Why Lawyers Need Social Media

Social Media, by flickr user laura pasquini, licensed by Creative Commons.Social media. It’s familiar territory for some lawyers, and a foreign world for others. Whether you are a social media veteran or have yet to test the waters, having a social media presence can benefit your firm in many ways. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like help you connect with people, keep up with current events, build a name and reputation for you and/or your firm, and reach an audience beyond your geographical range. Read more

5 Ways for Lawyers to Get the Most from LinkedIn

Tie, Tie Knot, Shirt, Suit, Knot by pixabay user Hans, licensed by Creative Commons

Be Professional & Stand Out

As a legal marketing expert, I receive a lot of questions about the importance of social media, especially LinkedIn. Many lawyers are already up and running on this business-centric platform, featuring a detailed profile and professional headshot. LinkedIn can be a fantastic resource for your law firm and is a great tool to add instant credibility. If potential clients can see that you have a strong LinkedIn presence, you may generate new business as people feel more comfortable working with a vetted, authoritative brand. Below are some tips on how legal professionals and practicing lawyers can benefit from being active on LinkedIn. Read more

Increasing Your Caseload by Tracking and Targeting Clients

Target, by flickr user Erika, licensed by Creative Commons.

Bullseye!

How great would it be if you could hand-pick the most qualified clients for your practice? The main goal of legal marketing is to increase the number of qualified people who are interested in retaining you as a lawyer. Expanding your online marketing presence involves two important elements that you should be aware of: tracking and targeting. Optimizing tools to track where your clients come from is a pivotal step. Additionally, there’s an entire pool of new business that you may not even be aware of, and gathering all of this data can help you learn how to gain more clients, and also put you ahead of your competition. That said, let’s look into a few different ways to get the most bang for your legal marketing buck. Read more

Transforming Your Website Visitors into New Clients

This article is based on my presentation at the PILMMA Summit in Chicago in July. You can get a copy of the slides I presented at the bottom of this article.

Let me share what I’ve learned since I started blogging 10 years ago. Using the tactics I am about to describe, my blog at Larrybodine.com has gotten 1.2 million visits. When I was editor in chief of Lawyers.com we built the traffic up to 4 million visits and 7 million page views per year.

content marketing larry bodine

It’s true that the more you blog, the more clients you will get. A law firm website should be updated 2-3 times per week with articles running 300-400 words long.

We all know that the #1 way that consumers search for a lawyer is on the Internet, and a Hinge survey proved that this was true. However lawyers focus at the wrong part of the sales process — trying to increase the number of leads and visitors they get with PPC and SEO techniques. Instead you would be smarter to pay attention to the prospects and visitors who already come to the site, and turn them into clients.

For starters, law firms must have five visitor conversion basics in place:

• A chat feature to talk to clients live.

• An online form to contact the form.

• A toll free number displayed at the top of the page.

• Videos about settlements and verdicts.

• Lawyer bios that discuss client service, that is, how well you explain legal options to clients. Read more