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A website is just the beginning of creating an effective digital strategy. This was the idea Michelle Woodyear, digital marketing manager at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP conveyed during her presentation at LegalTech® New York 2015 last week.
Ms. Woodyear provided first-hand experience of how her firm rebuilt their digital strategy into an opportunity engine.
Every firm has a website. The question to ask is: do you want your site to be a simple online brochure or if you want to transform it to create real opportunities for your firm?
1. Build client personas. As a component of a law firm’s digital strategy, legal marketers should use it to engage with visitors and start learning more about them and their needs. Start by building personas of your clients and create a content strategy that speaks to each persona.
2. Be human. Web site copy should be written for people – use human language (no jargon) – and be brief. Avoid overwhelming readers with too much content. The marketing team can then suggest keywords for search engine optimization (SEO).
80% of legal site traffic is to attorney biographies.
3. Bios draw the most visibility. Eighty percent of legal site traffic is to attorney biographies (bios), so evaluating and re-writing partner and associate bios is and important task, but here is the secret: Write bios that speak to your client personas and address their needs.
4. Pilot social media. Identify a practice group that will be willing to establish a social media presence. The best place to start is LinkedIn, which also helps build relevance in search engines. Many General Counsel start their searches online, and if you aren’t on LinkedIn, you might as well not exist.
A law firm digital strategy is more than a web site.
5. Attorney participation. The key to any digital strategy is getting your attorneys to participate. First, pitch your marketing plan to upper management, and get them on board. Then, start with one of your more progressive practice groups. Document your wins, and build from there.
6. Integrated Marketing. Once you gain momentum, integrate all of the components of your marketing infrastructure to get greater insight into prospective clients. These components may include:
- Client or Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Enterprise Resource Management (ERM)
- Web site bios
- Blogs
- SEM and SEO
- Social Media
The more of these components you can successfully integrate these pieces, the more opportunities you will be able to uncover for your firm. And, isn’t creating opportunities the point of what we do as law firm business development and marketing professionals?
Photo credit: Flickr, Steve Johnson, CC BY 2.0
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