By Jackson Pillow
The November LMA luncheon was lead by Gina F. Rubel, president of Furia Rubel Communications, Inc. Her presentation, “Integrated Approaches to Law Firm Marketing and Public Relations in the 21st Century,” provided an excellent overview of tactics to improve visibility and user traffic through various digital mediums.
The start of the presentation emphasized defining the position of the firm clearly. Who are these messages targeting? What determines their success? These and other questions need to be addressed before outreach can be evaluated.
Many firms have multiple efforts for reaching their audience, including web and interactive media, advertising, public relations, branding, sales and marketing. If each of these components is exercised effectively, the firm will have a much easier time reaching its target audiences.
The presentation primarily emphasized the web and interactive aspects of law firm communications. The section was split into several different areas including firm websites, social media, blogs, audio/ video and mobile.
1. Website: A significant portion of the presentation was dedicated to website considerations. Understanding how users interact with this medium is crucial in designing its structure and content. The most requested pages on a firm’s webpage, aside from individual attorney bios, are verdicts, practice areas and blogs. Knowing where the traffic is going will help shape where the richest content is placed.
Unlike some other industries, she said law firms should not worry about the ‘white space’ on their website. White space commonly refers to blank space between content areas that is not taken up by graphics or other media. Content is king, and the more information a consumer can digest the better. Other web design principles should be considered when evaluating a firm’s website. The homepage is like the front page of a newspaper. It should instantly highlight the most important and sought-after content. This is where links to attorney bios, practice areas and blogs should be readily available and only one click away.
After a website gets a sleek and user-friendly design, it should be constantly monitored and updated, even in areas that are somewhat static. Since web tools constantly receive tweaks and overhauls, even if a website is only a couple years old, it may have compatibility issues with various devices, plug-ins and browsers. Doing compatibility testing is an easy way to avoid losing clients to technological error.
Throughout the presentation, Gina emphasized the importance of improving a firm’s site search engine optimization (SEO). Including the right phrases, publishing strategic content and having web presence in specific areas are all things a firm can do to climb higher in the search engine rankings. All firms want to be on that first page of search results, but only the aggressive and strategic firms will stay at the top.
Another way to better position a firm’s site is by doing some internal measurements. Including simple drop downs on pages and asking how the user was directed to the site is one great way to track which communication efforts are the most effective in generating web traffic. By doing this internal research, it is easy to point out strengths and weaknesses and, in turn, reorganize efforts to more efficiently attract new clients.
2. Social Media: The firm’s website is still the first place potential clients go to get information. The second is LinkedIn. While some senior attorneys have not yet bought into the value of LinkedIn, attorneys under the age of 40 have been successfully utilizing the free service to further develop their public visibility. Media counsel for attorneys needs to continue to emphasize the importance of having a presence on this social media platform, especially to senior partners. This is free real estate to be taken by those proactive enough to sit down and create a page, something that all savvy attorneys will come to understand.
Google Plus might not have the same digital footprint as other social media sites, but that does not mean that it is to be forgotten. As a product of Google, Google Plus is very SEO-friendly. If nothing else motivates attorneys to branch out to Google Plus, they should consider how closely tied activity on this site is to driving a presence on search engines and increasing visibility to new clients.
3. Blogs: As previously mentioned, blogs are one the most viewed sections on firm websites. Not only can users gain perspective on legal issues from blogs, they also help show a personal side of the attorneys and explore the firm’s culture. Tracking which blogs are read the most is a great way to dissect client interests and determine which areas should be the focus of future postings.
Blogs are also one of the best ways to develop SEO. Driving up the amount of specific terminology may supplement the firm’s ranking in search engines.When done right, blogs can be repurposed for many outreach efforts. Making blogs reusable is something that should be considered when attorneys sit down to write them. Asking, “What else can come of this?” should be regular practice amongst the firm’s bloggers.
4. Audio/Video: Many firms of have captured either audio or video of presentations by their attorneys. Repurposing this content is an easy way to increase web presence. The attorney is going to give the presentation, so why not reformat it so that potential clients can consume the information?
Making sure the title of multi-media content is comprehensive is critical. Giving a detailed description of the content within the title will contribute to SEO and help generate more traffic. Another suggestion is to include the transcript of audio and video content in the description so that it is more user-friendly and will further increase hits and SEO.
5. Mobile: One of the biggest factors in designing effective mobile sites is consideration of the user experience. A person trying to access a website on their phone is not looking for the exact same content that is on the firm’s site. So it should not carry all of the same content. The normal website should not have much white space, but be dense. The mobile site should avoid being too dense because of smaller screens and the need for faster navigation.
Some firms have decided that since certain firms have downloadable mobile applications (these are different from a mobile site) that their firm needs to have one. This is not always true. A mobile application takes time and resources to develop, and in truth, not all firms have a reason to have one. If there is not a specific benefit to the user, they are not going to waste their time, phone memory or attention on a mobile application. As in most areas, mobile technologies need thorough consideration before a firm invests in them.
Gina offered quality perspective on things to consider when attracting new clients to a law firm. All of these elements are to complement the traditional forms of communications including marketing, public relations and branding. Pushing a firm into doing things that it is not familiar with is no small task, but once the rewards reveal themselves, everyone will understand the value of honing these digital communication skills.
Jackson Pillow is a Junior Associate at Greentarget Global Group. He specializes in multimedia production, media relations and communications research.