In today’s marketplace, we still find most legal practices over-emphasizing website traffic over quality leads. Most rely on outdated methods of advertising (billboards, TV ads, etc.) simply because it’s more familiar to them, when really they’re costlier, less effective, less ethical and more difficult to measure. These status quo methods of advertising can certainly bring in traffic to the practice, but, for most, there’s no true mechanism for converting or capturing this traffic into a quality lead.

With Google’s emphasis on quality content, legal practices need to focus more on the approach and how inbound marketing can actually touch each visitor with a more helpful message. See how content marketing can help your firm here.

The benefits of inbound marketing:

  • Lower cost than traditional (offline) marketing
  • Produces quality, actionable content
  • More easily measured ROI and clicks
  • Caters more to the needs of the client

The inbound marketing approach consists of:

  • Attracting visitors through content marketing (via blogging, SEO and social media)
  • Converting traffic through web forms, calls to action and landing pages
  • Closing deals, enhancing customer relations and streamlining email and workflow
  • Delighting clients, which results in referral business

As traditional marketing (often termed outbound) continue to slowly fade away, law firms must shift their focus to having an outlined strategy to generate, capture, and close leads online. The measurability of internet-based marketing is focused on well-placed and well-written content. This naturally lends itself to a successful inbound marketing approach. 

Another benefit of adopting inbound marketing practices is the organic SEO that the firm gains from content marketing. SEO, blogging, and social media efforts captures four times the number of leads when compared to traditional outbound marketing practices. Therefore, the proper implementation of SEO strategies, along with producing and publishing the right content, proves to be the best example of inbound marketing success. Nearly all of inbound marketers utilizing true best practices for SEO generate higher quality leads.

So what does all this mean for the mid-level law firm trying to market effectively? As it pertains to budget and dollars spent, the best plan is to hire an inbound marketing professional. An agency certified in inbound marketing will be able to lay out a client-directed inbound strategy. The inbound plan will allow for investing in the firm’s future through measurable, affordable, sustainable and highly-quantifiable marketing efforts.