Reputation Management for Law Firms

Managing your law firm's online reputation: marketing and monitoring

In the past, interested clients seeking legal services simply called a local law firm, inquired about the services they required, and made a hiring decision based on that interaction.

Modern clients, on the other hand, rarely, if ever, conduct business in this manner. Instead, they turn to the internet to find online reviews of nearby law firms. It has been proven that these online reviews greatly influence consumers' purchasing decisions.

Clients are much less likely to do business with your firm if your firm's name is associated with negative reviews. In contrast, if a client conducts an online search for your law firm and discovers that you have a plethora of five-star reviews, they will be confident that your firm can assist them with their legal needs.

As a result, it is crucial that your law firm monitors and manages its online reputation proactively. Lawyers' reputation management is an often-overlooked aspect of digital marketing. It is, however, just as important as legal Search Engine Optimization (SEO) management, pay-per-click advertising (PPC) for lawyers, and other communication outreach efforts.

A strong online reputation is your most valuable marketing asset. Reputation management cannot be an afterthought or at the bottom of your priority list. Poor client testimonials can cost you in terms of lost lead opportunities and cause prospective clients to move on rather than call your company. Now is the time to find out what people are saying about your law firm online if you do not know already.

Not only do positive reviews increase consumer trust, but they can also help you rank higher on SERPs (search engine results pages). Reviews can increase the likelihood of your company appearing in the coveted Google Local 3-Packs and their featured snippets.

Planning your law firm's online presence research

Before you can start managing your law firm's online reputation, you must first figure out where you want to start.

Even if your law firm does not have a formal review mechanism on its website, it can begin collecting reviews if it has an online presence. These reviews will almost certainly appear on your Google Business Profile page, third-party review sites, and social media platforms such as Facebook.

When researching your law firm, make sure to visit relevant review sites such as Yelp and Lawzana.com.

When conducting your research, pay particular attention to negative reviews, as these are important in offering insights into your law firm's client perception. Negative reviews are especially concerning because they can reduce the effectiveness of your search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing efforts.

How to conduct the reputation research

As you might expect, conducting queries across all relevant review sites takes time. Fortunately, you do not need to conduct a separate search on each website. Google can be used to conduct the vast majority of your online review research.

As a pro tip, we recommend setting your browser up in "incognito mode" when using Google in this manner. 

If not, Google determines that you are associated with your law firm and will display tailored results. This affiliation matching is done to keep people from engaging in unethical reputation management tactics like falsifying reviews.

After you have enabled incognito mode in your browser, you can conduct reputation management research using a variety of methods. 

The most direct method is to search for your law firm's name on Google. Your Google Business Profile page, your firm's website, and any reviews from previous clients should all appear on the search engine results pages. If any previous clients have reviewed your law firm on third-party review sites, those web pages should also appear in your results.

You can search for the names of individual attorneys who work with your organization in addition to the name of your law firm. Another strategy is to look for competitors in your area so you can learn about their online presence in terms of reputation.

Factors that can impact your law firm's online reputation

A diverse and comprehensive view of reputation management is the most effective approach. Here are some steps you can take to strengthen your firm's online reputation:

Collect reviews:

Many potential clients will be willing to provide a review, if asked, either in the form of a simple, anonymous review or a more detailed case study. So, the first step is to go out there and ask satisfied clients if they could spend a few minutes writing a review for your law firm. When you reach a successful conclusion for a client's case, this is an excellent time to inquire.

Prospective clients read the reviews of other clients. Many potential clients will trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations if they are presented in the right way.  Firms with negative reviews are most likely missing out on a significant number of potential leads.

Be proactive and respond quickly if you receive a negative review. First, express gratitude to the client for their feedback (it is important to remain respectful in order to demonstrate that your firm listens). Next, invite them to an offline conversation via private email or phone, so you can learn more about why they are not satisfied and figure out how to make things right. While it's important to accept responsibility for yesterday, taking action for the future is even better.

Firm up your law firm's directory listings:

Lawzana.com and various legal directories and services may feature a profile of your firm and/or lawyers. Adding profiles to these sites is a great way to boost your firm's authority and visibility. There may be a cost involved in some cases, so you may need to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to assess if adding profiles to the particular service is in your law firm's budget.

Claim your Google My Business profile:

Signing up and claiming your Google Business Profile is free; therefore, law firms must take advantage of this platform. Essentially, Google My Business functions similarly to a virtual phonebook. Not only does Google My Business improve the visibility of your business on Google, but it also helps you reach potential clients who might not know how to find you otherwise.

Google My Business is a core platform that allows your business listing to appear alongside other related local businesses when someone searches for your company name or a related term. For potential clients, your phone number, website, address, review ratings, hours, and more will all be available on a single, handy screen.

Write your lawyer profiles:

A professional, well-written attorney bio is an excellent way to establish an online presence. Top institutions, degrees, awards, board positions, and bar associations validate your authority and expertise. Websites for universities, nonprofits on whose boards you serve, and organizations that give legal awards provide external links to your law firm's website, which improves your SEO. After creating your bio, you can include it in directory listings all over the internet. Attorney bios are free and only take a few hours to complete if you have strong writing skills.

Consider reputation management software:

Though reputation management software may not be appropriate for every legal firm (particularly firms with limited marketing resources), it is worth learning about and investigating. Lawyers can use reputation management tools to gather data about their online presence. These tools manage and track your company's online reviews, in addition to highlighting positive reviews and generating new ones. Essentially, this software streamlines the review process.

How to generate more client reviews for your law firm

In relation to lawyer reputation management, review volume matters significantly. You should try to get as many positive reviews as possible. However, this can be difficult for a variety of reasons.

When it comes to obtaining reviews, the two most significant obstacles will be time and effort. If leaving a review is unnecessarily difficult or time-consuming, the majority of your clients will be unwilling to provide feedback to your firm.

As a result, you should strive to make the review process as smooth and efficient as possible. You should also actively seek reviews from your most satisfied clients.

In this section, we will look at how you can more effectively solicit reviews while not negatively impacting the client experience.

Consider timing:

When it comes to requesting online testimonials, it is essential that you do so at the appropriate time. For example, you should probably not request online reviews right after discussing topics such as your fee schedule and retainer amount. Discussions about money are already fraught with potential conflict, so why add to the angst?

Instead, after informing clients of a favorable outcome, consider soliciting online reviews. Clients are much more willing to review your law firm after you have successfully guided them through a significant legal issue.

Remember that in-person requests are likely to be far more effective, so ask if possible when you meet them. There is, however, nothing wrong with communicating about online review requests through digital channels, particularly if this has been your primary mode of communication with the client all through the relationship.

Assess the client's likely impression of your law firm:

Take the time to "examine the temperature" of the relationship before soliciting an online review from a client. It is usually quite obvious when a client is dissatisfied with your firm and the services you provided.

For example, this dissatisfaction can be especially visible when providing civil litigation services. Obviously, you should not request online reviews when a civil litigation client is found guilty or when a civil suit petitioner loses their case.

However, when providing general legal services such as document preparation, a client's level of satisfaction can be much less clear. While you should avoid soliciting online reviews from disgruntled clients, you should avoid soliciting them from "unenthusiastic" clients as well.

When preparing to ask for a review, consider the client's level of satisfaction. You could ask something like, "Are you satisfied with the services provided by our law firm?" Their response will reveal whether you should request a review — as well as potential areas in your practice where you can improve.

Leverage email as a channel for review requests:

Email review requests can be a useful tool for managing one's online reputation. Sending review requests through the use of email is quick and easy. Most importantly, it gives clients the option to leave positive reviews right away.

When you request a review in person, you must hope that your request is not forgotten by the time the client leaves your office. On the other hand, sending review requests via email allows you to include a link to your review page or Google Business Profile directly in the body of the email.

Take note that the easier you make this process for your clients, the more likely it is that they will review your law firm.

Establish your law firm as a leader on social media to manage your reputation

Select one social media platform and begin building your law firm's reputation there. You can choose to focus on your law firm's overall reputation management or on the reputations of individual lawyers. For example, if you have the resources to manage multiple profiles, you could start a profile for each one. If this is the case, you will be able to cross-promote them. Otherwise, concentrate on your law firm as a whole or on your firm's main attributes.

In any case, you don't have to be present on every platform to build your law firm's reputation. It is best to start with one platform and master it. Once you have built a large enough audience, use it to help you grow your second platform, which will firm up your lawyers' reputations.

How to select the most appropriate social media platform for law firm reputation management:

Integrate the following two factors when selecting a social media platform:

• Look at where your ideal clients already spend their time. LinkedIn is the obvious choice if you serve business clients.
• Consider thinking outside the box, especially if the person in charge of the platform is more likely to be proactive in an unexpected setting. Assume you represent buyers and sellers of residential real estate. It does not imply that you must be on Facebook. Instagram, for example, is becoming increasingly popular among people of all ages. Allow your lawyer or team to spend some time on a few platforms to see which ones they connect with the most. It will be critical for the long-term management of your law firm's reputation.

How to start over with a new social media profile to build your law firm's reputation

Once you've decided on a platform, it is important to focus on building an audience that trusts and protects the reputation of your firm's lawyers.

Every social media platform has its own personality. What works on Facebook may not work on LinkedIn. As a result, spend some time researching the platform you've chosen.

However, regardless of the platform, the following guidelines apply:

• Provide useful, engaging content that provides value to your audience.
• Stay away from sales pitches and concentrate on providing value. If you mostly offer value, you can add some sales messages where appropriate without adversely affecting your law firm's reputation or losing the confidence of your audience.
• Employ hashtags to promote your content and find related content to comment on and interact with. It will be easier to build your lawyer reputation from scratch if you leave thoughtful comments that add to the conversation (think beyond "nice post!"). People will visit your profile to learn more about you. Simply focus on posts that target your ideal clients so that those who look at your profile are, in fact, your ideal clients.
• Maintain consistency. Growing your law firm's social media presence takes time, but it is well worth the effort. You will feel like you are posting for yourself and your colleagues at first, but you will gradually gain additional followers who will recognize you and contribute to building your lawyer reputation.

PR tactics can help law firms manage their reputation more quickly

You could be starting from scratch with your law firm's reputation or dealing with a crisis involving the reputation of lawyers in your firm. In either case, by appearing in places with large, trusting audiences, you can stimulate positive PR messages about your company.

• Obtain interviews or write articles for well-known publications, podcasts, and YouTube channels. These methods will promote positive PR communication about your firm. While successfully approaching notable publications for a PR spot is a time-consuming process, it is another effective way to boost your firm's lawyer reputation.
• Collaborate with reputable complementary businesses. Consider companies that serve your target market but aren't direct competitors. If they have a good reputation, it will rub off on your lawyer. For instance, if you support commercial property transactions, you could collaborate with construction companies and business strategists.

Optimize your firm's online assets to protect your reputation as effectively as possible

Although there are no guarantees in terms of a law firm's reputation, it is essential to begin with a strong foundation by optimizing your firm's owned media assets, such as your company's website and email list.

Social media platforms' policies can change or even go out of business. Publications where you have frequently guest-posted or been interviewed may alter their strategies. When you develop owned platforms at the same time, your firm's lawyers can build reputations that aren't dependent on the agendas of other companies.

Other advantages of developing owned assets (such as a website) for law firm reputation management include the ability to:

• Tell your firm's story. When clients visit your website, they can read your story and what you stand for in your own words. Your website provides numerous opportunities to create emotional connections with your audience, increasing their likelihood of trusting you.
• Use content marketing to drive traffic to your website. Over time, Google will begin to trust your website more than others for your top keywords (such as your lawyers' names and key practice areas), displaying it higher in search results and promoting a more positive reputation for your law firm.

Summary

Before contacting a lawyer, potential clients perform thorough research to find the best lawyer to address their legal issues. The management of your law firm's online reputation is critical to its success.

However, managing your law firm's reputation can be a challenging task, especially if you are new to digital marketing.

Lawyers are constantly under pressure to manage their time as new casework racks up on their desks, phones ring, and email boxes are flooded. It is tempting to push marketing and online reputation management to the bottom of your priority list. This is a major oversight.

In terms of checking the web to see what's being said about your law firm, you can designate a paralegal or staff member to be your team lead. This individual can also coordinate by asking clients to share reviews or testimonials and then follow up with gentle reminders as needed. It is more likely to succeed if the process is automated and accountability is established.

Managing your law firm's online reputation is invaluable. Follow the six steps outlined above to accomplish this. By taking this targeted approach, you can take advantage of low-cost and high-impact tools for improving your reputation online and law firm visibility. 

Lawzana offers opportunities to feature client reviews on law firm profiles with all paid memberships, and we encourage you to invite clients to submit reviews on your Lawzana profile. If you have any questions related to law firm marketing or lawyer brand management, do not hesitate to contact our expert team at [email protected]