The legal sector benefits greatly from the transition to digital media, opening up more services to address every client’s needs. From transitioning to online consuming law, digital communications, media, and opening new markets online, lawyers can guide people on the proper steps to launch and protect rights on a particular product or service.
Now, more than ever, people are utilizing online media for a lot of things, including finding legal services specializing in digital communications and platforms. It’s the best time for law firms to reach out to a wider audience and get more opportunities to win a client.
The increasing digital economy also brought massive changes to how people consult legal counsels. Online channels pave the way to seek legal advice, prepare documents to file complaints, and more. Given these continuing changes, law firms need to move up and embrace the digital transformation affecting the sector.
In this article, we’re exploring the indications of digital marketing in the legal sector, and how technology helps to improve the growth of law firms in the 21st century.
The Surge of Online Users
As the years go by, technology is flourishing and changing how lawyers do business. From the common advertisement on the radio, newspapers, magazines, or television, comes a broader and wider platform to reach more people: the Internet.
Ever since people can access the Internet, a lot of things evolve and social media is part of them. The height of people using the Internet affects innovators, in a way that can drive profit. Hence, the birth of social media platforms that aim to connect people. From this simple intention comes sales opportunities through online advertisement.
Today, social media is also home to millions of brands trying to attract new customers. The retail industry needs to cope with the changes in order to be relevant. In the same way, lawyers and law firms need to innovate to gain an edge over competitors. Now, connections are as important as being visible in online platforms. If people can easily see you from search engines, you have bigger chances of booking new clients.
Because believe it or not, the Internet has more power today than anything else. Traditional media is also moving past old practices and shift to a more effective way of marketing online. A wider reach also contributes to this efficiency, as the Internet reaches any part of the globe.
More people are utilizing the online platforms because people are here. Law firms can also target clients from specific locations, and it’s a pretty easy thing to do. With the help of experts, legal institutions can optimize their presence online, enhance digital marketing efforts, and reap good results in a short span of time.
Digital marketing efforts vary, and there’s more to explore. In social media, paid ads work, as well as content sharing, marketing campaigns, and other promotions. The sky’s the limit at this time, and businesses can gain traction from improved tactics and digital strategies.
New Trends in Legal Marketing
The question by now is whether a law firm is missing opportunities in digital marketing or not. Without investing in a sound marketing plan, the answer is obviously yes, as more firms are getting competitive.
Knowing the trends is crucial to attract and retain customers, as engagement is key. In social media, when businesses are jumping on the bandwagon, posts are easily shared, leading to a viral post. With this, the brand is recognized by a lot of people, and eventually, following and customer base increases.
1. Content Marketing
Content is a crucial element in marketing because it’s what people can see from different platforms or channels. This type of marketing is focused on the type of content that’s both engaging and interesting for followers.
For the legal sector, content can lean more on the aspects of the law, helpful tips for different individuals, and more informative posts. Solidifying the posts is easy through aesthetically-pleasing photos, animations, videos, and information materials.
No wonder why different companies are employing artists and digital marketers to organize and manage the social media platforms. The mere content sharing is already old-school, so keeping up with new creative content helps to be more relatable and pique the interests of potential clients.
2. Responsive Website
Having a website isn’t the finish line as legal firms need to improve this page for improved user experience. Today, people are likely to close an unresponsive website for content is scattered, and poor design hurts the overall experience.
Responsiveness refers to the ability of websites to render well on a variety of devices, particularly smartphones and tablets. Changing screen sizes without optimizing the website is a disaster, and web users will have a bad experience. Those pages that automatically adjust and adapt to any device screen size help users to read the content better.
3. Proactive Communications
Not a lot of business owners know the importance of proactive communications in customer service. It’s a marketing strategy that aims to build a stronger brand connection and value online. Before complaints are raised, businesses need to address the issues ahead and to plan everything.
Going through a comprehensive communications audit and risk analysis help to avoid further damage to the brand, especially with law firms that deal with critical matters. For instance, when a new promotion is launched, there should be details about the campaign, FAQs, and disclaimer. Doing so allows clarity and to help customers understand the whole thing.
Another thing is evaluating the customers’ behavior, and personalizing the approach per customer. A standard response is good, but there should be a tailored approach to address issues per customer. People hate getting a robotic response, which happens these days as social media features an automatic response or message.
4. Reviews
By far, this is the most important marketing trend these days, as clients tend to read reviews from former and existing clients. While it’s a fact that there are companies that generate fake customer reviews, consumers still consider these testaments before committing to a service provider.
In the legal sector, potential clients are looking at the efficiency of lawyers through the track records, showcasing the cases won by the company lawyers and other successful deals. Because important matters are at stake here, clients tend to be picky where to seek legal advice from, and who to trust.
By investing in marketing initiatives, a law firm can appear trustworthy with good testimonials from clients. Building this sort of credibility is something that can be achieved through hard work, and through reputation management services.
Marketing is just the surface of promoting a legal firm because there’s a lot involved in the process. Reputation management is a good strategy to appear great in search engines and the public. In case web users try to dig information about the law firm, all the things that will pop up are positive, and bad testimonials will be buried entirely.
Growth in Mobile Usage
Another thing to consider nowadays is the growth in the mobile use and not just mobile, but the smartphone era. With more people spending time on mobile devices, marketers and advertisers are giving in and trying to get their attention. This divergence of consumer attention is already happening, with different platforms fighting for the attention and usage of people.
Using applications become the norm, and people are using more apps every single day. However, they are also bombarded with tons of ads once in a while, especially now that every business is on the Internet. Watching a video on YouTube isn’t the same with so many ads popping out of the screen. Consumers mostly ignore, but there are those who are slowly giving in, check out the products or brands, then making a purchase.
This is a cycle that continues to happen because no matter what we do, technology will always change how we live. Before, people are used to seeing ads from the television commercial or print ads, but now that digital media is on the rise, ads are also propagating here.
Law firms can choose to jump on the trend or not, then completely lose opportunities to other companies. The more technologically advanced a brand or business is, the more benefits it can reap. In the end, we are all going digital, and not moving forward could mean losses on the company’s end. In fact, even big brands and companies are using their money for ads for visibility and brand recognition.
In the case of the legal companies, placing ads on key platforms help to target potential clients. Businesses can only get amplified results through the help of digital experts, who know about the key strategies to improve branding, connect to more people, and become visible online.
Takeaway
One cannot deny the massive impact of technology and mobile on how advertisements and marketing work. These days, more and more industries are jumping on the trends to be visible online and to reach a wider audience.
Talk to an expert today to know your options for enhancing marketing campaigns like search engine optimization, content marketing, and others.