The current crisis is having a significant impact on everyone from businesses to those of us who work in the legal sector, while it may seem that now is a time to batten down the business hatches, marketing can play a vital role in ensuring your law firm works it's way through the outbreak in good health.
In the second part of our guide (read Part 1 of our Marketing Your Law Firm During the Coronavirus Outbreak Here) we're going to look at tips 6 to 10 on our list to help you market your law firm in the middle of a crisis.
6. Reach Out with Outreach
You will need to decide whether a marketing outreach programme is applicable for your law firm, but if you work in employment law then an outreach strategy would be a perfect fit for you to reach out to your customers and help them through the crisis by offering regular advice, updates and information through blogs, news, emails and social media. It is the perfect time to cement your status as an authority figure within your field.
You can also do this by submitting content to PR companies and contacting popular online platforms such as legal blogs or news websites and offer your content to them. Take this opportunity to place yourself in front of your customers.
It is also important to remember that if your customers are used to hearing from you regularly, now is not the time to let that relationship diminish. Reassure your customers through your marketing channels that you are available for them, Coronavirus or not.
7. Update Your Website and Content
If you do find yourself with a little more time, in addition to auditing your legal marketing strategy, now would be a great time to update your current content to refresh it and wherever possible, make it relevant. Go through your website and news articles and do the following:
- Update them with fresh content.
- Optimise your pages and articles with new CTAs (calls to action such as, ‘contact us’) and keywords.
- Add internal links on your website to any new services.
How to Market Your Law Firm During the Coronavirus Crisis
8. Remarket and Retarget
Statistically, you’re six times more likely to rebook an existing client or someone who has actively engaged with you before than a new client, so use that to your advantage and utilise a re-marketing strategy to focus on those clients. There are plenty of tools for re-marketing and ways to do this successfully, but a good starting point would be an email campaign to existing clients reminding them that you are open, functioning and can help them with any Coronavirus specific legal issues they might have.
Another good option is to use the retargeting capabilities of Google, Facebook and LinkedIn to your advantage. Former and potential clients will still require services and creating a personalised follow-up email or advert on social media might be the difference in adding them to your client list.
You can use your existing client lists by using Facebook advertisingto upload that list to run adverts that are targeted to them. Facebook Pixels which you insert into your website allow you to track and target people who have been on your website and promote specifically tailored content to them offering your services.
Retargeting is a little more of an advanced marketing strategy so it might be a good idea to consult someone with expertise in that field before you begin.
9. Time for an Audit
Given that many people may be out of the office and the current diary may be a little emptier than usual, why not take the opportunity to take a look at your current legal marketing strategy and analyse the ROI (return on investment) to see what’s working and what areas you need to focus on moving forward.
To do this, create a spreadsheet listing all your current marketing channels. Areas you may want to consider are:
- Blogs
- SEO
- Video
- Website
- Email Marketing
- PPC
Note down how much you’ve spent on each and how they’re performing. This will allow you to highlight which of your current marketing channels need attention. If an audit seems a little daunting there are many companies that offer marketing audits that will help you to hone in on the key areas of growth for your business.
10. Think outside the box
There are a few additional marketing channels you can make use of during this time that you might not have tried before, but with a little extra time and a customer base forced online why not try something new and target your prospective clients where they are?
Video
It’s estimated that by the turn of the year the average time spent watching video online could be over 100 minutes, it’s already up to 84 minutes. So now could be the ideal time to create your first video, and it needn’t be a Hollywood production. There’s plenty of platforms that you can use to create good video content for your target audience relating to the current Coronavirus outbreak.
Webinars
You could run some webinars discussing issues that you know will be pertinent to clients at this time, for example: ‘Should I Change My Employee Contracts Because of Coronavirus?’. Offer these out to existing business clients via email, websites and social media. There are plenty of webinar channels, like Adobe Connect that you can use.
Video Consultations
At a time when the majority of clients can’t come to you, go to them. Offer online video consultations using software such as Zoom video conferencing that will allow you to maintain your appointments with customers who can’t get to your office.
Podcasts
Podcasts are gaining in popularity, so now could be time to release your first podcast. Focus on a topic that covers both the Coronavirus, give good advice and use it as a showcase for the services your law firm offers.
Ebooks and Whitepapers
If you have more time, why not write a whitepaper or e-book specifically targeting the current crisis and the services your law firm offers that can help. Encourage users to download it via an e-mail form and capture prospective client data for future marketing. You can even use this data to contact anyone who has downloaded the whitepaper to ask them if they are in any need of assistance.
You don’t need to do all of the above to ensure your law firm remains on a good footing with your marketing. All you need to make sure is that you don’t halt the very thing that could help you through the Coronavirus outbreak. Instead of treating it like a problem, treat it as an opportunity. Reach out to your customers, meet them on their terms and adapt your legal marketing strategy to seize any prospects.
You don’t need to do all of the above to ensure your law firm remains on a good footing with your marketing. All you need to make sure is that you don’t halt the very thing that could help you through the Coronavirus outbreak. Instead of treating it like a problem, treat it as an opportunity. Reach out to your customers, meet them on their terms and adapt your legal marketing strategy to seize any prospects.
If you'd like more help with your legal marketing then you can reach out to our friends at ClickLaw Marketing
