Referrals have long been a successful way to recruit new clients as a lawyer, and you can’t beat having your positive reputation lead to new opportunities. Now, online reviews are becoming the new word-of-mouth for lawyers, and it's worth exploring how real-life testimonials can help you expand your client base.
Today, prospective clients no longer rely on finding referrals from their family and friends. Instead, people are more likely to go online to begin doing research on the best lawyer to handle their case. As more people turn to online reviews and ratings, you’ll want to work with your marketing team to ensure that you are using them the right way to provide maximum impact for bringing in new clients.
Clients often feel vulnerable when they search for legal services. Whether you practice business, family, criminal or health care law, you can bet that the people who are searching for your services are already stressed. At this point in their legal situation, they may not know who to trust or where to turn. Online reviews give them a starting point for seeing how others view your approach to providing excellent legal services.
A positive review can range from simple five-star ratings to lengthy testimonials that are filled with details and glowing reports. When prospective clients see these social signals, they are more likely to begin creating a picture of you that fosters trust. Once you’ve built credibility through online reviews, other parts of your legal marketing campaign will likely take off. For instance, people are more likely to spend additional time on your website when they trust you as an authority on legal matters.
Well-written online reviews also highlight your professional capabilities. A past client might mention how easy it was to talk to you or that you provided prompt responses to their questions. Another client might write that you practiced empathy and compassion while still maintaining a strong, professional stance in court or settlement negotiations. Inviting clients to share what you do best makes it easy to establish credibility through word-of-mouth sources that invoke more trust than simply boasting about your abilities through traditional ads.
Many search engines give reviews a significant amount of weight regarding SEO strategies. Having positive reviews and providing regular responses is viewed as engagement by search engines, and they are more likely to prioritize your brand when it stands out from your competitors.
Client reviews also bolster local SEO, since people are more likely to leave reviews on your Google business profile from nearby locations. As a lawyer who represents people from your community, getting more localized searches is critical for expanding your local client base. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll want to make sure that your localized profiles are up-to-date. Make sure to include all of the details prospective clients need to access your legal services in your profile, and review this information regularly to ensure that it is correct.
As you do, remember that casting a wide net is best for getting the most from online reviews. Setting up profiles across various social media platforms that showcase your legal services helps to expand the reach of the positive testimonials. Your marketing team can help you identify which platforms resonate with your client base the most. You can also rely on SEO professionals to assist with review management.
Providing prompt and professional responses to both positive and negative reviews can demonstrate greater credibility as a lawyer. In fact, prospective clients often pay attention to how lawyers handle negative reviews. Since these are inevitable, making sure to provide a professional response that also offers a possible solution can help turn a negative review into an opportunity to highlight your commitment to ensuring client satisfaction.
Online reviews help to clear confusion for new clients who may be grappling with complicated legal situations that feel out of their control. Reading through reviews can provide information to new clients in simple language that people outside of the profession use. Seeing that other people have a positive resolution with similar cases can give prospective clients confidence that you can help them resolve their problems.
Maintaining a detailed profile that includes a string of positive reviews helps to inspire prospective clients to request a consultation to discuss how you might assist their case with your services. While leaving calls to action throughout your website and profiles helps, it’s often reading the review that prompts a potential client to click the desired link or button.
Providing excellent legal services is the first step toward getting positive online reviews that help build your client base. Similar to other industries, people who are satisfied with your services will want to leave good reviews. Making sure to establish good communication with your clients and help resolve their legal issues naturally makes people want to give other people the opportunity to use your services.
Asking clients to give you online reviews is only part of the equation, though. You’ll also want to make it easy for them. You can work with a law firm marketing team like GAVL to include links in emails to past and current clients that invite them to leave reviews. When the process is simple, more people will be likely to follow through by giving their insight on your services.
As you gather online reviews, you’ll want to make sure that you follow up on them to show prospective clients that you value feedback and are committed to constantly improving your services. Engaging with your reviewers online also gives prospective clients a better glimpse of your communication style and active stance on providing quality legal services.
Spreading the news about your legal services is easier when you lean into the latest ways that clients are talking about their preferred lawyers online. Once you begin to see more online reviews, remember to sprinkle them throughout your marketing campaigns. Including reviews on your business website and continuing to broadcast your expertise through blog posts and other formats all work together to bring in new clients and uphold your positive reputation in the legal field.
