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Need Some Law Firm Advertising Ideas? Here’s a Hint: Think ‘Marketing’ Instead

Law firm advertising ideas can be hard to come by in an industry that, for a long time, did very little by way of any kind of advertising. Without a lot of past ads to reference, it can seem like you’re always starting from scratch. And since most lawyers didn’t go to law school to become art directors or copywriters, it can be hard to come up with law firm advertising ideas that distinguish you from your competition.

Here’s a different way of thinking about this topic: Marketing, not advertising, may be what your law firm wants and needs. If advertising is purely promotional, then marketing is more about identifying a potential client base, determining those potential clients’ needs, and reaching out to them in an efficient, cost-effective way. In some people’s view, advertising can be a part of marketing. There’s overlap between the two concepts, but they are not the same.

FindLaw has studied the ways legal consumers behave online and has spent years honing and refining its digital legal marketing tools to create a suite of offerings that deliver return on investment. And perhaps, most importantly, these tools are good at what they set out to do. Instead of wracking your brain to come up with good advertising ideas, take a look through these digital legal marketing tools ,and give some thought as to which would work best for you and your firm.

Get your bearings with SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a collection of tactics and activities designed to ensure that your website gets traffic from search engines like Google and Bing. It can include updating your site’s blog, building links, optimizing metadata, and ensuring the platform you use is mobile-friendly. Suffice to say, incorporating SEO into your law firm marketing mix is an excellent way to raise your digital profile and increase the likelihood a consumer with a legal need will be able to find you. While gaining a general understanding of SEO is doable, many law firms find it well worth it to hire an experienced digital marketing vendor to make maximum benefit of SEO.

Consider directory listings 

Legal directory listings are the phone book of the digital age. Listings are quick and easy to set up, and they position your firm in ways that will compel potential clients to call you. What’s more, they speak to consumers actively looking for legal representation, not simply researching a legal issue. To get the most bang for your buck, give your listing the same level of attention as your website and make it a significant part of your overall strategy. If you want to learn more about the benefits directories offer your firm, FindLaw created a legal directory playbook to help you better understand the many advantages.

Think local optimization

As internet searches have become the primary way people gather information, search engines have realized it doesn’t do much good to show a result for Orange County, California if the user is in Orange County, Florida. Local. The first thing to understand about local search optimization (SEO) is just how search engines are verifying who you are, where you are, and how you can help potential clients. To gather information for local search, search engines rely on signals such as local content, social profile pages, links, and citations to provide the most relevant local results to the user. Other tips to improve local (SEO) include optimizing for Google My Business, performing a local SEO audit, and adding location pages to your website.

Get social 

In the latest Thomson Reuters U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey, 45% of respondents said they used social media to evaluate their prospective choice of lawyer. Social media – primarily LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook – is an excellent way for law firms to market themselves by talking about their practices and what it’s like to work with them. That’s immensely valuable to legal consumers, who often report having difficulty telling one lawyer or law firm apart from the next.

In sum, law firm marketing tactics, and especially digital law firm marketing techniques, help your firm connect with people who are interested in hiring you, and talk about things they want to hear. For many law firms, that’s a far better approach than an attractive, well-conceived advertisement on a billboard.

Schedule a consultation online

Let’s discuss your marketing challenges and how firms like yours solve those problems. If nothing else, you’ll walk away with legal marketing knowledge you didn’t have previous to the meeting.

An accurate Zip Code ensures your appointment is set with the correct local marketing consultant.