I wish someone had explained to me, in layman’s terms, what does SEO mean? How is SEO done? And how do you hire for SEO?
So that’s what I am doing today. Demystifying the most important considerations that a small business owner needs to have before hiring for SEO or Search Engine Marketing Services. And also, I’m covering a list of must-haves for those savvy entrepreneurs who are confident about developing websites and managing keywords, but don’t have a computer science degree and have no desire to go back to school to learn how to develop Java Codes, data warehousing, data mining, and other advanced digital marketing skills.
… Why? Because … what you don’t know is costing you money. Not everything is DIY! Especially in the SEO world.
Search Engine Marketing SEO vs Social Media Marketing – Which One Has More Impact?
A small business marketing budget tends to be limited — but that’s a good thing! When you don’t have endless cash flow, you need to be more assertive. You’re forced to learn to spend your money where it’s really going to count.
If you’re considering hiring marketing services, or starting to market for your own business, perhaps you are debating between social media marketing or search engine optimization (SEO) services.
A Real-Life Example of How Do We Use Both, Social Media and SEO
Imagine you’re planning a trip to California. You’re not sure about which city to travel to just yet. How would you go about making that decision?
You might search on Google and get some ideas. But you might also check out some pictures, hashtags, locations in particular, etc. And … you might just post in social media the typical post “I’m planning a trip to California and not sure which city is best, San Francisco or San Diego?”
What you just did- searching in different places and seeking advice in different ways- is called “the future buyer’s journey”.
The reality is that you need both SMM and SEO, but the good news is that social media marketing is easier than SEO and you could learn how to do it and save some marketing budget. As long as you have a social media strategy and the time to implement, the skills needed are not as technical as the SEO skills.
So… if you will do social media marketing, why would you still need to hire someone for SEO? Can your SEO wait until you get more budget? The short answer: yes you need to hire someone for SEO and that should not wait.
Prioritizing SMM vs SEO (Which One Goes First?)
Google and social media are both needed, but they will serve a very specific purpose that varies by where they are in their journey, which is why you want to have a big-picture strategy- the overarching approach to reach your goals.
When we develop a visibility strategy for the companies we consult for, social media becomes their main source of referrals and word of mouth marketing.
In general, social media marketing will mostly generate you sales if, and only if, you’re using direct sales tactics. This means:
You post very frequently
You stay in front of your audience
You inspire them
You educate them
You message them
You follow up with them
That’s great, but … it depends on YOU. If you have time to do all the process of social media marketing: planning the content, writing the content, preparing the visuals, scheduling the posts, on top of doing the social selling work, that’s good. But this doesn’t mean that it’s a scalable model.
You might want to leverage someone else’s time. Someone who actually enjoys doing that work so you can do the tasks that a CEO does. If you have time, you might want to learn social media strategies and digital marketing skills that can help you do that work in less time.
Search engine marketing, on the other hand, it’s not all about you directly sending messages to users. While many SEO gurus will say that you need to blog frequently and stay on top of your people, in reality, if your digital assets are in order, your business should be getting traffic and qualified leads as you’re reading this article.
If you’re overwhelmed, tired of running all bases of your business, and you’re looking for help with acquiring customers, SEO is your very next move. This can be even better than hiring a sales rep.
The One Thing That Matters When Hiring For Marketing
At some point, your brand will be in the minds of many people and you’ll get business coming to you. But … until you reach that point, strategic marketing is needed so you can execute a plan that takes you from where you are today to where you want to be, in the shortest time.
If you’re like most of my clients, you prefer visuals! One of my favorite tools to strategize is overarching models. It’s when you take the big-picture approach and see where everything is and visualize where you want it to be.
Overarching Strategies provide a general framework for the plan’s goal-specific strategies and define the scope of what the department must undertake and implement to achieve the plan’s goals. As the term overarching suggests, these strategies impact everything the department undertakes and expects to achieve.
If you don’t have a strategic marketing plan to grow your business, you’ll be at risk of losing money in the long term. This is why… what truly matters is that your marketing resources are strategically connected to your business vision. If not, you might find yourself growing a business on a treadmill. Next year will come and you’ll still be in the same place.
How To Hire For Search Engine Marketing (SEO)
Just like you won’t give yourself a fancy haircut, you’ll take your SEO needs to an SEO expert.
Generally speaking, you should expect a personalized service.
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all SEO plan. And if there is, from the agency you’re about to hire, please step back.
Number One: Do They Know Your Needs?
Your SEO strategy starts by understanding your current online visibility. If you’re not even on the radar, you’ll need the heavy lifting work so you can get on the map as quickly as possible.
Here’s the tricky part. How can you pick the right talent if you have no idea about what SEO is? Perhaps you’ll search in Upwork or Fiverr for “best SEO” and there’s a good chance you won’t understand what they say they do.
The mandatory question here is: what is your goal? What do you need?
Your brain will play you! You will say “I want sales” which is normal. But the problem is… you can’t go to an SEO guru and tell them “I want sales”. They can’t give you sales and neither can social media marketers. Marketing and sales are two separate departments. This is why even the best e-commerce sites convert at 3%. It’s truly a numbers game.
Your SEO needs will vary, based on your business status and goals.
Your SEO strategy starts by understanding your current online visibility. If you’re not even on the radar, you’ll need the heavy lifting work so you can get on the map as quickly as possible.
Make sure to discuss your needs with your SEO specialist beforehand so you can be on the same page and have the right expectations.
Number Two: Ask For Conversions
Remember that search engine optimization (SEO) can be described as strategies and tactics used to ensure that future clients can find you when they are searching online for solutions that you offer. I call SEO “hacking Google love”.
In theory, the higher a website naturally ranks in organic results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. In practice, ranks alone won’t pay your bills.
Your website can have 100,000 monthly users that have no intention to buy from you.
Believe it or not, there are many SEO specialists that only focus in ranks. I hear very often stories where business owners have paid several thousand dollars and can’t see results from the SEO marketing.
Not too many SEO specialists are equipped to be specialized in conversions.
Number Three: Hire A Senior-Level SEO
Hiring a senior-level SEO consultant will bring you higher ROI.
Personally, I prefer to hire experienced professionals who have 1) at least 10 years of experience and 2) industry knowledge. It takes them less time to find the answers I need and I get to execute faster.
Clarify with your SEO specialist what’s their experience and make sure they are experienced in technical SEO. A good question to filter their expertise is: how will you optimize my pages for qualified traffic? And for conversions? Can you show me?
Number Four: Request A Strategy Session
When it comes to SEO, just like social media, you have the marketing – execution and the strategy. Not every SEO specialist is a strategist. They can learn … but you might not want them to learn with your business!
Number Five: Clarify If You’re Getting Local or National SEO
If you’re a local business owner, your SEO needs will be different than if you’re, for example, a national company looking to sell on e-commerce. You’ll need Local Search Engine Marketing.
If you’re a franchise owner, e-commerce business owner, service-based professional, your needs will be different.
You see how this is turning more complex and why, if you don’t know what you truly need, you’ll hire the wrong people? If you can relate, my suggestion is to take 3 steps back and consult with a strategist.
Number Six: Take A Holistic Approach To SEO
Optimizing your brand so that it gets picked when people are searching for the services or products that you offer takes more than just typing keywords.
Factors that impact your SEO success:
Creating and publishing excellent content.
Using keywords and keyword analysis.
Link building to improve the website authority.
Using social media links on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Improving your site’s navigation to provide an excellent user experience.
Using marketing and sales copy that converts.
Your brand’s baseline and brand reputation.
Number Seven: Start With Technical SEO
Ask your SEO specialist which tools will they use. Tools like SEMRush, Screaming Frog, and Google Search Console can help analyze technical SEO, but they won’t fix the technical problems.
I always love sharing my story of how I discovered the truth of SEO a few years ago. I genuinely thought that just writing content and sharing on social media, consistently, was going to help my SEO. While our agency website got from 0 to 15,000 users per month, traffic would go back and forth. After a while, following the plan of “type or die” got me anxious. I took my website for a checkup with a technical SEO expert and this was my reaction:
There’s a good chance you have some of them and you just don’t know. And most tasks will require intermediate or advanced webmaster skills.
Fixing your technical SEO problems can be a rabbit hole. This is why I recommend discussing your brand with a senior-level expert to get certainty of what you truly need.
How Much Does It Cost To Hire SEO Strategy?
Consulting fees for a senior level SEO will go from $150- $350 per hour. But not all your needs will require a senior-level expert which is the beauty of this!
You can get a great robust SEO project done with about $2,500- $5,000.
Why do some SEO agencies offer SEO packages for $300 per month?
There are SEo agencies that offer plans where they monitor your brand for $300 a month and might work in some backlinking. But that’s not what you need the most!
What you need today is a healthy website, full of strategic content, positioned in platforms where people can find you.
Using social media to promote your products or services into the world can be an amazing opportunity. It’s free and gives you the chance to connect with pretty much billions of people around the globe.
The virtual land is so powerful … it represents so many possibilities …
Wow! Right? …
… Until it’s NOT. It can be toxic, busy, overwhelming, especially if you’re a business owner.
Because there are so many social media platforms, and there is so much to do, most entrepreneurs and business owners see their social media as a heavy lifting chore or necessary evil and end up spending more time trying to learn social media marketing than marketing their business.
In my seminars, webinars, and conferences when I go and speak, I hear ALL THE TIME “where do I start?” “what do I post?” “where is the best platform to share content?”
The constant “getting ready to get ready” turns into marketing fatigue. That’s the danger zone. This brings them to do zero marketing and have zero clients. They get into desperation mode and sign up for 50 meetups a month. The fatigue is now even worse.
Are you in the danger zone or getting closer?
I’ve constructed this guide to help entrepreneurs and small business owners without unlimited marketing budgets understand the erratic world of social media.
This ultimate guide gives you my favorite social media marketing tools that you can use to boost your social media without breaking your bank account.
I’m here to simplify your game by telling you exactly which tools I use as a small business owner and strategist with over 10 years in digital marketing.
I’m dividing the amazing tools into the 4 job categories that a social media specialist performs. I chose the specialist role because it’s the most comprehensive one. I will cover “the what” which is the strategy and “the how” which are the tools.
Let’s catapult this complex world of social media marketing to take you out of the danger zone!
Chapter 1: Social Media Skills and Job Description
Social Media Marketing, What Exactly Is?
Social media marketing is a degree on its own.
In fact, if you were looking for a social media job, you will find all these different names:
Director, Social Marketing and Brand Communications, Social Media, Social Media Relations, Coordinator, Engagement Manager, Internet Marketing Coordinator, Social Media Account Executive, Social Media Analyst, Social Media Editor, Executive, Coordinator, Producer, Social Media Specialist … and Strategist.
Did the list confuse you even more? No worries. Chances are that you’re a social media specialist or a small business owner trying to learn how to market yourself. Regardless, you have to run most of the listed roles on your own, at least at the moment.
A Brief Job Description of a Social Media Specialist
Before we discuss the tools, let’s first cover the fundamentals of what the scope of a social media specialist looks like. This will help you, as a business owner, to understand the kind of skills you need and the time you need to set aside to make this work.
Here is a job brief of a Social Media Specialist from Workable.com.
We are looking for a driven Social Media Specialist to attract and interact with targeted virtual communities and networks users.
What does a Social Media Specialist do?
The goal is to gradually achieve superior customer engagement and intimacy, website traffic and revenue by strategically exploiting all aspects of the social media marketing roadmap.
Social media specialists should have a solid understanding of how each social media channel works and how to optimize content so that it is engaging on those channels. You are responsible for joining relevant conversations on behalf of the brand and “soft selling” the product by providing support to current and prospective customers.
Responsibilities
Build and execute social media strategy through competitive research, platform determination, benchmarking, messaging and audience identification
Generate, edit, publish and share daily content (original text, images, video or HTML) that builds meaningful connections and encourages community members to take action
Set up and optimize company pages within each platform to increase the visibility of company’s social content
Moderate all user-generated content in line with the moderation policy for each community
Create editorial calendars and syndication schedules
Continuously improve by capturing and analyzing the appropriate social data/metrics, insights and best practices, and then acting on the information
Collaborate with other departments (customer relations, sales etc) to manage reputation, identify key players and coordinate actions
Requirements
Proven working experience in social media marketing or as a digital media specialist
Excellent consulting, writing, editing (photo/video/text), presentation and communication skills
Demonstrable social networking experience and social analytics tools knowledge
Adequate knowledge of web design, web development, CRO and SEO
Knowledge of online marketing and good understanding of major marketing channels
Positive attitude, detail and customer oriented with good multitasking and organisational ability
Fluency in English
BS in Communications, Marketing, Business, New Media or Public Relations
You Think You Can Be A Great Social Media Specialist?
That’s exactly why you’re here!
Don’t get intimidated by the formal education the job description required. I happen to have a JD and a BBA, but, honestly, I didn’t learn any of the social media strategies from school. It was all from practice.
Social media marketing, thinking big picture, is about: communications, creative, technology, and analytical tasks. So let’s cover each task and the tools you need to become a great social media marketer.
Chapter 2: Communications
If you’re like most small business owners, you want to promote your business without breaking the bank.
And there is no better way to do that than by managing your own PR campaign internally without retaining the services of a media relations company or a full-service marketing company.
Wait! Do you mean PR as public relations? Free, like free lunch?
Exactly! If you take ownership of your own marketing communications strategy, you’ll learn how to build lasting relationships with your connections, including journalists and influencers, get free press, and acquire more customers through a sustainable organic approach.
Let me see your smile!
If you have no problem with having sales conversations with future clients, then, sharing your message on social media should not be a problem. You already know what to say so that’s a great step.
But what if you’re not that confident about what to say or how to say it?
No worries!
You’re here and that means you’re open to learning new skills. That’s a smart move. The last thing you want is burning your audience by sharing the wrong message and confusing them. A confused mind can’t make a decision.
What Is A Marketing Communications Strategy?
A Marketing communications strategy defines the entire range of activities you will do to market your products. It includes:
Your message (what is to be said),
The medium (where it is to be said), and
The target (to whom your message is reaching)
If you’re marketing yourself, knowing what to say is, perhaps, one of your struggles.
Have you taken the time to reflect about your why? (Hint: It’s not to make money.)
Think about the core purpose of your business, and then think about how you market your products or services. Are they aligned? As Sinek has found, having loyal customers is all about attracting the people who share your fundamental beliefs. Remember: People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
Yes, this might seem obvious, but it’s a critical step that is often overlooked. If you were (or are) the founder of your business, wouldn’t you want the people marketing it to know why you started it in the first place? Understanding “why” is essential to knowing how to communicate the “how” and “what”.
Life Gets Easier When You Work With Clients That Share Your Values
Keep this in mind when you’re planning your content and your target audience. You don’t want to just work with anyone. You want ideal clients.
When I say ideal clients, I mean clients with a strong connection. How strong? Well I guess it depends on your culture and values. For me, mi casa es su casa. Clients come to my home office, know my family, and are invited to special events. I consider my clients like family. But that’s maybe part of my culture. I’m Puerto Rican and we are completely open to host people. We love spending time with people! You don’t have to copy my model. But you certainly want to connect with those who hire you or buy your products.
A Great Communications Marketing Strategy Helps You Attract Ideal Clients
If you take ownership of your own marketing communications strategy, not only you will be able to build stronger relationships with your network, but you will also have the opportunity to participate directly in conversations.
When your message reflects your values, the right people will feel attracted to you. That’s attraction marketing!
If you haven’t experienced the benefits of attraction marketing, go back and review your messaging.
Are you sharing your why? Consistently?
Does your message have the right voice?
How about the vibe?
These factors are crucial when it comes to create a communications marketing strategy that let people say: “you’re talking to me”.
Best Tools To Have An Amazing Communications Marketing On Social Media (Spring 2020)
Monitor the web for interesting new content (including content about you). That’s right. You should set an alert to monitor your name and business name. Google Alerts is one of Google’s hidden gems. It’s a really powerful tool to keep track of trends, interesting topics, or anything really new that appears on the web. If you’re not using it already, here are a few creative ways to get started with it.
Google Alerts may not be one of Google’s most popular services, but it’s definitely one of the most useful.
BuzzSumo is a research and monitoring tool you also want to have. The functionality is broken down as follows: Find content that is most shared on social media channels – you can enter your own domain or another domain, and see what has been shared socially. Find influencers related to particular topics.
The best way I can describe what is content marketing?
Content marketing is a full strategy that tailors your communications to make people come to you rather than you reaching out to them.
According to the CMI, 72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement and is a great lead generation tool. I’m certainly part of the stats.
Traditional sales methods assume that you’re exposing your product or service and the person is giving you 100% of their attention. As you know, in the digital-everything economy, that’s not the case. You’re lucky if someone gives you 60 seconds!
Even the best advertisers are having a hard time these days!
So what’s the solution? Avoid advertising? Let the consumer dictate the flow? Maybe! Of course not! That’s where content marketing comes in place.
✔ Content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising.
✔ 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.
✔ Marketers who prioritize blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI.
Do you need to maintain a blog to be successful on social media?
✔ 66% of marketers surveyed used blogs in their social media content. (Social Media Examiner, 2019)
✔ 43% of B2B marketers say blogging is their most important type of content. (Social Marketing Industry Report, 2017)
Based on these interesting stats and my personal experience, the answer is yes. However, before getting into the blogging production, your brand needs, what I call, the core content marketing pieces so that you can activate attraction marketing and see results in less than 30 days.
I teach a method called The Ice Cream Cone to create a content marketing strategy.
You plan your core content marketing pieces thinking about the ice cream cone, as follows:
Top Funnel: think about the sprinkles of the ice cream. The more visually appealing is, the quicker you want it. This is very important because you want to activate emotions!
You want to create the I Want This Now factor!
Middle Funnel: they liked you! They are reading your content. Now it’s your duty to make them feel like they need to know what you know. Lead with your expertise, and give them what they want. However, you need to keep a balance between free tips and expert-level content. That’s why we have the bottom funnel.
Bottom Funnel: Here’s where you invite those who trust you already, to experience another level of working with you, period. No need to add flashy discounts. Those who are meant to receive your help, will be ready for you!
The Ice Cream Cone is how I teach my clients how to create content to launch their brand and attract ideal clients. Before even writing blogs, these pieces of content will be shared on their website pages and across all their social media accounts.
When you activate a great content marketing strategy and mix with a great social media marketing strategy, you will start experiencing word of mouth marketing. Your followers will turn into advocators and they will share your amazing content with their network. Those who came recommended will trust you even faster.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising.
Curious about what people trust these days? Source: Nielsen.
If content writing isn’t your talent and you want to learn, find content marketing mentors and follow them on social media. My favorite is Julia McCoy. Her content marketing practices have amazing case studies, including her own agency. She built it from 0 to $4M in 7 years using just content marketing.
The key to create profitable content is easy (please write this down): give people what they want!
Be strategic with your communications and share what people want. This means:
Stop sharing viral videos.
Create a content marketing plan and structure your days.
Listen to your audience. Find out the format your audience finds most valuable. If they tell you they love your videos, then, do more videos! If they tell you they love to read your long posts, then do more long posts.
This is a great Chrome extension that will make your writing super easy. It gives you real-time spell check and ideas to communicate your message correctly.
Communications Tool #5: Headline Analyzer
Now that you know what to say, how to write it, it’s time to learn how to market it. Believe it or not, sometimes, you can get more engagement by having a compelling headline. Check this headline analyzer by the Advanced Marketing Institute.
Check for example the headline I tested for this article. I typically settle for a 41-50% since it’s considered a PRO headline. You might want to test your writing abilities and get back to me!
So, you will get all the ideas and will systematize them to only share the profitable ones, based on what your audience wants.
Communications Tool #6: SEM Rush.
For those of you who are more advanced, especially freelancers that want to implement SEO and social media strategies, SEM Rush is going to be your best tool ever!
What is SEMrush?
SEMrush is an all-in-one tool suite for improving online visibility. Our tools and reports the following digital marketing services:
If you’re not familiar with this amazing -and free- service from Google, you just discovered a gem!
It’s your e-cabinet organizer. You should have a social media marketing folder and inside, different sub-folders and documents.
Open a content marketing folder. Inside this folder, create 2 separate documents: 1 for content ideas and 1 for content production.
This will be your bank or ideas and will turn eventually into your content factory!
Why Would You Consider Outsource Your Social Media?
A social media specialist will take care of your communications and content marketing (at least at my social media management company, we take care of that), so you can just sit down and have conversations with your targeted audience. That’s a big reason to even consider this solution, so you can focus on what matters the most.
Communications Tool #8: Trello Boards
For those of you who have a team, Trello Boards are great! For example, you can have a board per social media account and add tasks related to each.
Some of the tasks, for example, that you might have for LinkedIn tasks like: change the profile picture, connect with local professionals, and edit your BIO. Each task goes inside your LinkedIn board. You can always expand or delete as much as you need to.
So that’s it for communications. Now let’s talk about visuals!
Chapter 3: Visuals
When it comes to visuals, you might think that most entrepreneurs who are promoting themselves on social media, have this part very clear.
There is a lot of confusion, in particular, about branded content.
So let’s talk about “the what” first, and then discuss the amazing tools I have for you!
A Simple Rule To Create Amazing Visuals For Your Brand
8 out of 10 entrepreneurs I consult, use their social media channels as a billboard. All they do is talk about themselves, share promotions, and ask their audience to buy from them. This is wrong.
So, if you’re considering hiring me for your marketing team and all you have been doing on social media is talking about your product, that will be the first thing we will need to change.
To show you an example of what not to do on social media, take a look at this restaurant marketing.
Does it look pretty? Yes.
Does it call your attention? Maybe.
Would you return to their page if all you see is this content, daily? Maybe not!
If you want to discover how long your users are following your content from your Facebook Business Page, a great metric is Retention. If you dig into your analytics you will see this metric and will be able to understand what people want and what makes them coming back.
Click here to learn more about User Retention and Active Users Metrics. If it’s too complex, we can always have a conversation about this. Trust me, this part is essential, especially when you’re building your brand and your audience.
How Much Do Your Visuals Really Matter?
Shoppers can make snap judgments about a product in only 90 seconds, and 90% of them will base this perception purely on color.
PowerReviews Finds that 88% of Consumers Seek Visual Content Prior to Purchase
So, yes, your brand should be well represented by both, your content in writing and your content in visuals.
You might have heard about “branded content”. This is a concept that marketers can’t seem to agree.
Some entrepreneurs and marketers think that branded content is about adding a logo, phone number, and website to a picture and with that, they refer to their social media posts as “branded posts”. They see social media as an advertising channel, and all they care is about their ROI: leads and sales.
But guess what? Today’s consumer is way more educated.
“People don’t like being sold to. It’s a discomforting experience, so the challenge for content marketers is to make sure the entertainment value of the content outweighs the discomfort.” Mike Clear, Digitas
Branded content (also known as branded entertainment) is the practice of marketing via the creation of content that is funded or outright produced by an advertiser. Source: Wikipedia.
Perhaps you’re even more confused by this definition! I don’t blame you!
The Content Marketing Institute has argued passionately for the term to be dropped, insisting it gives content marketing a bad name.
Branded content gives agencies permission to keep talking about themselves, adding a bit of storytelling to product pitches. It should not be like that! This is actually what advertising is.
Now that we know what NOT to do with your visuals, let’s then discuss what kind of visuals should be part of your strategy.
Your visuals should have the power to ignite emotions and create a perception of the experience that the individual will have. Anything that interrupts the thinking process, will create friction (which is what you don’t want).
Think about your social media platforms as the store front. When people are in front of it, how do they feel?
Do they feel inspired by your content?
Do they like what they see?
Can they perceive the experience of your product or your service?
Will they be motivated enough to explore more?
Will they have something to say about your store? Did they see something unique?
Match Your Local Market’s Expectations
I consider myself lucky by having the privilege of being in marketing and in Austin! Trust me, the “keep Austin weird is real”. We should do a contest of the weirdest sign!
I will start with 3 Austin’s “interesting” marketing messages and see how far this list goes.
Rudy’s BBQ “worst BBQ in Texas”. Seriously? Why would you have a negative slogan?
2) El Arroyo. This location is a landmark! Their funny signs give people a reason to remember them! Plus, their $1 margaritas 😀 Some content they share is quite controversial, but they are ok with it. Again, it’s Austin!
3) Of course, the Austin Motel.
Now you see why I told you I’m lucky?
Marketing to consumers living in Austin gives you flexibility and green light for your imagination.
And don’t think it’s only to certain industries. Even attorneys get their creative going! David Komie is a great example!
Creative is the most important skill you want to develop for social media.
Dare To Be Contrarian
I’m a big fan of Russell Brunson. Since you’re into digital marketing, following Russell’s content is great.
Russell says the key to stand out in the crowd digital marketing space is to be prolific.
What exactly does that mean? That means you’re not too crazy or too boring.
Let’s say you’re an attorney and want to be known as the lawyer who represents dads during custody cases. Your message should be prolific and clear enough so people can remember you. Can you think of ideas?
Check, for example, the law firm The Firm For Men. I like they named their practice with a clear name and if you check their social media, their message goes into the prolific zone. It’s fun, creative, but delivers the message.
Case Study: Junkluggers
Junkluggers wanted to increase web traffic from social media. We identified several opportunities in their messaging and visuals.
By removing promotional posts and adding messages with a high prolific index, their website traffic from social media went from 26% to 67% in less than 2 months. That’s amazing growth, by just implementing 2 strategies on their social media marketing: messaging and visuals
Best Tools To Create Visuals
Now that we talked about the power of visuals and you have a plan, let’s then talk about the how!
As of spring 2020 here is the list of tools I’ve been either personally using for my social media marketing company, or have received great references from my great connections.
I hope this list saves you some time, pain, and energy! For simplicity, I will separate visuals in 2 sub categories: graphics and photos.
Recently enhanced with amazing templates for your Instagram stories. Also, their app got revamped and it’s a lot easier to use. Check Canva App. I use this tool a lot, even to create planners to track my personal goals. Here’s an article I wrote showing examples of how I use Canva.com.
Visuals Tool #2: Over App
These days you, your team (and your clients!) can create content using intuitive visual content apps, including amazing typography and image creation tools…all on your mobile phone. Over is my go to app! I love that I can even do videos! A great plus for Over app is their bank of images.
Visuals Tool #3: Magisto
Speaking of videos, Magisto, recently acquired by Vimeo, is an amazing app to create videos quickly. I’ve tried many video apps and they have music without the copyrights and your videos get flagged. That has never happened with Magisto so that’s why I recommend it.
Placeit is a useful online tool that allows you to create logos, images, videos, and mockups. I just published my new book on social media marketing and personal writing! So… see the mockup I just created using Placeit by Envato, for free.
So your stock images are great, but selfies and great shots of you and your team are even better. For those days when you need to fix some unwanted spots, or if you’re into Instagram filters, I have some recommended apps that are great photo editors for non-photo editors.
Visuals Tool #7: Apps and websites to make great photos
For this one I surveyed my Facebook Group of professionals and entrepreneurs, since the tools I use are pretty much 2: Facetune and Afterlight. But… it’s because I have a professional photographer on my team so I’m spoiled.
But, our group of professionals gave me their favorite apps so I created this top 5 photo editing apps:
Facetune: for the days when you need to do some light brushing or reshaping
PhotoLab – favorite for their artistic photo effects and options.
Snapseed gives even more editing features like advanced cropping and removing people from images. (Much needed sometimes)
Wondering How To Create Amazing Instagram Feed In Minutes?
Visuals Tool #8: Preset filters
For those of you who have Adobe Lightroom, you can actually buy a preset filter. Check Victoria Bee’s Etsy shop! She’s amazing.
In case you’re not into visuals that much, consider this!
Visual content is like music. In a flash, it connects you to a moment, message, and experience. And like a song, images are sticky…
How About Infographics?
People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions without illustrations. If you’re using a consultative sales model, this means you’re all about creating amazing content, mostly educational.
Infographics can increase web traffic by up to 12%. When the images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do reading text on the page. This means better SEO too!
You might think you need to be a pro to design amazing infographics. Actually, that’s not the case at all.
Make amazing videos with open captions for your social media
Online videos, films, TV programs, video games…captions are gradually becoming a norm and many of us are expecting to have the option to check whether it’s available and to switch it on (whether it’s available or not is another debate).
But one thing that many of us have noticed is that there are 2 types of captions: open and closed captions.
As suggested by Media Pouch, a local video production company in Austin, open captions will give your videos a tremendous advantage.
Just think about it: Visual marketing is to you what music is to an artist.
A virtual calling card. An instant association with your business, giving voice to your content.
And with visuals earning a whopping 94% more shares than any other type of content.
Chapter 4: Distribution Channels
Scheduling Content On Social Media. Should You Use A Scheduler?
I used to be a firm believer that Facebook’s algorithm penalized accounts that used third-party schedulers. This lead me to only post native uploads to the platforms, per client. (Actually, I still do it for some clients).
It is truth that Facebook uses your edge rank to determine who will see your content. However, the third-party scheduler has very little effect. If your content doesn’t add value and people don’t interact with it, it won’t reach a lot of people, no matter if it came from a native post (using Facebook) or from a third party.
Once I switched my approach from “hacking the algorithm” to “add value to my audience”, I see the distribution channels much differently.
A Simple Rule To Automate Your Social Media Content
Think about the user experience first.
The days when we would take a look at the social media insights that told you “the best hours to post” are over. If your social media strategy follows advice that’s been given to billions of users, this will put your social media marketing in the danger zone.
Save yourself some time and don’t focus on what the platforms tell you.
The best times to post have to do with the best time that works for your audience.
Let’s say for example, you are targeting moms. You need to be mindful of their schedule. When do they go online? What do they do? Are they able to join you on a 45-min Facebook live? Will they rather read silently instead of playing a video? Those questions are part of the user experience.
One of the elements that makes Google successful is their ability to purify their algorithm to make sure they give users the best experience possible. Facebook’s attempts to change their algorithm model Google’s strategy.
Many social media gurus live by algorithm hacks. I have to admit, I love hacking too. However, at the end of the day, the best social media marketing strategy is the one that provides long-term and scalable results.
For that reason, I must tell you: lead with the user experience all the time.
Do you enjoy talking to bots? If you don’t, then chances are your audience won’t enjoy either.
Do you enjoy seeing 10 selfies from your best friend in 1 day? Maybe not! So, don’t do it either.
The Golden Rule will certainly help you here!
I wrote a book a few years ago that is so relevant, today, more than ever. In The 6 Golden Rules of Social Media I gave 50 examples of how to add value to your audience and how to generate leads the classy way.
Best Posts To Share (Profitable Social Media Content)
I will remind you, one more time, your goal with social media marketing is: more ROI and spending less time. Right? That’s why you’ve been reading this for over 10 minutes now. And I will honor my promise.
Let’s discuss what are the best posts to share.
Generally speaking, your goal is to get visibility. You want people to see your social media, feel intrigued, engaged with your content, and take action.
What does “take action” look like?
Post a comment
Share your content
Click the link shared on your post
With these 3 activities in mind, let’s make sure your posts play one of the following roles:
They stir some emotions
They catch attention
They entertain people
They send some powerful message
Don’t forget about a strong headline. In addition to images and descriptions, the title can be changed, and you do not need to use the headline from your article if you do not find it attractive enough for your social fans. Always remember about the audience you are trying to reach with your posts.
I’m sure you want more ROI and less wasted time. So I’m gonna give you my list of tools I use to plan the content and share it strategically!
My Go-To Social Media Scheduling Tools
You will notice something here! The list isn’t long! Again, I’m more focused on the user experience and giving people what they want.
I will recommend you tools that will help you plan and schedule posts a month ahead, and then, tools that will balance the automation and authenticity.
Scheduling Tool #1: Social Media Marketing Planner
You’ve probably seen fancy calendars and planners. I’m actually not a big fan of those scrapbooking style tools.
I rather get things done. I guess it comes with having a strict agenda and plenty of things to do.
So, for simplicity, your calendar can be just a Word Doc or Google Doc.
Here’s the format I use to plan my social media marketing every month:
Just think about this, on a Google document, super simple.
Part 1: Theme of the month: Growth. We want to share content that inspires, educates, and invites people to consider us for their business growth needs.
Part 2: Target audience: small business owners in their first 3 years of their business.
Part 3: Events of the month: Webinar week 2 and Networking event, week 4.
Part 4: Blogs to publish during the month: Ultimate guide of social media and Instagram tutorial
Part 5: Marketing Campaigns: #MembersMonday #SummerSocial
Your Facebook Business Page comes with the option to schedule posts in the future. Now with Creator Studio, if you have multiple pages, you can post and schedule multiple pages, all from the same dashboard.
Creator Studio integrates Instagram as well. You are able to see Instagram’s content library from Facebook. We still can’t post to Instagram from Creator Studio, but I won’t be surprised if that will come soon.
Scheduling Tool #3: Facebook Group Scheduler
Facebook Groups are a great way to grow your audience on social media. It’s by far one of my favorite social media tools.
In full transparency, I use Hootsuite for my agency. I like how authenticates and I can just add team members and assign accounts. So, for agencies, I believe they are staying competitive.
For solopreneurs, Hootsuite’s new pricing model might not make sense.
You only need a scheduler like Hootsuite for your Twitter and LinkedIn, since Facebook has its own scheduler. Buffer is a good alternative.
For those of you looking for more robust social media management tools that can offer curation and content suggestions, MeetEdgar is a great option.
Scheduling Tool #5: Later | Planoly
For those of you who are 100% Instagram marketing, you then need a social media management tool that specializes on the platform.
My research narrowed to 2 options and I chose Later.com. I liked their ability to add teams so I can get my team working on our clients while still having access to the accounts. Some of my clients use Planoly.com and are very happy too.
Later and Planoly also work for Pinterest.
Scheduling Tool #6: Sprout Social
Sprout Social does what Buffer and Hootsuite do but in a more complex way, but this platform is best for small-large agencies as their analytics feature beats Hootsuite and Buffer hands down. They provide full reporting details for their premium members, breaking down each account in bits. You can even compare your competitor’s figure and see where they are and how best to tackle them. It’s that deep.
The down side with Sprout Social is the fact that it is far more expensive than Buffer and Hootsuite put together and they have no free plan, just a 30 day trial.
Sprout Social works with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
You’ve set up a Facebook page, Instagram profile, you respond to customer questions, follow fans, post important news, and thank your advocates for their support.
Beyond that, what are you doing to track and monitor these social interactions?
How do you really know if social media is working?
The answer will sound intimidating. The good news is it’s easier than you think to measure your ROI of social media efforts.
Metrics Tool #1 : Google Analytics
I know that perhaps you delegated your website project to your web guru and this is an area you don’t understand that well. Or maybe you built a website on your own. Regardless, Google Analytics is like the eyeglasses you need in order to see your digital footprints.
The CMO survey 2018 claimed only 23.3% of marketers are able to prove the impact of social media marketing quantitatively.
How can you make sure you track the results of your social media efforts? The answer is simple! By leveraging the power of Google Analytics.
Start by opening your Google analytics account and getting the code. Add the code on your website and it will start tracking for you. Sprout Social has a great step-by-step tutorial on how to use Google Analytics to track your conversions from social media by adding conversion rules. This might sound advanced so don’t panic. If at least you can install this code, you’re good!
What’s the difference between Google Analytics and Google Search Console?
Google search console = Health Report
How is your website performing
Any errors in your site
How many backlinks
For how many keywords your website and respective pages ranking for
CTR, impressions, ranking data
Any spam action has been taken
How many pages indexed
Google Analytics = Analysis Report
Where you getting traffic
Source of traffic
How many users landing on your page
User behavior – landing, activity, time spent, browser, technology details
Goals & conversions – how many visitors are converted into your customers
You need both tools, Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Metrics Tool #3 : Facebook Analytics
For business owners, Facebook offers the Business Manager dashboard. I recommend you open a business manager account so you can have access to other tools like Analytics.
Facebook Analytics gives you data, not only from the page, but from behavior captured from your Facebook Pixel.
How the Facebook pixel works
When someone visits your website and takes an action (for example, buying something), the Facebook pixel is triggered and reports this action. This way, you’ll know when a customer took an action after seeing your Facebook ad. You’ll also be able to reach this customer again by using a custom audience. When more and more conversions happen on your website, Facebook gets better at delivering your ads to people who are more likely to take certain actions. This is called conversion optimization.
Metrics Tool #4 : Facebook Page Insights
Insights provide information about your Page’s performance, like demographic data about your audience and how people are responding to your posts. Keep in mind that you can only access data in Page Insights for the last 2 years, and demographic data, such as age, gender and location, are available in Page Insights once there is data for 100 or more people. Pages categorized as a Community Page don’t have Insights.
You can use Insights to:
Understand how people are engaging with your Page.
View metrics about your Page’s performance.
Learn which posts have the most engagement and see when your audience is on Facebook.
Keep in mind, you can change the date of the report and even export it. If you manage a Facebook Group, you can also check your insights.
Metrics Tool #5: Visibility Factor
Don’t google this you won’t find this.
I don’t want you to rely just on the numbers to measure how your social media is helping your business. From my personal experience, numbers will ever capture the conversations that happen offline, based on the stories they see online.
Pay attention to the connections you make on social media! Are you getting requests from influencers? Introductions? Referrals? You should! If you’re not seeing these kinds of results, maybe it’s time to work on your visibility factor. It’s not just about the numbers but the influence of your connections. A connection can transform your life and your business!
Metrics Tool #6: Bad Reviews Removal
Objection is a free negative reviews removal tool. They have a test designed to help you decide whether to respond to the review, to try to remove it based on its unique content and reviewer.
In Closing
My amazing friend, this is it! You made it until the end! I’ve shared it all with you. Now it’s your turn to leave me in comments what was your favorite tool!
Do you have favorite tools we should know about? Feel free to share!
Whether you belong to a major firm or a small local one, the key to any successful law firm lies with how you market your services and expertise.
Let’s be real. You didn’t go to Law School and pass the bar to spend your days learning about Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, HTML codes, and Social Media Marketing. However, since you’re here, I’m assuming that you want to get access to simple and practical tools to help you market your practice, and, of course, grow it.
I have great news for you!
The digital space has suffered major shifts over the last year. Since we have access to so much data, we have been able to crack the code of what people want, so that marketing turns into a direct communication with your future clients, telling them exactly what they want to hear.
The best way to explain this so you can have a great idea of how the marketing world has changed is to use Netflix as an example. Do you pay for cable or do you prefer Netflix? Do you like ads or do you prefer to control if you want to see the ads or not? I don’t need to see you to know your answer. I know your answer!
And you’re not alone…
91% of people say ads are more intrusive today than 2-3 years ago
87% say there are more ads in general than 2-3 years ago
79% feel like they’re being tracked by retargeted ads
People feel overwhelmed, interrupted, and stalked by bad digital ads, but they don’t really mind the good ones.
I think I have even better news for you! I don’t believe your law firm marketing needs to use a lot of budget for advertising. I believe that word of mouth is, ultimately, your goal. You’re not up to target the masses so you can be hired as the cheapest. You want people coming to you because they’ve heard that you’re the best. I hope Attorney Komie doesn’t get offended by me saying that lawyers don’t need to advertise! 🙂 By the way, the very first time I saw this ad I had to take a picture and share with my lawyer friends.
Now that you know you’re not paying for a billboard or shooting a video for a commercial that will go on cable tv, I hope you’re happy to learn about content marketing and how can you leverage to grow your law firm.
What Is Content Marketing For Law Firms?
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Consumers are ignoring brands that are interjecting what they want people to hear and see, rather than creating stories consumers want to hear and see themselves.
Rather than one-off ad campaigns and self-centered marketing materials, law firms that produce content that inspires, educates and entertains their target market, while using a consistent, authentic editorial voice, are succeeding in breaking through in today’s crowded marketplace.
The best law firm content marketing — whether in the form of website content, articles, video or audio — focuses on the client’s needs and not the firm’s preferences.
Content Marketing Is Not Just Blogging
Many clients confuse content marketing with blogging. Content marketing is more than just your blog.
A successful law marketing strategy should have the objective of getting an audience to find you when they need you, trust you when they are searching your name, and believe in your expertise when they read about your work. Keep this in mind for each of your law marketing efforts.
Key content marketing strategies for law firms and lawyers: 1) website pages 2) Google my business 3) blogging 4) social media 5) articles for LinkedIn
Content marketing can help humanize a lawyer, show that they have a point of view, and give potential clients a taste of what working with a particular lawyer might be like. It is an opportunity to become a trusted authority and a resource for information or perspective on a particular topic. But that content should be original (or have original elements and commentary), relevant, and current.
Does Content Marketing for Law Firms Work?
Here are the facts.
Content marketing for law firms brings in 55% more visitors to your website and 67% more leads.
97% of all law firms fail to deliver personalized legal content marketing to their consumers.
Only 26% of firms maintain a consistent blog, and only a mere 7% of attorneys maintain a blog for professional purposes. With the benefits that content marketing for law firms provides, it’s astounding to see these numbers so low.
Should You Hire A Marketing Agency Or A Legal Content Marketing Expert Instead?
Some law firms are hiring legal content marketing experts to implement their legal marketing strategies. They are moving from hiring an agency that focuses on tactics to generate web traffic, to implement a much “humanized” marketing strategy, scaleable, and with a higher ROI – long term.
Let’s say, for example, you are a divorce attorney and you want to reach your local market. Or you’re a marketing specialist for a law firm and they are asking you to focus in building their law firm reputation. Even when those tasks are different, both will need quality content.
A legal content marketing expert is different than a marketing specialist or a social media specialist because it can take over your content, understanding how to research the terms and concepts that your audience is searching. Imagine that your best paralegal is now a marketing ninja! That’s what some of the successful law firms are doing. I’ve been training some amazing paralegals on SEO, LinkedIn Marketing, and Facebook Advertising for Law Firms and it’s great to see how someone with a real voice can create content that feels like a real conversation.
When you have a legal content marketing expert in your team you can produce rich blog posts that can be shared by major publications and that gives you great visibility.
How Will Your Content Marketing Boost Your Revenue?
Many of the attorneys and law firms that request my Marketing Assessment express their concern about ROI.
I’m sure this is one of your questions as well so let me share some of the key ingredients that will help you translate your law marketing efforts into revenue.
The CMI’s digital content marketing stats show that 72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement. In addition, 72% say it has increased the number of leads. While engagement and leads are not direct indicators of revenue, those 2 metrics are key components of your marketing and sales engine.
You need to be able to have a series of activities that drive you real revenue-generating opportunities, just like you do when you have a tort case!
In a tort case, there are four elements a plaintiff needs to proof: duty, breach of duty, causation, and injury. In a law marketing strategy, I need to be able to track and measure:
Awareness: followers and subscribers
Consideration: engaged users and readers
Trust: user retention
Response to a call to action: conversions
Considering Hiring A Legal Content Marketing Expert?
If you’re considering hiring a legal content marketing expert for your team, let’s have a conversation. I only commit with lawyers and law firms who want to produce excellent content.
Are you a lawyer, either solo practitioner, freelancer, or perhaps you’re in charge of marketing a law firm and need some out-of-the-box strategies? You got it!
I’m a recovered attorney and now a forensic digital marketer and UX consultant. Not sure what that means? Well, I do the kind of work you would do in preparation to win a trial. I find the gaps between your message and your target audience. And I do it using data and science. This isn’t about “hope marketing”. That doesn’t work. Social media marketing for law firms is a passion!
In full disclosure: when I built my law firm, there were no social networks. I had to rely on word of mouth and referrals, which we can say is “hope marketing”. But you don’t have to do it! We have data and science.
Hope Marketing Won’t Pay Your Bills
You hear other attorneys saying they only take clients by referrals and you’re wondering how can you get to that level. I don’t blame you. When I started, I was exactly at this place. I remember the days when I would just go to court just to watch other attorneys litigate. In retrospect, I was lucky I found a friend who connected me with a builder who later became my only client. But it didn’t happen overnight and I certainly don’t recommend that you hope to find a friend that can introduce you to a great lead. Hope marketing won’t pay your bills.
I call hope marketing when you’re kind of hoping that future clients see your phone number somewhere where you left your business card. You dream with the idea of winning a great case and get all the chasing you so you can build your name (I did some of that). That could happen; but there’s no need to hope when we have so many opportunities to get clients from digital marketing.
Essentials In Digital Marketing For Lawyers
I’m sure you’ve considered boosting your social media marketing, amongst other digital marketing tactics like paid search (Google Adwords, BING, YELP), SEO, buying leads, web design, etc.
The number of options can be overwhelming. The last thing you want, after going to law school and all the hard work to pass the bar is to learn how to market. So, unless you have a background in business and marketing (like my case), you will be open to understanding big-picture strategies, as long as they are relevant, precise, and effective.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Perhaps you already know this. Search engine optimization is focused on improving your site in order to increase your organic search engine rankings. SEO primarily revolves around placing keywords strategically throughout the site, link building, establishing site authority and using meta data that’s crawlable by Google.
In theory, if you add keywords to your website, Google then grabs your content and displays to potential clients when they are searching for those keywords. Unfortunately, that’s far from truth.
SEO these days involves a series of complex strategies and law firms and attorneys looking for a marketing plan to drive more clients need to be aware of. One keyword isn’t going to take you to the next level. This is why I recommend my law firm clients to start with a list of 25 long tail keywords which is a combination of at least 4 keywords.
Let’s say, for example, you are a divorce attorney and want to attract clients who are looking to hire a lawyer and use Google search. Based on this preliminary research, you can benefit from using a content marketing strategy featuring keywords like “divorce attorney”, “divorce attorney near me”, “divorce attorney ___ (your city)”.
Your goal is to reach some visibility using those keywords, provided that they are showing an SEO score that represents potential. This is how I get to design a keyword plan and strategize which content to produce, based on the combination of keywords that most likely will give us the fastest path to visibility.
We don’t need to “hope” anymore. There are search engine marketing tools that allow us to craft your legal marketing campaign so that your name comes up in the search results.
I spend hours looking at data in order to craft a digital marketing strategy. Something that is totally needed when it comes to working in a legal social media marketing plan, or any other marketing plan for your industry. Make no mistake, your industry is competitive and moves fast. When people need a lawyer, they have no time to waste.
I personally use SEMRush for search engine optimization and content marketing intelligence. But that’s not the only one. Google Keyword Planner is another great tool. Backlinko has a great tutorial on how to use this tool. You should check it out.
So now I can officially say, welcome to my world! What I love to do is using forensic marketing (data, patterns, research) to find real opportunities.
Now that you have access to some intelligence on how to get more visibility, the next component of your digital marketing plan is brand awareness.
Why Is Brand Awareness Important For Lawyers?
As a lawyer, you may not have thought much about the importance of branding. You may believe that the quality of your work will speak for itself and that you will become well-known simply by practicing good law. That may have been the case a generation ago, but not anymore.
With hundreds of competent lawyers out there all doing the same thing, what makes you and your firm so different? What makes you stand out from the crowd? What is it about your firm and the service you provide that compels clients to choose you instead of some other firm? The answers to those questions are part of the message that is needed to market to your audience, as part of the brand awareness campaign.
Make sure your website has a compelling message:
✔️Develop the about me page and showcase the values of your firm.
✔️Produce a rich blog.
✔️Pro tip: produce a Youtube channel with potential Q&A. Leverage social media and Facebook ads to share your content with a highly targeted audience.
The American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Survey Report on the use of technology in the legal profession of 2018 explains why branding is important for lawyers.
With an increasing number of lawyers available for clients to choose from, lawyers need to differentiate themselves, which often requires establishing their expertise in a particular niche field, an area of practice or industry, or with a particular audience or group of people.
How Can Lawyers and Law Firms Create Brand Awareness?
Our keyword search took us to the Law Firm Cordell & Cordell. They have an amazing SEO plan, but also a great Facebook marketing plan in place. If you check their page, you will notice how their name is Cordell & Cordell- A Domestic Litigation Firm. This is great for brand awareness because in 2 seconds you can identify what they do.
Reviews are great for brand awareness. I will say, they help also for consideration. If the individual is actively searching for a lawyer and checks 2 websites and 2 social media accounts, the one with stronger reviews will win.
A recent survey by Podium suggests that 93% say online reviews do impact their purchasing decisions. A great strategy to maximize those reviews is to share them on your social media channels.
Your brand awareness should happen at the website level, with great content, then sharing it via social media. The more you “humanize” your brand, the more approachable you will be.
As an attorney, I understand the necessity of maintaining an ethically-sound Web Presence and take care of your reputation. Those are 2 non-negotiable steps of any law firm marketing plan.
How Are Lawyers Using Social Media Marketing?
It’s almost 2020. The ABA has finally acknowledged the place of Social Media in the legal world. The ABA’s House of Delegates — its governing body — considered the recommendations of the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20, which has proposed revisions to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to address changes in technology.
Notice how they are encouraging lawyers to showcase their expertise with a variety of content.
Lawyers who simply state on their websites that they have expertise or knowledge in a specific area are going to be at a disadvantage when compared to attorneys who demonstrate that expertise with articles, video, and other content that shows that they are not only proficient in their area of the law, but that they understand the issues their clients face on a daily basis.
From the same report, we have some interesting social media for lawyers stats:
✔️ Use of Facebook is up slightly to 63% this year after being between 56-58% in the previous three years.
✔️ Twitter use among firms is still uncommon; only 14% of respondents reported that their firms maintained a presence on Twitter.
✔️ Use of Martindale also dropped from 41% in 2016 to 31% in 2018.
✔️ LinkedIn use by law firms has been declining since 2015 when 93% of lawyers reported the use of LinkedIn. Even so, firm use of LinkedIn still exceeds every other platform.
✔️ Use of social media by individual lawyers for professional purposes remains strong, with 79% of respondents reporting that they use one or more social networks for professional purposes.
✔️ 82% of all individual lawyers are using LinkedIn themselves for professional purposes, as compared to 47% on Facebook, 27% on Avvo, and far fewer on the other platforms surveyed.
Lawyers Are Not Taking Full Advantage Of Digital Marketing
A healthy keyword planner and a strong social media presence should help you grow your law practice; especially if you combine organic (free) strategies with paid traffic strategies. Try to avoid full delegation and automation during the early stages of your practice. Prioritize your duty to humanize your brand, so that your audience can relate more.
ABA’s 2018 Legal Technology Survey Report shows that lawyers are not taking advantage of analytics or reports to determine the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives.
You won’t be part of those stats! Your digital marketing strategy will also have tracking and monitoring, so you can predict results.
You will be surprised by how much, even a simple change on your website design, can help you get more clients from your digital marketing efforts.
Our Forensic Marketing For Lawyers
If you’re interested in increasing your client base or enhancing your presence in the community, take a step further and request a complimentary Marketing Assessment.
We will create a comprehensive Social Media strategy tailored to fit your practice’s needs.
