When Covid-19 started to become world news, there was fear, panic and death. That stage was soon followed by mandatory, nationwide quarantines. Along with plenty of other sectors, this series of developments left a large section of the legal sector ravaged as well.
The economy is reopening again and even during the present quarantine measures, courts will not be shutting down. There will be restrictions as necessary, and weekly updates will be provided to all citizens as and when something changes in regard to that. While that is all good news for both law firms and associated clientele, it will still take a long time before the legal segment recovers completely.
The Crucial Moment
Business is picking up, but it is still slow for law firms right now. This is a crucial moment for the sector, and actions taken at this point in time may decide which law firms come out on top and remain there for the foreseeable future. At a time when people are preferring to stay in and work from their homes as much as possible, the role of digital marketing and search engine optimization for lawyers is of more importance to them than it has ever been before.
The Short-Term and the Long-Term Opportunities
As is the nature of any business, a company must at all times:
- Sell
- Market, brand/rebrand itself and/or its products/services
Under ideal circumstances, a successful establishment should be able to do both simultaneously, since marketing and sales power each other perpetually. Unfortunately, as these are not ideal times, the focus should now be on marketing, or digital marketing to be more precise. Digital is by far the most important aspect of marketing in general, as of now and for the foreseeable future. Irrespective of the target group, everyone is spending a lot more time on the internet than they did before. There is more to that extra internet time than just the increased hour count though.
Employees are forming new habits, while trying to adjust to the new normal. Employers are spending good money, so that they can create an infrastructure that will be able to sustain these new standards. As a result of those changes, it is quite likely that even after the coronavirus pandemic is somewhat controlled via vaccinations, the new protocols will be staying in place for a long time to come. Considering the amount of additional expense that would be necessary for establishments to revert back to their original working standards, such steps might not be taken any time soon.
Digital Marketing and SEO in B2B: Lawyers and their Clients
All work that can be completed via the internet is indeed being completed online with due diligence, therefore, a large portion of that extra internet time is being spent on work, or work-related activities. This affirms the fact that by stressing on certain KPIs of digital marketing, law firms can certainly use all that extra business web exposure to their own advantage.
In other words, since every target group of potential clients for law firms are spending significantly more time working on their smartphones and computers, it could only yield better results by keeping the focus on sector-specific digital marketing. Even if the rate of conversion remains low, that low percentage will yield better numbers because the percentage would also be calculated on a much higher total hit (5% of 300 is better than 9% of 100).
There are tech sectors that are already capitalizing on this understanding, and turning a profit in the middle of an ongoing recession. However, this only applies to establishments that have managed to either revamp their old digital marketing strategies and incorporate new developments, or better yet, have adopted brand new strategies which are built around these new developments.
12AM Agency has taken the same immediate need for restructuring marketing and SEO for attorneys to the next stage. Instead of only acting as a law firm SEO agency for a few ongoing campaigns, they are now dedicated towards helping their clients adapt, change and improve as a legal business entity in order to stay relevant throughout the pandemic, and for a time period that stretches well beyond Covid-19. The 12AM Agency is very much about helping their clients adjust to the present situation and coming changes with smart, adaptive search engine optimization for lawyers. However, their services should be considered more as a partnership that will continue to provide clients with detailed info, critical forecasts and actionable insights, in accordance with the changing KPIs of their core business.
The Next Change: Planning for Excess Business
After doing business for a long time without sufficient clients, it is very much possible for law firms to get overwhelmed when faced with a sudden boost in workload. It should be noted that while pandemics and lockdowns have initiated consequences that are changing innumerable factors in business continuously, there will also be another round of global impacts after the pandemic finally begins to die out.
That is, of course, the universally desirable outcome right now, since it will also lead to a boost in employment rates. Even then, if a firm is ill-prepared to handle that level of pressure beforehand, the boom can also backfire. Excess business after a deficit often leads to burnouts, lowered productivity, lowered quality of legal services, critical mistakes and mismanagement. No small number of legal employees were laid off during the crisis, and once business booms again, their absence will be felt direly. When that joyous time does come, an adaptive business strategy which is based on intelligent predictions should already be in the works.
It’s a big part of what makes having a reliable analytics team to support a legal team all the more important at this juncture. Covid-19 has given the world a number of hard lessons, and one of them would have to be the necessity to act before it’s too late. Informed and intelligent foresight is an important skill in the legal profession, with consequent, well-planned action being just as necessary for success.
