual paying clients.

Should you offer free or paid consultations?

There’s compelling opinions on both sides. The benefit of offering:

A free consultation – You’ll definitely set more appointments because everyone loves “free”. You’ll also separate yourself from your competitors because they’re more likely to charge for consultations.

A paid consultation – You’ll get more motivated prospects. People who are willing to pay an initial consultation fee are more likely to sign a representation agreement.

A happy medium? Consider charging a consultation fee but then crediting it back to their account if they choose to retain your services.

You can also explain your process over the phone and on your website to help drive the in-office consultation.

Polish Your Profiles

By now, you know how important it is to have a website, but that’s not the only way to represent your law firm online. You also need to expand to social media networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

We’ve actually covered this in-depth here: Choosing the Best Social Media Platform for Your Brand. If you need help figuring out which platform to use, be sure to check out that post.

Being on a social platforms helps you extend the reach of your online marketing. You can start amassing followers and then updating them through your social platforms. While they may not always come to your website, they can always be connected to you through your social media updates.

Also make sure you’re fully utilizing online review sites such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Avvo. We’ve also gone in depth on those topics here: Pick Me! Your Beginner’s Guide on How to Attract Local Clients Via the Internet.

Prospective clients may head to these review sites first before even starting a Google search. What will they find once they get there?

Negative reviews are one thing; negative reviews without a follow up from you are a death sentence. Don’t make that mistake. Follow up on all reviews, trying to resolve those that you can, but acknowledging everyone else with a heartfelt thanks for their feedback. No sarcasm, please. Remember– you’ve got an audience.

Final Thoughts

Remember how we discussed that a website is fundamental to finding qualified clients? We can help with that. Let’s talk about building you a site that you can be proud of.

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by Branding, Local Search, Marketing, Websites Leave a comment
crumpled up law blog

Solo Lawyers Can’t Afford To Be Law Bloggers

You are not a law blogger. Go ahead, say it out loud if you’re not at a coffee shop where people would look at you weird. It’s that important.

So much of the advice bandied about on the internet regarding how attorneys should blog, is for lack of a more-perfect term, crap. It simply doesn’t apply to you as a solo or small-firm attorney. Here’s why.

Law Bloggers use their blog to increase their status and credibility among other lawyers.

When you’re just starting out, this seems like the easy, logical place to start.

After all, you know the law, you can provide deep commentary on the law that other lawyers would appreciate, and that Small Firm Inferiority Complex is a powerful beast that is always thinking of ways to justify to your big-firm brethren that just because you’re small, it doesn’t mean you’re not an expert.

Here’s the thing though. Your clients don’t care. If they were interested in learning the nuances of law, and could understand that deep analysis, they wouldn’t need your help.

They want to know how the nuances of law affect their daily life. How do they solve that one nagging problem that they’ve ended up at your site trying to solve? And can you explain that problem, that pain, to them better than they could explain that pain to themselves. That’s how you win a client’s trust. Not, by being the most vocal fish in a small pond of blogging lawyers, but by doing the legwork to convey true understanding of your clients’ day-to-day problems.

Now, I won’t deny that there’s certainly value in convincing other lawyers that you’re worth a referral, and sometimes it’s valuable to provide a unique insight and circulate it among your peers. But make no mistake about it, writing for lawyers should be considered a rare guilty pleasure, not the focus of your firm’s marketing plan.

Law Bloggers consider their blog to be a separate entity from their firm.

Law bloggers often see their blog as an extension of their personal brand; a sort of hedge against becoming too synonymous with their parent firm lest they decide one day that they want to move on. That’s a great strategy, and I’d recommend that strategy to any associate (or partner) at a big firm.

But you’ve already taken that leap. There’s nothing left to hedge against. Your blog is the marketing arm of your firm, and they should be so intertwined as to be indistinguishable to any potential clients (and Google). Worrying about driving visitors from your blog to your firm website is a fool’s errand. Your blog is your firm website.

What’s more, if you were to separate your firm website from your blog, you’re effectively making sure that none of the SEO value generated by all of that effort is transferred to your firm. Having them both under the same domain is critical to ensuring that your firm and its blog rank well in Google.

Blog posts don’t pay the bills, clients do.

Your blog isn’t about you. It’s about your clients. Everything you do needs to be geared toward their needs, their desires, their pains. Every marketing activity you spend time on need to be focused on one of two things. One, getting more prospective clients to your site. And two, convincing them that you’re so deeply in tune with their problems that they absolutely can’t afford to not contact you for your expertise.

In short, you need to focus on blogging to get business, not being in the business of blogging.

To that end I would strongly recommend looking outside the law industry and into small business marketing for your marketing advice, as your small-firm’s marketing is much more closely related to that of a pool salesman* than a law blogger.

* Marcus comes off a little “marketing-guru” at the beginning, but trust me, you’ll love him by the end. One of the more genuine applications of business blogging I’ve ever seen and a simple framework you can always fall back on when you’re searching for what to write about, or even why you’re bothering at all.

 

Photo Credit: HPUPhotogStudent used under CC
by Marketing 1 Comment