Don’t make the mistake of investing in only one type of advertising for your law firm. Learn why an omnichannel marketing strategy is important for your law firm’s success.
What is Omnichannel Marketing?
The best way to advertise is to be where your prospects are—and show up consistently. By advertising in several different “channels,” or forms of media, you increase the chances of a prospect noticing you, remembering you, trusting you, and hiring you.
In other words, omnichannel marketing for law firms is about maximizing your visibility in smart ways. For example, if you spend your entire advertising budget on TV commercials, you risk missing out on potential clients who are looking somewhere else for a lawyer. When you diversify, you’re more likely to be seen by your ideal prospects—and, more importantly, they’re more likely to remember you when they’ve seen you a few times in a few different places.
A Client’s Journey
Omnichannel marketing for law firms is all about considering every step of the marketing funnel. Also known as the buyer’s journey, the marketing funnel is a tool used to describe the different stages a customer—in your case, someone looking to hire a lawyer—goes through in their search. The further down the funnel they go, the more action they’re taking; in other words, the closer to the narrow bottom of the funnel someone is, the closer they are to making a purchase or hiring a lawyer.
At the top of the funnel is awareness: the broad knowledge that you exist. In the middle of the funnel, people are considering the pros and cons of hiring you while comparing you to your competitors. At the bottom of the funnel is the select group of prospects with the most intent to hire you. These are people who have done their research, seen your ads and content, and have made the decision to give you a call.
Below, we’ll discuss how investing in a variety of advertising media contributes to an effective omnichannel strategy for law firms.
Build Awareness with Print
Top-of-the-funnel advertising is essential for letting people know you exist. These prospects may not need a lawyer right this minute, but when they start thinking about hiring one, it’s important for you to have established your firm as ready and available to help them.
While it has gone down in popularity with the rise of Internet accessibility, the phone book is still a solid place for lawyers to advertise. Ensuring that your firm’s contact information is listed in the areas you serve means that you’ll be there when someone needs to find you.
Besides the yellow pages, another good spot for print ads for lawyers is in local magazines. Getting your name, logo, and even face in the minds of the community is an essential step in building awareness for your firm.
Build Memorability with TV & Digital Advertising
Now that prospects are aware of you, it’s time to give them some reminders. TV and digital advertising are great ways to ensure that your firm gets remembered when someone realizes they may need to hire a lawyer.
TV
There’s nothing quite like a classic TV commercial to get you to stick in people’s heads. TV spots are where you really begin to build your firm’s identity. Are you tough? Compassionate? Approachable? All of the above? Image starts and ends with television because it’s recurring.
Even if a prospect doesn’t sit through an entire commercial, chances are that they’ll see enough bits and pieces for them to remember at least one thing about you…so they can search for you online when they need help. That’s where digital advertising comes in.
Digital Advertising
Advertising online—whether it’s on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, or somewhere else—can be a relatively cheap, simple option for showing up when people search for your services. When you have that presence online, you make it easier for that person who caught snippets of your TV commercial to search and find you.
What’s more, through audience targeting, you can decide who sees your ads: how old are they? What search terms do they use? Which websites are they visiting? This is especially helpful if your firm specializes in multiple types of law.
On an even more advanced route, you can re-target people who have already seen your ads or searched for services you provide. This makes a big impact on someone who is going through the process of researching law firms: the more you show up, the more likely they are to remember you and give your firm a call.
The best part of all? Since so many people do their research on a mobile phone, an effective digital advertising strategy for your law firm means that a call to your office is just a tap away. And with location services, finding their way to you—or even better, finding out that your office is closer to them than a competitor’s—is just as easy.
Build Authority with Blogging & Social Media
Content marketing is how you can inform people not only that you exist, but that you’re knowledgeable enough to hire. Content marketing for law firms can range from blogs to infographics to ebooks to email campaigns—whatever makes the biggest impression on your target audience. It may take some research to find out what types of content resonate with your ideal clients, but it’s worth it in the long run!
Blogging
Blogging is an excellent way for potential clients to find you. When you answer the questions they have, you’re establishing that they can come to you for answers. This works in tandem with digital advertising to ensure that you’re reaching people in various stages of their hunt for a lawyer.
A consistent blogging strategy that includes high-quality, informative posts is helpful to people who want to know more about their legal options. When their search brings them to your law firm’s blog, they immediately see you as an authority in your field. And by answering their questions, you provide them with a sense of trust and security—which is huge to someone in an uncertain situation.
Social Media
Your law firm’s Facebook page is a place where people can connect with you and learn from you. By posting helpful content in easily-digestible bites, you can establish yourself as an authority and as approachable at the same time. High-quality social media pages for law firms also contribute to search engine rankings, which is just another boost to your reputation in the mind of someone who wants to find the best lawyer to trust with their case.
When someone follows your law firm’s Facebook page, you get the chance to show up consistently in their news feed. Over time—as you post helpful, easy-to-understand content—that person gets used to seeing you as a trustworthy source of legal information. This person could be a past client or someone who’s trying to decide who to hire for their case. Either way, your Facebook page has now become a place where those people expect to see you sharing helpful information in a casual setting. This is important because hiring a lawyer is a big, intimidating life event—but your firm’s social media humanizes you.
Build Trust with Online Video & Reviews
When a potential client has narrowed down their options to a few law firms, it’s more important than ever to stand out from the competition. The bottom of the funnel is where online video and reviews will set you apart.
Video
Whether they’re shared on social media or posted on your website, videos are great for building trust because they show the world your personality and expertise. After all, the authority you build through your content isn’t worth much if people are too intimidated to call you!
Online video is a popular way for people to get information about various topics. As an added bonus, videos can help a potential client imagine what it would be like working with you. Consider answering frequently-asked questions in a video format to show your prospects that you’re knowledgeable, trustworthy, and approachable.
Reviews
When it comes to where people decide to spend their money, word of mouth is king. People trust their friends and family when they make recommendations…and it turns out they trust strangers online, too! Glowing reviews inspire trust and confidence when making the difficult decision to choose and hire a lawyer.
Think of online reviews as a public referral: referrals are fantastic, but the majority of people browsing your website will probably have no idea how many people have been referred to you by a happy client. Online reviews and testimonials are a great way for past clients to recommend your services and let everyone checking you out know that you’ve changed lives.
An even bigger bonus? Good reviews are important with search engines. They signify to web crawlers that you have a business worth recommending to the average Google or Bing user. Plus, having good reviews could be the tipping point that makes someone decide to choose you over a competitor.
What’s the Best Plan for Your Firm?
It may seem intimidating to invest in omnichannel marketing for your law firm—especially when you have cases to focus on. But an effective law firm marketing strategy doesn’t have to break the bank or take up all of your time. Working with an advertising agency that has years of experience helping law firms of all sizes is the smart solution.
At Kirkpatrick Creative, we understand the importance of omnichannel marketing for law firms—and, more importantly, using only the channels that work best for your firm. At your first consultation with us, we’ll analyze your current advertising budget and strategy to find out what’s working, what’s not working, and what routes you haven’t explored that could get you more clients. It’s what we like to call advertising engineered to work.
Ready to start building an omnichannel marketing strategy for your law firm? Kirkpatrick Creative can help. Call us today.