Many times, it might seem that advertising your law firm is a zero sum game — if you don't market your firm, lead generation is cut off at the knees, but if you do, you risk coming off as cheesy, or worse. However, consider the fact that marketing budgets at law firms have increased 6.7% in the past couple of years, and you'll quickly realize that this is one area where your firm is going to need to take a leap of faith. If you're reading this post, you're probably already tapping into our resources for radio advertising, so this post is about why you should be pairing other media with radio when you're advertising your law firm.
Quite frankly, you can't afford to let your marketing strategy gather dust, and the American Bar Association agrees. In a publication from early this year, it's stated that even if a lawyer or firm is moderately successful without marketing, they're actually selling themselves short of the success they could otherwise be achieving. Similarly, it's time to realize that even if your firm is only taking advantage of traditional advertising, it's time to make a change. It's time for an omnichannel, client-centric approach to marketing.
Reach
By pairing other media with radio, you'll greatly increase your reach. Just consider the statistics from an ROI perspective. According to a study last year, TV (as a single channel) was only responsible for 13% sales lift on average, while radio offered an average uplift of 17% and digital offered 14%. Those numbers increased to more than 20% lift on average when you combined radio with other media, to as much as 23% for radio and digital media mixes. What's more, by adding digital to your media mix, you provide a way to more accurately track how many people are responding to your ads, even if it doesn't immediately result in a lead conversion, i.e., metrics for your website, social media responses, and more.
You may be tempted to dismiss these numbers as only being meaningful for retail, but that's a fallacy. These statistics are indicative of the shift in how consumers research, identify, and select the businesses that will meet their needs. As an attorney, your business is the law, but it is still a business that needs customers.
Audience
As you expand your reach and take full advantage of channels you've previously avoided (such as social media), you also increase your audience in a qualified way. This is in part due to the simple act of using new platforms. Just as different radio stations have different audiences, so do digital channels. Furthermore, the content and marketing across your media mix improves your search engine rankings, making your firm that much more discoverable when potential clients — even those not tuned in to where you're marketing — search for keywords and phrases associated with services that your firm offers.
Brand Awareness
The internet makes competition in any setting fierce, and that includes law. Your firm needs to be memorable in your client's moment of need, so brand awareness and differentiation are key. By pairing other media with radio, you effectively increase the frequency at which potential clients are exposed to your marketing, which in turn increases recall and improves the odds that they'll take action and turn to your firm. Of course, utilizing an omnichannel media mix does more than improve brand awareness; it also establishes brand identity. An omnichannel approach provides a seamless experience of your brand's presence, and each channel offers a different facet of who your firm is as a brand and what you offer.
Clients are going to look for attorneys and firms that not only have the skill to meet their needs, but which offer a message, culture, and level of engagement that resonates with them. They're looking for authenticity to back it up, and they're going to turn to online reviews to verify it. Believe it or not, 88% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust a personal recommendation from someone they know in real life. Clients will leave reviews whether you or your firm has an online presence or not, so the question becomes this: will you or your firm be present to participate in the conversation about your services and reputation, or will you let positive and negative reviews alike go unanswered and influence potential customers?
To understand what this can look like in the real world, take Maslon LLP's Maslon Pass It On initiatives that started in 2012. The firm successfully leveraged Pinterest to their advantage and not only drove engagement and awareness, but established a very positive reputation by further extending that social interaction into charitable giving.
Traffic
The best part about an omnichannel approach is that your media mix isn't a collection of marketing silos. The consumer journey has fragmented, but in an omnichannel approach, that means you have more opportunities to engage with potential clients in a way that leads them from one touchpoint to another. Receiving traffic on one channel should mean boosting, supporting, and directing more traffic to the others, depending on where the client is in their decision making process.
For example: Your radio advertising can include a call to action to visit your social media platforms, which shares content from your firm's blog and directs traffic to your website, which has a CTA to take advantage of exclusive, downloadable content (perhaps a podcast that elaborates on what they heard on the radio and read in your blog) if users fill out a form.
Social
If you still think social media is taboo for law firms or that individual attorneys shouldn't be brand advocates for their firms on social media platforms, you're living in the past. As blunt as that is, you need to go where your clients are, begin and participate in relevant social conversations, and build the sort of lasting relationship firms thrive on. By pairing other media with radio and taking advantage of the traffic sharing we just mentioned, radio can help establish these endeavors.
For example: Your radio content includes a hashtag and a CTA to join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook. As a bonus, while some will certainly find the conversation organically, this will give you a gauge to measure the effectiveness of your radio marketing efforts.
Hopefully this post has illuminated why pairing other media with radio while advertising your law firm is not only a good idea, but a necessary one. You may still feel that there's a taboo on marketing (or certain aspects of it), but it's time to take important lessons from retailers, to learn from their success in order to grow your firm. It's time to stop talking about how your firm is client-centric and start showing that through an omnichannel approach that reaches out to past and potential clients. Evaluate where your marketing really stands and determine whether some or all of your marketing budget could or should be redirected toward a radio-digital marketing mix.
If you're not sure about how this type of strategy applies to your firm, contact us today. We have the tools, resources, and experience to provide digital and social media guidance when pairing it with radio.
