The economy is beginning to reopen - albeit slowly. Many states are reopening in phases, meaning not everything will open at the same time. The courts have already announced that they will not be opening until some time later and some are even exploring the possibility of hosting virtual hearings. Many law firms have continued operations remotely during the lockdown, holding meetings with clients by phone or video conferencing software such as Zoom. As the economy prepares to reopen, is your firm ready? Here are a few strategies your firm could put into practice to help prepare for a smooth transition back to work.
Six Law Firm Marketing Strategies During COVID-19
1. Communication is King
2. Create Unique COVID-19 Content
3. Build Site Authority
4. Find Your Niche
5. Managing Your Lawyer Listings
6. Social Media
Communication is King
Communication is king, queen, princess, elf, you name it. Communication is everything in unprecedented times such as this. The COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) pandemic has caused large scale havoc and at this point, no one really knows what to expect. I mean the Government has even confirmed UFO’s and it was barely blinked at during the mess that is COVID-19. Your clients need to hear from you.
Many individuals needing the assistance of a law firm are doing so out of necessity and it’s normally not for something good. Provide your clients some reassurances that you’re still working on their case(s). With COVID causing widespread panic, let your clients know what steps you’ll be taking when you reopen to prevent the spread of the virus. Are you going to wipe down every pen, clipboard and door handle after it’s used? Only allow a certain number of individuals in at one time? Require masks? Those are all things you should be thinking about and communicating out to your clients.
Create Unique Content During COVID-19
Some of the law firms that Precision Legal Marketing works with absolutely crushed the competition these last few months by producing COVID-19 related content. Many law firms weren’t really sure which direction to take things, but there were those that withstood the challenge and had their idle attorneys work on blogs and various other content that had them ranking high consistently and driving large volumes of traffic to their website.
Take advantage of the time you have to get ahead of the content game. Precision Legal Marketing founder had this to say “Building unique content marketing strategies can give you the competitive advantage over the competition." Why not write an article for a press release or some extra articles you can use for your blog during your down time? Have a list of email addresses? Send them an informative newsletter while also demonstrating your expertise on the matter. The economic downturn doesn't have to mean failure; let's aim for success.
Google My Business has even created a way for businesses to easily update their operating status during COVID-19. They have some other limited functionality to be aware of as well such as removing the ability for people to leave new reviews, disabling the ability for Q&A’s and the ability for businesses to respond to reviews.
Build Site Authority
As with all things, marketing is a balancing act. You can produce content for your website all day, every day but if you don’t also apply a healthy amount of attention to building site authority, your efforts may be in vain. As mentioned in Law Firm Marketing During COVID-19, About pages, posts that tie into the core identity of the firm become important here. Meaning, if you're an estate attorney in Maryland, talk about planning an estate in Maryland (not only in the abstract) - highlight your experience... in Maryland, that sort of thing.
Find Your Niche
If the primary focus of your law firm is on personal injury and you’re talking about divorce, you’re not doing yourself any favors. Seek to establish yourself as a thought leader in your primary practice areas. When your clients are looking for an attorney, you want them to recognize you as an authority on the subject so as to instill confidence in their decision to choose your firm over another.
When writing COVID-19 content, which we still encourage (the virus is long from being over), write to your area. Honestly, COVID-19 has affected all areas of the law. Divorce, domestic violence, grand larceny, estate planning are all on the rise. While there may not be as much traffic on the roads, essential workers, truck drivers, they’re all still driving, and accidents are still happening. It’s finding where the trends and writing to that.
Managing Your Lawyer Listings
If you haven’t worked with a marketing agency to this point, you may be scratching your head. Lawyer listings include Avvo, Justia, SuperLawyers, etc. If you haven’t built those profiles, this is a great time to do so. If you haven’t looked at them in a while, again, this is a great time to do so. Many of those sites ask for resume information (such as SuperLawyers) and updating it may increase your odds of being nominated. All things considered though, you’ll want to make sure that your Name, Address(es), and Phone Number (NAPs) are all accurate on those platforms.
Social Media
There are 26 billion users of Facebook. And tons more on other social platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter. If your law firm doesn’t have a social media page, you’re missing out on a large pool of potential customers. Take this time to create and build up those FREE business profiles.
Already have a business page? Take the time to go through it. You’d be surprised at how many have inaccurate contact information, outdated photos, and/or are barely present. There are some really neat tools out there that allow you pre-schedule all of your social postings in advance and have them post automatically. You’ll still need to moderate, but that’s a lot easier to maintain once your law firm gets bustling again when your posts are scheduled in advance. Use this time to prepare your social posts and schedule them out so when you go back to your full workload that’s one less thing to worry about.
Whether your law firm is stepped up the game with content marketing or advertising, we encourage you to keep going. Your competition is looking for innovative ways to edge you out, so you need to take steps to stay relevant with your current and potential clients.
If you need a little help, Precision Legal Marketing is a one stop shop, full-service marketing agency ready to help your COVID-19 transition. We can help you craft a strategy to make reopening a seamless effort and help you stay at the forefront of your client’s mind. Get in touch with us today at www.precisionlegalmarketing.com or by calling us at 1-877-602-7510.
