If you thought it was challenging to own an estate planning practice in an age of fierce competition from other law firms and the increasing popularity of online legal services, try walking a mile in our shoes. The pace of change in digital marketing is beyond exponential. IMS has made a commitment to staying on trend so that your practice can flourish but we need you to be an active participant.
Your clients are part of your digital marketing strategy. Reviews on lawyer websites like Avvo, or on Google or Yelp, whether you want them or not, are searched and read by anyone considering working with you and your practice. The reviews can’t be ignored. If you don’t already have a Google alert set up for yourself, your firm and—don’t leave this part out—every person who works at your law firm, set them up. Right now. And if something shows up that isn’t flattering, you’ll need to address it. Best practices for a bad review? Glowing reviews by raving fans.
More social media channels are coming and they will be even faster. Maybe you thought Snapchat was too fast, giving users a means of sending videos that disappear in a matter of seconds. In digital marketing time, Snapchat is ancient history. Soon, Instagram and Pinterest may feel too slow for members of Generation Z. What we know for sure: video remains one of the single most powerful ways to engage prospects, regardless of what channel it appears on.
Digital marketing today must work across different devices: Your website visitors are looking at your site from smart phones and tablets. There was a time when most of your visitors were on desktops, but for most estate planning law firms, that’s not the case anymore. Go into Google Analytics (GA), look under Audience, and then look at Technology to see what devices are being used by visitors. If your site is not mobile friendly and most of your visitors are using smart phones or tablets, you are losing ground.
Maybe you can’t go it alone. We know that you are busy practicing law and running a business. If you are not able to keep your eyes on the marketing part of your practice, talk to us about making more of your marketing automatic. That includes our E2 CRM and CLIPsm. If you need more help, talk to us and we can help you make some strategic decisions to ensure that your marketing continues to move forward.
Digital marketing needs to coordinate with everything else you do. Look at your biggest competitor’s social media feed. We bet their Facebook posts include photos of speaking engagements, charitable activities, leadership roles in the community, published articles and maybe even quotes from consumer media. And if it’s not on their Facebook feed, take a look at their LinkedIn page. A robust social media campaign needs to be coordinated with all of your other marketing efforts. Content is still king, but take it to the next level and leverage your content with everything the firm does.