5 Digital Marketing Trends for Law Firms in 2018

As we get further into the new year, one thing is clear about 2018: digital marketing is now more essential than ever before. To have a strong competitive advantage, it is essential that you build an online representation that displays a professional image and gives leads the opportunity to connect with your law firm. This year, we are seeing law firms push their online presence with beautiful, strategic designs and the best tools available yet. If your law firm is hoping to boost leads this year, here are our five favorite trends for law firm digital marketing.

 

 

One thing we have seen law firms do regularly is complicating designs with competing primary call-to-actions and design elements, such as color and hierarchy, used incorrectly. Your website needs to orient users through their journey with clearly conveyed, strong content, and simple directions.

 

The appeal of Grette's design is that they are focusing their potential leads in one of three directions: Lawyers, Expertise, and Search. They've cut out the pitch and let their work, and their team, speak for them. This simple, elegant design is one we would recommend exploring. 

 

 

Much like Grette, Taylor Janis Law provides users with limited, but key, avenues when first hitting the homepage of their site. However, in this case, they have put out resources and contact information first. Taylor Janis focuses on B2C Law, which is why this approach is perfect for their user's goals.

 

 

 

Getting a lead to become a client is all about educating them. People aren't looking for a salesperson when they look for lawyers, they are looking for a law firm that can help them win. Because of this, law firms are asserting their results and expertise rather than making promises. This gives law firms the opportunity to build a relationship with clients before they've made a decision. 

 

Parris focuses on personal injury claims, consumer class actions, and environmental cases. They are primarily consumer-based and financial, so their voice is focused on strong representation and large-scale results. The message "Over $1.1 Billion" speaks to the amount they have recovered for clients, this paired with emotionally powerful imagery, such as a lion roaring, and client testimonials offers potential clients a large amount of social and financial verification of the talent at Parris.

 

 

Bell, Davis, & Pitt

 

Gone are the days of stuffy, dark, law office pictures. Whether your law firm is consumer-focused or business-focused, it might be time to swap out those old photos and replace them with something more approachable. Some do this by taking clean, simple, shots, but in the examples we chose they take it even further. 

"Focused on developing personal relationships with clients," is the message that stands out among the image of one of their lawyers wearing a huge, genuine smile. Paired with a modular, classy palette and concise statements, Andrews Gwynnee seeks not only to be approachable but trustworthy. 

 

"Award-winning hometown attorneys," is how the Knutson+Casey law firm wants to be seen. The combination of messaging, typography, and photography here gives us exactly this sense. With a consumer-focus, they do well at being not only professionals but relatable and reliable. 

 

 

For large scale law firms with a diverse set of offerings, it can be difficult to guide users to a specific goal. In cases where firms are large and multi-faceted enough to have many user journey paths, targeted, individual sites can help build a brand while giving users a direct avenue to take.

 

Kilpatrick Townsend is an international firm with offices across the world. Their work is specifically B2B focused, but with such a huge brand and multiple teams, their team needed to build a site to focus on their e-discovery clients. The LitSmart E-Discovery site does just that. Based on a team of attorneys, project managers, and data analysts, it focuses on providing e-discovery resources to firms. What is most valuable about this site is that it provides users with clear, yet delightful explanations of what LitSmart provides and how it works.

 

 

5. Using Creative Messaging to Market Your Law Firm

Bick Law LLP

 

Certainly, no one likes dealing with divorce, but YLaw Group has put a lighthearted spin on a generally difficult set of situations with their market messaging, while also saying "we can handle it for you," to their potential leads.