Digital Marketing for Law Firms is the book that lawyers in every practice area need in today's internet-fueled economy. It’s a simple truth: people find their lawyers online, and you can’t stay in business without clients.
Digital marketing is now the leading source of potential clients for law firms. Lawyers with excellent track records and exceptional professional credentials are losing big cases to new lawyers who better understand digital marketing. Firms that understood the potential of the internet and invested heavily in digital marketing have crushed competitors who continued to rely on yellow pages ads.
In light of this, Trial Guides has sought to create a digital marketing book for lawyers for many years. We are proud to bring you Digital Marketing for Law Firms: The Secrets to Getting More Clients and Better Cases, a critical resource for the future of your firm. This book is a guide to the future of marketing for lawyers.
While there are other digital marketing books out there, none fully address the challenges that are unique to the legal field. Digital Marketing for Law Firms starts with traditional marketing concepts that remain important in digital marketing, including creating a foundation for your brand and understanding your audience. From there, author and legal marketer Chip LaFleur introduces you to the basic tools and tactics for digital marketing. Chapter four focuses entirely on the information necessary for your firm’s website. Chapter five then discusses how to upgrade and optimize your firm’s website.
An important issue for law firms is search engine optimization (SEO). This is the way law firms attract customers for free with the content and design of their firm's website. This is often referred to as content marketing. By having a well-functioning website with better content, your firm can achieve a higher position in search results for the legal industry in your area.
In fact, the issue of SEO is often more important for law firm websites than for other businesses because bidding for pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google can become exceptionally expensive, with intense competition over the keywords that tend to result in large cases. Many lawyers who don’t know better hire SEO agencies that promise big results, use confusing terms, and consistently under-deliver. Other firms who practice in highly competitive areas end up being unable to match the sophistication of digital marketing agencies and are forced to pay money for quality leads, hoping the leads will be good enough to pay the referral firm or agency. Other law firms even bought into expensive subscriptions with major law firm website companies that were hammered for being “link farms” by a change in Google’s algorithm, sending the law firm’s high-priced website and domain name to far lower pages of Google’s search results. In Digital Marketing for Law Firms, LaFleur discusses how such practices might trick Google for a little while, but ultimately shows how using white hat marketing practices will prevent such dramatic drops in search ranking.
SEO is particularly challenging because it takes regular maintenance, and a law firm's ranking is subject to changes in Google's algorithm. Chapter six of Digital Marketing for Law Firms discusses how you can create a plan for the successful creation and maintenance of website content so that you can achieve a high ranking on Google or Bing. SEO tools discussed in the book can also help you optimize your website design either through your own work or through hiring an agency that provides digital marketing strategies.
Chapter seven of the book discusses how to engage followers on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Clubhouse and more.
Chapters eight and nine address one of the most effective methods of digital marketing: email. This includes the basics of email marketing as well as more advanced topics like nurturing leads with email automation.
Chapter ten addresses design and visual content topics across websites, social media, and email. Chapter eleven discusses the use of networks and brand ambassadors for some legal practice areas.
Starting with chapter twelve, Digital Marketing for Law Firms addresses paid digital advertising, starting with paid social media advertising. Chapter thirteen addresses the hottest and most expensive area for legal digital marketing—PPC. This is where you create a target audience in your internet marketing to create traffic and leads in a very specific area of law. While some personal injury terms in large cities can sell for hundreds of dollars per click on Google Adwords, the book will help you decide whether this is a profitable investment for your firm. Chapter fourteen addresses the important topic of monitoring paid advertising given the prevalence of fraud from the use of bots or paid users who do not represent legitimate leads.
Chapter fifteen addresses practical and cost-effective client acquisition strategies.
Chapter sixteen addresses the importance of analytics through your website as well as other services such as Google Analytics, Google Control Panel, and others.
Lastly, the book concludes with a discussion about working with an agency to achieve your goals so that you can focus on practicing law instead of overseeing all aspects of your firm’s digital marketing. Whether you decide to work with an individual consultant, an agency, or hire in-house staff, you need to understand these concepts to obtain new clients and provide present clients with what they expect.
Author Chip LaFleur has spent years successfully helping lawyers across the country build their law firms by reaching their ideal clients. LaFleur knows that for a law firm, no matter how many clicks, leads, or impressions you might get, clients and cases are the only true metrics that matter. In this book, LaFleur teaches you how to use the digital tools, knowledge, and strategies that will actually bring clients to your office.
As leading trial consultant David Ball notes, "Digital Marketing for Law Firms might be the most profitable $85 you’ll ever spend."
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Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
- Foundations: Your Brand
- Foundations: Your Audience
- Foundations: Tools and Tactics
- Build Your Core Website
- Upgrade and Optimize Your Website
- Plan and Maintain a Content Strategy
- Engage Your Followers on Social Media
- Email Newsletters That Engage Your Followers
- Nurture Leads with Email Automations
- Use Visual Content to Hold Attention
- Networks and Creating Brand Ambassadors
- Paid Advertising: Start with Social
- Paid Advertising: Pay-Per-Click
- Paid Advertising: Monitoring
- Practical Client Acquisition Strategies
- Going Beyond the Basics: Analytics
- Working with an Agency
- Conclusion
View Excerpt
What Legal Leaders Are Saying
— David Ball, PhD, trial consultant and author of David Ball on DamagesDigital Marketing for Law Firms might be the most profitable $85 you’ll ever spend—whether you’ve just hung out your first post-bar-exam shingle or have a long-established practice. You’ll learn to do your own digital marketing as well as how to get the best from outside professionals. Featuring lay-person clarity wise-marketer smarts, even by page 10 LeFleur's book pays for itself many times over. (Side benefit: some of its principles apply equally to case strategy.)
— Jason A, Plotkin, Esq., CEO of the Pinder Plotkin Legal Team, a Maryland Personal Injury and Workers’ Compensation law firmThe foundation of all marketing is defining your brand, being true to your brand, and being open to the evolution of your brand as your firm grows. ‘Build it and they will come,’ stay true to your brand and the results will come!
— Kari Santana, Law Offices of Kari SantanaLaFleur breaks down what it takes to take [your] law firm to the next level. This book offers practical guidance to law firms of all sizes, but I especially like that the solo practitioner can implement these strategies and tips.
— Candess Zona-Mendola, senior trial paralegal at the Lange Law Firm and author of The Indispensable Paralegal: Your Guide to Getting It All DoneLaFleur’s book gives you a backstage pass on the inner workings of digital marketing. This book gives you the 'brushstroke by brushstroke' instructions on how to paint your own Mona Lisa—by giving easy to understand breakdowns and steps even newbies can take to make their marketing work for them. Even sophisticated marketers will find hidden gems to take back to their drawing boards. A must-read for all legal professionals, both lawyers and paralegals alike.
— Gregory S. Cusimano, awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by American Association for Justice and recipient of the Leonard Ring Champion of Justice Award, coauthor of Winning Case Preparation: Understanding Jury BiasDigital Marketing for Law Firms is an important read for lawyers who know little about digital marketing. Whether you are hiring outside help, or striving for an in firm strategy, this book provides critical information. Educate yourself!
— Mark Kosieradzki, author of 30(b)(6): Deposing Corporations, Organizations and the Government and Deposition Obstruction: Breaking Through, coauthor of Nursing Home Cases: When Caregivers Stop CaringAs lawyers, most of us were not trained in digital marketing. Anxious to keep cases coming in the door, we are easy prey for the digital marketing companies who are eager to sell us what we don’t need for too much money. Chip has pulled back the curtain, revealing that marketing in the new era is not as hard as we are led to believe. With the myth demystified, we are now able to make informed decisions on how to maximize our online presence, generate cases, and do what we do best: practice law.
— Michael Neff, Atlanta, Georgia trial lawyer with verdicts over $100 million and author of Premises Liability: A Guide to SuccessThere is a lot I didn’t learn in law school about becoming a trial lawyer. I definitely wish I knew more about rainmaking when I left school. This book is a very interesting resource on the journey to becoming a better lawyer and a better marketer. Whether you are an expert or a novice on business development, there are lessons and helpful ideas in this book.
— Edward Lazarus, trial consultant and coauthor of Winning Case Preparation: Understanding Jury BiasA step-by-step guide for how to do social media and internet marketing. Not only a clear and easy-to-follow primer, but also an excellent reference to keep on hand.
— Andy Citrin, Andy Citrin Injury AttorneysDigital Marketing for Law Firms is a comprehensive guide on how to create and build an engaging online campaign to attract new clients. A must-read for any lawyer who is serious about growth in this highly competitive environment.
— Amanda Narvaes, partner at Drew Cooper & Anding, director-at-large at Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, 2018-2020Digital Marketing for Law Firms: The Secrets to Getting More Clients and Better Cases offers exactly what its subtitle claims: it takes the mystery out of online marketing. This helpful guide explains in simple terms not only why, but also how, to adopt internet marketing strategies that will result in a return on investment for your law firm. Digital Marketing for Law Firms is broken down into seventeen easily digestible chapters. My (nonlegal!) advice? It’s worth the purchase just for the opportunity to read and implement the steps described in the first chapter, on building a brand, and the sixth chapter, on writing online content that will turn potential clients into your clients.
— Matthew R. Myers, Myers Law Firm, PLLCInformative and insightful. Chip has taken what he has learned from his years of experience and put that information in an easy to understand format that provides answers to what works in digital marketing.