Google has confirmed that their March 2023 core algorithm update is now rolling out. Core algorithm updates affect search rankings greatly, so it’s important that SEO specialists and legal marketers stay up to date on this information and how it’ll impact their firm’s SEO. Here’s everything law firms need to know.

March 2023 Core Update

Google has confirmed that this update is now beginning to roll out. They’ve also confirmed that the update may take up to 2 weeks to complete. Law firms should stay up to date with this latest rollout, as it may impact search engine rankings.

Why Does Google Update Its Algorithm?

Google algorithm updates may seem like a nuisance, but they’re meant to increase Google’s ability to provide the most high quality and relevant answers to searchers questions.

However, this means that SEO professionals must constantly stay current on Google updates and SEO best practices. 

What We Know About the March 2023 Algorithm Update

While Google hasn’t provided specifics on this update yet, we’ve drawn some conclusions based on their past updates:

• Timeline– The effects of updates don’t happen overnight. The update’s impacts may take days or weeks to be noticeable as Google’s crawlers  reassess the web.
• Watch your data– keep an eye on your keyword rankings and organic search traffic. These metrics will give you a clue if you need to change your strategy after the update
• Keep up with quality– one thing is for sure: Google wants the top ranking search results to be of the highest quality. Make sure to keep producing content that is valuable, high quality, and created with your target audience’s needs in mind.
• Get technical- don’t forget about the technical details Google looks out for. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile, high speed, and uses proper indexing. These things will have a big impact as Google crawls your site.

How to Stay Up to Date on SEO Best Practices

We understand that staying up to date on the ever changing Google algorithm and SEO best practices can be difficult. That’s why we recommend law firms consider working with an SEO specialist. SEO agencies and specialists will keep current on all things SEO, so you don’t have to scramble every time there’s a Google update.

Takeaway:

This update may have an impact on your law firm’s search engine visibility. Legal marketers must watch their metrics closely and be prepared to identify areas of improvement as the next couple of weeks progress and this update is finalized.

If you are struggling to keep up with the ever changing scope of SEO, we’re happy to help. We have years of experience helping law firms and legal vendors optimize their website and improve their SEO strategy over time. Contact us today for a free consultation to get started.

The post How Google’s Core Algorithm Update will Affect Law Firms in 2023 appeared first on Good2bSocial.

Plenty of successful law firm marketing and sales professionals will tell you that they leverage LinkedIn on a regular basis. It’s a great place to access your target audience and nurture relationships with them. You probably already know the basics on keeping your profile optimized and using groups for conversations. LinkedIn has a lot more to offer though. 

Ways To Generate Leads Using LinkedIn

1. Find the “People also viewed” Sidebar

When you look at the profile of one of your best clients or prospects, you can also see who might be similar to them. Find the profile of one of your most profitable clients and then look to the area on the right. Here you can see the “People also viewed” box which will show you similar contacts. Consider adding those people to a prospect list for outreach. 

2. Look for Prospects in New Roles

When people you know change jobs, it can be an effective trigger for rekindling relationships. When people take on new positions, they may have a desire to shake things up. By staying in contact, you can position your firm in the right place at the right time. To see if anyone in your network has a new role, click the “notifications” tab and look for things like job changes. Then just send the person a message congratulating them and let the conversation go from there. 

Related: Advanced Social Media Strategies for Law Firms eBook

3. See Who is in Your Competitors’ Networks

Chances are that many of the people who have relationships with competing firms have recognized their legal needs and previously looked for a solution. That means you can skip the introductory period where you convince them that they need legal advice – they already know they do, they just need to be open to a different firm. Browse their networks and make a note of any patterns you see, like several people from the same company. 

4. Browse Skill Endorsements

You may have heard the phrase “like attracts like”. Similar to the “Others also viewed” tactic above, you can view this section to see who has worked with a prospect before and endorsed them. You’re likely to find a lot of people who worked in the same department or partnered with your prospect at one time. One of these people might be ideal for adding to your next LinkedIn campaign. 

5. Leverage the Alumni Search Tool

LinkedIn’s standard search tool works just fine for general information, but you can take things a step further. Using this alumni search link, you can find a list of people who attended the same school as you. This is helpful for finding a conversation-starter with people who otherwise might not have much in common with you. 

 6. Look at the Comments on Your Prospect’s Posts

The next time you’re casually viewing your notifications, don’t skip past the comments on items that your key clients or prospects post. Chances are that many of the people interacting with those individuals are also a good match for your firm. Plus, they’re clearly already active on LinkedIn which makes them more likely to respond if you reach out. Additionally, if a comment has real substance, that makes it easier to send an InMail that actually gets noticed. You can comment on their insights and share a follow up article or ask a specific question. 

7. Look for Users Who Have Interacted With Your Posts

Only premium (paid) users can see everyone that visits their profile. Otherwise you’ll see a sampling of people but not the entire list. However, you can view people that have interacted with your posts regardless of LinkedIn status. Go to the profile dropdown menu and click “Posts & Activity.” This will show you a feed of things that you have shared, along with everyone who has interacted with each one. Click the “Your followers” tab in the left sidebar to see who has followed you most recently. 

8. Create a Search Alert for New Jobs

In order to keep a better pulse on important clients or prospects, you may want to set up an alert about job activity. This can give you an idea of who they hope to hire, which can also provide insight into their needs and goals. Go to the company’s page and click the “Jobs” button. Once on the jobs landing page, toggle the “Job Alert” button to turn it on. Click “Manage alerts” to set up a cadence and notification channel. This way, LinkedIn will share with you when your target company posts new jobs. Take things a step further by periodically pulling a list of all employees at the company by clicking “See all employees on LinkedIn.” Look for people who have filled those roles recently and reach out to them in their new position. 

Takeaway: 

LinkedIn offers a robust platform that is ideal for prospecting and generating leads. You can always go with coordinated campaigns or the paid advertising options, but give some of these tactics a try. They’re a bit more creative – and they’re free – so it’s worth adding these techniques to your overall LinkedIn strategy. 

If you’d like assistance leveraging LinkedIn for law firms to reach your business development goals. Connect with us today. We’ve helped many law firms and legal companies build and execute successful LinkedIn strategies.

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In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 Podcast, Guy is joined by Justin Bernbrock. Justin Bernbrock is a partner in Sheppard Mullin’s Chicago office and the head of Chicago’s complex restructuring team. Justin has worked on some of the most complex Chapter 11 cases in the world over the last 11 years. Prior to Sheppard Mullin, Justin was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago. Before his legal career, Justin served with distinction in the United States Navy.

1. The Decision to Create a Podcast for Justin Bernbrock’s Practice

Justin was interested in listening to podcasts and books on audio books, and found a variety of bankruptcy related podcasts from organizations such as The American Bankruptcy Institute. He found that people his age consume information in a similar way, so he looked for a complex, restructuring podcast. He found podcasts, but the information that was covered in those podcasts covered the whole spectrum of the bankruptcy world. The most important details in these podcasts are the unique aspects of bankruptcy, such as the ability of a bankruptcy judge to hear cases of individuals with medical bills and large complex cases in a single day. It is a unique intersection of Main Street and Wall Street that is present in the back of the court. The genesis of the podcast came from Justin’s belief that if you want something, you should try to create it. The podcast Justin created focuses on primarily Chapter 11 situations, which are complex, restructuring situations. 

2. The Next Step to Organize and Interact With The Firm

The team created a white paper to sell the idea internally and as an organizational or formational document. The most important details in this text are that the paper was a substantive sales pitch, containing the information needed to persuade the firm of the idea, and that once the approval was granted, the paper could be used to execute on the following steps. This makes the sales pitch longer. Developing an executive summary of the document was essential to ensure that the author had a clear understanding of the steps they would take once they received approval from the firm, which ultimately led to the successful completion of the project. We were approved by the firm, got the required equipment, and began to engage with guests. We also focused on how to market the podcast out to the broader audience through social media direct advertising. We put that plan into interaction and worked with the fine folks to be social for pre and post production needs.

3. The Response, Both Within the Company and Among Your Clients and Prospects

​​The podcast has been successful in providing insight into the world of complex restructuring, particularly for those within the firm. Outside the firm, individuals regularly express that they listen to it, and that they enjoy the content that is being published. The firm has had a bankruptcy practice for many years, but is not a household name in the circles of complex or restructuring. The podcast is part of a broader go to market strategy. 

4. The Biggest Challenge With Getting The Podcast Going and Making Sure That The Episodes are Consistent 

When business development times are slow, it is easy to keep up with initiatives and marketing efforts with the right plan in place. The slower periods of billable work are the times when great ideas emerge and people hit the ground running on the front. This is the natural response to a slow billable period. The most important idea is to maintain pace and expectations during the mobile period to ensure billable work is not dropping off.

Takeaway: 

Whether you’re a small or large law firm, podcasts are a great way to generate brand awareness and provide educational content to your audience. With the right plan in place, podcast creation can be a streamlined process. Just remember to stay consistent and take the right steps to get the rest of your firm on board.

You can find Justin Bernbrock on Linkedin & the law firm Website.

You can listen to the Restructure This! Podcast here.

Check out our newest ebook, The Law Firm Guide to Podcasting, here. 

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Law firm digital marketing is a rapidly changing science. That means information becomes outdated quickly, and it can be difficult to know what’s true and what’s not. Even with the latest information available, there are still plenty of digital marketing myths out there. Here are some of the most common ones affecting law firms today.

Myth #1: Digital Marketing is Only for Big Law Firms

One of the most common digital marketing myths is that digital marketing is only for big law firms. Realistically, though, digital marketing is a critical component to helping your practice grow and you don’t need a massive, corporate-sized budget to see results. We recommend spending 7 or 8% of your firm’s revenue on digital marketing efforts. 

Myth #2: Digital Marketing Doesn’t Need to be a Priority

Even in today’s landscape, some law firms think digital marketing is “extra” or “nice to have”. In truth, internet marketing tactics have become essential. Your online reputation is one of your firm’s most important assets, and you can bet that the majority of your future clients are performing research online. Social media and online credibility are today’s word-of-mouth. You need to prioritize digital tactics in order to meet clients where they look for answers. 

Myth #3: Having a Website is Enough to Market My Law Firm

If you’ve done a good job with your website and have a well-designed website, you may think that it will do your marketing for you. After all, people can come to your website to find information and get in touch with you. 

The only problem is actually stumbling upon your website. How do prospects find your website in the first place? Strategies like search engine optimization (SEO), content creation, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and social media will bring people to your website (where you can then impress them with your terrific design and user experience). 

Myth #4: If I Just Put Content Out There, It’ll be Enough

A lot of law firms have come to realize the power of content creation – but simply pushing out content isn’t enough. For one thing, you need to focus on quality over quantity. Creating content for the sake of content won’t help your marketing efforts. Focus on high-quality, well-researched content that provides real information and positions your firm as a thought leader. Furthermore, you need to promote your content in various ways. This post describes some ways that you can repurpose content for social media in order to see better results. 

If you’d like to learn how to create quality content that’ll get your firm noticed, check out this free eBook: The Law Firm Guide to Content Marketing.

Myth #5: As Long as Our Competition Isn’t Focusing on Digital, We Don’t Need to Either

Sometimes lawyers feel a false sense of security when their competition isn’t active online. Just because similar firms aren’t making the most of digital marketing doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. 

Digital marketing will give your firm a leg up on your competition. Not only will you have increased brand exposure, but you’ll also reach your target audience more effectively than your competition.

Furthermore, if your competition isn’t very active online, that presents more opportunities for you. Make the effort to fill any gaps that your competition is leaving online with valuable content and promotional programs. 

Myth #6: There’s Too Broad of an Audience Online to Make an Impact With Digital Marketing

The internet has billions of users and you can only serve people in your geographic market – so does marketing online make sense? The truth is that today’s platforms offer so many ways to segment your audience and narrow down your targets. Whereas with traditional marketing which targets anyone who is exposed to it, social media, paid campaigns, and PPC can precisely target people based on things like geography, demographics, and past activities. That means you won’t waste advertising dollars on people who aren’t likely to be interested in your firm. You’ll get a higher ROI due to reaching more qualified prospects. 

Myth #7: Email Marketing Isn’t Effective Anymore

This is one we hear a lot, and it couldn’t be further from the truth. Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways of communicating and building relationships with your database. You can take things a step further by using marketing automation and lead nurturing tactics which make emails more customized. For more email tips, read this post on ramping up open and click-through rates. 

Myth #8: People Don’t Like Personalization and Find it Creepy

You’re probably hearing a lot about online privacy concerns and how they are affecting marketers. But the truth is, people do prefer personalization in their communications. People prefer getting valuable information that’s tailored to their unique interests and challenges, and are more likely to do business with firms that they feel understand them. In fact, people expect more personalization in marketing. That being said, it’s important to be transparent. Make sure to have an unsubscribe option and privacy policy available. 

Myth #9: Traditional Ads Will Always be Best

For many years law firms and lawyers have relied on traditional advertising tactics like TV and billboards. However, these tactics are not quite the most cost effective tactics for many. If you’ve always worked with a small budget, you might have thought advertising was out of your budget, however, the rise of paid search and paid social media had made advertising extremely cost efficient and granular. 

Myth #10: Social Media is Only for the Younger Generation- Those I’m Marketing to Aren’t on There

Over 75% of Gen X is on social media, and many boomers spend almost 2 hours daily on social media. Social media is an important tactic for firms, as not having a presence online can lower credibility as many users across generations turn to social media when researching brands they may work with.

Related: Advanced Social Media Strategies for Law Firms eBook

Myth #11: My Website Doesn’t Need to be Updated

Your firm’s website is often a user’s first impression, so it needs to stand out. However, website design and development best practices update periodically as preferences change and newer technology progresses. Your firm should plan and budget to update your website throughout the years.

Myth #12: AI Can Do Everything for Me

Artificial intelligence has certainly revolutionized the digital marketing industry, however, AI certainly cannot do it all if you want a robust digital presence.

AI lacks creativity and requires human supervision in order to work. While you can leverage AI to help boost efficiency by using things like automation to send emails or Grammarly to check your copy’s grammar, AI can only help with some of your tasks and isn’t capable of completely taking over your marketing strategy.

Myth #13: SEO Isn’t Worth the Time

Sure, SEO has a much slower timeline than other tactics but this doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. SEO is absolutely vital when it comes to digital marketing, as it’s how you ensure your firm can be found online in search engines. After all, 90% of internet sessions start with a search engine.

Myth #14: Quantity is Better Than Quality

Just putting out a lot of content isn’t going to do the job. You must be putting out quality content, and if this means lessening how much you produce- so be it. Try putting out content that’s valuable to your audience, is educational, and speaks to their pain points.

Myth #15: Mobile Optimization Isn’t Necessary if You Have Great Design

Over 60% of all web traffic comes from mobile. Having a site or email that’s not optimized for mobile is like shooting yourself in the foot. If a user can’t easily access your site, email, or post on a mobile device, they’ll likely click off and not engage with you again online.

Takeaway

Digital marketing is incredibly effective for law firms who understand the correct strategies and put them to good use. If you move past these 15 myths and use the latest digital tools and tactics, you can grow your firm substantially. 

If you need help developing a customized digital strategy, reach out to us. We help firms to optimize online activities in order to meet their larger business goals.

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Do you know who your best clients are? If you do, are you able to pinpoint what makes them an ideal client? How can you apply that information to all of your marketing activities in order to maximize profitability? In this post we are talking about creating client personas for your law firm. Here’s what you need to know about these fictional representations of ideal client relationships. 

What Exactly is a Client Persona?  

Often called “buyer personas”, these are fictional representations of your firm’s ideal clients based on factual data and research. The concept is not just about who is easiest to work with or who you like the best. Client personas are based on understanding high-value visitors, leads, and clients over time. They should be used to focus your time and resources on the individuals who are most likely to convert. An effective client persona will give you a deep understanding of your most profitable relationships so that you can attempt to attract more leads like them. You can tailor your content creation, marketing messaging, sales follow-up, and much more toward the right people by building out specific client personas. 

5 Steps for Creating Client Personas

Clearly, client personas are important. In fact, it would be difficult to stress just how valuable they are. Comprehensive client personas take some time to create but it doesn’t need to be a terribly difficult process. Most of the process revolves around obtaining accurate information and figuring out the best way to present that information within your firm. Here are the steps we suggest. 

1. Understand the Various Types of Buyer Personas

First you need to know which types of personas are most helpful for your firm. Unfortunately, there is not really a comprehensive list that you can choose from. Every organization is unique and that makes their ideal clients unique. HubSpot has a great tool called Make My Persona which can generate some different options for you. In general firms have the same or similar categories based on key traits of the clients. 

If you need help identifying your ideal client, check out this free guide: A Law Firm’s Guide to Creating an Ideal Client Profile

2. Determine and Document the Information You’ll Need

There are many types of research that can inform your client personas. Things like internal reports, surveys, client interviews, and conversations with your sales team can all be helpful. Consider the following: 

• Going through your contacts database to uncover trends about how leads are generated. 
• Using form fields on your website and lead magnets to capture important information. 
• Discussing leads and client activity with your sales team to better understand client behavior. 
• Interviewing clients or prospects that you interact with the most. 

3. Use Your Research to Find Patterns

Spend some time compiling all of the information you’ve obtained. This timeline will vary for every marketer, but a robust client persona will take resources. Once you have everything in front of you, start to look for signals that point to certain traits or behaviors. You are looking for specific information on commonalities. This can be based on demographics such as age, or other key information such as which legal issue they come to your firm for or how many engagements they typically have with your attorneys. Essentially, you should notice some correlation between your “ideal” (the most profitable) client and certain metrics. This will help you to understand who the best of the best really is. 

4. Incorporate the Intangibles Into Your Personas

There are plenty of analytics or CRM tools out there that can provide much of the data you need. However, chances are there is a bigger picture in play. Through tactics like interviews or feedback sessions with your sales team, attempt to learn more about the motivations, challenges, and objections for each persona type. Who are the most motivated prospects on their lead list? What is the type of engagement that ends up driving the most revenue for your firm? Which practice area closes deals faster, and can you find a reason? There are a variety of factors that go into building a persona and only some of them are based on numbers – the rest will need to come from an in-depth knowledge of your target market. 

5. Develop Messaging for Each Persona

Take all of the information you have and distill it down into a statement about your personas: what they are concerned about, who they are, and what they want. Then, you need to put it into a format that works for everyone across your firm. It’s important to make sure everyone is speaking the same language when it comes to your target audience. Write a statement that serves as a sort of elevator pitch where your firm is positioned in a way that resonates with the persona.  Furthermore, use language your target audience would be familiar with. It’s a best practice to name the various personas you create and you may even want to find images that will help you to get a visual (for example “Personal Injury Paul”). 

Takeaway: 

Creating client personas allows for more efficient use of your firm’s marketing resources. Personas help you to target and message individuals that are the best fit for your firm. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to our experts. We can help you to define your firm’s target audience and craft strategies that will reach them.

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Content marketing is becoming an essential channel amongst most organizations. Many people have realized the benefits of content marketing for law firms, but aren’t quite sure how to measure it. Obviously, return on investment (ROI) is a key measurement of success for most marketing tactics. However, content marketing offers more than a simplistic financial return on investment. Legal marketers need to make sure they’re not short-changing their efforts by looking at the hidden benefits of content marketing for law firms. Here are four of the less obvious advantages law firms can experience through content marketing. 

Why is Content Marketing Important?

Content marketing refers to a type of marketing in which firms create and share online materials such as blogs, videos, ebooks, etc. that don’t directly promote the law firm but rather stimulate some type of interest in the firm’s services. Content marketing is important for today’s digital landscape, as consumers have become more and more numb to typical advertising tactics. Rather, content marketing positions your firm as a thought leader and gives your audience something of value and interest.

Many are aware of the typical benefits of content marketing like increased lead generation, however, creating content will do much more for your firm than just that. 

1. Valuable Content Creates Trust

Many marketing experts agree that being highly trustworthy is key to gaining a competitive advantage. One reliable way to earn more people’s trust is to create truly helpful content and then give it away for free. When trust is the goal, your firm should attempt to sell without selling – that is, aim to transfer something valuable from the institution to the individual. Doing so is an effective way to nurture relationships and become a reliable resource. 

2. Thought Leadership Can Help With Recruiting

Potential employees will research all facets of your firm. Showcasing content that displays your expertise and thought leadership will both intrigue them and help to convince them that your staff is at the forefront of the legal industry. Many firms would be surprised to see how much engaging content can impact the decisions of people they are trying to recruit. This is especially true for individuals who plan to develop a personal brand and want to be viewed as a leader in their niche. Consider partnering with your HR department to ask new hires if content made any difference in them signing on with your firm. Then share that information with your internal teams and make sure content creators collaborate with new staff who want to highlight their expertise. 

3. Content Marketing Improves Social Media Presence

If you’re not seeing a lot of engagement on your social media, creating content may be the answer. By sharing helpful content on social media, you’ll create better relationships with your audience as you add value to their feed and are bound to see better engagement than if you just simply posted about topics without a content offer included.

Related: Advanced Social Media Strategies for Law Firms eBook

4. Positive Content Can Boost Internal Morale

Content that gets published can really excite the staff of your firm (and make them want to work for more). That’s even more true for websites, publications, or journals that your attorneys read. Furthermore, others in your firm will “cheer on” the effort and happily share your content on social media, which is free promotion for your firm. Don’t be afraid to “market” the popularity of certain content internally. It’s always nice to know what makes your company stand out!

5. Content Marketing Can Generate Better Quality Leads

Sure, it’s been said many times that content marketing is great for lead generation, but putting out great content actually also helps you ensure that the leads you’re generating are higher quality. If someone engages with your content enough to become a lead, chances are they’re already deep enough into the awareness stage to understand your firm’s offerings and whether it’s a fit for them. Gone are the days where you nurture leads that won’t go anywhere!

6. Content Gives People Something to Converse About

Great content gets people inside and outside of your firm chatting. It provides colleagues something to share with one another (as well as those outside the firm). It can even offer opportunities to recruit more advocates or participants for future content. Content marketing touches a surprising amount of functions within a firm, so it can be an area to improve relationships and collaboration. 

7. Showcases Your Personality

Nowadays, consumers want to work with brands that they can relate to, and law firms and lawyers are notoriously challenged in trying to remain relatable in the eyes of the public. With content, you can easily showcase a voice, brand, and style that helps your audience understand your values and, above all else. will humanize your brand.

8. Improved Search Visibility

SEO and content marketing can and should work in tandem. Posting more content on your site and updating pages has the potential to help boost how often search engines crawl your page. Better yet, the pieces of content you post can be used to target specific keywords.

9. Useful Content Can Streamline Meetings

The initial consultation and first few meetings are bound to be full of many questions. Providing potential clients with informative content at every stage of the buyer’s journey can help them answer questions they may have before even stepping foot in your audience.

Related: The Law Firm Guide to Content Marketing eBook

10. Saved Money

Content marketing is great because it’s notoriously cost efficient as long as you’re willing to learn. There’s also a lot of great writers out there, such as the Legal Writers Bureau, who are willing to write content for you. Putting together content can be a cost efficient tactic that garners a great ROI, unlike online ads where you’ll always have to keep spending money.

Takeaway:

As with most things marketing-related, it’s smart to measure in quantifiable ways when possible. Several platforms and tools can help you to monitor the success of your content marketing, but it’s important to keep these intangible benefits in mind as well. Marketing success and failure can often depend on the effectiveness of your content marketing, so it’s critical to get it right. If you don’t feel like your firm has the bandwidth to create compelling content regularly, consider working with one of our writers from The Legal Writers Bureau.

This post has been edited and republished from Jan. 20, 2022.

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When it comes to your law firm, your expertise is your product. Along with blogs, thought leadership papers and videos, podcasts are a great way to highlight your knowledge and assure potential clients of your credibility. However, creating a podcast with a loyal following is easier said than done. While there are several factors that go into creating a successful podcast, there is none more important than the quality of your podcast guests. Obtaining diverse and interesting guests whose expertise and values align with your own is essential – but often overlooked. Here’s our advice on how to land great guests to appear on your law firm podcast.

Why Bring On Guests?

You may be used to hosting guests on your show from time to time or maybe you’ve always flown solo. However, getting a guest on your podcast has a lot of key benefits:

• Your show will be marketed to a wider audience as your guest promotes it
• You’ll be able to deep dive into topics you may not be an expert on
• You can get critical breakdowns of complex legal topics from experts
• It keeps your show fresh and exciting as each episode differs
• You’ll have someone to bounce ideas off of

Choosing Great Podcast Guests

Great podcast guests can speak to a specific question or topic your audience is interested in, and they’ll have their own niche audiences they can promote your podcast to. The ideal guest hits both of these marks and is excited about the opportunity to promote your interview/conversation. As you brainstorm which guests to invite onto your firm’s podcast, look at the theme and goals of your podcast and ask yourself the following questions:

• Do the guests’ goals align with yours?
• Do they have particular information that applies to your theme?
• Think about the subject matter – are you looking at a particular legal issue or discussing a critical matter?
• Who can add to dialogue in a way that complements your thoughts?
• Have they appeared on other podcasts or similar media like webinars in the past?

It’s also critical to consider the reach of guests. Do they have a large following, and are they engaged? If so, it’s likely they can provide a big boost to your podcast program.

Lastly, you’ll want to create a working list of potential podcast guests. If you have an influencer list, that’s a great place to start. You also want to compile a list of any experts you’ve interviewed recently. A great way to manage this working list is a spreadsheet that includes items like a name, position, subject matter expertise, and social profiles. You might also make note of individuals who would have their own reasons for being a guest on a podcast – perhaps a new book to promote. Narrow the list down to 3 to 5 names, and start reaching out!

It’s a Two Way Street

Look for guests who are clearly in a position where they want more exposure. Sure, the lawyer with no online presence may surprisingly want to be on your podcast, but guests will be more inclined to do episodes if there’s something they can get out of it that they’re already on the hunt for. Like exposure for their own show, social media, books, etc.

Make the Benefits Obvious

Getting your first few guests for your podcast can seem daunting. But if you put the focus on what they’ll get out of the interview—links, visibility, association with influencers, and traffic—you can greatly increase your chances of landing those prized podcast guests. Let them know you’ll promote the episode on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email marketing, and anywhere else you plan on sharing. If you’ve got good numbers in any of these areas, let them know.

Make it Personal

Don’t just send the same message or email to a whole list- personalize it. Research each guest and get to know their career, past appearances on media like podcasts and webinars, and their niche. Point these things out when you reach out. For example: “I noticed you appeared on ___ Podcast and I really enjoyed your episode. The info you gave on the ___ case was really valuable.”

Be Clear on the Time Commitment

Many potential law firm podcast guests may not realize how little time it may take to record an episode. Let them know of any preliminary meetings they’ll need to do and how long the actual recording will take. So, if it only takes you 30 minutes to record an episode- emphasize that!

Be Persistent

Don’t overdo it and hound one person with emails, but make sure you’re definitely following up with anyone who responds. And don’t be afraid to send a polite follow up email if you get no response the first time.

How to Reach Out to Your Potential Guests:

Before you invite guests onto your firm’s podcast, you should be engaged with the guest on social media (or at the very least, following them). Check on that first. Sometimes it makes sense to position the invitation as reciprocal – maybe there is content that you can create for their blog, for example. This is also an opportunity for your guest to promote their business and reach a new audience. You can try one of these methods for actually reaching your target guest:

Cold email

Make sure to do your research and customize the email. Keep things brief. Introduce yourself, compliment their work, and be direct about what you’re asking. Try to focus on benefits for them, like promotion of their latest work. 

Warm email

If you have met the guest before or engaged to a higher degree with them over social, you can phrase this email a bit differently. Position the introduction as a “reconnection” and mention any details that demonstrate your remembrance of them – perhaps noting the performance of a sports team you know they follow. Let them know they’d be a perfect guest for your podcast, and as with the cold email, focus on the value to them. 

LinkedIn Invitation

Send an invitation and say something like this: “We are launching a new podcast on [date] and would be so honored to have you as one of our first guests.”

LinkedIn Message

If you’re already connected with the person, simply draft a short message with similar content to the warm email. 

As you reach out to your short list of desired podcast guests, set calendar reminders for follow up. A good practice is to follow up once with a cold contact and twice with a warm contact. Reiterate your request and be clear about the time commitment.

Word of Mouth

Consider reaching out to past guests and asking if they can recommend your podcast to anyone that they think would be a good potential guest. As you talk to that lead, you can mention your mutual connection already appeared on the show.

Takeaway

Once you’ve secured a top-tier guest for your law firm’s podcast, streamline the process of planning to make things easy for them. Send them a podcast guest guide where they can provide you with questions they’d like to be asked when it comes time for recording. And of course, make the content easy to promote. The easier it is for them to promote themselves, the more likely it is they’ll want to be a guest! 

For a comprehensive overview of everything firms need to know about how to start a successful podcast that generates leads, check out this free eBook: The Law Firm Guide to Podcasting.

We have our own podcast, The Legal Marketing 2.0 Podcast, and we have experience producing podcasts for many of our own clients. If you need more tips on creating a terrific podcast, give ours a listen – or contact us to help you develop a program of your own!

This post has been edited and republished from Oct. 22, 2020.

The post How To Attract Podcast Guests For Your Law Firm’s Podcast appeared first on Good2bSocial.

One of our favorite topics to cover is LinkedIn for lawyers. That’s because it’s a powerful tool for legal professionals, whether they’re looking for career opportunities or new leads. It’s arguably the best platform for furthering your professional goals, whatever they might be. LinkedIn is constantly innovating and evolving, and job-seeking activity across the site is at an all-time high. They’ve recently released five new features specifically for job seekers. We’re covering them here in order to help you make the most of your LinkedIn efforts. 

LinkedIn for Lawyers: The Latest Features for Job Seekers

1. “Open to Work”

How do you let potential new employers know that you’re open to opportunities? Previously, there was a delicate balance between highlighting your current firm expertise while signaling that you are open to conversations with other firms. This new feature is designed to let recruiters understand that you are open to new opportunities. It can be used privately or you can share information with a broader audience. You can also set up job alerts to be notified of relevant postings. To begin, click on the “Me” icon at the top of your LinkedIn home page. Choose “View Profile” and click the “Open to” button. Then select “Finding a new job”, add the requested information, and add to your profile. 

Related: How to Rebrand for a New Career [An On-Demand, Complimentary Webinar]

2. Share Your Resume with All Recruiters

By sharing your resume with all recruiters, it’ll be easier for them to find and contact you about opportunities. Once you enable this feature, your profile will appear in search results when recruiters search for skills, experiences, education, and accomplishments that match information found in any resumes that you’ve saved over the past 2 years. That being said, to use this option, you need to have at least one resume saved on LinkedIn. Start by navigating to the “Jobs” tab and then click on “Application Settings”. Toggle on Share your resume data with recruiters to access the resume-sharing feature. You can toggle it off if you ever want to change this setting, and LinkedIn will still hide your resume from recruiters within your own company (the company page matching the “I am currently working here” field in your profile). 

3. Skills Match

It’s important to understand the key skills required for a new role. Using this feature, job seekers can review these skills and compare them with those on their own profiles. Furthermore, you can add context to various skills by tagging them to relevant professional experiences, education, or certifications. 

4. “Hiring in Your Network” for Referrals

Word of mouth is still key for career opportunities, and spreading the word about your work will be helpful. This feature allows users to tap into their network to learn about job opportunities and increase their chances of getting hired. With this functionality, LinkedIn proactively notifies users when people in their network are hiring. 

5. Raise Your Hand with “I’m Interested”

Now you can directly indicate your interest in working with a particular organization. By clicking the new “I’m Interested” button on a company’s profile, all of your own profile information will be privately shared with recruiters at the company to consider for a role in the future. Of course, if you’re really excited about a particular opportunity you should go through a more formal process with recruiters. 

Takeaway: 

LinkedIn for lawyers is a great way to expand your career horizons. You can find suitable job matches, assess qualifications, get referrals, and much more with these new features. If you’re hoping to use LinkedIn to discover new career opportunities, make sure to explore this functionality as well as general LinkedIn best practices for job seekers. And of course, make sure to follow our blog to keep up with the tips and tricks you need to make the most of every social media platform. 

The post LinkedIn for Lawyers: New LinkedIn Features for Job Seekers appeared first on Good2bSocial.

B2B buyers have always been an important part of the economic ecosystem for B2B law firms, but they are becoming increasingly self-reliant, well-researched, and involved in purchase decisions. 

According to research from Forrester, in recent years the average number of interactions required to make a buying decision jumped from 17 to 27 – a 59% increase. At the same time, more B2B stakeholders have joined in purchasing conversations: In 2017, 47% of purchases involved at least four people, while in 2021, 60% of purchases did. Buying groups are getting bigger and increasingly performing their own research. A majority of the time spent by B2B buyers in the purchase decision is focused on reading and other forms of research, and internal discussions. 

What does this mean for B2B law firms? It means leaders across all industries need to focus on getting B2B consumers the one thing they really need to make a decision – information. The natural consequence of such activity is that content is more important than ever. Content is playing a more significant role in the sales process and can create a real impact on the bottom line. What changes need to be made for you to keep up in this B2B content revolution? Here are some of our best tips for law firms hoping to create more content for the B2B market. 

1. Collaborate With Your Business Development Team

It’s common for marketing and business development teams to operate separately, but when they partner up, great things happen. Ideally, people on your content creation team are in touch with sales leaders. They should share their goals and talk about what the sales team is hearing in real meetings. Ask about their experiences with prospects and build on the conversation from there. Here are some good starting points: 

• What are the typical roles in a buying group/who do you talk to? 
• With whom are you most likely to interact? 
• What information do prospects ask for, and what do they share with the rest of the buying group? 
• When is the prospect likely to engage with the sales team? Does it seem like they just learned about the firm or do they already have a short list of people to work with? 
• What questions do they want answered before they can make a buying decision?

2. Shadow Some Sales Meetings

Take your research even further by asking to tag along during some standard meetings. The exercise will be most helpful if you can follow the entire process, from an initial phone call to contract signing meetings. Sit in as an observer and listen carefully to what the B2B prospect is saying. What information does your internal team provide and what is going unsaid? Pro tip: it’s a good idea to resist trying to participate in these meetings. It’s not your job to make contributions to the meeting; rather you’re there to learn. Use what you find out to uncover new topics for content creation. The more information you can provide to prospects up front, the more productive their research will be and the further along in the process they can get. 

3. Revisit Your Client Personas and Target Market Research

How do the audiences for your brand content actually interact with what you produce? B2B content producers often define readers by roles. However, bigger buying groups have more stakeholders and these audiences are worth expanding. Do you need to add certain personas, based on what you know about who is likely to be part of the buying decision? Does the growth in independent research mean that you need to revamp your overall content strategy? A good place to start is by looking at the data available to your organization. Pull reporting on website visitors, social media interactions, subscribers, YouTube viewers, etc. Which section of the funnel attracts the most attention? If you notice large fluctuations between top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel content, for example, then you might be doing a better job of attracting people who have more direct input into buying decisions. If you’re using an advanced marketing automation system, then your data is probably tied to individuals and you can “follow” a prospect through the entire sales funnel. In this way, you can look for common areas of drop-off. Or, you can look for behavior commonalities among people who ultimately signed on with your firm. There is any number of actions you can take once you’re armed with data; the important thing is to keep an open mind and make changes to your strategy based on the new information you’ve gained. 

If you need help identifying your client personas, then start by creating an ideal client profile with this free guide: A Law Firm’s Guide to Creating an Ideal Client Profile

4. Create Case Studies

Testimonials and social proof are invaluable to law firms. Case studies can be time-consuming to create, and your clients may not always see what’s in it for them. Develop a template that makes it really simple for them to give you some soundbites to use in case studies, or record an interview and go back and do the writing later. Try to cover the purchase process, even if you don’t plan to include that information in the published case study. Then of course go over the major challenges, the process, the solution, and the ultimate results. Make sure to file away any key information you use about who was involved in the buying decisions for future efforts. 

5. Make the Most of Sign-up Forms

Conventional marketing wisdom shares that if you want to get people to fill out forms, you need to keep them really brief. However, if you’re trying to learn more about B2B buyers in general, you can add some fields to your forms in order to get more information. Don’t be afraid to create fields that say “What is your title?” and “What is your role in the decision process?” If you want to make things easier, you can create drop-down menus with the most popular answers, and then an “other” column where people can elaborate if they need to. You can also incorporate questions like these in your feedback forms or post-event surveys. The key is getting more information using the forms you’ve already created and pulling reporting from. 

Takeaway: 

Worthwhile content takes an investment to create, but it’s important to make those investments if you want to compete in today’s B2B law firm landscape. A great content strategy is based on what is relevant and valuable to the audience, so doing your research is key. Fortunately, there is a ton of information at your disposal, from your typical website reporting to an experienced sales team. Use what you have available to understand your audience, create content around topics that matter to them, and review performance. If you are looking to ramp up the quality of your law firm’s content program, we can help. We offer proven content services ranging from audience profiles to 1:1 consulting, historical analysis, repurposing of current content, and everything in between. Contact us today for a free consultation.

The post How Law Firms Can Create Content for the B2B Market appeared first on Good2bSocial.

How do you choose the right digital marketing agency for your law firm? Selecting a legal marketing agency to work with can be one of the most important decisions you will make. The right agency can boost the effectiveness of your online marketing and increase revenue significantly. However, a poorly chosen agency can do anything from achieving disappointing results to actually causing negative outcomes.

Working with an agency can be difficult if they don’t fully understand your goals. In order to be successful, you need to clearly communicate what your business goals are and how you will measure the agency’s success in achieving these goals.

When the time comes to bring in outside help for your law practice’s digital marketing, you’ll want to make sure you’re considering the right factors and asking the right questions. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions to make sure you’re getting started on the right foot.

Why Hire a Legal Marketing Agency

Hiring a legal marketing agency may seem like a costly and daunting pursuit. However, the benefits greatly outweigh the expense. Some key benefits you’ll find are:

• Saved money- as now you won’t have to outsource multiple tasks,  expand your own team size, or invest in the multitude of marketing tools needed nowadays
• Access to years of experience- By working with an agency, you’ll have access to all the knowledge that comes with years of experience working purely in marketing. This is something that may be hard to find when building your internal team but is easy to find at an agency.
• Greater bandwidth and efficiency- with an agency you’ll be able to do more with less. As the agency takes on most of the grunt work, you’ll find your own team has more time on its hands and a greater ability to work towards your business development goals.
• Access to experts- when a new Google update occurs or a social media platform emerges, do you find yourself wondering what your firm should do? How can we stay current with our strategy? With an agency, you’ll have experts at the ready, so any questions you may have can be answered accurately and swiftly.
• New perspectives- many law firms struggle to stay current with new marketing trends or fail to refresh their strategies as often as they should. With your agency ready to provide its honest and fresh perspectives, you’ll never have to worry about losing ground to your competitors or falling short of industry standards. These new perspectives can even lead you to creating some cutting-edge campaigns.
• Access to better resources- Like we mentioned, investing in marketing technology can get expensive. An agency,  assuming they’re reputable, will have access to the most up-to-date and cutting-edge resources that’ll improve your strategy over time.

Make Sure the Marketing Agency Understands Your Needs and Your Business

It’s essential to seek out an agency that understands exactly what you need, as well as your practice areas and your target audience. Some marketing agencies specialize in specific industries while others will take just about any client that knocks on their door. While specializing in the legal industry is not a requirement, it is highly likely your firm will achieve better results partnering with an agency that understands the specifics of working with lawyers and law firms and the nuances of legal marketing.

Ask About Their Services and Skills

Many different things fall under the umbrella of online or digital marketing. There are “organic” and paid methods of attracting leads. Marketers use various channels and tools such as: email, SEO, social media, and online advertising. You’ll want to ask any agency you’re considering what services they offer and which, if any, they specialize in.

Anyone claiming to be an expert in all aspects of digital marketing is almost certainly over-representing themselves. An honest agency will be upfront about where its strengths and weaknesses lie.

Room for Growth

While you might only be looking to sign on for a few services right now,  that may not always be the case. What if you want to do more in the future? What if you need a website redesign in a few years? What if your team size changes and you need the agency to take on more tasks? Ask about their ability to cover a few different strategies and how accustomed they are to adding services as their clients grow or their needs change.

Ask About Strategy vs. Execution

Some marketing agencies will specialize in strategy and planning, expecting you to take care of the execution. Others might be ready to handle the execution, but expect you to devise and inform them of your own strategy. Still, others will fall somewhere in the middle. Again, no one way of doing things is better than the other. The right choice for you will depend on exactly what your goals are and how involved you want to be in the various processes.

Alignment of Goals

Before heading into the hiring process, you should first map out what your marketing goals are. Then, you should bring up goal setting when you meet with agencies. Do their goals for your firm align with your own? Do they feel equipped to reach your goals?

Ask How Results are Communicated

Keeping track of results is an important part of everything from small individual campaigns to your overall marketing efforts. You should find out right from the start how those results will be communicated to you. Some agencies might provide a login for a dashboard where you can keep track of your own results in real-time. Others might send you a report once a month through email. You’ll want to make sure that you’re going to be able to get at the information you want when you want it. You are also going to want more than just data. Data is useless if you don’t understand the meaning behind it or how it specifically impacts your practice. A good digital marketing agency will not only provide the data but also help you glean actionable insights and strategies from that data.

Ask For and Check Past Results

Unfortunately, there are a lot of agencies, not to mention individuals representing themselves as agencies, who will promise the sky just to get you to hand over some money. The best way to avoid these types of people is to ask for and check references.

Any reputable marketer will be able to provide references from past clients with verifiable results. For example, don’t believe someone who tells you to search for a term and then claims to be responsible for the first result on the page. Instead, insist on speaking with the owner of that particular business for verification.

Make Sure the Price is Right

Prices from one agency to another can vary greatly. The way services are billed can vary as well. It’s important to consider how much your firm can afford to spend and how you will be charged. Some agencies will simply bill a set price each month for whatever services you’ve chosen. Others will charge varying rates based on results. You should think about both of these factors and ensure you know how billing will work with each agency you’re considering.

Depending on how involved you want to be with the future marketing of your law firm, there may be some other miscellaneous factors to consider as you work to identify the right digital marketing agency.  Such factors might include the agency’s proximity to your offices or how well you get along with their team members. The suggestions we’ve outlined above, however, should get you going in the right direction and help you find a digital marketing agency that will be both effective and comfortable to work with.

Takeaway:

Choosing the right legal marketing agency is paramount for success. Not all agencies are alike, and sadly, there are many companies that lack knowledge of best practices.

If you’re considering hiring a digital marketing agency for your law firm, we’d be happy to set up a call to discuss your options. We’re a full service digital legal marketing agency that has helped countless law firms improve their marketing.

This post has been edited and republished from May 15, 2018.

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Your overall firm strategy should guide your marketing efforts. Do your marketing team and SEO managers have the same goals as the rest of the firm? Chances are, they may be trying to accomplish different things, even when it comes to content. Here are our top tips for aligning law firm SEO and overall marketing efforts. 

5 Best Practices for Balancing SEO and Marketing Goals

Obtaining results that are best for your SEO objectives and overall marketing goals starts at the beginning of the process. It’s important to establish clear protocols that will help you to avoid ambiguity early on. Here are five steps that can help. 

1. Keep SEO in Mind When Creating a Brand Guide

Many marketers make the mistake of letting SEO become an afterthought, but it should actually be a key component of your marketing programming. This is particularly true when it comes to content marketing. We suggest solidifying the relationship between SEO and marketing with a section in your brand or style guide on SEO specifically. A common mindset is to adjust content to rank for law firm SEO when it’s more effective to optimize SEO for marketing. This is especially true when writers are in charge of their own SEO efforts – the brand and style guide should help them to navigate this work while adhering to larger marketing objectives. Here are some things you might want to include: 

1. 1. Keyword lists including preferred ones and ones to exclude. This can help marketers across every channel focus on relevant keywords and avoid those that don’t help. 
   2. A list of branded terms that shouldn’t be adjusted for SEO. This ensures that other marketing efforts aren’t impacted by keywords that have been tweaked for SEO purposes. 
   3. Key content topics including which subjects are most important for advancing brand awareness as well as improving SEO. This also helps SEO managers plan a long-term strategy. 

Related: The Law Firm Guide to Content Marketing eBook

2. Make Sure Each Content Asset is Optimized for Both SEO and Marketing Goals

In an ideal world, all content would rank for SEO. However, the goal of each piece is going to differ based on search intent. Some thought leadership may present difficulties in ranking for SEO, but have importance for brand awareness and credibility. In these cases, it’s better to focus on your marketing goals for things like lead generation rather than putting your efforts into SEO ranking. On the other hand, content that is important for SEO should focus on search intent and optimization first and foremost. You might notice that branding takes a backseat to SEO in these cases, but you can still ensure everything is aligned during content creation. The best way to do this is to plan content beforehand and note whether it will be designed for SEO, other marketing efforts, or both.

3. Survey Your Audience to Assess if Goals are Being Met

You can get a lot of powerful insights on marketing strategies and SEO impacts by simply asking your audience. Start by asking which values your clients or prospects associate with your brand. You can also ask about the top keywords that come to mind. This will help you to evaluate SEO priorities and determine if the impression your audience has of your firm is on par with your goals. If you notice that there’s a disconnect between SEO-focused activity and overall objectives, you can start making plans to get everything better aligned. Additionally, as part of this process, you might A/B test different versions of things. Create one that is SEO-focused and one that is marketing-focused and see how they both perform. 

4. Create a Cohesive Calendar

An intentional content calendar will help you address both intended and unintended brand associations and focus on law firm SEO at the same time. As you plot content, you can document whether the material will be SEO-focused or marketing-focused (intended to meet other goals, such as lead generation for example). Plan your content per quarter and set goals for each content asset. 

5. Hold Regular Meetings Between Marketing and SEO Managers

Probably the most important part of the process is making sure the people behind the work are aligned. Both marketers and SEO professionals should be on the same page and be able to collaborate on the content calendar. From there, you should host regular meetings so that marketing and SEO can contribute ideas, view reporting, and discuss progress toward overall goals. Focus on the metrics associated with all content and the impressions that material is making. You can also practice social listening and bring this information to meetings. The important thing is that there are representatives from both an SEO and marketing perspectives present in consistent meetings. 

Related: SEO for Law Firm Websites eBook

Takeaway: 

Meeting the goals of both your CMO and SEO manager isn’t always easy. However, your firm will be more successful if these efforts are aligned. Follow the steps above to take a thoughtful and proactive approach to ensuring your marketing goals and SEO objectives are both being met. 

If you’d like assistance with your law firm SEO, don’t hesitate to contact us today for a free consultation.

The post How To Use SEO To Meet Your Marketing Goals appeared first on Good2bSocial.

For many lawyers, LinkedIn remains an untapped resource for new leads and business opportunities. Though LinkedIn is a crucial tool for lawyers, simply being on the platform is not enough. To drum up those leads, you need to be thoughtful and intentional about how you use all of the features LinkedIn offers. We’ve compiled several tactics that lawyers can use to obtain more quality leads on LinkedIn. Follow the 14 steps detailed here, and by simply spending 30 minutes per day on LinkedIn, you’ll generate better quality leads and more of them.

14-Step Plan for Generating More Leads on LinkedIn for Lawyers

1. Make Sure Your Summary is Impactful

This is step #1 in doing anything on LinkedIn for lawyers. Before you can focus on connections or leads, you need to be sure your summary addresses problems your clients face and how you help them resolve those challenges. It’s also important to highlight key expertise and information on how you’ve done that before. Make sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of the summary, such as a link back to your website or blog. LinkedIn gives you 2,000 characters, which equates to approximately 250-300 words, and plenty of space to express yourself.

2. Create a 30-second Video of Your Elevator Pitch

Think of it as a commercial or a way you can grab a prospective client’s attention. When networking in person, you would likely have a short speech prepared that describes what you do, how you help others, and why you’re the best at it. Simply create a digital version that can be used for the online networking that happens on LinkedIn. 

3. Invest in Adding Connections

Every time you’re on LinkedIn, take a few moments to connect with others. The “People you may know” area is a good place to start. Not only will this grow your own network, but it will provide more opportunities to make other introductions (which people appreciate). 

4. Ask for Introductions if You Don’t Know Someone

Connecting with people that you’ve never actually met isn’t a great practice unless you have something to offer them. Maybe you’d like to invite them to your law firm’s podcast? If you don’t have anything to offer and there’s someone you’d like to meet, ask for an introduction via your network. 

5. Create a Lead List

Spend a few minutes each day reviewing the connections of your network. From there, you can create a list of people you’d like to meet. Reach out to your connections via email or phone for a more personal conversation, asking them to make an introduction to people on your lead list. 

6. Stay Connected to Current Clients and Prospects

When it comes to LinkedIn for lawyers, this is another area where spending a few minutes each day can pay off. When you get a new client or prospect, connect with them on LinkedIn. If they have a company page, follow it. Try to stay on top of what’s happening with them professionally. This way, you will be top-of-mind — think referrals and cross-selling services!

7. Post (Helpful) Updates

We recommend posting one item per day. It only takes a few minutes. Post a link to an article that you find interesting, news happening in your industry, or helpful resources. Not every update needs to generate conversation – but consistently posting will keep you in people’s feeds and you will be viewed as someone that provides value. Delivering content helps to establish your expertise and goes a long way in positioning you as a thought leader. See: How Lawyers Can Become LinkedIn Thought Leaders in 10 Easy Steps.

8. Join and Be Active Within Groups

Joining groups can help you find people in your target audience, and it also gives you a chance to expand your network and deepen connections. Just like with updates, it’s important not to sell or self-promote. Just join conversations and add value when you can. 

9. Congratulate Others

With LinkedIn for lawyers, once you’re in the habit of monitoring the company pages of close connections, you will know when good things happen for them. For any key contact, share their good news as a status update and recognize the person with an “@” reply.

10. Write Recommendations

When possible, spend 5 minutes writing thoughtful and truth-based recommendations for connections. Not only will that contact be likely to return the favor if needed, but it puts your name on their page, highlighting your connection and keeping your information top-of-mind for their network. 

11. Keep a Consistent Schedule

Many people forget about LinkedIn for a week or more, then spend a few hours digging in, then forget about it again. That method is unlikely to help you generate leads. We recommend carving out half an hour each day to review LinkedIn and implement the above tactics. 

12. Create a Script for Next Steps

Ideally, you’ll move conversations off LinkedIn. This is easier to do if you have scripts already created that guide your writing. Don’t just copy and paste the same message – but having a framework that helps your recipient move to your end goal is helpful. If you are a HubSpot user, you can create repetitive email content as an email template. You can access templates from the CRM or when sending an email from your inbox.

13. Start a Newsletter

You can use LinkedIn’s newsletter feature to further establish yourself as a thought leader and engage with your audience in a new and exciting way. Use this newsletter to share news, articles, educational content, etc.

14. Leverage Hashtags

Do some research and figure out which hashtags are most relevant to your industry. Use these hashtags in your posts, and also follow some hashtags. When you see new posts under these hashtags, leave a thoughtful comment. This is a great way to get your name out there.

Takeaway

LinkedIn for lawyers truly offers an untapped resource for new business. Developing an intentional strategy to convert connections into leads they can nurture is key for law firms seeking to leverage the platform to build their practice. Follow the 14 steps detailed above to generate a steady flow of new inquiries into your law firm.

If you need assistance with your LinkedIn lead generation strategy, reach out to us today. We have vast experience helping lawyers and law firms achieve measurable success through social media.

This post has been edited and republished from Jun. 21, 2020.

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Digital marketing continues to change the way clients find and interact with law firms. Advertising where prospects or future clients might see you is a great start – but you’ll need a more sophisticated plan to attract and engage them. 

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, lead nurturing has become crucial. By giving individuals content that is actually helpful and useful based on where they are in the decision process, you can reach those seeking assistance at the right time, as well as build loyalty to your firm. 

Content mapping is the exercise of plotting out content for each stage of your unique marketing funnel. Lead nurturing is essential in turning a stranger into a client, and content mapping is a key component of that process. 

The 4 Stages of a Typical Marketing Funnel

Although every marketing funnel is different (for example, shopping for jeans is naturally a lot different than choosing an attorney), prospective clients generally follow predictable stages: Awareness, Consideration, Decision, and Delight.

Awareness

In this stage, readers are looking for answers that address a problem. They might not fully understand the problem or even be aware that a law firm could assist them. At this stage of the funnel, you will want to focus your efforts on creating educational and informative content that will enable your prospects to better understand the issue at hand and help them to determine whether or not they need to seek the help of a lawyer. Remember, at this stage, readers may not be thinking about a solution, and may not even have considered hiring a lawyer yet.

Their goal: is to get information that’ll help them solve a problem

Your goal: is to attract them to your firm’s website, generate awareness of your brand, and position your firm as an expert

Some content ideas: blog posts, checklists, infographics, ebooks, podcasts, cold emails

Some tips for the awareness stage:

• Understand your buyer personas and their problems
• Try to refrain from being self-promotional
• Conduct sufficient keyword research 

Related: The Law Firm Guide to Podcasting eBook

Consideration

At this stage, clients understand what their challenge is. They know they need a lawyer’s assistance and are considering different attorneys and firms. This is a critical phase because it’s where prospects build their “shortlist”. Any content you provide needs to be exceptionally valuable and clear, while also subtly addressing why your firm is the best. This is where case studies and webinars can help prospects understand the knowledge and experience that your lawyers have.

Their goal: is to research solutions more and learn more about the solutions you provide

Your goal: is to educate them on your offerings and set yourself apart from your competitors

Some content ideas: case studies, testimonials, client reviews, lead nurturing emails, webinars, newsletters

Some tips for the consideration stage:

• It’s okay to self-promote at this stage
• You can repurpose awareness stage content by combining them into more robust offerings

Decision

This is the “make or break” stage where individuals will decide between the lawyers and firms on their shortlist. They need very compelling information on why your firm can best meet their needs and solve their challenges.

Their goal: is to choose which law firm they’re going to use to help solve their issue and feel confident in that decision

Your goal: to convert them, and answer any pressing questions they have keeping them from converting

Some content ideas: case studies, comparison sheets, consultation meetings with slides, FAQs, specific landing pages

Some tips for the decision phase:

• All your content should be hyper-targeted with specific ideal client profiles in mind
• Try to think of any questions someone might need to be answered before making this purchasing decision

If you need help creating an ideal client profile, check out this free guide: A Law Firm’s Guide to Creating an Ideal Client Profile

Delight

Success isn’t won simply by signing the contract. If you want to retain clients and build lifetime value, you need to continue to please them and do a great job. Go above and beyond to ensure your client’s satisfaction and keep in touch regularly (in a helpful way). Referrals are important for any law firm, so focusing energy on people at this stage is never a waste of time. 

Their goal: to feel happy with their decision

Your goal: to keep the client happy, answer any questions, sign them on for more services, or get a referral

Some content ideas: client alerts, re-engagement emails, client newsletters, press releases, surveys

Some tips for the delight phase:

• You can segment your client audiences for better focus
• Always keep your content informative 

There is a second component to impactful content mapping, and that’s building out proper buyer personas and understanding how to reach them. For advice on creating your perfect client persona, visit our previous blog post: 15 Questions to Build Your Client Personas. 

Takeaway

Combining accurate client personas with content that is matched to their stage in the buyer’s journey will lead to stronger lead nurturing and increased client conversions. Now that you have learned how law firms can map content to their marketing funnel to increase conversions, it is time for you to start analyzing your content. As always, if you need more advice on anything mentioned here, please contact us today!

This post has been edited and republished from Jul. 29, 2019.

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AI is one of the most exciting technologies out there, and Google executives agree. In fact, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet, recently released an announcement about the growth of this particular area. Calling AI the “most profound technology we are working on today,” he shared his belief that AI can help businesses achieve their full potential and unlock opportunities throughout the world. In this post, we are breaking down the latest news from Google around AI. 

Introducing BARD

Pichai shared that over the past 6 years, Google has re-oriented their company around AI. Leadership sees AI as the most important way that Google can deliver on its mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Since then Google has made serious investments in AI across the board, with the latest advancements coming recently.

In the announcement, Pichai states “ Today, the scale of the largest AI computations is doubling every six months, far outpacing Moore’s Law. At the same time, advanced generative AI and large language models are capturing the imaginations of people around the world. In fact, our Transformer research project and our field-defining paper in 2017, as well as our important advances in diffusion models, are now the basis of many of the generative AI applications you’re starting to see today.”

With the goal of translating deep research and technological breakthroughs into products that truly help people, Google has been working on next-generation language and conversation capabilities powered by their Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA for short). The experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, is called Bard. In the announcement from Google, the CEO said that they are opening it up to trusted testers before making it widely available to the public. Stating that Bard “seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models”, it draws on information from the web to provide responses that are timely and high-quality. You can use Bard to simplify complex topics or even just to get new lunch venue suggestions. Right now, Bard is being released with the lightweight model version of LaMDA, which requires significantly less computing power and allows for more users. At this stage of the process, Google will combine external feedback with its own internal testing to make sure Bard’s responses meet a high standard for quality, safety, and accuracy. 

Improving Google Products with AI

At the same time, Google will continue to build on its long history of using AI to improve search. BERT, one of the first Transformer models, was instrumental in understanding the intricacies of human language. Then, two years ago, Google introduced MUM, which is 1,000 times more powerful than BERT and has a more multilingual understanding of information. The latest AI technologies are building on this and introducing entirely new ways of engaging with information. One of the larger goals of Google is to continue utilizing AI across searches. 

For example, one of the most exciting opportunities presented by AI is the ability to deepen our understanding of information and turn it into useful knowledge more efficiently. Meaning, it will be easier for everyday searchers to get to the heart of the information they’re looking for, and get things done faster. AI is particularly helpful in cases where there is no “right” answer. The goal is to instill AI-powered features in search that distill complex information and different perspectives into information that is simple to digest. 

Takeaway: 

At the end of the day, Google is constantly evolving and AI is one of its big areas of focus. AI can be used to bring more complex information to wider audiences, and with each new product release, Google is doing more with the technology. Exciting things are on the horizon for search marketers! It’s critical that digital marketers stay up to date on what is happening with Google and other technology players that impact search and online experience. Make sure to follow our blog, where we always share the latest and greatest information for legal marketers. 

The post How Google is Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Improve Search appeared first on Good2bSocial.

Social media is an integral part of most people’s daily lives. It’s certainly grown in importance as part of the marketing mix. Though there are a lot of benefits to using free functionality on social media, paid social media is becoming more prevalent for law firms. Should you invest in paid social media? Here’s what law firms need to know about making the jump to paid social media. 

What is Paid Social Media? 

In simple terms, paid social media refers to a method of advertising where marketing messages or sponsored content are displayed on popular social media channels to a targeted audience. 

Examples you might commonly see are pay-per-click advertisements, branded content, influencer-generated posts, etc. You can tell a post is a paid ad when you see a “sponsored” or “promoted” tag near the content. It’s worth noting that each social media platform is different, and the ways that their advertising works will vary. Twitter offers short-form content whereas Instagram is heavily focused on visual items. LinkedIn is much more geared toward networking and building relationships. That means you need to carefully consider all the elements of paid campaigns before getting started. 

Reviewing the Major Social Media Tools

As we mentioned, each channel has unique features that make it different from the others. Additionally, each social media tool attracts a different audience and the way that people use it will be different. That being said, there are three elements that will be central to any paid social campaign, regardless of the platform. Those components are: 

1. Some form of appealing visual content
2. Quick access to lead capture forms
3. Space for enticing ad copy

Let’s take a closer look at each of the major social media channels. 

LinkedIn

This platform is the one that is most ideally suited to legal professionals. With millions of users visiting the platform to expand their professional relationships, solve business issues, and learn more about things that impact their jobs, it’s a great place to connect with both clients and prospects. You can reach thousands of people that are applicable to your industry including thought leaders, potential partners, future clients, etc. LinkedIn is an optimal platform for B2B advertising and is the most popular social media tool for lead generation. Their targeted ads allow you to type in keywords and select audiences by category. For example, if your best clients tend to have a certain role in their organization, you can search for that role in particular and target those individuals. Plus, it’s a great way to share new thought leadership and build a following – which is crucial for legal marketers. Use LinkedIn to create ads that keep people on the platform (without redirecting them to a new site) and drive further conversation. Engagement is something that happens organically, so it’s important to put emphasis on your headline, copy, and captions so that you generate likes and comments. 

Related: The Law Firm Guide to LinkedIn Advertising eBook

Facebook

This tool offers the Facebook Targeted Ads program, which is one of the more robust advertising mechanisms out there. It’s run on a bidding system where advertisers bid on a number of ads based on their preferred target audience. That bid is then placed in a lottery for a chance to be chosen and displayed to that particular audience. Users love Facebook advertising because you can narrow your audience down based on several factors like geography, demographics, interests, and more. Additionally, Facebook Ads let you show your content to clients or prospects based on their behavior. This is really helpful for generating new leads and building ongoing relationships. One of the best features of Facebook advertising is that it keeps people on the platform – users are not redirected to a new site if they click on your ad. At the same time, it’s easy to create prompts that drive conversations. Ads are structured in a way where it’s really easy to see what the brand wants you to do next. 

Twitter

Sponsored tweets look so similar to regular tweets that many users do not even realize immediately that they are being advertised to. Twitter has 192 million monetizable daily users which present a large audience that can then be narrowed down based on demographics. Geographically targeted ads tend to perform well on Twitter, and their ads are especially helpful for driving traffic to a website. For example, if you’re trying to beef up your thought leadership strategy, investing in Twitter ads is a good way to get more eyes on your blog. Additionally, Twitter provides ad settings based on your own budget, which makes it easier to control your overall investment. 

Instagram

Traditionally viewed as more of a B2C space, Instagram has grown and now has a lot to offer businesses of all kinds. They boast more than one billion users, and you can take advantage of their advertising program to really expand your reach. To run ads on Instagram, you need a business profile. It’s also nice that Facebook owns Instagram, so you can run ads concurrently and everything is managed by Facebook. You can choose an amount of ad spend as low as  $1. The amounts will vary based on your timeline and the size of your audience. Instagram is unique in that you get exactly what you pay for – your ad campaign will run for the exact amount of time you purchased. Effective Instagram ads tend to be visually appealing since imagery is really the foundation of the platform. Plus, you need to keep the call to action simple. One of the top features of Instagram ads is the ability to “swipe up” to get more information, so sharing a call to action in a short and sweet format is best. 

So is Paid Social Media Worth Your Money?

The truth is that no matter how much you optimize your organic social media efforts, there’s no guarantee that you will reach the right people – or that you can ever expand that reach. With paid social media, you’re essentially paying to reach highly targeted individuals and attract their undivided attention. Does that sound like it’s worth some of your budget? 

The great thing about the various social media advertising programs is that you can put in as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. Maybe at this point, there isn’t a business case for investing tens of thousands of dollars. However, it’s absolutely worth making minor investments and then tracking ROI over time. Each platform offers tools and reporting that make it easy to see how your ads are doing and what is working and what’s not. You can use this information to tweak campaigns and become more effective over time. 

Takeaway: 

This post can really be summarized in one sentence: Is paid social media worth it? Yes. 

That’s because there is so much flexibility involved in setting up campaigns. You don’t need to blow your entire budget, rather, you can make some small investments and continue to scale over time. The current social media advertising programs make it easy to scale and optimize campaigns, plus pull reporting to see what needs to be adjusted. Paid social media is a great outlet for expanding your reach, driving traffic to your website, and engaging future clients. In order to be successful, though, you need to carefully monitor your ROI and choose highly targeted audience segments. Then you’ll have a better feel for how much you really need to invest in order to move the needle.

Not sure where to start in building out a paid social media strategy? We can help you build campaigns that drive prime targets right to your website or blog. Contact us today for a free consultation.

The post Determining if Paid Social Media Is Right For Your Law Firm appeared first on Good2bSocial.

In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 Podcast, Guy is joined by Gary McRae to discuss the importance of the digital experience for law firms. Gary McRae is the global digital lead for Baker McKenzie. He ensures Baker McKenzie’s digital strategy aligns with its overall business objectives. He also leads the company’s channels, digital marketing, web development, social media, and martech initiatives.

1. Gary McRae Career Track 

Gary’s very first career was at Scotland Yard as a police officer where he worked in homicide as a detective for a number of years. Later, he moved to the stateside where he began a new job in the healthcare industry. From those two jobs, he picked up marketing where he would eventually start his own business before residing in Singapore and working with Baker McKenzie for nearly six years now. 

2. The Biggest Surprise When Working and Leading Digital Marketing for a Law Firm like Baker McKenzie

The number of stakeholders that are involved in decision-making. When it comes to building a digital strategy, there are a lot of people who need to be involved and engaged. This can be good because there is a lot of insight, but it does slow things down. 

3. Is the Digital Experience Critical for Law Firms?

Lawyers are still closing deals by having strong relationships, and buyers for legal services or any kind of professional service won’t change their buying behavior just because it’s B2B. This means that the experience has to be as good as what customers are being exposed to and that many professional services are often confused by their journey. 

4. Is Digital Experience and User Experience the Same Thing?

From a technical perspective, everyone is comfortable with the user experience. It is about getting from point A to point B, but the digital experience is about bringing together all the different channels. Social media experiences must carry over from LinkedIn to wherever they land and beyond, rather than being limited to a single page. 

5. Making Sure That the Omni-Channel Experience is the Same

It is important for the digital team on the website to collaborate on the message, visual identity, and language of the landing page. 

An example of a site lacking this is when an external search on a consumer site leads to a random page that had nothing to do with the deal. The external search was done by two different people with different responsibilities but didn’t talk to each other about it. This disconnection from one platform to another is important to avoid. Our online experiences are expected to be smooth and make sense.

6. Where Do You Start When Trying to Improve the Client Experience? 

The data generally tells us that stakeholders are interested in the content and localized information on our country page, which is almost the same in all of our locations. This shows that it eventually comes back to a relationship. People are engaging in localized content because they are at the bottom of the funnel and have seen our leadership. They have also seen our maps on pages, which show where people are going and what they are clicking on. This was when they were confined first. Adopting the page requires testing it with what people are actually doing, as evidenced by the photographs of users’ experiences on LinkedIn. It is not the data that should be taken into account, but rather the experience people are seeking.

Takeaway: 

Talk to client-facing colleagues and get client feedback. Immerse yourself in the channels’ data to get actionable insights. 

You can find Gary McRae on Linkedin & Twitter and on his Website. 

Check out our newest ebook, The Law Firm Guide to Podcasting, here.

The post Podcast Episode 185: Is the Digital Experience Critical for Law Firms? appeared first on Good2bSocial.

Video is hands-down the most effective marketing medium law firms can use today and adding video to your emails is a great way to boost your email conversions. Video makes complex topics simple, audiences crave it, and it builds a connection that fosters long-term loyalty. When it comes down to it, most people would rather watch a video than read a long email. In fact, video has an undeniable impact on email KPIs:

• Video boosts open rates by 19%.
• Video boosts click-through rates by 65%.
• Video reduces unsubscribes by 26%.

So how can your law firm take advantage of video and make it work in email?

16 Law Firm Video Email Marketing Ideas

1. Create a News Roundup

If your firm has a lot going on, it can be difficult to keep your audience up to date. Rather than writing lengthy paragraphs, develop a short video that gives a breakdown of your latest news, and make sure a “click here to watch” link is included in the email. A link to the full video is essential because video doesn’t just instantly play when embedded in emails. 

2. Share Behind-the-scenes Information

Sharing videos of your staff or office culture is a great way to build trust and credibility. Introduce new employees, provide information about your summer intern program, video office events, or document some of the inner workings of a case. 

3. Follow up on virtual events or webinars.

Webinars and virtual events are a lot of work so it’s important to have an intentional follow-up plan to help you achieve more value out of the effort you put in. A creative way to do so is to share video clips from the event, such as a highlight reel.

4. Point to an Existing Video on Social Media

Communications that inspire action don’t have to begin from scratch. You can leverage videos that are already out there on your social channels to give your email (and social channels) a boost. Link to the relevant social media posts so users will then be prompted to engage with it and follow your social media account.

5. Tease an Upcoming Virtual Event or Webinar

Spark interest with a preview of something exciting coming up. Give a sneak peek at what will be covered or what the audience can expect from your next event. 

6. Add Video Options to Your Footer

If your law firm is active on YouTube, make sure you create an icon to include at the bottom of emails and web pages.

7. Create a Tutorial

Share your expertise and enhance loyalty by developing content that shows you know your stuff, such as how-to’s or Q&As on the steps in a complex legal process. For example, a contract lawyer could create a tutorial on how to fill out complicated documents yourself. 

8. Be Appreciative

Your clients like to feel acknowledged and heard. Develop a short but heartfelt video that expresses gratitude for their business or for attending an event. Consider creating a video with personal “thank you” messages to clients and partners.

9. Share an “About us” Story

One of the simplest ways to get started with video is to create a brief message about your firm – what the company does and stands for, why it was founded, and core values and mission. Even if you feel this messaging is displayed across your marketing materials already, some of the information could be new – and it never hurts to reinforce it anyway. A video of this nature instead of a written description can make your firm and its attorneys seem more personable and authentic to viewers.

10. Film Client Testimonials or Case Studies

Social proof is critical for law firms, and case studies go a long way toward building that credibility. Consider taping an interview with a client or having them film a short statement about working with your firm and their great results. Use these videos as part of a lead nurturing campaign, reaching people in different phases of their client journey. 

11. Create an Animated Header

Consider putting animation into your header image in the form of a GIF. This header video should play automatically and immediately capture your audience’s attention and draw their eye to any pertinent information you’d like displayed in your email header. 

12. Use GIFs Instead of Links

If you typically link to URLs with a button or a simple image, consider creating a gif that prompts users to click here to learn more. Consequently, this should help you get more clicks to your site, as well.

13. Create Bonus Content

Maybe there were some questions you didn’t answer in your webinar or a Q&A session on social media that got cut short. Consider creating specific ‘bonus’ content relevant to events or campaigns that only your email subscribers will get to see with a video.

14. Share Firm Culture

Video is a great way to share your firm’s personality and humanize yourselves. Consider starting a series where you share the stories of different lawyers or showcase your firm’s values in some way.

15. Celebrate Holidays

Holidays are a great time to really get creative with video. Share a short video on holidays where you send well wishes to your subscribers and commemorate the day. For a full list of holidays that you can celebrate on social media or even via email, check out this free calendar: Social Media Holidays Calendar.

16. Break Down Industry Topics

A great idea for a series, or to feature in newsletters, is to have one of your lawyers break down industry topics in biteable videos that you can leverage in emails.

Tips for Using Video in Email Marketing for Lawyers

Video in email is complex. Too many videos can slow down load times. But neglecting to use video means losing opportunities. Here are some tips to help with the process:

• Know when to use or not use autoplay. Sometimes autoplay can be distracting if you want users to read the content before watching a video.
• Embed videos using HTMLs. By doing this, users can watch the videos easily without clicking links.
• Add ‘Video’ to your Subject line. This can help increase open rates and intrigue users.
• Leverage GIFs. GIFs are basically stripped-down versions of videos. While you don’t want all your videos to be GIFs, GIFs are a great option when you want to make your email more intriguing but don’t want to slow down load times with multiple long videos.
• Use a GIF or Thumbnail. While you can insert your video using HTML, you may also want to consider inserting a thumbnail or GIF that links to your video so users can view it no matter the platform they’re on.
• Link to your site. Rather than posting your video on another channel and linking to it (which is fine if your goal is more social media engagement or YouTube subscribers), consider posting it on your website and sharing that link via email if you’d like to up your website sessions.

Takeaway

Video is an incredible way to engage subscribers – both old and new – and these clever strategies are just a few ways your law firm can get started. Don’t forget to keep an eye on your reports and analytics to see which videos are increasing your email open rates and engagement.

If you would like further assistance developing a video marketing strategy or are ready to start producing your own content, reach out to us for help.

This post has been edited and republished from Sep. 14, 2020.

The post 16 Ways To Incorporate Videos Into Your Email Marketing appeared first on Good2bSocial.

LinkedIn is a powerhouse for legal marketers for so many reasons. It’s obviously a great place to make professional connections, and it’s an important platform for sharing thought leadership and using account-based marketing strategies. Did you know LinkedIn can also be a valuable tool for conducting market research? In this post, we are covering what legal marketers need to know about using LinkedIn for market research that supports their strategy. 

Why Use LinkedIn for Market Research? 

LinkedIn is a really unique platform and is ideally suited to gathering information about your audience. LinkedIn can help you access information on your audience’s industry, profession, and location. You can also get insights on how well your LinkedIn audience matches your ideal customer profile and potential audience segments that are worth pursuing. LinkedIn is also great for competitive research, especially how your firm’s LinkedIn presence compares to its competitors. Finally, LinkedIn is helpful for conducting social listening, where you can discover how users talk about your brand and services. You can get access to all of this information using an intuitive analytics interface as well as other tools provided directly by LinkedIn. That makes it a no-brainer when it comes to conducting market research. 

7 Market Research Tactics for LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a wealth of helpful information if you know where to look. Fortunately, LinkedIn has several built-in tools that can support your research efforts. Here are 7 ways to use LinkedIn for market research. 

1. Understand Your Company Page Audience Insights

Ideally, you have an ideal client persona that is guiding your content and social media efforts. (If you haven’t created one yet, use this free guide: A Law Firm’s Guide to Creating an Ideal Client Persona.)

However, your vision and reality won’t always align. Who is actually following and engaging with your firm online? LinkedIn has extensive analytics that can help you to see if you’re attracting ideal audience members. Start by going to your company page and clicking the “Analytics” drop-down. From there you can select “Visitors” or “Followers” and get oversight into who’s clicking through to your company page. You can also compare metrics to previous periods and look for trends. Do your page visitors match the personas that you created? If not, it might be time to re-evaluate. You can also look at follower data and make sure things are trending in the right way. Look for unusual patterns in activity. This is also where you can look at organic and paid activity and see how they affect company page growth.  Finally, this is an area to explore your follower’s demographics like company size or location. 

2. Review Your LinkedIn Content Analytics

What’s going on with your LinkedIn company page is only part of the story. When you dig deeper into content analytics, you can see the types of posts that resonate with people, which topics spark the most interest and the kinds of people that engage with your content. Try viewing your company page post analytics to easily track performance for all of the content your team publishes. Under the “Analytics” tab, choose “Updates” and look for the “Highlights” or “Metrics” section. Here you’ll find information like impressions, reactions, engagement rate, etc. You can also dig into information on particular posts and make note of the most popular topics. If you are using LinkedIn’s Creator Mode, you can access helpful summaries of your personal analytics. The “Content Performance” tab is especially interesting because it summarizes impressions and engagement for your personal posts and provides demographics for users who engaged with your content. You can even see the companies where your most engaged followers work, which is really useful for ABM strategies. 

3. Look at LinkedIn Mentions

How do people talk about your business (if they do at all)? To see, go to the “Activity” tab and choose “Mentions”. By spending time here, you can see the overall sentiment, identify common topics, and find the most popular questions for your firm on LinkedIn. This data can be used to inform your content strategy, enhance client service, and even guide ideas about new practice areas. 

4. Reflect on Competitor Information

It’s great to gather all the information you can pertaining to your own organization, but part of the benefit of market research is learning about competitors. LinkedIn offers specific information that can help you to assess competitor activities and performance on the platform. This type of research will give you a clearer picture of how well your firm really addresses client needs and publishes relevant content. Plus, you can get a feel for how your growth compares to other firms like yours. To access this information, go to the built-in competitor analytics. Start at your company page and then open the “Analytics” tab. In the drop-down menu, choose “competitors” and pick a time range. Click “Edit competitors” to start searching for other organizations and add up to 9 companies to your dashboard for tracking. Then you can use the follower metrics to compare total company page size and audience growth. Organic content metrics will show you the total number of posts and engagement. Have you seen some of your competitors generate a bigger following than your firm? Is their page growing a lot faster than yours? These are the types of things you’ll want to consider in order to guide future decisions about your LinkedIn strategy. 

5. Use LinkedIn Posts to Gather Information

As mentioned, there are some great ways to gather overall insights about what your audience wants and values. However, you can use LinkedIn functionality to learn even more specific information. You can use the poll functionality to ask questions where your audience can choose from up to four responses. To do this, simply click to add a poll when you create a post. Pick up to four responses to consider and add an extra content field for free-form answers. Choose how long you want the poll to run and publish the poll to your page. The results of these polls can help you navigate content strategy and other marketing efforts.

6. Be active in LinkedIn Groups

You can’t join a group on LinkedIn as a company page, but you can as an individual user. Doing so can be really valuable for researching using your personal page. If you run a group, you can even create polls using the workflow above. Otherwise, use the general post tools to ask questions and evaluate answers. For example, if you participate in a group centered on certain target industries, you might ask people about their solutions to common legal problems in that sector. Don’t be afraid to simply ask what members’ biggest legal issues are or what solutions would be most helpful. A friendly reminder: in these scenarios, seek to have authentic conversations and be genuinely helpful. No one will take you seriously (or even want you around) if you simply promote your own services all of the time. 

7. Analyze Hashtags

Hashtags haven’t been developed on LinkedIn as much as some other social media tools. However, they’re still useful for market research, especially if you use some hashtags that tend to get traction. If your business uses a branded hashtag, start there. Do a search and then scroll through and review the associated content. You might want to sort by recent and set a reminder to do this once a month. Then do the same thing for other hashtags related to your business, industry, services, or competitors. You may need to do some manual work to pull all of this data and chart it in a way that is easily digestible, or you could invest in a third-party tool to make it easier. Either way, the data is available on LinkedIn and it’s worth taking a look. 

Takeaway: 

Obviously, not all of your target prospects or clients are on LinkedIn. You are naturally limited in how applicable the data is – but it can provide a valuable glimpse into audience segments that you care about. If you are looking for new ways to conduct market research for informing your content strategy or other digital marketing efforts, make sure to include LinkedIn. It’s a great place to get new ideas that could be great for your firm. For more tips on making the most of social media, be sure to follow our blog.

The post Leveraging LinkedIn To Help With Market Research appeared first on Good2bSocial.

In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 Podcast, Guy is joined by Davina Frederick to discuss how law firms should go about attracting their ideal clients while repelling all others. Prior to becoming an attorney, Davina spent 15 years as a professional services marketer. She started her own law firm right out of law school and grew it successfully. As the founder of Wealthy Woman Lawyer®, she’s spent more than a decade coaching women law firm owners on the business principles they must master to effectively scale their practices. She’s also somehow found time to write two books on law firm marketing and management.

1. Moving from Marketer to Lawyer to Coach

Davina came to marketing by way of journalism, becoming a copywriter after earning her undergraduate degree. Over the next 15 years, she worked with engineering firms, became marketing manager for the largest law firm in Central Florida, and eventually landed at an agency serving clients all over the nation and the world.

Davina went to law school with the intention of launching her own business and started two law firms – one virtual – after earning her J.D. The gradual realization that many of her colleagues had no idea how to run a business – something that’s not taught in law school  – led her to coaching. She initially worked with men and women but eventually founded Wealthy Woman Lawyer® to help women attorneys grow their practices. Since then, Davina has helped many women attorneys scale their businesses to and through $1 million.

2. The Unique Challenges Faced by Women Law Firm Owners

Because men traditionally dominated law, law firms adopted a masculine structure based on billable hours. As Davina noted, that structure doesn’t always work for women, who often shoulder the bulk of family responsibilities in addition to their careers. But now that women account for more than 50% of all law school graduates, female lawyers are redefining what it means to be a lawyer and creating firms that align with their lifestyles and goals. 

3. Identifying Your Ideal Clients Will Help You Attract Them

According to Davina, defining your firm’s ideal clients will put you in a better position to attract those clients. Think back to clients you enjoyed working with in the past and those who proved problematic, and write down the key factors that differentiated the two. Maybe a less-than-ideal client was looking for a “bulldog” type lawyer who goes for the jugular when you favor a more reasonable, measured approach.

You’ll also want to consider other more tangible factors, including a potential client’s ability to pay, willingness to pay, and eagerness to pay on time and in full. Demographics (local vs. regional, age brackets) and practice areas (a family law attorney won’t want to field inquiries from personal injury clients) should also enter into your definition of an ideal client.

4. Should I Be on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, or Something Else?

Davina warned that it’s all too easy to waste a lot of time and effort on social media. TikTok videos, for example, are extremely popular, so everyone is migrating there. But if your ideal clients aren’t using TikTok, the time spent creating videos for the platform probably won’t help your firm attract much new business.

5. Know Where Your Clients Are and What They’re Doing on Social Media

Davina emphasized the importance of determining which platforms your clients are using and what they’re doing on social media. A lot will depend on who they are and the nature of their business. For example, TikTok attracts a lot of women in their 30s, but a closer look suggests many are on the platform because their kids are using it. The women attorneys Davina works with prefer Facebook but tend to hate LinkedIn. While some have migrated to Instagram and TikTok, they’re unlikely to be on YouTube, as it tends to attract primarily men.

While there might be exceptions to the social media trends you identify among your ideal clients, knowing the platforms they generally prefer will help you determine where you should spend most of your time.

6. Take Your Firm’s Business Model Into Account

The final calculation will depend on your ideal clients’ preferences and your firm’s business model. For example, you might find that Google and Google advertising would be more effective than spending time on Instagram. But if you don’t have a big advertising budget yet, Instagram might be where you should start.

Takeaway:

While law firms have many options when it comes to marketing, rushing in absent a robust strategy will not attract the ideal clients you need to grow your practice. Start by defining your ideal clients, identify where and how they’re using social media, and align your efforts with their preferences and your firm’s particular business model.

You can find Davina Frederick on Linkedin & Twitter and the Company Website. 

You can buy Davina’s books here.

Check out our newest ebook, The Law Firm Guide to Podcasting, here.

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Ideally, you’ve already firmed up your marketing strategies and budget for 2023. If not, you still have time! With that in mind, let’s take a look at what 2023 has in store. What should you be doing to move your attorney Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy forward for the coming year? 

Forecasting an Annual Budget

The traditional method for forecasting search budgets is “determine impression share (IS) lost due to ranking and add a 3-5% increase in CPC”. This is assuming your strategy is staying the same and you’re not introducing any new tactics that should substantially move the needle. 

However, things have been a bit more complex ever since the pandemic. While the approach above is still fine, you may want to adjust for a growing CPC (particularly around branded terms). These terms experienced significant growth last year, and you should plan for a higher CPC. Now, we recommend using the formula above but with a 10-15% increase around brand CPC growth. Non-branded terms are likely to see an increase of 4-7%. These are just general guidelines, you’ll want to do your own research to see what’s happening with the terms that are important to your firm. 

Content Planning and Scheduling

You should plot out everything you want to do creatively and budget-wise. Make sure you take seasonality, traditional peaks and lows, and other marketing campaigns into account as you plan out your content. Having everything planned in advance will ensure you can get a head start – you should be able to get at least some content completed during slower periods to prepare for future campaigns. It also helps with budgeting, since you can aim to get all of your assets developed, approved, and scheduled for publishing. 

A good way to go about planning is to perform research on the general topics you want your content to cover. Make sure to research your audience, what your competitors are doing, and which content has performed well in the past. Focus on 5-10 broader topics, and then break those down into a “cluster” of content. Consider a variety of content assets like blogs, infographics, white papers, webinars, etc., and then see which topic aligns best with which medium. Try to get at least the first two quarters plotted and then go through your process for budget approvals. 

Understanding What You Didn’t Do

Digital marketers are some of the busiest folks around. Chances are you had several things that you hoped to complete in 2022 that never came to fruition. Take some time to debrief with your team and evaluate why those things didn’t happen, and how that affected your overall strategy. Your goal is to determine whether they should be reprioritized for 2023 or let go. 

If you see some items that were necessities (and not just a “nice to have”), and they didn’t get done, take a close look at the reason why. If it was something that could have made a bigger impact, then you should figure out how to incorporate that tactic into this year’s strategy. If something was not a priority, but an idea that you were excited about, see where it might fit in this year. 

You also need to assess SEM in totality. Pull reporting so that you can review all of your SEM statistics and activity – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Process what happened with your campaigns and why. What learnings can you take away from last year’s performance? 

Trends to Keep an Eye On

As you go through this process, there are a few things that you should be aware of. It’s always a good idea to stay up to date on things that might affect your firm, and in particular, your SEM marketing. Here are a few things that experts say to consider: 

• As mentioned, CPCs are likely to be higher. This is particularly true for branded terms, especially in Q1. Marketers should do some research in order to document the reasons for a bigger budget. Make note of this for budget approvals, as you’re likely to get questions about why this number should be higher than last year. 
• There is not likely to be a decline in demand and search volume until there is an increase in unemployment. This was a correlation that we noticed during the recession in 2008. 
• Bing is likely to follow suit with Google. As we see new innovations from Google, it’s likely only a matter of time until Bing is doing the same things. 
• Likely most important in this list is the concept of using first-party data for as long as you can. At the same time, you need to create strategies for building out market audience segments and client profiles. With every new privacy and security measure taken, we face new challenges in obtaining data. It’s essential that you focus part of your search strategy on generating first-party contact data. 

Takeaway: 

An important part of building out an effective attorney search engine marketing strategy is understanding what happened in the past. Make sure to thoroughly review and assess last year’s performance and any activity that made a significant impact, either positive or negative. 

If you’d like help building out a successful strategy for your firm, contact us today for a free consultation. We can help you build an effective SEM strategy for 2023.

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