OBA Explores Digital Marketing With End of the Year CLE
The seventh annual Omaha Bar Association End of the Year CLE explored the importance of digital marketing, including dispelling popular myths about what works and what doesn’t work online.
Mark Homer, CEO of GNGF, spoke at the CLE event, which was held last Friday at the AIM Exchange Building in downtown Omaha. The annual continuing legal event was presented by the OBA Lawyer Referral Service.
Homer’s company – short for Get Noticed Get Found – has served the legal industry for the past nine years. His brother, Chris, gave a similar talk at the Nebraska State Bar Association annual meeting two years ago.
Homer said the most common myth about digital marketing is that it’s enough to have a website. Nowadays, few people still type in a full internet address like “www.omahadailyrecord.com” – they type names into a search engine or browser address bar, and they’re shown several ways to link to that same organization.
Yesterday’s website is today’s web presence, which includes a constellation spanning social media and third-party websites.
“This is what I want to make sure everyone realizes,” Homer said, “your website is still in the center. It’s still important. Around it, though, you have all these different ways people can find you.”
Mobile phones drive more than half of traffic to websites, including law firms, Homer said. So it’s important to understand how those users arrive on your website and how competitors might bypass your marketing efforts.
For example, search engine ads and business directory listings and reviews might all come up before a website listing for local lawyers.
“The legal consumer isn’t thinking, ‘I need to go to a particular website,’” Homer said. “They’re just looking for an answer to the question they asked Google, which is, ‘Who is an immigration attorney near me?’”
Referrals still drive a significant amount of business, but they aren’t a growth strategy, he said. Clio released its annual legal trends report, showing that about half of clients are coming from referrals and half are finding legal service providers on their own.
“Referrals are going online,” Homer said. “The majority of people say they visit a website before they go visit the lawyer.”
That’s why optimizing search engine placement remains key. It’s not enough, either, to just post generic blog posts. Content needs to be helpful, original and topical.
Homer said firms need to also consider that their brand isn’t just a piece of marketing. It needs to be a part of its culture, with everyone in the firm working toward shared goals in a similar way.
“Your marketing strategy cannot live independent of your actual business goals,” Homer said.
For more details on Homer and his firm’s approach to marketing, visit gngf.com. Find a video of Homer’s presentation at facebook.com/OmahaBarAssociation. For additional information on more OBA CLE opportunities, visit omahabarassociation.com.
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