Be Online – or Get Used to Being Offlined!

July 30, 2020

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In addition to our traditional weekly Tuesday Blog, which focuses on issues of interest to the Home Services Industry, a 2nd piece reporting on Google’s latest enhancements to its Local Services Ads (LSA’s) was added. For anyone not keenly aware of what LSA’s are or how they impact your Legal Services business, we encourage you to read our second Blog from yesterday and watch the 3 minute YouTube Video we made on this subject. As for the LSA’s new features: Rather than rolling these new features out to every business and all vertical markets at once, Google announced that “phase 1” – which is rolling out as we write this – will focus on the twenty verticals within their broader Professional Services category.

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What follows is verbatim how those twenty verticals are broken down within the official Google Partners notification we received (and our gratitude to Google for their permission to reprint this):

Professional Service verticals:

(2) Financial: Tax specialist, Accounting & Financial Planning
(1) Real Estate: Real Estate Agen
(17) Lawyers: Bankruptcy Lawyer, Business Lawyer, Contract Lawyer, Criminal Lawyer, Disability Lawyer, DUI Lawyer, Estate Lawyer, Family Lawyer, General Lawyer*, Immigration Lawyer, IP Lawyer, Labor Lawyer, Litigation Lawyer, Malpractice Lawyer, Personal Injury Lawyer, Real Estate Lawyer, Traffic Lawyer, Tax Lawyer

We’re unsure why Google considers there to be twenty distinct verticals within that Professional Services category – and technically, there are 18 subcategories within that one Lawyers master category, not 17 – but that’s not the point we’re trying to make herein. What is our point? With so many unique & individual areas of practice that Lawyers engage in (and on behalf of Google, our apologies to any omitted from this list), we wonder why do we only see about half of these subcategories represented in Law Firm advertisements? And: Of those ads we do see, why do they mostly seem to be on TV? Because: Hasn’t anyone stated the (seemingly undeniable) fact that more total people – and therefore, more total potential new customers – are spending their time online, and not in front of TV sets?

Perhaps this is just our observation that the emphasis is placed on TV as the longstanding dominant media for finding new business. However, what is being overlooked is that by comparison, internet-based marketing – just once piece of the enormous Digital Marketing portfolio – offers a much larger Return-On-Investment (ROI). Online marketing provides a consistently more substantial – and constantly self-refreshing – audience, the quickest turnaround time from idea to implementation, and the ever-increasing advertising avenues available.

With all these in mind, it’s almost impossible to deny online marketing’s being the go-to location to find new customers for any business vertical, including every type & kind of Legal Services business. We know you’re unsure of just how to proceed with finding your new customers online, so we are happy to get you started by offering you our Top 3 ways for Legal Services Professionals To Find New Customers Online.

Pay To Play: Many methods to finding new customers online are “free” (or “previously paid for, so no additional costs required”), and as each one has its own merits, none should be abandoned. However, if you want to start bulls-eying more qualified leads, paid campaigns on Social Media platforms are the path to take. The paid ads commonly found on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Google are tweaked & optimized to be viewed explicitly by your target audience – people who can benefit from your services. These are known as qualified leads, and can significantly increase your chances of getting calls and information requests from the right people.

Optimization is Optimal: Put all of the useful location pages that link to Google My Business, optimized service pages, and other “tricks of the trade” aside for a moment. If your website isn’t optimized for conversion, all could go for naught. Conversion Optimization is all about controlling the user journey & experience through your site and webpages to the point where they take an intended action. It may sound straightforward, but a well-optimized website can take months to achieve. There are many variables to consider, and so much to control, which can get confusing fast. As such, we do recommend that Legal Services businesses focus their efforts on what they do best, and leave legal web design and development to the experts.

Actual Clients – not Actor Portrayals: This disclaimer, or a variation of it, will typically accompany advertisements that recognize & respect the power of customer testimonials towards new client acquisitions. These reviews of your business and the quality of its services can easily sway new customers from being unsure about hiring your company to be confident that you are whom they seek. In addition to reviews, referrals given by satisfied clients, business colleagues, and others who know enough about you & your company to offer a recommendation can go a long way to driving new business in your direction. And best of all? Both reviews & referrals can be easily requested, collected, and shared with potential new clients – all you need to do is ask!

Like it or not, the Internet has mutated well beyond its original concept as an intra-company communications tool and has become omnipresent to the point of playing an integral role in everything we do in our professional and personal lives. With this in mind, why would the Internet not also serve as your Legal Services Business’s prime source of new customer leads? Is your Legal Services’ digital marketing optimized to generate qualified leads and find new customers online? Why not contact 1SEO’s experts for a free digital marketing assessment today?

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