Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is your 2025
marketing plan.
Welcome to Legal Marketing 101.
I'm Toby Rosen and welcome backto the podcast for our free
subscribers, the first episodeof 2025.
Happy New Year.
If you haven't already, makesure to subscribe so you get all
of our paid episodes.
We have a paid episode on thefirst Monday of every month.
We go a little bit longer there, we dive in a little bit deeper
(00:27):
on some of the subjects and wetalk about some stuff that I'm
just not quite willing to giveaway in the free episodes.
Of course, that doesn't meanwe're not going to have an
awesome year with all of the newstuff that's coming in 2025 for
the free episodes, because thelegal world, the marketing world
, things are starting to shiftthe dynamics, the technology,
the expectations of clients and,honestly, just the competition.
(00:49):
All of this stuff is reallygoing to be something we have to
look out for in 2025.
And we need a plan, a focusedplan, so that we can increase
our efficiency and, ultimately,our bottom line.
It's all about clientacquisition, so let's dive in
First.
We're going to start byreflecting on 2024.
I want you to take a moment togo review the key data points
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that tell the story of yourfirm's marketing efforts.
Where did your clients comefrom?
Did they find you?
From Google searches, fromreferrals, from paid ads on
Facebook?
Start diving into the ROI ofthe campaigns you ran last year.
Did the dollars you spent bringin the cases that you wanted?
And look at the types of casesyou brought in.
Are you attracting more of thecases that you and your team
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really excel at and want to grow, or is there some kind of
mismatch?
Are you getting phone callsabout things you don't really
handle?
Once you've gathered all thisdata, we need to ask ourselves
what did we do that worked well?
Which campaigns, platforms,content, formats, even which of
these brought us the most value?
And, equally important, we needto identify what wasn't
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delivering and why it didn'tdeliver.
And, on top of all this, weneed to be paying attention to
emerging opportunities.
Was there a new platform or atrend or a strategy in 2024 that
we didn't really fully explorebut still holds some potential
for this year?
Now that we've analyzed allthis, brought all of this
together, it's time to set oursights on 2025.
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If you haven't done thisanalysis already, go ahead and
pause.
Come back to this episode onceyou have.
Now for 2025, we want to startwith clear, measurable goals.
This is where smart goals comeinto play.
Maybe our overall goal is toincrease client intake by 20% or
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improve our website conversionrates by 15%.
We're trying to set objectivesthat are actually going to move
the needle.
We're trying to set objectivesthat are actually going to move
the needle Because when we getinto defining these objectives,
we need to be ensuring thatthey're aligning with our firm's
growth trajectory or with anyniche markets that we're trying
to dominate.
Whatever the long-term goal isfor 2025, we want to start
breaking that down into smaller,achievable pieces so we can
make sure we get to our finalgoal by the end of the year.
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So if our goal is to become thego-to personal injury law firm
in our area, we need to startfocusing on strategies that are
going to position us as anauthority in that space, rather
than just bringing as manyeyeballs as possible to our ads,
as we're doing.
This.
Breaking this down helps usremember that our goals should
be ambitious, especially ouryear-long goal, but we need to
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have some stepping stones alongthe way.
These need to be achievablegoals.
This is going to become ourroadmap for the year and it's
going to help us prioritizeefforts and measure success.
By laying out all of theseobjectives now, you're going to
be prepared to make smarterdecisions all along the way as
2025 unfolds.
And really technology is ourcompetitive advantage in 2025,
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especially when it comes tomarketing.
So we're going to look at threedifferent ways that we can
leverage AI, analytics andcontent optimization for meaning
results.
I think these are really hottopics for 2025, and they may be
something you want to add toyour plan.
Because number one, ai thisisn't theoretical anymore.
It is practical and accessible,and really it's going to be
necessary very soon.
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So start with email automationTools like MailChimp or HubSpot
all this stuff.
They have AI-driven workflowsthat let us create email
sequences that are tailoredspecifically to client behavior.
So, if a prospective clientdownloads a guide on estate
planning from our website, anautomated email series can send
follow-ups offering additionalresources, nurturing the client
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or even inviting them in for afree consultation.
And AI also simplifies clientsegmentation.
We've talked about this before.
With ActiveCampaign, we canstart grouping our contacts by
behavior, like those who'veengaged with our family law
websites content, and then wecan start sending personalized
messages directly addressingeach of these people's concerns.
This not only saves us a bunchof time but really picks up the
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conversion rates.
And for things like chatsupport or on your website,
there are tons of tools.
The first one that comes tomind for chatbots is Drift, but
there are tons of tools that canhelp handle basic queries 24
seven, and this helps ensurethat no leads slip through the
cracks.
But to make all of this reallywork, we need to understand our
data, and that's where theanalytics tools come in.
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And when it comes tounderstanding your data, it
really starts with the website.
So Google analytics their newtools, google analytics for this
is a great way to track howusers are navigating around your
site.
We need to look at metrics likebounce rate, people that are
coming in on one page andleaving on that same page, and
things like goal completions Arethey filling out contact forms?
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Are they clicking on a phonecall button?
Google Analytics will help youunderstand what type of
behaviors people are taking andhow you can adjust things to
better serve those potentialclients.
But beyond analyzing just thegeneral traffic that's hitting
our website or our social pageor our Google my Business, there
are some tools that can helpconnect marketing data with the
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actual case outcomes and whetheror not we got paid.
So if we look at something likeClio Grow, we can actually
track how many clients from ourGoogle Ads campaigns actually
sign retainers, not just howmany people clicked on our ad or
downloaded an ebook or pickedup the phone.
Crm tools like Lawmatics, clio,hubspot and a lot of the
non-legal specific tools arereally great for helping connect
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the dots between where themoney was spent and did it
actually return anything.
And another quick tip in GoogleAnalytics, you can set up custom
dashboards so that you canactually focus on what matters
most.
There's a ton of stuff thatGoogle has added with this new
release with GA4, but it'sreally not stuff that we need.
So you can set up customdashboards to focus on things
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like local search traffic or aquick look at which blog posts
are actually generating leads onyour site.
These insights are not onlyjust fun to create and look at,
but they're going to really helpyou fine-tune your budget and
your content strategy, so youknow where to put dollars and
what to make those dollars, say,when they end up on your
website.
That leads us to one of theother really great ways AI can
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help us today, and that's withcontent optimization Tools like
Jasper Surfer SEO.
These can supercharge yourcontent creation process.
They help us with research andthen they use AI to help us
structure a blog post aroundthese terms, so we can quickly
create an idea, figure out howit's going to fit into the
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search engine results page andwhat we need to do to go past
our competitors.
And for things like videocontent, audio content, we've
got a really cool tool calledDescript.
This allows you to quickly editraw footage or raw audio and
create really polished shortform videos or even full podcast
episodes.
So, for example, you could takeone of your recent webinars or
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a recent seminar you gave onlineand use AI to highlight the key
sound bites from that longervideo.
Then we can take those clipsout and post them to TikTok or
LinkedIn or YouTube.
This approach allows us toreally quickly repurpose some
long form content into a bunchof bite-sized pieces that drive
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a lot of engagement back towardsour more beefy content pieces.
One of the things I alwaysrecommend here is to make sure
you're looking at the analytics,though.
So if you want to just startwith what AI is recommending,
that's fine if you don't have alot of traffic already, but if
you have some data already onwhat's going on on your website.
Use the analytics to see whichtopics resonate most with your
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audience and then double down onthose.
Create more content.
Do more of what your audiencewants.
If a blog post on personalinjury trends performed really
well, do another one that'ssimilar and turn them both into
videos and infographics andshare them on social media.
But I'm sounding a little bitflippant about where you should
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be posting this content, and Iknow I do that pretty frequently
.
Just create the content and theaudience will come.
It's a fun field of streamstrategy, but there are actually
a few channels that we canfocus on.
We have some data to understandwhich ones provide the best ROI
in general, and this willdiffer from firm to firm.
But we know that these fourchannels are really great areas
(09:10):
to work on because there's someactionable strategies here.
And first up is your website.
Your website is your digitalfoundation.
Your website is usually thefirst impression, if not the
second.
Sometimes it's GMB that mostclients are going to have of
your firm, so it really doesneed to impress.
So we first want to make surethat it's mobile first, because
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most people browse on theirphones.
That's just a reality of theworld today, and use tools like
Google's mobile friendly test tohelp identify and fix issues.
On top of this, though, it'sreally a mobile focused idea,
but speed for your website isvery critical.
A site that takes more thanthree seconds to load can
significantly I'm talking 40%increase bounce rates.
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Use platforms like GTmetrix orGoogle's PageSpeed Insights to
evaluate your site's speed andthen use the recommendations
that they list there toimplement the fixes.
So if they're telling you yourimages are too big or your
server response is too low, getin touch with the team that's
working on that for you and getit fixed.
Finally, the site needs to bereally user-friendly.
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This is something I see withlawyers all the time, but their
menu bars, their navigation, isa nightmare.
We really want to simplify thenavigation and make it as easy
as possible for people to findthe information they want, and
then as easy as possible to gofrom that information to
scheduling a consultation withyou.
So this means including clearcall to action buttons and
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making sure that every page isguiding visitors towards
contacting you or learningsomething new.
Now we're moving on to videocontent, because this is a huge
one in 2025.
It's dominated the landscape ofmarketing for the last couple
of years and it does not appearto be going anywhere.
And, frankly, there's a goodreason for that.
Video is personable, it'srelatable, it's memorable and it
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works.
And right now we want to focuson short-form videos that
address common client questionsor showcase your expertise.
A couple of examples could be,say, a 60-second explainer video
going through what happensduring a DUI consultation or
what happens during a DUI stopis something that could get a
lot of clicks.
Another option would be a90-second or a 30-second even
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testimonial from a satisfiedclient expressing their
experience with your firm.
And don't overlook this kind ofbehind the scenes content.
I know it's tough to ask for aclient to do a review on video
or to do video of the team.
It may not be what you want toput first, but the reality is
that it humanizes your firm.
A quick tour of the office, acandid Q&A session with one of
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the receptionists this buildstrust with potential clients.
It shows them that the gapbetween you and them is not that
big.
But consistency here is key.
We do need to be posting atleast once a week, or ideally
multiple times a week, and wewant to make sure this is going
out to multiple platformsYouTube Shorts, tiktok a week
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and we want to make sure this isgoing out to multiple platforms
YouTube Shorts, tiktok,linkedin and, like I mentioned
earlier, descript and Canva.
They make creating this type ofprofessional-looking content
incredibly easy, even if youhave basically no experience.
I'm not ashamed to say that.
I'm an absolutely terribledesigner and everything you see
that I create, I do it withCanva because they make me look
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really good and, frankly, I useCanva a lot for our next topic,
one of the other best places toshare information.
Obviously, going on the websiteand creating video content is
great, and we've already sort oftouched on this, but social
media is really great, not justfor staying relevant.
It's now for buildingrelationships.
In 2025, we want to startworking on prioritizing
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platforms that work for ourtarget audience and really, in
the legal space, a lot of thetime, that's LinkedIn and short
form video.
Whether that's Instagram,tiktok or YouTube shorts will
depend a little bit on yourdemographic and your area and
how legislation goes in the nextmonths and weeks, but these
platforms, we need to be reallyselecting which ones our
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audience is on.
So, on LinkedIn, we want tofocus on posting things like
thought leadership content.
This could be legal trends,case studies, and we may be
targeting even more than clientshere.
We may be targeting potentialreferral sources or other
attorneys.
There are a lot of potentialoptions for LinkedIn.
We can also join relevantgroups, participate in
discussions.
All of this contributes toraising our visibility For
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TikTok or YouTube Shorts orInstagram.
Embrace the short, engagingvideos, quick legal tips like
three things to do after a caraccident or what happens when he
sets fire to the bed, likethree things to do after a car
accident or what happens when hesets fire to the bed.
These things can go viralquickly and they also position
your firm as approachable andknowledgeable.
They don't think you're sohoity-toity that you can't do a
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60-second video.
And on top of all of this,these short-form video platforms
are great for repurposedcontent.
Repurposing your content acrossplatforms is an absolutely
valid strategy.
We've touched on it a couple oftimes in this episode, and it's
excellent not only forincreasing your reach, but for
making sure that people getaccess to the content that might
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seem uninteresting to them.
So maybe an hour-long seminaron the nuances of something in
immigration law are going toseem a little bit convoluted to
most people, but a 30 secondvideo from that webinar showing
the valuable information inthere can bring even more
viewers to your long video.
Okay, let's move on, because Iknow you're all tired of me
talking about video.
I've been doing it for monthsand I'm not going to stop, so
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I'll move on for today.
Number four, when we are talkingabout our really interesting
avenues for 2025, is SEO.
If you're not alreadyleveraging local SEO it's
something I've been talkingabout for years now you are
leaving clients on the table.
That's the reality.
Start with your Google businessprofile.
If you haven't do it now, youneed to ensure that your listing
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is fully optimized.
You've got all the accuratecontact details, photos, reviews
.
I've got tons of episodes onthis.
Go back and look.
There's plenty of local SEOepisodes.
And then next, we need to starttargeting local keywords in our
website content.
So, for a family law attorneyin Miami, we're going to write
blog posts like how to file fordivorce in Miami or five tips
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for co-parenting in Florida, andto make sure that we're staying
on track with all this.
Obviously, we can look back atour analytics, but we can use
tools like SEMrush, ahrefs orMoz to really dig into keywords
and where the value may be onthe search engines.
As always, we're publishingcontent regularly to maintain
relevance and we want to makesure we're focusing on backlinks
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a little bit.
I'm not going to talk aboutthis today, but backlinks are
still an incredibly valuablesource for SEO.
By prioritizing these key areasthe ones we've talked about
today and looking into some newareas for what channels you're
going to deliver your content onover 2025, you will end up with
a robust content and channelstrategy and, ultimately, a
(16:03):
complete marketing strategy thatis going to attract, engage and
convert your ideal clients in2025.
So let's turn all of this sortof nebulous stuff from today
into action To kickstart your2025 marketing success.
Here are two simple but, Ithink, really impactful steps
that you can take right now.
Number one is schedule amarketing audit session.
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We're going to focus ondedicating time in January to
thoroughly reviewing our 2024marketing efforts.
Block out an hour or two withyour team to analyze the key
metrics like client acquisitionsources, roi for campaigns,
website performance, and usethis session to identify both
your biggest wins and your areasfor improvement.
And then we create a checklistto guide the audit.
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We're going to have questionsin there, like which campaigns
brought in the highest valueclients?
What platforms delivered thebest ROI?
Are there areas that areunderperforming where
adjustments could make adifference?
Are there areas that areunderperforming that adjustments
won't make a difference in?
This session doesn't have to beoverwhelming, it doesn't have
to take a long time and itdoesn't have to be two numbers
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focused.
What you're really trying tofocus on is the actionable
takeaways you can applyimmediately.
And number two is right now youcan research one new tool or
platform.
This is something you can doevery week, every month, every
quarter.
I like to do it as frequentlyas I can, a couple of times a
week, and find out aboutsomething new, but the reality
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is the marketing landscape isalways changing.
When I published this episode,half the stuff I said could be
wrong by then.
It probably won't be, but itchanges quickly here and staying
competitive in marketing meansstaying curious.
So right now, I want you to goresearch one new tool or one new
platform to adopt by the end ofQ1 2025.
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This could be anything.
It could be an AI-powered CRM,a video editing tool, a social
media scheduler, or even somekind of app that just alerts you
to Google Ads clicks or Googlemy business reviews.
Start small, though.
I know that a lot of you guysdon't like the app bloat, but
the reality is we need to betaking advantage of this
technology and until it's allintegrated into the super
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powerful app in the sky I guesswe're all dreaming, for this is
how it works.
Again, start small.
You want to look at free trials, request demos of different
software and see if the toolactually aligns with your firm's
goals.
You don't want to just pick upsomething that looks cool and
try to implement it across theboard for all of your team.
They're going to not be happywith you, but the reality is
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that even one new piece oftechnology can elevate your
strategy for the entire year,even something tiny.
If you take these steps now,you're going to set the
foundation for a focused,successful 2025.
I guarantee it.
We'll be back in the comingweeks with more on marketing and
more on the landscape for 2025.
(18:59):
But for now, don't forget tosubscribe to the paid episodes
the first Monday of every month.
And for today, that's it forLegal Marketing 101.
Check out RosenAdvertisingcomfor more Thanks.