THE IRISH SOLICITOR S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING SUCCESS

THE IRISH SOLICITOR S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING SUCCESS

Content Introduction Solicitors and Advertising The Anti-Risk Mindset Your Legal Niche Your Biggest Challenge 03 04 06 07 08 Determining Your Strategy 09 How Will The Right People Find Your Website? 10 Successful Marketing Involves 12 Marketing Tactics 13 Email Newsletters and Autoresponders 16 Building an Effective Website 17 Converting your Visitors 18 Measuring Performance 19 What Is Your Lead-To-Client Conversion Rate? 20

Introduction As a solicitor, you re offering one of the more important services on the market, but how are potential clients meant to find you? You may well get some work from random passers-by who notice the sign on your front door but in this, the Digital Age, the internet is by far the most popular way for people to source services, and that includes solicitors. Using the internet to research businesses isn t a new phenomenon, but it has become an established part of everyday life. If people are busy researching which restaurant to visit on a Friday night, you can be sure that they are also using Google to look up solicitors. It is, therefore, essential for any business that wants to establish credibility to have a strong online presence. 3

Solicitors and Advertising The Solicitors Advertising Regulations 2002 states in Regulation 3 that:... Subject to these regulations, it shall be lawful for a solicitor to advertise. Traditionally, solicitors have been somewhat squeamish about advertising. The idea that if you re good enough, people will find you prevailed. Unfortunately, that s not always the case. Advertising is straightforward really. Do you believe that you are the ideal solicitor for a potential client who needs your help? Or do you know of someone who has lost out in a situation where you could have helped, had they reached you first? If you have answered yes to both these questions, you ll realise that the only way you can help more people is to advertise and let them know you are out there. Many solicitors make the mistake of believing that because they are expert in the practice of law, their business will take care of itself. But that s not how it works. Clients still need to find you, and you have to convince them that your business is right for them. Despite what you might want to believe, your business is much the same as any other business and needs to be approached in a similar way. 4

The renowned management consultant, Peter F Drucker, once said: You may be selling your legal expertise, but the actual business operation is no different than any other. The practice of law is just one component of your business. Finding new clients is equally important. Simply putting up a static website with a 'Call Us' button is not sufficient to convince customers to choose your business. To be successful, you must learn how to use the internet to develop an online presence that, not only showcases your business, but turns visitors into clients by showing them they can trust you with their legal affairs. The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. In this guide, we will show you how to build your credibility online and optimise your digital presence to achieve the results you want. We will show you how to get more leads, and track down potential clients who are interested in your content and services whom you can nurture until they are ready to become your client. 5

The Anti-Risk Mindset One of the biggest obstacles that a solicitor getting involved with marketing for the first time needs to overcome is the lack of certainty inherent in it. Legal professional training stresses risk avoidance. It is all about what you can t do and how things can go wrong when you take risks. You will have spent years learning how to spot and avoid risk, whether drafting contracts or dealing with any other area of legal work. Your colleagues have been trained in exactly the same way. This approach is essential to making a success of your legal practice, but it creates a difficulty when it comes to digital marketing. There is always a degree of risk in both digital marketing and marketing in general. This risk is unavoidable and can be a serious mental obstacle for many solicitors who value certainty and perceive themselves as experts. They pride themselves on the certainty of their opinions. In the world of business, expert advice is valuable, but it forms only a single component of a bigger picture. Not every marketing technique you try is going to work, but you won't know whether it does or not until you take the risk and give it a go. 6

Your Legal Niche As a solicitor, you probably deal with a wide range of legal problems every day. Many make the mistake of trying to adapt this approach to their marketing. Generalists will struggle online. An ad claiming, we can solve your legal problems will not pay dividends. Too many others are running similar adverts and you ll soon find that it is too expensive to promote your business in this way. Your colleagues are probably also generalists so you ll spend your advertising budget competing against each other and failing to stand out. The key to success is in finding some way to differentiate your business from that of your competitors and the simplest way to do this is by choosing one or two niche areas and focusing your efforts on these. Most of us don t look for a solicitor because we might need one in the future. We look for a solicitor when we have a problem right now. To be successful, select an area or two of law and market your business to people with problems in those areas right now. Some might feel they are fishing in the small client pool that is Ireland but plenty of people could benefit from your professional services, if only they knew what you have to offer. Others might think they are limited by their location. Perhaps they are in a remote area with a small population and only so much legal work to go around. Even in such a scenario, you don t have to settle for whatever meagre pickings come your way. It is possible to get significant, valuable business from all over the country and abroad if you re sufficiently focused on your niche and can prove your expertise to your clients. 7

Does the idea of marketing to a particular niche seem limiting? There are hundreds to choose from. A small selection could include: Ultimately your choice of which niche to select will come down to your Unique Sales Proposition (USP). What exactly is a USP? 1 2 3 Practice-based Niches Agriculture Brexit for companies seeking a foothold in Ireland Intellectual property Aviation leasing Compulsory purchase orders Client-based Niches Medical device companies Biotech companies High-net-worth returning emigrants Family law focused on surrogacy Service-based Niches 24/7 service Emergency help It s the intersection of: What you enjoy doing What clients will pay well for Where your expertise lies Your Biggest Challenge Niche-based marketing opens up many possibilities for your practice but it also means that you will have to exclude potential areas of interest and that can be an issue for solicitors who like to advise on a wide range of general legal problems. They are genuinely concerned that they may be limiting their growth by ignoring potential clients. Such solicitors need to turn their thinking around. By trying to reach everybody, you dilute your marketing efforts. It doesn't matter how good you are at your job, unless you can reach clients and convince them to use your services, your message will be lost in the crowd, all marketing the same services in the same way. You will end up reaching no-one. By taking a focused marketing approach, you can target your efforts at those with a particular problem and explain why you are the best person to resolve it. 8

Determining Your Strategy It s not about you! Many companies fail at digital marketing because they don't understand this. You only have to glance at some websites to see why they aren't earning the rewards they would like. Often these sites spend pages listing awards they have won; how prestigious they are; how modern their office is. No-one cares. A potential client is browsing your website because they have a problem and want to know if you can help. Your qualifications, experience and skills are a given. Your competitors have similar skills. What the would-be client is interested in, is what sets you apart and what you can do for them. Another mistake smaller companies make is relying on brand advertising. Advertising your company brand is effective only when you already have high brand recognition. If you are Apple or L Oréal, people will most likely have heard of you already, in which case brand advertising can work. If you are an Irish solicitor, brand advertising is a complete waste of money. The key to your success is direct-response advertising as it provides immediate, tangible and measurable results. The steps you must take to achieve this are: Lead Generation (Marketing) Lead Conversion (Sales) Client Satisfaction (Service Delivery) Don't make the mistake of thinking that it is all about attracting traffic to your website. Website traffic is easy to get; all you have to do is spend lots of money on Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads and you ll get traffic galore. The problem with this is, it won t guarantee you clients. If all you do is drive traffic to your website, but no-one enquires, you ll have spent money for no return. If you want to succeed at online marketing, you need to attract the right traffic. You want the people who are most likely to become your clients. You want people interested in your business niche. These are the people you ve defined as your ideal customer, and it is these individuals to whom you should be marketing. 9

How Will The Right People Find Your Website? Having a well written, client-focused website won t help if no-one can find it. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways of making sure your website can be found by those you are targeting. Start by thinking about SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. You can do this by carefully picking keywords, optimising your webpages, and creating content related to the terms your ideal client is searching for. The keywords you choose should reflect the search terms that people use to find your business. What are people typing into Google when they want to find a solicitor? Don't expect to be found by someone typing 'solicitor' or even Irish solicitor', a search term that brings up hundreds of results. Most of the people looking at those results are unlikely to be your potential clients. They may live too far away, or want a specialist in another area of law. When searching for a solicitor, most of your potential clients will begin their journey with a search engine. They will type a query into Google or some other search engine and they will get back a list of websites that are in some way related to what they typed in. Your marketing goal is to get your website on the results page for all queries related to your chosen niche. You must be specific about the keywords you target. Depending on your chosen niche you could try: Solicitor for housing Solicitor for wills Solicitor conveyancing Think also about targeting your specific geographic area. The more detailed and informative your website is, the more likely it is to receive a high Google ranking. 10

Social Media and blogging can work together to increase your website s visibility. As a solicitor you probably enjoy writing, which gives you a huge advantage over other professionals trying to rank well on Google. If you blog regularly on subjects relevant to your niche, you will increase your authority among your social media followers, who will come to value your advice. Each post you write will also improve your rank in Google for the keywords for which you want to be found. Examples of jargon-free articles you might consider writing could include: PRO TIP! It may seem enormously time consuming or even overwhelming to take on a project like this in addition to your legal work, but you should be able to come up with a list of titles and general outline, and hire a legal researcher or student to draft the articles for you cost effectively. It will be quicker and easier to edit these drafts and add your expertise and personality, rather than you having to start from scratch. My mother excluded my brother from her will. What can he do? How to handle a conveyancing problem with a period house Is conveyancing different for new-build homes, and why? How to avoid being taken to court by a former employer What's my liability when an employee hurts himself through no fault of mine? My competitor stole my IP. What are my options? How can I resolve a boundary dispute with my nice neighbour? Your overall online objective is to produce as much quality content as you can on a variety of topics closely related to your niche. The longer and more comprehensive the article the better. Don't limit yourself to words. Ideally include numbers, examples, charts, graphs, images and videos. It all adds to the impression of completeness and improves your ranking. Having quality content to share online is vital. It allows you to engage with potential clients, and helps them to put a face to your name. By interacting on social networks where your clients spend their time, you can become real to them. They begin to relate to you as an individual, not just a company. They become connected to you, and you become their first point of contact for legal advice. Being active on these networks also helps you to keep track of the conversations that are important to you. You ll have an opportunity to listen to clients questions and concerns, and address these with relevant content. In short, social media is the golf club of our times, and you don t have to pay 20,000 a year to join. 11

2 Your message Successful Marketing Involves: Defining your: 1 Your market What are you offering that will prompt a potential client to take action? As a solicitor you are used to dealing in facts. If you know who you are marketing your services to, you can begin to think about what you want to tell them. What is it about you and your business that could persuade a potential client that you are the right person to advise them? Focus on how your skills and experience can solve this person s problems. How can you help them to achieve their goals? Who are you trying to reach? Know who you are trying to market your services to. Determine your ideal client profile. The more you know about your potential client, the more effective your marketing will be. Think about your client s likely age, job, where they live, what hobbies they enjoy. By having a real person in mind when planning your marketing, you can develop empathy with that individual; you can begin to understand what their goals are and what they hope to achieve in hiring a solicitor. Once you know this, you can target your advertising to explain how you can help them meet these goals. 3 Your medium Which methods are you going to use to reach potential clients? The medium you use to reach potential clients will depend on several factors, including your budget and the types of marketing you feel most comfortable with. If you have the budget for it, Google AdWords can be a good way of reaching people who need your services. If you prefer social media, writing quality content can help you build a substantial following on Facebook or Twitter. Let's take a look at the options and explore the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Not every method will be right for you but it s important to know your options. 12

Marketing Tactics Google Rankings (SEO) We have already looked at how your website s Google ranking is affected by SEO. It is important to remember that everything you write online, including on your social media profiles, is valuable for SEO purposes so make sure that you write them with your keywords in mind. Finding suitable links to your website from other relevant websites is another critical way of improving your Google ranking. When it comes to links, quality tops quantity. One or two links from high-ranking, relevant websites will work much better than hundreds of links from low-quality directories or websites. If you haven't listed your business in Google My Business, you should do so without delay. It s free and well worth the few minutes it takes. It s particularly useful in that it allows you to specify a location for your business so that your listing will appear to potential clients who live or work nearby. Google AdWords (PPC) AdWords is probably Google s best-known marketing tool. The adverts that appear at the top of most Google search results get there as a result of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. You can pay to have your advert appear when a Google user types in a particular search term. This can be quite expensive but you're in control of the budget, so you need never spend more than you want. To use Google AdWords effectively, you must target the right search terms so that the right people click on your advertisements. You must also be confident that you can convert those who click into leads. Do not consider using Google AdWords until your website is converting well, as you will be throwing money away. Use Google Analytics to find out where people are getting lost in the conversion process. If you are happy with your conversion rate, Google AdWords can be a great tool. The longer you or an employee spends managing your Google AdWords account, the greater your competitive advantage will be, but you must balance that against the costs of managing your account. 13

Remarketing Remarketing is a relatively cheap way to stay in front of clients while they engage in other activities online. It lets you show adverts to former visitors to your website who have left without making an enquiry or joining your email list. The benefits of this should be clear. These are people who have already demonstrated an interest in your services, so you know that they have some desire at least to engage a solicitor. Remarketing allows you to reach people whenever they use Google search or when they visit any of the 2 million websites and mobile apps that are a part of the Google Display Network. Prospect Your Website Prospect Tracked Prospect Leaves Your AD on Other Sites Beyond Google advertising, the world of social media can reap rewards. Prospect returns to your website 14

Facebook Twitter Facebook is a serious rival of Google s when it comes to online advertising. Using Facebook, you can target specific demographics. This is powerful as it allows you to target locations, age ranges, interests or professions. By choosing the targets of your advertising carefully, you can drive specific traffic to your website, which you can then capture as a lead with a name and email address. If you produce great content for your website or blog, Twitter will help you direct people to it. Twitter is excellent for building connections and getting to know people, but don t expect to get business directly from it. There are lots of other social media networks, such as Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and MeWe. You can use them for fun but they probably don't have enough market share to be worthwhile for your business. Linkedin This is populated mainly by white-collar professionals and entrepreneurs so if that s your target audience, use it to connect with as many relevant people as possible. An easy way to do this is via the LinkedIn mobile phone app. As LinkedIn is a network for professionals, you can't approach it in the casual way you might your personal Facebook profile. LinkedIn professionals are often careful who they connect with, as they know potential employers may be checking them out, so make sure your profile looks sharp. Irish people on the platform will usually connect with you if you smile and look halfway normal in your profile photo! LinkedIn Publisher is a helpful tool that allows you to publish articles, driving connections to your website to leave their contact details in return for additional information. Such information might include, for example, a free downloadable guide to resolving boundary disputes or a template for writing a will. 15

Email Newsletters and Autoresponders Your email list is the most important digital asset you possess. The names and email addresses of your current and former clients is the lifeblood of your business. You can use this list for regular monthly newsletters, ad-hoc communication, or any time you have something worthwhile to say. Your email list is a valuable way of keeping your business at the forefront of people s minds, but don't abuse it. People get tons of email and, if what you are sending them is not useful, they will unsubscribe and be gone. If you want to send out a series of messages that will interest only a section of your subscribers, set up an autoresponder series and invite those interested to sign-up. That's a win-win for you as you learn more about your subscribers and it allows you to segment your list. In this way, you ll avoid losing members who might otherwise have unsubscribed. Maintaining a good quality email list of the names of those who are genuinely interested in your services is essential. You will need help maintaining your mailing list. A good option is MailChimp, which is cheap and simple to use. If you segment your list well, you can run some complex operations, such as arranging follow-up emails or planning advertising campaigns. 16

Building an Effective Website Any marketing campaign will fail if the website you are driving people to isn't converting as it should. Every solicitor needs a website and must ensure that it is updated regularly. Nothing demonstrates a lack of interest quite like a website that hasn't been updated for six months or a year. Your website must be customer-focused so don t spend pages discussing your brilliance. Just state what you can do for your client. Your objective is to capture potential clients details. Demonstrate your expertise by providing useful information that people will find valuable. Resist the urge to use legal jargon that could confuse a potential client. What Type of Website Should I Have? There are a few different types of websites solicitors tend to have. The one you choose will depend on how you like to conduct business. A brochure site (a simple 10-20 page site that is mainly about you and the work you do) A direct response site (where you exchange your knowledge for potential customer details) A blog (where you write and share your knowledge) An ecommerce site (that takes credit card payments for work such as wills or a simple consensual divorce) In most cases, WordPress is ideal. It is secure, simple to set up and maintain and easy to edit. There s a reason 23% of sites globally use WordPress, including CNN, MTV, and ESPN. When writing your website content, remember you are, in effect, dressing your digital shop window. You are creating an opportunity for visitors to find out what you do, and how you can help them. You must make the best possible use of every word to maximise your appeal and convert website visitors into clients. 17

Converting Your Visitors Attracting the right type of visitor to your website is important, but it is just the first step. Next, you need to convert them into leads by gathering their contact information. At the very least, you will need their email addresses. Contact information is the most valuable currency there is to the online marketer. If you want your visitors to offer up that currency willingly, you ll need to offer something valuable in return. That payment is good content. The content may take the form of an ebook, whitepaper, or tip sheet - whatever information would interest your ideal client persona. Conversion is the area where most websites fall down. Designers often fail to take the needs and desires of website visitors into account when planning the website. You must optimise every aspect of your website to encourage conversion. Try to visualise each of the personas you are targeting and imagine what they might look for on each website page. What information would they like to see? What would they expect the next step to be? How can you reassure them so that they continue down the path to conversion? You ll need to close every loophole that might stop them entering their name on the Contact Form and adding themselves to your list. Make sure there is a clear call-to-action (CTA) on your website. Make sure prospective clients know what they are supposed to do at each stage of the process. If you want them to download a whitepaper, make it obvious. Don't hide the link or make it complicated. If your CTAs don't work, your entire website has failed. Once you get your new prospect to the point where they are entering their name and email address on your Contact Form, make sure you don t lose them. Don't ask for a litany of information that you will never use. Make the form as simple and straightforward as possible. 18

Measuring Performance Concentrate your marketing efforts on your chosen niches. Work hard to ensure your website has the highest conversion rate possible, and regularly share high quality blog posts with your followers across social networks. At this stage, your digital marketing efforts have probably brought you a few extra clients but you ll need to ask, is it really worth your time? How much is each lead costing? How much are you spending to attract a new client? Getting the answers to these questions can mean the difference between a profitable solicitors firm and one that struggles to survive. These answers can only be found by tracking your marketing campaigns properly and seeing what your actual costs are. The two metrics that matter most are: The Cost Per Lead (CPL) The Cost Per Client (CPC) If you can calculate these accurately, you can maximise your online marketing efforts, reduce overall costs, and increase your profits. A lead is anyone who signs up to your contacts list, and in getting someone to that stage, you will likely have incurred significant costs. These might be PPC costs or the costs of writing a regular blog. Consider also whether any offline advertising you have done has played a part in bringing people to your website. To estimate the cost of every lead (CPC) you generate, you must: 1 2 3 4 Choose the time frame you want to work with (weekly, monthly, quarterly) Find out how many people signed up in that time Work out your total advertising costs for that period Divide the costs by the number of new sign-ups If you spent 10,000 on advertising during one quarter and this generated 50 new leads, the average cost of each lead is 200. Is 200 a good figure or a bad figure? That depends on the nature of your practice, the value of each client to your business and how good you are at turning leads into clients. If your client is worth 2,000 to you, spending 200 to attract them might be okay, but not brilliant. If, however, the client brings you a more lucrative case worth 25,000, spending 200 is more acceptable. 19

Your Cost Per Client The other figure worth tracking is your Cost Per Client. What is the cost of getting your new client to sign up? Here are the steps you need to take to measure this: 1 2 Choose your time frame (the same time frame as for your CPL) Identify the number of new clients acquired during the time frame What Is Your Lead-To-Client Conversion Rate? How many people on your list will go on to become your clients? A low conversion rate of just 5-10% will make a 200 cost per lead unacceptable, but if your conversion rate is nearer 50%, paying 200 for a lead could well be reasonable. Once you have determined your cost per lead, remember to measure it regularly. This will help ensure that any irregular, one-off costs (such as web hosting fees) are included even if they only occur once a year. 3 Determine the advertising costs incurred during the time frame 4 Divide the advertising costs by the number of new clients If you spent 10,000 on advertising during your time period and got 50 leads, the CPL is 200. If those 50 leads produced 5 clients, the cost per client is 2,000. This brings us back to the question: is this an acceptable cost? It all depends how much each client is worth to your business. If each client is worth around 15,000-20,000, spending 2,000 per client is probably okay. If you focus more on clients with a lower average value, 2,000 for a client may not leave you with a reasonable profit margin. Each business is unique, but you ll need these figures to decide whether or not your business model is sustainable, and whether you can earn enough money as a solicitor to concentrate on the things in life that are important to you. 20

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT We help Irish Solicitors get more sales, leads and exposure from the internet and we keep it simple with no jargon. Talk to us for 10 minutes if you want more legal enquiries and let s see if we can help you grow your practice fast. Call us today & tell us your problem: (01) 485 2611 digital@tinderpoint.com Review Your Legal Marketing Approach with Established Experts You get more sales when we implement some of the following items brilliantly for you: Google Rankings (SEO) Google Ads (PPC) Social Media Content Marketing The Warehouse 26A Mount Eden Road Donnybrook, Dublin 4 Conversion Improvement Email Marketing Analytics Website Revamps www.tinderpoint.com