Black Fin - Internet Marketing

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How lawyers are signing more cases and clients in 2023

For law firms, signing new cases is essential to the success of the growth of your law firm. Without new cases coming in your company may experience cash flow issues leading to other business operational issues. However, one issue with finding new clients is knowing where to focus your attention to get the best results. Many attorneys who have been practicing for 20+ years have seen major shifts over the years in the ways they acquire new business. From yellow pages to the Tik Tok it’s been a turbulent journey. Let’s Start With A Story Not long ago in the late 2010’s,  I was working with a personal injury attorney who was spending over a MILLION dollars a year on Yellow Page ads. They did recognize that they were not performing as well and started to pull out of the advertising method. Luckily this firm was great at tracking their leads and determining their average cost per case. In California, they were paying $500 – $1,000 for serious injury cases on average through their Yellow Page advertising. By the time they left the Yellow Pages they weren’t getting any business at all. We were able to shift a fraction of that budget to digital marketing channels primarily focused on Organic & Local SEO and achieve these results for around $300 a case. Knowing where to focus your efforts will help your firm sign more cases and focus on marketing campaigns that work. Here are the areas where our clients are getting most of their cases. Here Are The Top Ways Our Clients Are Signing New Cases 1. Online Search (Organic & Local) Search Engine Optimization Online search is still an area surprisingly that some attorneys just ignore altogether. Maybe they don’t want to get involved or think it’s too expensive or too late to start but that’s never the case. Even though showing up in Organic and Local search will take some time you can always start low and slow. The majority of the cases our clients sign through Online Search are local results and organic results. Local results (as shown below) typically appear when your potential clients are searching Google, Yahoo, or Bing with searches like: “Personal Injury Lawyer”, “Bankruptcy Attorney Near Me”, or “Lawyer Nearby”. These results drive a lot of traffic and solid conversions. However, this strategy is limited as it’s strictly geared towards where you have a physical presence. If you don’t have an office in a city you want to rank in, it’s going to be a huge uphill battle. The good news is that there are other “Free” clicks you can get from Google through standard Organic Results. These listings are seen underneath the local results and are usually at the top of the page underneath ads for nonlocalized searches. Take a look at the example below for a search I did: “Do I need a divorce lawyer?”“. This example seems to answer that question so I’m likely to click on it. Ranking in organic results presents a lot of opportunities. As a full disclaimer, my clients who are doing so well with organic search have typically invested in the resources necessary including a lot of content creation. However, this has created a lot of solid and relevant traffic from those interested in finding a lawyer. You have to do a lot of things right to capture organic traffic and rank well enough to get the business but the work is worth the rewards and can have a strong ROI. If your business is focused on local business check out this article with tactical tips and strategies. 2. Online Search (Paid), Google Ads, LSA’s and More Ranking in at number two we have online search again but this time we’re talking about pay per click advertising. There are advantages and disadvantages to both SEO and SEM but if you do things the right way you’re going to see strong returns on your investment. The firms who typically perform best in pay per click also rank organically or locally and command several positions in the search results. Pay Per Click ads through Google or Bing’s ad networks can get pricey for lawyers. If you decide to take on pay per click make sure to get the right advice and pay close attention to your campaign. If you start and keep getting a lot of irrelevant clicks due to bad keywords you need to make some changes right away. Sometimes people ignore their keyword lists and negative keywords which can create a lot of room for error and mismanagement. Below is an example of a Google Ad with the new green ad box outline. One of the strong benefits to pay per click is that you can turn on the campaign right away and start generating leads if your website is up to snuff. Google also offers a pay per lead service called Local Services Ad’s. These are a great way to get started and there are plenty of things you can do to enhance your performance here. Talk to a LSA specialist at Juris Digital if your ads are not performing as expected. 3. Referrals Referrals are not dead.  Sometimes when you’re running an online marketing campaign you get too focused and ignore offline advertising and human interactions. Many of our clients have developed strong referral relationships over the years with attorneys and relevant businesses to their practice areas. One of the biggest reasons people don’t get referral business is they don’t don’t ask. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone or ask for business from other potential referral partners. Another thing to remember when we’re talking about referral business is your brand. You are your own brand. That means every time you go out in public you’re representing your own brand. Make sure to think about the way you present yourself when meeting with potential partners, going to networking events, or other functions. Building a solid brand and reputation means optimizing every experience potential clients and...