A Legal Marketing Year in Review

If you didn’t have time to read every Firmidable blog post in 2017, we forgive you.

If you want a quick way to get the top legal marketing insights from those posts, you’re in luck.

Read on for the highlights of Firmidable’s blog over the past year. And if you want to delve deeper into any of them, follow the links.

Getting Legal Marketing Right

Years of insights about legal marketing — combined with the latest trends in digital marketing — went into our December report on common law firm marketing mistakes you can and should avoid.

In a November webinar, Firmidable President Nathan Chapman covered creating a tangible marketing plan, managing your law firm’s cash flow, harnessing the power of diverse marketing channels, running an effective lead-generating website, and more.

Voice Search Calls Out Your Law Firm Reviews

Whether you use them or not, as a law firm leader you should pay attention to the proliferation of digital voice assistants — like Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri.

Firmidable Digital Marketing Coordinator Kristina Heaton found out why at a search engine optimization conference in October: Those computerized voices will sometimes announce to people searching for law firms how many stars a firm has from online reviews.

And the use of voice search is expanding rapidly.

At the same time, online reviews are gaining importance in deciding which law firms appear at the top of search results, regardless of whether the searcher is speaking or typing their query.

Firmidable used the occasion to examine the best strategies for getting more online reviews and managing reviews, good and bad.

Protecting Your Law Firm From Disaster

Firmidable clients in places like Texas, Florida and South Carolina saw their communities and states threatened in 2017’s devastating hurricane season.

Being located in New Orleans, we’ve been there.

And we shared wisdom gained from Hurricane Katrina on the importance of making a disaster plan and preparing your law firm for the worst — even while hoping for the best.

Getting the Most From Your Law Firm’s Digital Ads

With pay-per-click (PPC) ads online, you have the power to reach clients whose needs match up perfectly with your services.

The key is creating a clear digital path leading web searchers to you. That means paying close attention to how you write and design your ads and the landing pages where people go when they click.

Firmidable Media Manager Mandy Lee attended a conference specifically about this topic and shared 8 tips for maximizing your firm’s PPC ads.

Using Expanded Text Ads in Your Law Firm Marketing

In 2016, Google raised the character limit for its digital ads, giving us a little more space to get our messages across.

In 2017, Firmidable found that law firms adopting the longer ads were seeing increases in people clicking on the ads and contacting the firms.

So in a post in September, we explained how best to use expanded text ads to your advantage.

Law Firm Branding: The Core of Your Legal Marketing

All the parts of your legal marketing — from digital ads to your website to TV ads, billboards and more — should be driven by and connected to your brand.

Your brand is your image in the mind of your prospects. Having a strong, cohesive brand is one of the best ways to cut through all the 21st century information overload and reach new clients.

You build a brand by defining what you stand for and identifying where your values intersect with the values of your potential clients.

In a post in October, we examined how to create and deploy a law firm brand to the greatest effect.

Social Security Disability in the Political Crosshairs

While Firmidable helps attorneys in all types of law — the marketing strategies above apply to personal injury, workers’ compensation, employment law, special education law, product liability and more — we started as a pioneer in marketing for disability lawyers.

That means the politics affecting Social Security Disability are of particular interest to many of our clients. And we all know national politics these days are a mud fight.

So in addition to sharing marketing insights on our blog, we wrote dispatches in 2017 from conferences held by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR.)

Trump Administration rumblings about cuts to the Social Security Disability program were among the top preoccupations of attorneys attending the June NOSSCR conference.

Against the backdrop of this rocky political environment, NOSSCR officials reported on millions in federal funding getting cut from an effort to reduce the infamous disability hearing backlog.

They issued an urgent call for disability lawyers to meet with their representatives and senators and support the NOSSCR Political Action Committee, which lobbies Congress on Social Security Disability policy.

When NOSSCR convened its conference again in September, the mood was slightly less anxious.

The Social Security Administration was faring better than many agencies in the federal budget process. A hiring freeze ended at the agency. Speakers described long lists of strategies to improve efficiency and cut the backlog.

But NOSSCR leaders warned that Social Security Disability remains under threat from a hostile Congress and administration — so lawyers should stay involved in the policy fight.

Meet Firmidable

In 2017, Firmidable had some big news of its own.

This was the year we changed our name from The Marketing Center to Firmidable — and along with it we broadened the scope of the marketing and consulting services we offer to law firms all across America.

Nathan wrote about adapting and diversifying, both for law firms and for Firmidable, in a post in March.

In 2018, we’ll stay nimble, never stop learning and keep sharing our knowledge with you, making the year ahead a time for opportunity and growth.

Firmidable is the nation’s best legal marketing agency. If you’d like to grow your legal practice, call (504) 525-0932 or contact us via e-mail.