Reputation management is crucial to inbound for estate planning law firms. How can a firm use it to drive future leads?
By Erik Garcia
Marketing Specialist, Screenfire Media
A couple years back we had a discovery call with an estate planning law firm that was considering social media marketing to grow their client base. The day before the call we Googled them and at the top of the search rank was a one-star review. It was pretty harsh. The post was old, but it was the first impression. The first thought was “If we were their client, we would be looking for new representation.”
This law firm wasn’t unique though. Most treat reputation management like a seat belt. They only check if it’s working when there is a crash. It’s ironic since they build their businesses on the promotion of planning for the future.
When taking that discovery call, a partner at the firm shared, “We are great at what we do. Why would we worry about reviews?” There wasn’t a fit and retainers weren’t signed.
Three months later, a negative news article started ranking above their website. They’d been sued, etc.
The company hit the panic button. Clients cancelled advisory calls. Referrals dried up. Suddenly, their online reputation was their biggest case to solve.
They reached out for help. We put together a plan.
- We had them conduct outreach to past happy clients for testimonials.
- We created multiple templated documents on how to respond to online reviews.
- We made sure they responded to every comment.
- We updated their Google profile.
- They started sharing helpful answers to common estate planning questions on online legal forums.
Five months later our work buried that negative article. New leads started coming in. Two former clients came back because they trusted them again.
Most estate planning law firms wait for a reputation management problem to arise. The smart ones build trust before they need it.
Reach out to Screenfire if you want to see how we can help your law firm with its reputation management. Contact us at the form to the right or at info@screenfiremedia.com.
