Like all companies, legal firms need to be marketing themselves in order to attract new potential customers. Broadly, marketing falls into two camps - outbound and inbound.
Marketing that is offline normally falls into the outbound camp. This approach could include adverts in newspapers, billboards, flyers, cold-calling, radio, or TV advertising, any method that relied on pushing products or services upon potential customers.
Inbound, by contrast, has surpassed outbound tactics. The internet and social media have completely revolutionised how people choose to receive and react to information.
As a marketer in the digital age, solicitors must now consistently engage with prospects at every point in the customer journey in order to succeed in the future.
Here are five compelling statistics that prove why legal marketers need to overhaul traditional marketing methods with a much more effective, trust-orientated, inbound marketing approach.
1. 96% of People Look for Legal Practices through a Search Engine1
Today, in the hyper-connected world, consumers are more empowered than ever before in choosing products and services that best suit their needs.
Ensuring your law firm is seen and heard by everyone (because 96% is pretty much EVERYBODY) will give your firm the ability to stand out from the crowd and bring those prospects directly to you.
But how do you draw in the crowds successfully? Using the inbound methodology will help your law firm develop a sense of trust and generate new clients that you can build long-lasting, valuable relationship with. To learn more about the fundamentals of inbound, read about "The Three Pillars of Inbound Marketing" and how it can transform your legal marketing.
2. 70% of Law Firms Generate New Cases Through Their Website2
That figure goes to show that online lead generation is a great source of new business. However, did you know that only 40% of small legal firms don’t even have a website to promote their business?
Your website is your number one marketing tool. It’s like a digital storefront where visitors will gather information about your brand and services to make an informed decision. In essence, your website is the key to generating your leads.
For your website to become a true lead generation resource, it should always provide the following:
- A positive experience for the user
- A reflection of the expertise, personality, and brand of your firm
- A resource for valuable information through great content
- Full mobile optimisation (more on this in the next statistic)
Learn how to turn your website into an effective lead generation machine with Digital Media Stream.
3. 72% of Users Access the Internet via Mobile Instead of a Desktop3
The world has gone mobile and will only continue to do so in the future. Despite this fact, only one-third of solicitor websites are optimised for mobiles and tablets.
The legal industry has taken notice of handheld devices as an important primary source of accessing information. For your law firm, you need to take advantage of this by answering the legal-based questions potential clients on the go seek.
Ensuring your website is optimised for mobile will help:
- Maximise its effectiveness when appealing to your prospects
- Your website gain unique visits, be it for desktop or mobile
- Ensure you don’t lose potential business because of a bad mobile experience
TIP: You can also utilise social media as another means of allowing users access your information and expertise on a more “human” level with your law firm - building up your brand’s presence online.
4. 97% of Law Firms Lack Personalised Content on Their Website4
And you thought the 96% figure was a lot. The fact is, personalised content is effective for four reasons:
- It will help attract new visitors that are relevant to your business
- It helps move prospects along each stage of the buyer’s journey.
- By employing educational content, you’ll establish yourself as an authority in your industry
- Visitors will be far more likely to trust your business as a result
For personalisation, content with depth is another great way to target the right people. You can do this with your content strategy in two ways:
- Write a long-form, detailed blog post on a single topic (Google loves long-form content)
- Use topic clusters to create shorter blog posts on a range of topics formed around a single concept.
Using HubSpot’s content strategy tool will help you create topic clusters that form the basis of your personalised content. We can show you how to easily create topic clusters here.
5. Video Content Will Make Up 82% of Internet Traffic by 20205
This statistic has risen 19% since 2015, which goes to show how much video content should play an integral part in the future of your legal marketing.
Four times as many consumers prefer watching a video about a product or service than reading about it. In addition to this, 64% are more likely to purchase a product or service after watching a video online.
Given these preferences, it makes sense to add video to your legal inbound marketing strategy. It’s also a great opportunity to:
- Improve search engine optimisation (SEO) and rank better in Google
- Increase web traffic by 41%
- Expand your reach to capture a new audience
- Increase website conversion by 80%
As we delve further into the future, we predict that these statistics and trends will only continue to grow within the marketing forecast.
Don’t have expensive camera equipment? Never fear - HubSpot explains how you can make great quality videos using an iPhone and some know-how.
The Future
The business world is changing every day. This is an age of disruptors, where technological developments and businesses such as Uber, Tesla, Gousto, and Funding Circle alter the way we do business and in turn, the economy.
The legal profession is no different. Moving forward, your legal firm should strive to achieve with marketing that:
- Gains more potential clients
- Improves client turnover
- Attains improved ROI
Firms need to compete to gain a competitive advantage within a climate of disruptive innovation. You should leverage new technology such as marketing and sales automation tools, videos, website design, and greater online presence will help give your business that much-needed push into the future of legal marketing.
References
- http://www.natlawreview.com/article/legal-marketing-stats-lawyers-need-to-know
- http://blog.capterra.com/the-top-15-legal-marketing-statistics-for-2017/
- https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/cmr/cmr16/international
- https://www.rocketmatter.com//legal-marketing/law-firm-websites-infographic/
