5 Law Firm Marketing Trends in 2014

5 Law Firm Marketing Trends in 2014

Legal marketing trends TO INCORPORATE into your strategy this year 

Mobile marketing, social media, and content marketing dominated the legal marketing landscape in 2013. It was the year that many law firms ramped up their Facebook/Twitter marketing strategy, started updating their blogs on a weekly basis, and developed a mobile website.

While these online marketing methods continue to matter, it’s critical that you take things to the next level in 2014 in order to remain competitive.   Here are 5 law marketing trends to watch out for this year:

1.  Responsive Design: Ensuring your website works in all devices

The mobile web has grown exponentially in recent years.  Nearly 80% of US-based internet users searched for services online before contacting a lawyer in 2013; 50% of those searches were done on a mobile phone or tablet.  46% of consumers use mobile exclusively when performing research online.  Make sure that your law firm’s website is easy to read and navigate on mobile devices by creating a responsive website.

There are three types of mobile strategies to discuss: responsive design, mobile-specific websites (designed to be ‘app’-like in usability) and mobile apps. 

Taking a mobile-first approach ensures that you’re not losing potential clients and cases during the critical research stage, with a mobile-friendly approach providing an optimal viewing experience across all devices (from desktop computers, to tablets, to smartphones).

2.  Google’s Takeover: Authorship & Video Increasingly Important in SERPs

Google’s domination of search is continuing to impact the state of SEO. Google Authorship is a relatively new feature linking Google+ profiles to the content you create. That’s why you may have noticed that many attorneys’ bio photos show up in Google’s search results. If you want to achieve better visibility in Google search, joining Google+ and using Google Authorship is a must.

Video marketing has also become increasingly important, as Google is now giving more visibility to videos in its search results [Google owns YouTube]. Create search engine-optimized, high-quality videos of client testimonials, your practice areas, significant cases you’ve handled, etc. to stand out in search engine rankings.

3.  Segmented and Targeted Promotions

Rather than blasting generic marketing messages to your entire email list and all of your social media followers, it’s important to segment your marketing and send out highly targeted messages in 2014, pointing to targeted landing pages on your website that capture visitors’ interest while addressing their needs. 

We’ve proven time and time again that targeted landing pages convert a higher percentage of visitors into leads because they’re focused on a specific practice area, geographic area and/or demographic.

Gone are the days of just throwing practice area content on a page and hoping for the best -well designed, search engine-optimized pages will actually grow your website traffic and increase interest in your firm while rewarding you with higher conversion rates.

4.  Microsites for Practice Areas & Attorneys

Creating personalized microsites for attorneys in your law firm is a great way to increase your firm’s search engine visibility and establish your expertise.   These are small, customizable websites that are dedicated to focus on different practice areas and showcase a firm’s particular talents, experience, and knowledge.

You can also create microsites that are dedicated to different partners and attorneys, also known as attorney microsites, vanity sites.   Both of these strategies will help increase exposure as well as inclusion in search engines, often resulting in getting your firm found in multiple positions in the top 10.

5.  Social Engagement

In 2014, it’s not enough to create a lot of content. You have to create content that is popular with social media users because search engines are placing more emphasis on the social engagement surrounding content, such as shares, likes, and comments.

Social remains a hot-topic as an internet marketing tactics for attorneys, but not much direction out there for people looking to maximize its effectiveness: the most important aspects of social for lawyers remains engagement and integration. LinkedIn remains our choice for B2B and recruiting but Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus are some of the more common social media platforms used by individual lawyers and law firms in their marketing efforts (to build SEO and general awareness).

Don’t just update your blog for SEO purposes. Combine your content creation efforts with your social media marketing efforts to ensure that you’re growing your social media following and creating content that people actually want to read and share.

BONUS: Semi-Automated (‘live-marketing’) Websites

This is a bit of a shameless plug but one with PROVEN benefits to our clients: we have created the only system out there that treats our clients’ websites as real-time marketing tools that update its targeted content AUTOMATICALLY as you make updates. 

If you’re using an average websites, you have info (staff updates, news, service listings, events, etc) that you’re plugging into your site and the most recent sites are adding that content to the area it belongs, typically (in the case of news, articles, events, testimonials, etc.) as the ‘most recent’ item. 

For staff pages your staff is typically updating MSWord docs, creating PDFs from them and uploading them to a server…all manual processes and all following the same pattern of the vast majority of legal websites out there. 

There is a better way, and it starts with a website that’s been created to generate compelling destination pages and lead generation opportunities out of every service, staff and location page on your site by pulling relevant components from different databases of content to position the firm as the specialist (and ONLY specialist) your potential client needs.

Take Your Legal Marketing to New Heights in 2014 with Efelle Media

efelle offers a full suit of online marketing services for attorneys, from website design and website development to SEO and social media marketing. To learn how we can increase your law firm’s search engine visibility, leads, and sales in 2014 and beyond, call 206.384.4909 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.