Did you know that getting positive online reviews is one of the most effective marketing tools available to you? Whether your firm is big or small, and regardless of your practice areas, your ideal clients are looking at reviews to decide which attorney to contact to handle their case. As a result, reputation management is essential to your success and to stand out from your competition.
What is Reputation Management?
In short, reputation management is the active process of monitoring what is being said about your firm online. One bad (even if it is fake) review can destroy your ability to get new leads. As soon as an online browser comes across a negative review, they are likely to move on to the next law firm listed in the search results. Investigating negative comments, removing misinformation, and addressing valid concerns are all part of the reputation management process.
Another crucial role of a reputation manager is to collect reviews from clients. Most people do not understand how beneficial their review is to your business, so even if they are thrilled with your legal services, they may not make the effort to leave you a review.
Why do 5-Star Reviews Matter?
When you think of online reviews, you probably think of restaurants or products. However, the internet’s reach applies to the legal world just as much. Your potential clients do not want to waste their time or money on meeting with attorneys who are going to disappoint them. Positive reviews from happy clients provide assurances that your firm does great work. There is a peace of mind and trust established by knowing other clients of yours have been pleased with your firm. Nobody wants to gamble on a firm with no reviews when there are plenty out there with numerous positive reviews. Having 5-star online reviews can be the difference between a lead picking up the phone to call you versus them going to your competitor.
Digital reviews can also assist your firm’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) score. Google considers your reviews as one of the top-ranking factors, which means those 5-stars are crucial for SEO success. Also, the more positive reviews you have online, the better. Google’s algorithms are going to favor attorneys and firms with consistent, top-quality reviews.
How Do You Get Reviews?
If you struggle to get your clients to leave reviews, you are not alone. You may have hundreds of clients thrilled with your work, but have any of them left you a review? The primary issue is that people are busy, and as soon as they leave your office, they forget about your review. Even though it is important to you, writing a review is low on your client’s priority list. Additionally, writing a review can be inconvenient, especially if your clients are older and not as familiar with using the internet as the younger clients. Finally, most people struggle with what to say in a review. They may want to help you, but they overthink what to write and give up.
The key to getting reviews is to remove all obstacles in the client’s way by making it as simple as possible. First, send the client a direct link that they simply click and begin typing. Second, help them with what to say by giving them the option to answer questions. The answers to the questions should provide a story that helps leads connect and feel confident in contacting you for legal help. Finally, create a system for gathering consistent reviews. After every legal matter is concluded successfully, your firm should automatically request a review. By getting more reviews, you will build online trust and brand recognition and make Google’s algorithms give you credit for routinely getting high-quality reviews.
How The Rainmaker Institute Can Help
We have covered just a few examples of ways to manage your online brand and reputation, but the experts at The Rainmaker Institute can create a strategy tailored specifically to your firm.
Your digital presence – especially your reputation – is crucial in generating and converting leads. You have worked hard to get where you are, so learn to use technology to your advantage so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor more often while also generating new clients!
The Rainmaker Institute manages your legal marketing so you can focus on lawyering. We can set up live chat services and improve your website. We will provide content that contains top legal focus keywords, proper page titles, appropriate meta descriptions, target length of content, and images that will boost your attractiveness to Google. We will also consistently manage your online brand and protect your firm’s reputation.
If you are ready to take your law firm to the next level, we can help. Whether you choose to attend one of our live events or you want a free, confidential consultation, we are here to help!
