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Like it or not, digital marketing is becoming increasingly important for businesses.
You want to be where the people are, and almost everybody exists in the online space. If you’re looking to scale up your business, digital marketing almost becomes a must.
Whether you’re in property law, immigration law, or any other area of law where people come to you for help, it’s important to have your name out there. Few ways to achieve this are more effective than carving out your digital presence. We’ll be breaking down the benefits of digital marketing for your law firm, and factors to consider before embarking upon this venture.
Scaleups are defined as a high-growth company that achieves 20% growth each year for a 2-3 year period, where the first year has a minimum of 10 employees. Scaleups mark a transformational point in a business, where it moves from the experimental startup phase to a better-defined (and sustainable) model of working.
It makes sense then, that there is a multitude of operational, administrative, and systematic elements to pin down for long-term success. Scaleups take work! But they will help you make the impact you’ve set out to make faster.
So, where does digital marketing come in?
Large growth is achieved through more clients and work. Money can be saved through system refinement and automation (which we still highly recommend), but gaining significant revenue is achieved through getting your name out there as a trusted brand.
Marketing is a great way of advertising your services to people who may not have seen it otherwise. Yes, people engage with lawyers when they need to, but you want to make sure you’re the person that comes to mind when that occasion comes up.
ROI from marketing is a notoriously difficult metric to capture, but it’s not impossible. Develop growth indicators that tie to leads and conversions. When you’re aiming to scale up, having goals to keep you on track are essential.
Growth can be measured by the number of followers, clicks, and online enquiries you get. The classic ‘how did you hear about us?’ question tucked into a survey is a useful tool as well. A Google Business Manager account will tell you a lot about the people viewing your website, and where your traffic is coming from. Otherwise, you can add pixels to the website to get in-depth tracking like where people are coming from, how much time they spend on your website, and the pages they look at. This can be an involved process
For seasoned veterans, the increasing demand for digital marketing may be something they want to resist. Why change what has worked for years on end?
As generations move on, and digital natives become the majority, you might notice business begin to dwindle, especially if you’re working on a B2C basis. Why? Because more and more people these days rely on the internet to tell them which services to engage with. If you’re not present in that space, you’ll be overlooked.
Simply put, it’s the best way to keep up with the times and, in turn, grow.
Additionally, digital marketing offers a unique opportunity to build a relationship with your potential clients, or in social media lingo, your audience. People are increasingly interested in working with businesses that they trust and respect, and online marketing is a great way to communicate your values and mission. You can get people behind your purpose before working with them!
Through this, you can define the scope of your services and create more leads that speak to your specialisation. Focussed digital marketing = more high-quality leads.
On the note of communicating your business’s message and getting it out there, you have the opportunity to tell people what you stand for. For example, you might aim to demystify the barriers or obstacles people face when engaging with a lawyer. Law is infamously confusing and seen as inaccessible to those who need your services. There’s no better way to humanise your service before someone even works with you than through digital messaging.
If you’re going into digital marketing with the goal of growth, you want to be both broad and very defined. We’ll explain what that means.
Broad enough in your approach that you reach new people, defined enough to reach the right people. This is where R&D comes in.
A well-thought-out user profile can help you really nail down who you want to target, i.e. your ideal client. Flesh out their pain points, and how your services can help them. Break down their potential interests, hobbies and behaviours until you have your ideal client envisioned. While this information doesn’t change what you offer, it can inform you about how to best position yourself to them.
Take the time to consider why someone would choose to work with you over a competitor. What can you offer? A good deal goes a long way, but people are drawn to those they feel share their thoughts and feelings. Depending on your area of law, you might work with vulnerable people, those who have come to you because they’re under some kind of duress. What are they thinking? How are they feeling when they ask for your help?
Your marketing strategy can assure people that you’re the person to trust with the big things in their life. It’s worth taking the time to put yourself in a potential client’s shoes because it can tell you exactly what they want to hear.
The digital space feels like an endless library of content, where people are scrambling to have their work in the featured section. The reality is that your content comes together to give an audience an image of your brand. No one is looking at the internet in its totality. Instead, every person has crafted a catalogue of people who they want to know more about and support.
Good planning ensures you’re communicating in a way that targets your intended audience. Planning hones a blunt strategy into something sharper and more effective.
There are a million ways to plan a marketing strategy, and the best advice we can give is to aim for sustainability. Almost every algorithm out there appreciates consistency, and you’re better off posting on a more limited, but consistent basis, than sprinting out the gates only to slow down later.
Another piece of advice would be to prioritise being in the places that are most appealing to your target audience. Yes, most people are on Facebook and Instagram, but it’s worth thinking about their mindset as they do their daily scroll. Are they likely to engage with you after seeing an offer on Instagram? In a B2C space, the answer to this may be yes, but in B2B it might be a better bet to focus on a platform like LinkedIn, where more businesses connect with each other.
You also want to consider what kind of medium is best to engage with your audience. A few options you might consider:
Every medium has its own appeal and is suited for different forms of engagement. Consider what you want to offer and the most appropriate way to offer it to your audience.
When starting out, write content that answers the questions your audience has. Post about topics you know your audience cares about in relation to your work. Use feedback to improve and learn. The digital space moves fast, so it’s essential to participate in a way that is receptive to change.
You’ll quickly find that there are a lot of digital marketing levers that can be pulled. To ensure you’re covering all of your bases it’s best to use a task or project management tool. CRM platforms such as monday.com are great because they allow the team to communicate on specific tasks, have a range of views for planning and campaign visualisation, and is flexible in their set-up so you can create a workspace suited to your workflow.
Another handy tool is Canva, a free design software geared towards digital marketing. It takes the guesswork out of platform image dimensions and has templates to use if you’re not design-inclined. There is a paid pro feature which unlocks more templates and assets, but you can get away without this.
Creating post content is like a collection of micro-decisions that come together for one cohesive look. What tone are you aiming for? What look do you want? What topics do you offer to your audience?
These questions should be asked before embarking upon your first post, but continuously worked on. Your word choice, design and topic matter tell the audience a lot about what they can learn to expect from your firm. But, there’s always room for improvement and change, it doesn’t need to be perfect from the get-go. Your audience will appreciate your growth.
Plans are good, they give you something to rely on, but it’s important to leave room for alterations. This may sound contrary to what we’ve advised so far, but you never know when something time-sensitive will pop up. Whether it’s legislative changes, a partnership, a new offer, or something entirely different you want to communicate, prioritise the important updates.
Scheduling and automation saves you time on regular tasks like data input, communications, documentation and more. When your business is aiming for growth, there are always more things to do in the day than time to do them. Automations save precious time so you can focus on the big picture.
MarketMaxNZ offers complete help with digital marketing for lawyers and recruitment agencies looking to turn their business into a trusted brand. We work alongside you to create a strategy that suits your goals to take the pressure off you and your team.
Take your digital marketing to the next level with MarketMaxNZ in 2023 by getting in touch with our team today.
