Contents
Google Analytics Avvo LinkedIn Quora Analytics SEO Buffer WordPress MailChimp Meetup Eventbrite Conclusion
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No doubt about it, marketing is one of the biggest challenges of running a law firm. It can feel like a constant battle where the results are hard to come by and difficult to measure. Any attorney who works as a solo practitioner or a partner in a small firm likely has to think about how to market a law firm on an almost daily basis. So we’ve put together a list of some of the top free law firm marketing tools to help you come up with an effective strategy.
There are many different strategies for how to market a law firm online, so we’ve tried to cover a variety of tools you can use for a wide range of marketing approaches. We’ve got everything from blogging, to SEO, to events, to social media, and more. Without further ado, here is our list of the top 10 law firm marketing tools online (in no particular order). Oh, and best of all they’re all free to use (or at least have a basic free plan).
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most powerful website analytics platforms out there. If your website is any part of your law firm marketing strategy and you’re not utilizing Google Analytics already, get started now. It’s a no-brainer.
The reason analytics is so important is because it enables you to track how many people visit your website, how they get there, and what they do when they’re there.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know that nobody is clicking your “contact us” link so you can move it somewhere else to make it more visible? Or that your LinkedIn profile is the number one way people get to your website? Or that your article about DUI checkpoints is the top page on your site in Google search results?
Knowledge is power! Those types of insights can make all the difference in the world. Using analytics will help maximize the effectiveness of your website or blog for converting your web traffic into paying clients.
Avvo
Many lawyers question whether signing up for Avvo is really worth it or not. After all, their “lawyer ratings” are based on mostly arbitrary factors as opposed to your actual legal work. However, Avvo can be a powerful marketing tool.
Regardless of how your Avvo rating is actually calculated, prospective clients see it as credible. And since Avvo ranks extremely well in Google search results, chances are high that some of your potential clients are browsing for lawyers there.
In other words, your profile might as well be there. It’s free to sign up, and you can even boost your Avvo rating by completing your profile info and answering questions in their Q&A forum. Read this post to find out more about how Avvo can benefit lawyers.
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When people get referred to a lawyer, do you know what the first thing they usually do is? They Google you or your firm’s name. And much like Avvo, LinkedIn profiles rank very high in Google search results, so use that to your advantage.
Make your personal LinkedIn profile look professional and credible: fill out your bio and contact info, have a high quality photo, list all your previous jobs and educational experiences, show off some of your accomplishments, etc. Then do the same for your law firm: create a LinkedIn company page and make it look good!
Whether you like it or not, some of your potential clients are going to find you on LinkedIn, and they will be much more likely to contact you if you look trustworthy and professional.
Check out these 11 LinkedIn tips for lawyers to find out how to optimize your profile, and also see our post about how lawyers can get new clients on LinkedIn.
Quora
Quora is the leading Q&A website on the web, with a keen focus on surfacing only high quality answers to people’s questions. You better believe that many Quora users have legal questions.
Becoming an influential answerer on Quora is an excellent way to establish your expertise and credibility. Not only will you have an opportunity to land the person asking the question as a client, but if you do a good job answering, your answer will be voted to the top and live on for everyone else with a similar question to see.
It can require some ongoing work and upkeep. But Quora is a great source of visibility with highly targeted, prospective clients, and it’s completely free. What else can you ask for really?
Analytics SEO
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware of the benefits of SEO for law firms – most notably, appearing at the top of Google search results, and not having to advertise to be there each time. But SEO can be challenging and it requires constant effort to stay up with all the latest trends and changes to the search algorithms.
That’s why having a service to automate some of these processes is incredibly useful. Analytics SEO does just that, and it has a pretty robust free package to start out with.
It provides keyword research and analysis, stats about your incoming links, and notices of any errors present in your website that may be affecting SEO. Access to this type of data is essential to get your law firm website or blog ranking for local attorney-related search terms.
Buffer
If you think dealing with social media is a pain-in-the-you-know-what, we’ve got a great tool to make your life easier. It’s called Buffer, and it makes it extremely easy to update all of your social networks at once, and to schedule posts in advance so you don’t have to constantly be thinking about it.
Not only that, but if you download the plugin for Google Chrome, anytime you come across a cool piece of content on the web, you can add it to your Buffer queue with just a couple of clicks from the browser.
It saves a ton of time and allows you to build an active social media presence with minimal effort. We’re huge fans of it here at EasyIntake, and use it daily to stay on top of all our social media activities.
WordPress
WordPress is the most powerful and widely used content management system on the internet, powering an estimated 75 million plus websites (including our blog). And, since it’s on this list, you can rest assured that it ‘s free to use.
WordPress makes it easy for even the least technically-savvy person to start a website or blog, and to regularly post content. And since it’s open-source, other developers can build cool plugins and design new themes to add additional functionality and improve the look of your site.
A law firm blog is a great way to engage with your target clientele, establish your firm’s credibility, increase your web traffic, boost your SEO, increase your newsletter sign-ups, and more. We recommend WordPress over any other blogging platform in our post about how to start a law firm blog.
MailChimp
Ask any internet marketer what their most powerful weapon is, and just about all of them will say it’s their email list. A large email list is the core of successful online marketing for any type of business, including law firms.
MailChimp is one of the best and most user-friendly email marketing services out there. You can install MailChimp’s email sign-up forms easily on your blog or website and build up a list of email subscribers. Best of all, their service automatically complies with all Anti-Spam laws by using double opt-in and adding unsubscribe links at the bottom of every email.
Email marketing may seem dated in today’s era of social media, but in reality it’s still highly effective and going stronger than ever. If you’re looking to add email to your law firm marketing arsenal, MailChimp is a good way to go.
Learn more in our guide about how to use Clio Grow for automated contact management and email marketing.
Meetup
What ever happened to good old-fashioned, in person communication? While many businesses are primarily using the internet as a marketing medium these days, there’s nothing quite like face-to-face communication for building rapport with prospective clients.
But where do you go to do that? The answer is Meetup.com – a fantastic service allowing you to start or join groups with like-minded people interested in a particular topic, and schedule times to meet together.
If you’re a business lawyer, there are tons of startup and small business oriented groups. If you do estate planning work, go to meetups with new parents. You get the idea. The more face-to-face networking you can do, the more contacts you’ll make, and the more referrals you’ll get.
Eventbrite
Want to make a splash? Nothing works better than putting on an awesome event! You don’t have to be the most outgoing or charismatic person. Everybody loves a good party.
Eventbrite is by far the best service online to help you organize an event, promote it, and sell tickets to your desired attendees. Although putting on the event is not likely to be free, using Eventbrite is (they just take a commission from your ticket sales, if any).
There’s something about being the organizer of a successful event – it makes you look respectable and credible. People will automatically gain more trust in you, which is the most important characteristic they will be looking for if they end up hiring an attorney.
Conclusion
That wraps up our list of the top 10 free law firm marketing tools. Marketing a law firm is never going to be easy. It’s very much a numbers game, and it takes time. But be patient, find a plan that works for you, and stick to it. Consistency is the key.
Hopefully you got some new ideas and were inspired to try out a couple of these services and make them part of your overall law firm marketing plan. Want some more tips? Check out these other law firm marketing posts: 10 best lead generation services for lawyers and lead management best practices for law firms.
We published this blog post in August 2014. Last updated: .
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