7 Best Tools for Law Firm Digital Marketing
I am not a fan of gatekeeping. While there are plenty of marketing professionals out there who would prefer to keep their secrets, well, secret, I like to put it all out in the open. I do this for a few reasons.
Firstly, it feels more trustworthy. If I spend time telling you how much thought, research, effort, and expertise goes into creating your digital marketing program, you will be more educated on how much value you get from your marketing partner.
You’ll know there’s no snake oil being sold to you or your firm. Couple that peace of mind with the uptick in conversions and revenue, and I know you’ll feel much better about our partnership.
Secondly, the market is unfortunately saturated with faux-marketing professionals who will promise you 100 times more traffic than you are currently getting. When you get into the weeds of it all, though, you quickly realize you just signed up for a service that is providing no real value to your business.
Even lawyers (and sometimes especially lawyers) fall victim to this part of the industry. The more information I can give you about digital marketing and how it works, the less susceptible you are to the “too good to be true” marketing antics.
When I am talking to clients and potential clients considering signing up with our agency, there’s always a bit of information that is infinitely valuable: tools that lawyers and legal professionals can use to level up their digital marketing.
I decided to compile a list of digital marketing tools that are not only beginner-friendly but can also provide a considerable amount of value to your firm. Then, I chose seven that are the absolute best of the best.
Marketing Tools You Really Need
SE Ranking
SERanking.com
After years of being a subscriber of Semrush to help monitor website rankings & fluctuations and monthly reports, we switched to SE Ranking. For those who don’t know, writing keywords and conducting research is a huge part of a successful digital marketing program. It’s the map that shows you where you should be headed.
But, you have to get the map to begin with — this is where SE Ranking comes in. It is intuitive and useful for beginners and experts alike, and you’ll immediately be able to figure out how to find your keywords, do some competitor analysis, and develop a content plan with minimal exploration.
It’s also the biggest bang for your buck. We were spending $6,000 a year for Semrush, but after moving over to SE Ranking, I have lost zero horsepower when it comes to monitoring website rankings and managing reporting.
Not to mention, SE Ranking is HALF the cost.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT
There is a lot of buzz and controversy happening around ChatGPT, particularly when it comes to the legal field. Here is what I will say: I think you should rely on something other than ChatGPT as a tool for legal work. Probably lawyers or paralegals. And definitely don’t rely on it to find case law for you — unless you are interested in being disbarred, that is.
But for your digital marketing? That is where you could be tapping into a gold mine.
Let’s say you spend eight hours writing a very in-depth blog about your legal niche. For fun, let’s say that niche is international contract law dealing with the import and export of bee and bee products.
Odds are, you’ve created some truly unique and compelling content for the right audience. Unfortunately, if you are slapping it up on your blog and calling it a day, you are crippling your own digital marketing.
Instead, plug the content you wrote into ChatGPT and tell it something like this:
I want you to use the content I provided to write a series of five social media post captions. I want the captions to be energetic, and potentially include a pun with the word “bee” or “honey.”
Next, I want you not to freak out when the captions suck. Instead, I want you to write: generate 15 more options.
When you have a pool of about 20, find the five you like the most and fine-tune them into a caption you are happy to post. You’ve cut a ton of time in the ideation process, repurposed your content to reach more people, and likely see a bigger return on your original eight-hour investment.
Zoho
Zoho
I’ll keep this one short: social media takes a lot of time. Between creative ideation and the process of setting up and posting to all the platforms, it can be the biggest time sink that you fall into when handling your own digital marketing.
But, as time-consuming as it is, it is an important (and mandatory) part of a healthy digital marketing strategy. Zoho is a platform that lets you schedule and post your content from a single point, helping you avoid the native posting tools that are often more cumbersome than they’re worth.
Fiverr
Fiverr.com
Most people have heard of Fiverr in some capacity. Maybe you have a cousin who used it to hire someone to photoshop his cat’s head onto royalty. Perhaps someone you know needed a logo for $5 and didn’t care that it was done on Microsoft Paint. Maybe you wanted your face turned into a coloring book. (Yes, it’s a real thing.)
Whatever your introduction to Fiverr was, you should know that it is an incredibly valuable place to find media professionals who can turn work over quickly and, usually, inexpensive for one-off projects where you need a little support.
Photo and video editing, graphic design work, content production — most jobs can be completed on Fiverr in a pinch. Personally, I’d avoid relying on it as a regular solution or for critical projects, but if you want something a little extra, this is the place to go.
Loom
Loom.com
In the bustling hub of the digital sphere, clear communication is not just a preference; it’s a necessity. It’s the bridge between complex legal jargon and a client’s understanding, the highway that delivers the essence of your business to a consumer’s heart.
Alright, that was a little dramatic.
But clear communication is a foundational part of your legal firm’s success. Text messages and emails can be misconstrued; everyone has a story of pissing off a distant relative because the text message you sent with voice-to-speech didn’t sound “warm” enough.
That’s a gamble you can take with the weird aunt who brings the candied yams for Thanksgiving, but when it is a potential client, you want to leave as little room as possible for misunderstanding. You want to be personable, and personable means showing your face and voice.
Loom makes that possible. It’s an easy screen and video recording platform that makes reviewing documents and information less like a chore. Your clients will feel more connected and valued, and your retention rate will increase. It’s a win-win.
(Don’t be afraid to roll it out among your staff either — maybe some of those meetings you have stacked back to back can be replaced with a quick Loom video.)
Canva
Canva.com
If the idea of downloading and installing Photoshop sounds like your own personal version of hell, then Canva is the pool of holy water to bathe in. It’s an easy-to-use graphic design platform that offers many templates to get you started and immediately level up your digital marketing aesthetic.
It isn’t the end-all-be-all solution by any means — you’ll only hit the highest level of that aesthetic with graphic design professionals who love to bask in the Adobe hellfire, but if you are starting from ground zero, it’s a great way to demonstrate or improve your digital marketing professionalism.
Better graphics project a more polished firm, and when it comes to handling their legal troubles, clients expect and seek out those that seem polished.
Mailjet
MailJet.com
Constant Contact and Mailchimp are the big hitters in the industry, but, much like SE Ranking, those tools can sometimes be a little cumbersome for people who aren’t in the top .01% of power users. Mailjet, on the other hand, offers most of the torque and is much more forgiving for people who have yet to make careers out of email marketing.
But, to be honest, for those of us who have made careers out of email (and other types of) marketing, Mailjet is still pretty nice. Everest Legal Marketing works with several law firms who regularly send out Email newsletters, case updates, firm news and recent victories to their contacts.
And, look, I can already hear some of your thoughts. Most of them along the lines of “email marketing really isn’t all that valuable. Email is just for spam retailers and for foreign princes looking to temporarily deposit their fortunes”.
I hate to say this to you, but if these were your preconceptions, you are wrong. 79% of marketers place it in their top 3 most essential tools. Brands make $36 for every dollar spent on email marketing. 55% of consumers say email is their preferred digital channel for business communication.
Email is far, far from dead or even dying. It’s still one of the most lucrative avenues of marketing you can bet on.
Contact Everest Legal Marketing
If you would like to schedule a call to talk about how you can use these tools or how we can help you hit your business or marketing goals, reach out to us at (909) 697-7484, or submit a contact form, and we’ll get back in touch with you at a better time. We are local to Southern California and are happy to meet virtually or in-person.
*Affiliate disclosure: Everest Legal Marketing earns a small commission if you sign up for SE Ranking through our affiliate link to their website from this article. This article is completely unbiased and a small commission does not diminish our beliefs or the validity of the comparison points of SEMRush vs SE Ranking.
President & Founder – Everest Legal Marketing, LLC
Doug Bradley is the Founder and CEO of Everest Legal Marketing. Doug has over a decade of experience specifically in legal marketing, and foremost with expertise in Search Engine Optimization for law firms. Doug has been quoted on numerous websites, co-hosted many MCLE sessions, and has advised law firms of all sizes on the topic of effective marketing and ethical SEO strategies.
