As more businesses adopt digital tools for advertising, many traditional careers and professions such as law, have slowly begun to recognize the need to shift from traditional advertising platforms to contemporary ones. Though traditional advertising still has its place in the modern market, it is clear that digital marketing is the way to go. This article will serve as a guide to attorneys willing to shift to digital marketing for criminal defense attorneys.
How to Leverage Traditional Advertising using Digital Marketing Tools
There still remains a place for traditional advertising platforms such as television and newspapers. However, by combining both digital and traditional criminal defense advertising, it is possible to leverage on the advantages of each tool to achieve maximum results. For example, brochures are great especially when distributed to low income citizens desperate for information on where to get good attorneys. The brochure can feature information on the lawyer’s competencies and their social media handles. Therefore, the brochure or flyer can serve as an informal business card but with slightly more insight on the lawyer’s background.
By combining both digital and traditional advertising, its also possible to build up on the brand identity already accrued over years and shift into new markets. GenX and millennial users prefer digital tools and therefore by combining both strategies, you can retain your older clients whilst reaching out to new markets consisting of younger people. Since older citizens tend to have a lawyer on call, younger people don’t and you can target these younger demographic using digital marketing tools.
Creating a Criminal Defense Marketing Website
A website is the first important tool you need to create a digital presence. Criminal defense marketing is unlike other businesses and this should reflect on your website. When someone is looking to hire a lawyer, they look at the lawyer’s profile and their background, checking to see whether their areas of practice are what they need. Therefore in criminal defense marketing, the focus is on the lawyer rather than the tools the law firm uses. Use your website to create credibility around your practice as well as serve as an information portal for your visitors.
To check whether your website is reaching the right target audience, use digital analytical tools such as Google Ad-sense to target certain demographics and to learn about new ones. There are younger people seeking representation for offenses such as DUI as compared to older people. Therefore, the best avenue for targeting such markets is by first understanding which crimes occur mostly in your area and in which demographics before creating the right marketing content to target them.
Criminal defense attorney advertising is not rocket science and any lawyer should be able to first understand their market before evaluating whether their competencies will fit that market. A criminal defense attorney specializing in DUIs will have a different approach compared to one specializing in homicides. There is a higher threshold for ethical responsibility and therefore as a lawyer you need to reflect this in your advertising.
