Do You Want Your Law Firm Marketing to Move at Hyperspeed? Think Hyperlocal

Be honest. Have you recently done a “near me” search?  Just last night when you had that hankering for Chinese, did you do a quick Google search on your phone for “Chinese restaurants near me?”  When you were out on that business trip and you needed to get your morning brew, did you do a quick “Starbucks near me” search? Did you ask Siri about “pizza near me” in the last week?

Trust me, you are not alone. “Near me” searches have become incredibly popular, with near-me searches growing in volume by 130% between 2014 and 2015.  What is actually more interesting is that mobile phone users – which includes virtually all of us – are even skipping the near-me qualifier because we now simply assume that any search on our phone will bring up local businesses first. Because of user experience with mobile searches, we now expect that Google will automatically take our location into account when providing search results.

That type of information is ‘marketing gold’ for businesses of all kinds, including law firms. In fact, it nicely introduces the latest trend in business and law firm marketing , called “hyperlocal marketing.”  As you would expect, it is the type of marketing that takes advantage of our current society’s penchant for running near-me searches, or Google providing local search results first.

Oamii , South Florida’s top-ranking digital marketing company for law firms, understands the power of hyperlocal marketing. As the prevalence of data showing that near-me searches were on the rise a few years ago, Oamii started looking into unlocking the marketing potential behind the trend.  Now, we are able to leverage our knowledge of hyperlocal marketing strategies for our business clients, particularly our law firm clients. Call us today to learn how we can use our marketing expertise to improve your firm’s book of business.  Oamii professionals are standing by to help you understand how our services can help your bottom line. Contact us at 561-228-4111.

What Is Hyperlocal Marketing?

“Hyperlocal marketing” is a cool phrase, but it really just identifies the process by which a law firm or other business can target prospective clients in a very specific, geographically limited area. It could encompass only a few blocks or streets.  The goal of this process is to capitalize on those running near-me searches on their mobile devices.

You may be thinking:  “Ok, hyperlocal marketing might be great to find the nearest sandwich place or Chinese take-out, but how does this work for law firms?”  It is absolutely true that law firms are a business of a different kind when compared to your local pizza place. However, you may be surprised to know that near-me searches are not limited to informal, routine services like laundromats, post offices, and places to grab lunch. Many, many people will turn to their mobile devices first when looking for professional services as well – including doctors and lawyers.

So, while legal representation is a far different service than what a local eatery provides, the way potential clients may find both your firm and that local eatery can be remarkably similar.  Moreover, when executing a marketing plan to build your firm’s book of business, it can only help to use as many different approaches as possible. Based on experience, we at Oamii recommend that you keep hyperlocal marketing in your arsenal of marketing strategies.

Remember that the goal of hyperlocal marketing is to be easily visible to those in the vicinity of your firm. That means that your location, or locations, must be clearly stated in connection with every online item of marketing material and content you have out there. That is because hyperlocal marketing is primarily a location-oriented approach.

Accordingly, every marketing action you take – including your firm’s website, specific practice pages on that website, your firm’s social media profile, any legal questions that you answer on legal Q & A websites, and any articles you write that are published on other sites – should mention your specific location.

Indeed, you may even be able to narrow your focus to certain neighborhoods, which is particularly helpful if you are stationed in a bigger city.  You may be able to have website pages that target specific sections of your firm’s home city. Those pages could be optimized to ensure that the neighborhood is mentioned a number of times (which is another way of saying that you are making sure your page has strong search engine optimization (SEO).

Some other important things that could help boost your rankings when someone does a near-me search for legal services include:

Formerly Google Places, “Google My Business” is a free and easy-to-use online tool that allows you to manage your firm’s online presence across Google’s platform, including the ever-important Google Search and Google Maps. (Lots of near-me searches happen with mobile users using the Google Maps app).

This tool is invaluable to help get visibility with near-me searches provided that your Google My Business listing is as detailed and comprehensive as possible.  Such details include all those that appear on a Google Maps result, such as an address, website, and hours of operation.

Lots of small businesses, as well as law firms, are well aware of how much word-of-mouth can help prospective clients decide to make the call to a particular firm or business.  With regard to ranking in searches, customer reviews play a vital part.  Some marketing professionals believe that customer reviews are the most important factor for rankings in local search results.

What that means for you is that you need to ensure that your clients are talking about you online.  After a successful engagement with a client, do not be afraid to mention how helpful it would be if the client could say a good word not only to friends but online as well.

We have helped many law firms increase their online presence, and therefore gain valuable business, by doing the firm’s marketing for them. Let us take care of the hyperlocal and other forms of marketing, so you can worry about what matters most – giving quality legal representation to your clients. Call us today at 561-228-4111.  Oamii , the marketing agency for South Florida, is ready to help.

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