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.
