Speaker 1: 0:06

This is your 2025 marketing plan. Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen and welcome back to the podcast for our free subscribers, the first episode of 2025. Happy New Year. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe so you get all of our paid episodes. We have a paid episode on the first Monday of every month. We go a little bit longer there, we dive in a little bit deeper on some of the subjects and we talk about some stuff that I'm just not quite willing to give away in the free episodes. Of course, that doesn't mean we're not going to have an awesome year with all of the new stuff that's coming in 2025 for the free episodes, because the legal world, the marketing world, things are starting to shift the dynamics, the technology, the expectations of clients and, honestly, just the competition. All of this stuff is really going to be something we have to look out for in 2025. And we need a plan, a focused plan, so that we can increase our efficiency and, ultimately, our bottom line. It's all about client acquisition, so let's dive in First. We're going to start by reflecting on 2024.

Speaker 1: 1:08

I want you to take a moment to go review the key data points that tell the story of your firm's marketing efforts. Where did your clients come from? Did they find you? From Google searches, from referrals, from paid ads on Facebook? Start diving into the ROI of the campaigns you ran last year. Did the dollars you spent bring in the cases that you wanted? And look at the types of cases you brought in. Are you attracting more of the cases that you and your team really excel at and want to grow, or is there some kind of mismatch? Are you getting phone calls about things you don't really handle? Once you've gathered all this data, 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 need to identify what wasn't delivering and why it didn't deliver. And, on top of all this, we need to be paying attention to emerging opportunities. Was there a new platform or a trend or a strategy in 2024 that we didn't really fully explore but still holds some potential for this year? Now that we've analyzed all this, brought all of this together, it's time to set our sights on 2025. If you haven't done this analysis already, go ahead and pause. Come back to this episode once you have.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Now for 2025, we want to start with clear, measurable goals. This is where smart goals come into play. Maybe our overall goal is to increase client intake by 20% or improve our website conversion rates by 15%. We're trying to set objectives that are actually going to move the needle. We're trying to set objectives that are actually going to move the needle Because when we get into defining these objectives, we need to be ensuring that they're aligning with our firm's growth trajectory or with any niche markets that we're trying to dominate.

Speaker 1: 2:54

Whatever the long-term goal is for 2025, we want to start breaking that down into smaller, achievable pieces so we can make sure we get to our final goal by the end of the year. So if our goal is to become the go-to personal injury law firm in our area, we need to start focusing on strategies that are going to position us as an authority in that space, rather than just bringing as many eyeballs as possible to our ads, as we're doing. This. Breaking this down helps us remember that our goals should be ambitious, especially our year-long goal, but we need to have some stepping stones along the way. These need to be achievable goals. This is going to become our roadmap for the year and it's going to help us prioritize efforts and measure success. By laying out all of these objectives now, you're going to be prepared to make smarter decisions all along the way as 2025 unfolds.

Speaker 1: 3:42

And really technology is our competitive advantage in 2025, especially when it comes to marketing. So we're going to look at three different ways that we can leverage AI, analytics and content optimization for meaning results. I think these are really hot topics for 2025, and they may be something you want to add to your plan. Because number one, ai this isn't theoretical anymore. It is practical and accessible, and really it's going to be necessary very soon. So start with email automation Tools like MailChimp or HubSpot all this stuff. They have AI-driven workflows that let us create email sequences that are tailored specifically to client behavior. So, if a prospective client downloads a guide on estate planning from our website, an automated email series can send follow-ups offering additional resources, nurturing the client or even inviting them in for a free consultation. And AI also simplifies client segmentation. We've talked about this before. With ActiveCampaign, we can start grouping our contacts by behavior, like those who've engaged with our family law websites content, and then we can start sending personalized messages directly addressing each of these people's concerns. This not only saves us a bunch of time but really picks up the conversion rates. And for things like chat support or on your website, there are tons of tools. The first one that comes to mind for chatbots is Drift, but there are tons of tools that can help handle basic queries 24 seven, and this helps ensure that no leads slip through the cracks.

Speaker 1: 5:08

But to make all of this really work, we need to understand our data, and that's where the analytics tools come in. And when it comes to understanding your data, it really starts with the website. So Google analytics their new tools, google analytics for this is a great way to track how users are navigating around your site. We need to look at metrics like bounce rate, people that are coming in on one page and leaving on that same page, and things like goal completions Are they filling out contact forms? Are they clicking on a phone call button? Google Analytics will help you understand what type of behaviors people are taking and how you can adjust things to better serve those potential clients. But beyond analyzing just the general traffic that's hitting our website or our social page or our Google my Business, there are some tools that can help connect marketing data with the actual case outcomes and whether or not we got paid. So if we look at something like Clio Grow, we can actually track how many clients from our Google Ads campaigns actually sign retainers, not just how many people clicked on our ad or downloaded an ebook or picked up the phone. Crm tools like Lawmatics, clio, hubspot and a lot of the non-legal specific tools are really great for helping connect the dots between where the money was spent and did it actually return anything.

Speaker 1: 6:29

And another quick tip in Google Analytics, you can set up custom dashboards so that you can actually focus on what matters most. There's a ton of stuff that Google has added with this new release with GA4, but it's really not stuff that we need. So you can set up custom dashboards to focus on things like local search traffic or a quick look at which blog posts are actually generating leads on your site. These insights are not only just fun to create and look at, but they're going to really help you fine-tune your budget and your content strategy, so you know where to put dollars and what to make those dollars, say, when they end up on your website. That leads us to one of the other really great ways AI can help us today, and that's with content optimization Tools like Jasper Surfer SEO. These can supercharge your content creation process. They help us with research and then they use AI to help us structure a blog post around these terms, so we can quickly create an idea, figure out how it's going to fit into the search engine results page and what we need to do to go past our competitors.

Speaker 1: 7:30

And for things like video content, audio content, we've got a really cool tool called Descript. This allows you to quickly edit raw footage or raw audio and create really polished short form videos or even full podcast episodes. So, for example, you could take one of your recent webinars or a recent seminar you gave online and use AI to highlight the key sound bites from that longer video. Then we can take those clips out and post them to TikTok or LinkedIn or YouTube. This approach allows us to really quickly repurpose some long form content into a bunch of bite-sized pieces that drive a lot of engagement back towards our more beefy content pieces.

Speaker 1: 8:13

One of the things I always recommend here is to make sure you're looking at the analytics, though. So if you want to just start with what AI is recommending, that's fine if you don't have a lot of traffic already, but if you have some data already on what's going on on your website. Use the analytics to see which topics resonate most with your audience and then double down on those. Create more content. Do more of what your audience wants. If a blog post on personal injury trends performed really well, do another one that's similar and turn them both into videos and infographics and share them on social media. But I'm sounding a little bit flippant about where you should be posting this content, and I know I do that pretty frequently. Just create the content and the audience will come. It's a fun field of stream strategy, but there are actually a few channels that we can focus on. We have some data to understand which ones provide the best ROI in general, and this will differ from firm to firm. But we know that these four channels are really great areas to work on because there's some actionable strategies here.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And first up is your website. Your website is your digital foundation. Your website is usually the first impression, if not the second. Sometimes it's GMB that most clients are going to have of your firm, so it really does need to impress. So we first want to make sure that it's mobile first, because most people browse on their phones. That's just a reality of the world today, and use tools like Google's mobile friendly test to help identify and fix issues. On top of this, though, it's really a mobile focused idea, but speed for your website is very critical. A site that takes more than three seconds to load can significantly I'm talking 40% increase bounce rates. Use platforms like GTmetrix or Google's PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your site's speed and then use the recommendations that they list there to implement the fixes. So if they're telling you your images are too big or your server response is too low, get in touch with the team that's working on that for you and get it fixed. Finally, the site needs to be really user-friendly. This is something I see with lawyers all the time, but their menu bars, their navigation, is a nightmare. We really want to simplify the navigation and make it as easy as possible for people to find the information they want, and then as easy as possible to go from that information to scheduling a consultation with you. So this means including clear call to action buttons and making sure that every page is guiding visitors towards contacting you or learning something new.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Now we're moving on to video content, because this is a huge one in 2025. It's dominated the landscape of marketing for the last couple of years and it does not appear to be going anywhere. And, frankly, there's a good reason for that. Video is personable, it's relatable, it's memorable and it works. And right now we want to focus on short-form videos that address common client questions or showcase your expertise. A couple of examples could be, say, a 60-second explainer video going through what happens during a DUI consultation or what happens during a DUI stop is something that could get a lot of clicks. Another option would be a 90-second or a 30-second even testimonial from a satisfied client expressing their experience with your firm.

Speaker 1: 11:27

And don't overlook this kind of behind the scenes content. I know it's tough to ask for a client to do a review on video or to do video of the team. It may not be what you want to put first, but the reality is that it humanizes your firm. A quick tour of the office, a candid Q&A session with one of the receptionists this builds trust with potential clients. It shows them that the gap between you and them is not that big. But consistency here is key. We do need to be posting at least once a week, or ideally multiple times a week, and we want to make sure this is going out to multiple platforms YouTube Shorts, tiktok a week and we want to make sure this is going out to multiple platforms YouTube Shorts, tiktok, linkedin and, like I mentioned earlier, descript and Canva. They make creating this type of professional-looking content incredibly easy, even if you have basically no experience. I'm not ashamed to say that. I'm an absolutely terrible designer and everything you see that I create, I do it with Canva because they make me look really good and, frankly, I use Canva a lot for our next topic, one of the other best places to share information.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Obviously, going on the website and creating video content is great, and we've already sort of touched on this, but social media is really great, not just for staying relevant. It's now for building relationships. In 2025, we want to start working on prioritizing platforms that work for our target audience and really, in the legal space, a lot of the time, that's LinkedIn and short form video. Whether that's Instagram, tiktok or YouTube shorts will depend a little bit on your demographic and your area and how legislation goes in the next months and weeks, but these platforms, we need to be really selecting which ones our audience is on. So, on LinkedIn, we want to focus on posting things like thought leadership content. This could be legal trends, case studies, and we may be targeting even more than clients here. We may be targeting potential referral sources or other attorneys. There are a lot of potential options for LinkedIn. We can also join relevant groups, participate in discussions. All of this contributes to raising our visibility For TikTok or YouTube Shorts or Instagram.

Speaker 1: 13:36

Embrace the short, engaging videos, quick legal tips like three things to do after a car accident or what happens when he sets fire to the bed, like three things to do after a car accident or what happens when he sets fire to the bed. These things can go viral quickly and they also position your firm as approachable and knowledgeable. They don't think you're so hoity-toity that you can't do a 60-second video. And on top of all of this, these short-form video platforms are great for repurposed content. Repurposing your content across platforms is an absolutely valid strategy. We've touched on it a couple of times in this episode, and it's excellent not only for increasing your reach, but for making sure that people get access to the content that might seem uninteresting to them. So maybe an hour-long seminar on the nuances of something in immigration law are going to seem a little bit convoluted to most people, but a 30 second video from that webinar showing the valuable information in there can bring even more viewers to your long video. Okay, let's move on, because I know you're all tired of me talking about video. I've been doing it for months and I'm not going to stop, so I'll move on for today.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Number four, when we are talking about our really interesting avenues for 2025, is SEO. If you're not already leveraging local SEO it's something I've been talking about for years now you are leaving clients on the table. That's the reality. Start with your Google business profile. If you haven't do it now, you need to ensure that your listing is fully optimized. You've got all the accurate contact details, photos, reviews. I've got tons of episodes on this. Go back and look. There's plenty of local SEO episodes.

Speaker 1: 15:09

And then next, we need to start targeting local keywords in our website content. So, for a family law attorney in Miami, we're going to write blog posts like how to file for divorce in Miami or five tips for co-parenting in Florida, and to make sure that we're staying on track with all this. Obviously, we can look back at our analytics, but we can use tools like SEMrush, ahrefs or Moz to really dig into keywords and where the value may be on the search engines. As always, we're publishing content regularly to maintain relevance and we want to make sure we're focusing on backlinks a little bit. I'm not going to talk about this today, but backlinks are still an incredibly valuable source for SEO. By prioritizing these key areas the ones we've talked about today and looking into some new areas for what channels you're going to deliver your content on over 2025, you will end up with a robust content and channel strategy and, ultimately, a complete marketing strategy that is going to attract, engage and convert your ideal clients in 2025.

Speaker 1: 16:10

So let's turn all of this sort of nebulous stuff from today into action To kickstart your 2025 marketing success. Here are two simple but, I think, really impactful steps that you can take right now. Number one is schedule a marketing audit session. We're going to focus on dedicating time in January to thoroughly reviewing our 2024 marketing efforts. Block out an hour or two with your team to analyze the key metrics like client acquisition sources, roi for campaigns, website performance, and use this session to identify both your biggest wins and your areas for improvement. And then we create a checklist to guide the audit. We're going to have questions in there, like which campaigns brought in the highest value clients? What platforms delivered the best ROI? Are there areas that are underperforming where adjustments could make a difference? Are there areas that are underperforming that adjustments won't make a difference in? This session doesn't have to be overwhelming, it doesn't have to take a long time and it doesn't have to be two numbers focused. What you're really trying to focus on is the actionable takeaways you can apply immediately.

Speaker 1: 17:17

And number two is right now you can research one new tool or platform. This is something you can do every week, every month, every quarter. I like to do it as frequently as I can, a couple of times a week, and find out about something new, but the reality is the marketing landscape is always changing. When I published this episode, half the stuff I said could be wrong by then. It probably won't be, but it changes quickly here and staying competitive in marketing means staying curious. So right now, I want you to go research one new tool or one new platform to adopt by the end of Q1 2025.

Speaker 1: 17:54

This could be anything. It could be an AI-powered CRM, a video editing tool, a social media scheduler, or even some kind of app that just alerts you to Google Ads clicks or Google my business reviews. Start small, though. I know that a lot of you guys don't like the app bloat, but the reality is we need to be taking advantage of this technology and until it's all integrated into the super powerful app in the sky I guess we're all dreaming, for this is how it works.

Speaker 1: 18:22

Again, start small. You want to look at free trials, request demos of different software and see if the tool actually aligns with your firm's goals. You don't want to just pick up something that looks cool and try to implement it across the board for all of your team. They're going to not be happy with you, but the reality is that even one new piece of technology 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 coming weeks with more on marketing and more on the landscape for 2025. But for now, don't forget to subscribe to the paid episodes the first Monday of every month. And for today, that's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more Thanks.