Strategizing Digital PR for Lawyers: A Comprehensive Guide

For lawyers looking to grow their business in 2024, digital marketing has become a key tool to thrive and remain competitive. Digital marketing for attorneys enhances a law firm’s visibility and plays a pivotal role in engaging potential clients. 

Digital PR is one of several strategies that can substantially impact a law firm’s online presence and client interactions in the long term. Digital PR encompasses a range of strategies that enhance a website’s authority, increase visibility, and build meaningful connections with potential clients and peers.

Whether you’re just starting to build your online presence or looking to enhance your existing digital strategy, this guide will walk you through the essentials of digital PR, tailored specifically for the legal industry.

Navigating Digital Marketing

For lawyers, SEO is a fundamental component of digital marketing. By appearing at the top of search results, attorneys can increase their visibility and credibility, making it easier for potential clients to find them.

Digital PR strategies are vital for boosting a lawyer’s SEO efforts. These strategies include creating and distributing high-quality content that attracts backlinks from reputable sites. High-quality backlinks drive traffic and signal to search engines the value and trustworthiness of the lawyer’s content.

Think of each backlink as a recommendation. When a website links to your site, it’s essentially saying, “This site has good content worth visiting.” Search engines use these links to determine how valuable and relevant your site is for specific topics. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more trustworthy and authoritative your site appears to search engines. 

Digital PR and SEO work together to drive results. Effective digital PR leads to improved SEO that strengthens online visibility and reputation. This enhanced reputation aids further PR efforts, creating a positive feedback loop. 

Tactical Approach to Digital PR

When evaluating the goals for each of your digital marketing initiatives, you should set unique key performance indicators for each strategy. For SEO tactics, that may mean higher keyword rankings or increased organic traffic. The primary KPI for digital PR may be the number of backlinks or quality of referring domains. 

Backlinks serve as a testament to the relevance and authority of a lawyer’s website. The quality and quantity of these backlinks can directly correlate to the success of digital PR campaigns. They indicate how well the content resonates with the audience and the wider community and how effectively it garners attention and engagement.

Tracking the number of backlinks and analyzing where they come from provides valuable insights into the impact of a law firm’s digital PR efforts. It helps in understanding which types of content are most effective in attracting high-quality backlinks and which platforms or collaborations are most beneficial. You may want to keep track of the following metrics: 

• Total number of backlinks 
• Number of unique referring domains 
• Domain authority of referring domains
• Percentage of backlinks that are follow

Assessing the increase in backlinks over time enables law firms to gauge growth in their online authority and reputation. This approach to ROI tracking ensures that the law firm’s efforts are visible and translate into tangible results.

Tools and Platforms for Digital Marketing

The foundation of effective digital PR lies in the creation of unique, creative content. This content should be developed with a wide audience in mind. The target audience of your digital PR campaign may not align with your company’s typical target audience. Since the goal of this strategy is to build backlinks, you should ideate content with broad appeal. 

The goal is to create content that is not only informative but also shareable and engaging, encouraging readers to spread the word. This can come in many different forms, including the following: 

• Data Analysis: This involves using existing datasets to tell a new story or provide additional insights. It might involve analyzing data from various sources to create compelling narratives or identify trends relevant to your audience. 
• Surveys: When no existing dataset matches your campaign idea, surveys are a powerful tool. Surveys offer the flexibility to explore almost any topic and draw responses from diverse populations.
• Interactive Content: This includes quizzes, calculators, tools, or contests that invite audience interaction. Interactive content is engaging because it allows the audience to relate directly to the material.

Regardless of the format you opt for, it’s essential to present the findings in an easily digestible format. Using imagery, color schemes, and clear labels helps make complex data accessible. Accompanying blog copy can provide additional context, fill gaps, and offer a narrative that complements the visual data.

After creating the content, the next step is to get it in front of the right audience. This point is where traditional PR strategies come into play, as you should identify who you’ll target and how you’ll reach them. Effective pitching involves personalizing communication, understanding the journalist’s area of interest, and presenting the content as a valuable resource for their readership.

There are various tools and platforms designed to assist in digital PR efforts. These include content management systems for organizing and publishing content, PR email platforms for distribution and engagement, and media databases that provide access to journalists and influencers.

Addressing Challenges in Digital PR for Lawyers

Digital PR offers countless opportunities for law firms, but it’s not without its challenges. Addressing these effectively is key to a successful digital PR strategy.

One common issue is the struggle to think of unique and engaging content ideas. To overcome this, law firms can look at current trending topics, client FAQs, or recent case studies for inspiration. Pulling in additional team members while brainstorming for fresh perspectives can help.

The brainstorming process sets the grounds for the rest of the digital PR strategy. If your concept is not feasible and unique, it will lead to issues later on. For instance, if you try to pitch a story that’s been covered in the media just a few weeks ago, you’ll quickly realize that journalists won’t be interested in reporting on the topic again. It’s better to get ahead of these potential challenges in the ideation phase to avoid wasted time and effort. 

Many law firms also face constraints with resources for producing and promoting campaigns. To mitigate this, prioritize quality over quantity — focus on creating fewer but more impactful pieces of content. You may also consider partnering with a digital PR agency with well-established processes and relationships. 

If the content isn’t meeting expectations, take a step back to analyze and understand why. This could involve A/B testing different types of content, revising SEO strategies, or actively engaging more with audiences on social media platforms. Using analytics tools to track user engagement and feedback can provide valuable insights into content performance. 

There are many different reasons why a campaign might not be building the links you hoped, so take a critical look at each piece of your content, from the data to the outreach. 

Shaping Trust and Credibility

Digital PR is not a one-off campaign; it’s a continuous effort that shapes the perception of law firms among their clients, peers, and the broader public. Regularly publishing insightful articles and contributing to relevant online discussions helps lawyers establish themselves as knowledgeable and reliable. This consistent messaging helps in building a reputation for expertise and trustworthiness.

The impact of digital PR is cumulative and long-lasting. As a law firm accumulates a robust portfolio of backlinks from diverse, authoritative sources, its website gains more authority. Heightened authority directly impacts the firm’s search engine rankings, leading to greater online visibility and a higher likelihood of being discovered by potential clients.

Each positive interaction, each well-received piece of content, and every successful campaign contributes to building a positive reputation. Over time, this can translate into a competitive advantage as the firm becomes a go-to source for legal expertise and advice. Building and maintaining relationships with media and influencers in the legal sector can lead to ongoing coverage, further amplifying the firm’s reach and solidifying its status in the industry.

Conclusion

Consistent, quality digital PR efforts build trust and credibility. Each positive interaction and well-crafted campaign can contribute to a law firm’s digital reputation, with the cumulative effect of these efforts leading to a substantial competitive advantage. The strategic focus on backlinks enhances immediate credibility and secures enduring SEO benefits that ensure long-term visibility and authority.

Adopting effective digital PR strategies is essential for law firms looking to thrive in an increasingly digital marketplace. Implementing these tactics can transform how firms are perceived online, attract more clients, and establish them as leaders in their field. 

At Go Fish Digital, we understand the intricacies of digital PR in the legal sector and can build quality campaigns that exceed expectations. If you’re looking for support building backlinks through digital PR, get in touch today.