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3 Free (or Almost Free) Ways to Generate Online Leads for Your Law Firm

Using Online Tactics to Drive Offline Business

Three out of four people looking for a lawyer use online resources at some point in the process. Holding answers to every question any of us could ever ask, the Internet is a resource we can no longer live without. That also makes it the ideal place to seek new business for your law firm.

While lead-generating online ad campaigns can be extremely successful in driving new business to your law firm, not every part of your digital marketing strategy must come with a hefty price tag. The three tactics we’ve outlined in this post can be implemented at a minimal cost with the potential for business-boosting results.

Step Up Your Content

Content marketing costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing and generates three times the amount of leads. Whether you’re starting from scratch or already have a few blog posts under your belt, to truly harness the power of content marketing to generate law firm leads, first we need to go back to basics.

Content can be a blog post, video, webinar, podcast, ebook, etc.—anything your brand creates, publishes or distributes that is of value to a targeted online audience. The key word in that definition is “valuable.”

It’s important to understand that simply hitting publish on a blog post won’t make a significant impact on lead generation. Finding success through content marketing means understanding who your audience is and the type of content your audience is looking for.

Start by conducting a bit of research. What are your competitors doing? What are potential clients searching for on Google? How can you provide those answers?

The content you create makes your site a trusted source potential leads can turn to, and the more and better quality content you’re producing, the better your chances of ranking higher in search results.

Make SEO a Focus

Search engines, like Google, determine the quality of your content by rating factors like its relevance, length, usefulness, credibility, consistency, freshness and more. The process of optimizing your content to check off search engines’ requirements and appear higher in results is called search engine optimization (SEO).

Although you probably already knew that definition, understanding how content and SEO work together helps streamline your digital marketing strategy. One piece of your strategy is not complete without the other, nor will it yield the results you’re looking for.

For law firms, the goal of SEO is to serve your content to those who are searching for it. These are your firm’s potential new clients, and they may be searching phrases like “best DUI lawyer in Orlando,” or “how much does it cost to hire a lawyer.”

To earn your audience’s clicks and potentially land in their consideration set, you must create content that answers those queries and individually optimize every piece you hit publish on. That means ensuring the proper use of keywords, giving your images descriptive file names and alt text fields, and adding reference links. And, these quick updates are just the start, there are countless other ways to optimize your content for search engines.

Understand the Impact of Online Reviews

Public-facing client feedback has never been as important as it is today. A reported 92 percent of consumers read online reviews, and 40 percent of people will form an opinion of your business after reading just one to three reviews.

Today, online reviews are part of the buyer’s journey. So much so that customer reviews have become social proof your business is credible and legitimate, incorporating a human aspect into search engine algorithms. In other words, reviews can impact your SEO.

And, it’s not all about the positive reviews. Negative reviews often give businesses an air of authenticity and confirms for consumers that their reviews are not paid testimonials. In fact, 52 percent of buyers trust a product more if it has a few negative reviews.

So, how can your law firm leverage online reviews to generate new leads? First, be sure your firm has a presence you own on top user feedback sites like Yelp, Google My Business and Facebook. Make sure you’re linking out to these platforms from your firm’s website to simplify the process and encourage more clients to leave reviews of your business.

Next, you’ll want to generate honest reviews from your past clients. Typically, only those who had a negative experience will leave an online review without being prompted. To change the status quo, follow up with past clients and ask them to share their experience online. Not only will their feedback help your digital strategy, you might learn a thing or two about how your clients view your firm.