Speaker 1: 0:05

How do I beat my competitors? Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. If you ever feel like your competitors, those other law firms that are in your market that are stealing your clients, if you ever feel like those competitors are just one step ahead of you, well, today we're going to do something about it. Today we're going to turn that feeling into action. Today we're going to do something about it. Today we're going to turn that feeling into action and we're going to dive into five ways you can leverage the success of your competitors without directly copying them.

Speaker 1: 0:35

There's a lot to cover here, so let's jump in and let's start with a concept that might sound a little bit technical but don't worry, it's actually really straightforward and it can make a huge impact on your marketing efforts and that's keyword gap analysis. So what is keyword gap analysis? Essentially, it's a way of finding out what your competitors are ranking for on search engines like Google that you aren't. It's like taking a little sneak peek into their playbook to see which keywords are driving traffic to their site. Sneak peek into their playbook to see which keywords are driving traffic to their site. Then you can create content that not only targets those same keywords but improves on what your competitors are offering. Here's how it basically works. So let's say you're noticing a competitor that's ranking for a few key terms that are related to your practice area. We could say these are divorce related term divorce lawyer in New York city, and you're not showing up With a keyword gap analysis. You identify those exact City and you're not showing up With a keyword gap analysis. You identify those exact keywords and then we make a plan to tackle them, but you don't just go and copy their content. You make it way better. That means producing more in-depth articles, adding more value, getting more backlinks to the content, doing video photos, all of it. You can think of this as an arms race for better, more authoritative content. The goal is really simple here. So if they have 10 backlinks, we're aiming for 11, 12, or even 20. And if their content is 800 words long, we're aiming for 1500 words or 2000 words, and we want it to be very compelling, very well-researched and, as usual, you want to have some CTAs in there. But why does this work? And the reality is it's because search engines like Google, bing, et cetera. They reward relevance, authority and quality when we create superior content that's backed up by these credible backlinks, you're giving yourself a really solid shot at outranking competitors. And the best part of this, you're not just copying. You are innovating based on what they did. You're learning from their strengths and then putting your own expertise and your unique spin on all of your content.

Speaker 1: 2:32

And number two, which is kind of similar to keyword gap analysis if you want to dominate local search, then Google. My Business we've talked about it many times is our secret or not so secret weapon. And GMB. You know we can think of this as our virtual storefront. It's what most people see when they search for the services in their area, and for law firms like us, having a really strong GMB listing is usually the difference between being overlooked and being the go-to choice for potential clients. Here's why it matters. When someone searches for legal services near them, google looks at local GMB listings to deliver the most relevant results. They're going to deliver some more regular, organic stuff, but those listings are almost always the first thing they display. So having an optimized, active profile means you're more likely to show up at the top of those searches.

Speaker 1: 3:23

But just having this profile this isn't enough. We've talked about this before and we really want our profile to stand out and build trust immediately. So how do we get it to outperform our competitors? Number one start by getting more reviews, and if you have a hundred but your competitor has 101, get even more. And if they're still beating you and they have less reviews, get even more. One get even more. And if they're still beating you and they have less reviews, get even more. You can ask satisfied clients to share their experiences and the reality is look, we've talked about reviews a ton, but the more positive reviews you have, the more credibility your firm builds, both with potential clients and with Google's algorithm.

Speaker 1: 3:59

But don't stop there. Don't just stop at reviews. We've talked about this. You need to have high quality, professional, well-lit photos that show what the firm looks like and whether this is photos of the office, the staff, you guys at community events. This visual content makes your profile feel significantly more personal and more trustworthy. And not only that, but Google is looking at those photos, maybe not the content of them, but at the very least, the meta information about it. So, when they're posted, how many of them there are? And that is going into the ranking signal that we want to manipulate when it comes to Google, my Business and finally, the big thing here. We've talked about GMB a lot, so I won't stay all on it for too long, but you need to make sure your GMB profile is fully, fully, fully updated. But you need to make sure your GMB profile is fully, fully, fully updated. So everything hours, services, contact information, faqs, everything A thorough, complete profile signals professionalism both to Google and to potential clients. But before we move on from Google, my Business, I want to quickly mention the ethical side of this, because it can be really really tempting to try and sabotage competitors or to boost your own profiles by either leaving fake negative reviews for them or leaving positive reviews on your own, or tweaking their profiles. But don't do this. Not only is this unethical, but it can backfire and damage your reputation and your listings. Focus on improving your own listing instead. Look, we need to play the long game here and you will see the benefits of increased visibility and more leads from local searches. It will happen.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Next, one of the really smart ways to set your law firm apart from competitors. You can kind of do this with keyword gap analysis, but this is to find the gaps in their services. So this is areas that clients need, but they aren't actually being offered the services. This strategy I call it sniping a sub-niche helps us carve out a specialized space in a market that is essentially just all of ours. I think we've talked about this before. I'll link that in the show notes, if we have it.

Speaker 1: 5:57

What we want to do here is start by identifying what our clients are looking for. What other competitors' clients are looking for that the competitors aren't providing. What are they referring out? What are they talking about in online reviews? What can you see from client inquiries? What can you see on Reddit threads or other conversations in the community? And maybe you can notice that potential clients are looking for something specific that your competitors are overlooking. Maybe in criminal, it's a particular type of expungements or, in elder law, a particular type of handling, something with Medicaid or Medicare or even really niche commercial contracts.

Speaker 1: 6:33

This is a big opportunity to swoop in and offer that service, and you could even become a referral partner for that firm you've just swooped in on and, once you've identified this sub-niche, make it a part of your practice. You don't need to overhaul your entire business, but just add those specialized services to your menu. You can then create content around the niche, showcase your expertise and run targeted ads even to attract the clients who need that specific service. The benefit here is massive. You're differentiating your firm by meeting a need that others aren't addressing. There's a pool of clients and you're just taking them. When the clients realize you offer something unique and they need it, they're more likely to choose you over your competitors. This is a great way to stand out without directly competing, and it gives us a significant edge in the market by becoming the go-to firm for that niche service.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Now let's take a step back from organic, because organic can take a long time. That's something that is really challenging with organic and it's essentially free, but our barrier or our cost to entry is that time cost. It takes a while for this to work, and let's now shift over to a strategy that allows us to compete for those top spots on Google without waiting for these organic rankings to catch up, and that's running targeted Google ads. Obviously, this is my bread and butter, so you probably should have expected we were going to get there. This approach is especially useful when your competitors have a really strong hold on certain keywords and you want to make a move quickly. So the idea here is very simple again, if your competitors are ranking highly for specific keywords, organically, we can then run pay-per-click campaigns targeting those same keywords. So instead of trying to battle it out in SEO, where the results can take months, we need links and we have to test our content.

Speaker 1: 8:17

Ppc allows us to just skip the competition, go right to the headline and appear right at the top of the search results page, and often this is above the organic listings and sometimes even above the GMB listings, so it can be a really great way to be right at the top. To execute this effectively, what we want to do is focus on competitive keywords where our competitor ranks well but our firm doesn't, and usually these are high traffic terms that are going to be very valuable to our practice. So if the competitor is dominating let's say, personal injury lawyer in Virginia or personal injury lawyer in Roanoke then running a PPC campaign targeting that exact keyword will allow you to appear in the search results almost instantly and drive a portion of the traffic to your site instead and the benefit here is clear Even when your organic rankings just aren't quite there, you can still capture this valuable traffic, and this strategy can keep you pretty competitive in a highly contested space without having to wait. It ensures that your firm remains visible to potential clients and it positions us as a viable alternative to the competitors who have already solidified their organic rankings.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Now let's move on to social media, because social media is one of the most visible spaces where your competitors are interacting with their audience, and that makes it the perfect place for us to learn what's working for them, so we can analyze their social media engagement strategies and gain valuable insights without directly copying their content. So first, we're going to start by paying attention to the types of content that our competitors are posting. Are they sharing educational videos? Are they sharing client testimonials or behind the scenes stuff from the office? Look at what generates the most likes, comments and shares, go through and you can even note it down in a spreadsheet and then take a closer look at the partnerships they're doing. Are they collaborating with other firms or local influencers or brands, or what are they doing? Because these collaborations are usually what's going to amplify their reach and engagement.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So, once we've gathered our insights, we want to use this knowledge to shape our own strategy, and we're not just going to simply replicate what the competitors are doing. Instead, what we're doing here is we're identifying the pieces, the elements that work and then putting our own spin on them. So if a competitor's behind the scenes content is resonating with their audience, how can we showcase our firm's culture in a similar way? Maybe we don't do the same ice bucket challenge video they did, but we do something about something we ordered for lunch and we don't make it pretentious. We just say, hey, this is cool, and the benefit here is that you're going to create a much more engaging, much more dynamic social media presence that draws inspiration from a bunch of different successful tactics, but you're able to put your own voice, your own style into all of this. This allows us to connect with our audience more effectively and start building those strong relationships and start building more visibility in the market.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Now we've gone through all five tips, but I do have a bonus tip here and, because we only talked about social media a little bit, I wanted to give you another cool tool to go and look at what's going on on social media. So, without breaking any rules, if you want to take a peek at your competitors on social media, so, without breaking any rules, if you want to take a peek at your competitors' ad strategies, what you can do is go to Facebook's ad library. Sometimes you can get there directly from your competitor's Facebook page, but you can also find Facebook's ad library and search for individual advertisers, and this free tool will let us see exactly what ads our competitors are running on Facebook and Instagram and give us a huge amount of insight into their paid social campaigns. Here's how it works Just go to the Facebook ad library, search for your competitor's name and you'll see all of their active ads. You can view the creative, the copy and even some details on how long the ads have been running. This gives you a pretty big window into their ad messaging, their design choices, the offers they're promoting and how long they've been working on this. And you can even ask questions of this, like are they focusing on lead gen? What does this look like? Are they highlighting something specific? You're going to quickly be able to spot the trends and see what might be working well for them. If they're using something over and over again in ads, it's probably working.

Speaker 1: 12:22

But again, the goal here isn't to just copy their ads. What we want to do is use these insights to guide our own ad strategies. So if we notice certain themes or ad formats that are generating tons of engagement for competitors. We could use similar tactics in our campaigns, with our own branding, our own messaging, and figure out what we like and don't like from our competitors and improve it, and maybe you'll see that video ads are performing well or that certain services are being pushed heavily. These are the clues that you can use to refine your own approach.

Speaker 1: 12:54

The benefit here is really clear you get to observe your competitors' ad strategies in real time without doing a bunch of Googling, and that allows us to stay competitive while being totally ethical.

Speaker 1: 13:01

It is like having a complete cheat sheet for our nextling, and that allows us to stay competitive while being totally ethical. It is like having a complete cheat sheet for our next campaign, and we're not breaking any rules here. It's all public. So, from identifying these keyword gaps and optimizing your GMB listing to finding the sub-niches, google ads and looking at social media, these tactics will help you position your firm ahead of the competition and really they're all relatively low cost. But remember, all of this is about learning about what's out there and then making it your own. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're trying to improve the wheel, and by focusing on innovation and doing these things ethically, without just copying your competitors, you're going to be able to build a stronger marketing presence, attract more clients and keep your firm moving forward in a very competitive landscape that we're in today. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more. Thanks,