Online marketing is an essential marketing tool, but unless you hire a company to do it for you, it can be time-consuming. To make it more manageable, consider assigning various staff members each of the following duties:
- Each week, staff should conduct an online search for your firm’s name at the following popular search engines and sites: Google, Bing, Yelp, Citysearch, and Yellowpages.com. Staff should list all the places where your firm name appears. He should ensure that the information on the website is accurate, and fix any wrong information. He should note places where the firm does not appear, but should. As with all of these tasks, he should prepare a status report each time he performs this task, and the report should be delivered to you on a day certain, every Wednesday morning, for example.
- Staff should post daily for your firm on the following websites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Avvo, if you’re a lawyer. Concurrently, staff should prepare a report to you once each week of what was posted, for your review and 20/20 input.
- Staff should ask current and former clients to post positive feedback on your website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Avvo, and should follow up on those requests until the clients either post or indicate that they would prefer not to do so. Staff should report on those reviews to you on a day certain each week. Place a tab on your website to enable clients to post testimonials themselves, with your veto power, of course.
- Staff should regularly review the reports from your promotional channels, and then report on those reviews to you one day each week.
- Staff should perform weekly checks regarding the number of people who clicked on your website, the number who forwarded your information, and the number of social shares.This they should also report to you one day certain each week.
Additionally, ensure that you have a way to stay in touch with new and existing clients on your website.
Include an intake form on your website for potential clients who are interested in collaborative divorce so that they can easily provide you with the necessary background for their consultation ahead of time. It should notify you when people use it so that you are able to follow up with them.
Include an e-mail sign-up form on your website for potential clients who are interested in collaborative seminars and trainings. It should also notify you when people use it so that you can follow up.
Include a survey that clients can easily complete on your website, answering questions like whether they were happy with the results obtained and whether they would refer friends and family to the firm. Not only must you and staff then “remind” your clients that the survey exists and that you would appreciate their completion of it, but staff or you should follow up on these surveys to enforce the message that you care what your clients experience and how they perceive the services that you render them.
The survey is not the same as the debrief questionnaire that I walk my clients through at the end of every collaborative divorce, although, if you have walked your clients through that debrief already, then it can, and perhaps should reflect the same questions. If you have already had that conversation, then you have already helped your clients verbalize how they benefited from their collaborative divorce experiences, and they might want a copy of the testimonial that you already helped them prepare when they complete this survey.
Entice customers to connect with you by joining your e-mail list or by interacting with you on social media. Engage regularly with them. Offer free consults, small discounts, or free books.
Offer special discounts on your website like complimentary or reduced rate supplemental services if someone refers you a client.
Always be sure to track your success so that you know what is working and what is not. Meet with a web designer regularly regarding improvements that need to be made to optimize your success.
