Overview

Your future clients are right in front of you. Let’s get them!

Behind our professions on LinkedIn, behind every CEO, Executive, Associate, Consultant and Assistant, there’s a person who is living life: A person who’s in a relationship or their relationship has just broken down and they’re currently stressing over child arrangements. A person who’s beginning to recognise that those offensive jokes their manager has been making at work for the past few months is actually bullying. A person who’s about to climb the property ladder for the first time or sell their first home to move to another.

What I’m getting at is that just because you’re on a platform for professionals, doesn’t mean those professionals aren’t going through things that require the help of a solicitor.

Your clients are people: CEO’s, Execs and Juniors going through very human experiences outside of work.

To help you utilise LinkedIn in the best way for your audience, we need to go back to basics. I’m going to share with you the difference between your company’s account and your account, setting up your profile correctly, how often to post and what types of things to post, and why you should be doing this.

The company account versus your account

The difference between your company account and your personal account is that the former is used for updates and news about the business; and the latter is used for you to be an advocate for the company you’re employed at, but also for you to be completely human about who you are.

Your company’s page is where the brand is focal: your house style, your brand colours, your font, your tone of voice. Everything here advocates the brand. Your company account (usually run by my team if you’re an Accesspoint client or your chosen digital marketing provider) follows a specific tone of voice and a planned strategy with goals such as all call-to-action’s focusing on driving more traffic to the website. Your personal profile, however, is you. It’s a humanised, approachable extension of the brand that shows off exactly who the people are that make up the brand they trust.

People buy from people, is our motto for law firm marketing

If you’re one of our clients, you know we love a humanised touch in a law firm’s online strategy. We like to focus on the people behind the brand, as a law firm would be nothing without its solicitors. That’s why we encourage you to use your own profile, but is it set up correctly?

Setting up your LinkedIn profile: a lawyer’s checklist

If your LinkedIn is set up correctly, the company page logo and name will appear as shown in the screenshot below. The text beneath your name should also have the keyword of your company name in. If this is the case for you, then perfect! If not, keep reading. This is important because if you don’t have this set up correctly, you won’t even show as an employee of your company page.

Scroll down to your experience and click the pen tool (edit). This then makes your experiences editable. Click the pen tool next to your current role.

1. In the edit experience box shown, click into the company name field and begin typing your company name.
   
2. Make sure you click your company page with your logo on it.
   
3. Click Save.
   
4. This change will prompt you to update your headline as long as you have the I am currently working in this role box ticked. If it does prompt you to update your headline, click yes.
   
5. Scroll down to your experience and click the pen tool (edit). This then makes your experiences editable. Click the pen tool next to your current role.

How often to post and what types of posts

You can post whenever you want and whenever you feel like it. You’re an advocate and aren’t restricted to how often you wish to post. However, if you need some guidance, we recommend posting a minimum of three times a week to your audience. This can include resharing posts from your company account and creating your own posts. If you are going to re-share posts, make sure you follow the below advice:

Repost with thoughts, don’t just repost

When you go to interact with a post, you always see this bar beneath it. What you need to do here is click the Repost button, which gives you two options: repost or repost with thoughts.

This then allows you to repost your company’s LinkedIn post, but add your own comment to it for your network: repost with your thoughts.

We recommend reposting with comments such as:

• Check out our most recent post/blog post/case/testimonial.
• If you’re looking for more information on … pop me an email or give me a call (insert contact details). I’m here to help.

These personalised touches humanise yourself and make you more approachable. Speak to your audience in your voice. The company page is your company’s corporate voice that has been decided upon crafting the strategy of the company social media pages, but your personal LinkedIn page is YOU and should reflect that.

Once you’ve written your own message, click post.

Why do I even need to post?

It’s true, you could just leave your company page to generate the brand awareness, but when it comes down to it, your clients will be dealing with you who is a representative of the company. They associate you with all the qualities and goodness that your company page has shared on LinkedIn, but you are your own person, with your own talents and abilities, and you should rave about that.

Trust

Posting on your own account builds trust. People become more wary seeing posts from pages with logos as profile pictures. They like faces and they like people. Build that trust with your audience and humanise yourself. Tell them what you’ve been up to recently: any accreditations / training courses you’ve recently participated in or successful cases that you are proud of. Have you recently achieved something outside of work that provides your audience with a small insight into who you are and what you value? Have you introduced yourself as a person to your audience? All of this builds trust!

Visibility of you as a solicitor

When you post, and anyone in your network likes or comments, everyone in their network will see your post. Importantly, this links back to my first point in this blog: you don’t know who out there (exec or CEO) is going through something that could require your expertise. That’s why becoming visible is so important, and that’s done through posting.

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM)

This reason for posting is similar to the above. WOM remains one of the most effective (and free) marketing communications that you can utilise. If you give people interesting content to talk about, they will. That’s why it’s important to share your achievements and share what you’ve been up to. I know it’s time consuming, but the more you engage with your network, the more your name will be at front-of-mind, and the more likely you will be recommended to family and friends of those within your network. It’s a good idea to always ask your clients when opening a new case where they heard about you, so you can track the source of instruction and log this in your PCMS.

To Conclude…

LinkedIn is a fabulous tool for networking and getting your message out to a wider audience. It’s just important to make sure your profile is set up in the most effective way and you know how to use your account to its optimal when trying to engage potential clients and make yourself known.

Push past the fear of caring about what other people think about you when you’re posting. I have spoken to a few solicitors that have this fear. Once you start utilising your personal account to reach those future clients that are right in front of you, you’ll be unstoppable!

If you want to discuss digital marketing or anything discussed in this blog, email me at olivia.fishwick@theaccesspoint.ltd.

Overview

Not many of you are aware that Accesspoint design and develop websites for law firms. Predominantly, we’re well-known in the legal sector for our Legal IT Solutions, but our services for law firms extend way beyond that and into the world of creativity.

We’ve designed websites for HSR Law Solicitors, Edwards Duthie Shamash Solicitors, TV Edwards Solicitors, A&N Care Solicitors and more that are still in the pipeline. We’ve watched our clients reap the rewards of their new sites because we don’t just focus on creating compelling website designs, we focus on creating a system that alleviates your fee-earners’ time. Just one example being our intelligent automations that dynamically take information from your website enquiry forms, then populate them directly into your Practice & Case Management System (PCMS). With this technology we also digitise conveyancing quotes, Wills questionnaires and much more, all linked directly to your PCMS. Streamlined and accurate or what?

We do however understand that a new website is a big investment. And if you’re sat thinking, “how do I even know if I need a new website?” You may want to start by asking yourself a few of these questions:

• Does my website look modern and like it’s ready for 2024?
• Is my website fast loading? Test it using Google’s tool here.
• Is my website menu easy to navigate? Is it easy to click through and quickly find what I want?
• People shop with their eyes: is my site appealing? Does it have enough images?
• Does my home page act as a shop window for my whole site? Does it include shortcuts to the service parent pages and links to my team and recent news?
• Is the mobile version of my site responsive?
• Does my website use the tone of voice of lawyers or clients?
• Is my site optimised for search engines and SEO friendly?

If you find yourself pondering over any of these questions, keep reading.

Why would a new website benefit you?

Increase Client Enquiries

Historically, the legal sector is heavily reliant on gaining clients from referrals, which are great, but can cap your client reach and limit the rate at which your law firm can scale. A high-performing, data-driven website unleashes your digital presence and attracts a wealth of new clients, whilst raising awareness of your legal services to existing clients and capturing the opportunity for cross-selling.

Websites continuously evolve. Gone were the days of having a basic web presence! If you fail to adopt new thinking and on-going improvements, you will see less traffic and a low search engine ranking. Your website must look the part to entice people, but how can people be enticed if they cannot find you through Google? And then it also needs to be good. Your website must look the part and play the part, and we ensure just that.

Maximise Client Retention

The legal sector is like no other. Clients predominantly access your website when looking for help with their legal issues. By default, this means clients may only visit your website a handful of times, so it’s crucial that your website capitalises on these visits as much as possible to maximise revenue.

Even with referred clients, we understand that your website is the first thing a potential client encounters. So we design your website to an unbeatable standard with custom designs that reflect your brand. We’re in the business of creating a memorable platform for your visitors and a pleasant user experience.

Improve Google Search Rankings

Your website has the potential to rank number one for multiple keywords. More than often, we see law firms Googling themselves and believing they are performing well, when they’re simply inputting search terms that clients don’t search (but lawyers do!) which gives a false positive.

Our experts understand there’s a dis-joint between lawyer speak and client speak and using the right tone of voice matters. We develop our websites with this in mind and ensure your website contains keywords that clients are actually searching for, not the keywords you believe they’re searching for.

Why Accesspoint?

Our promise is to create an enticing, SRA Compliant, user-friendly, super-fast, easy to navigate website that generates your firm more leads. Combine this with our digital marketing and SEO services, and you’ve got an efficient online strategy driving as many prospects to your site as possible and converting those prospects into clients.

When it comes to digital marketing and SEO, a lot of firms are left confused: there can be a lack of reporting and communication, which leaves you feeling a bit ‘left in the dark’ with nothing but a data-driven report with no explanation, and some marketing jargon you don’t understand. We hate that. So, we agree on a strategy and work towards that strategy, then we analyse the results from our digital marketing and SEO work; then set up monthly catchups with you to report back in the most human and understanding way possible, exactly what the results are and what we’ve been doing, and what we can then do next together. We remove all the jargon and lay everything out in simple terms so you understand what you’re paying for and what you’re getting back from your investment.

If you want to talk about all things websites, pop us a message today. Even if you’re still unsure, speak to us and we can conduct a free website audit to point out to you what parts of your site could benefit from the Accesspoint touch.

Overview

SEO meets AI

This may not be your first time hearing about SEO, but it may be your first time reading about SEO and AI. Regardless—hi! In this article I want to delve into SEO amid the rise of AI and tools such as ChatGPT which is taking the online world by storm. I’m looking at this from a neutral ground: what’s good and what’s possibly bad about the rise of AI in search engines and what does this mean for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as we know it?

What is SEO? Let’s go back to basics.

Search Engine Optimisation is a combination of processes with the goal of improving your website’s visibility on the SERP[1] and as a result, getting more organic traffic.

By rule of thumb, the higher you rank, the more people visit your page. According to SEMrush, the top three organic results get more than 50% of all the clicks. But our efforts don’t stop when we’re high up on the SERP. Your content must fulfil the user’s search needs: Are your users searching with the intent[2] to purchase or to gather information? And once we get that traffic clicking through to your website, is the website optimised[3] in a way to keep that traffic there and convert it? Luckily, you don’t need to worry about that because that’s my job.

What does the rise of AI mean for SEO as we know it?

Introduced in late 2022 but only released in May 2023, ChatGPT has been the topic of many online discussions. People have started to use the bot for time-saving copywriting, which prompted talks about whether certain skillsets will be made redundant and if this AI-powered chatbot is here to assert dominance in the digital landscape as we know it.

It’s impossible to say for sure how AI will impact SEO until the cogs start turning and we begin to see changes to what we usually know. SEO experts and marketers are already taking to social media and writing articles sharing their predictions of a revolution and predictions of an apocalypse, but they currently remain just that – predictions. Nonetheless, they’re helpful insights to consider when strategising for the future.

RIP to Paid SEO Tools

Some predict ChatGPT and its new SEO Plugins will be the death of our paid SEO tools:

RIP to Paid SEO Tools.

ChatGPT Plugins are changing the SEO game.

Here are 5 ChatGPT SEO Plugins you don't want to miss:

— Sharyph (@sharyph_) June 8, 2023

These plug-ins sound cool and insightful, but by no means should they be used to drive an entire SEO strategy. Perhaps the key indicator here is that these plugins are free and we’re over here using paid SEO tools (hence the title RIP Paid SEO Tools). But for me, the depth in which these tools delve into SEO just won’t suffice when it comes to making informed and evidence-based decisions/iterations to an SEO strategy.

We could by all means use these tools to audit, but we need to be able to interpret data which is where the human element comes in. ChatGPT can tell us X, Y and Z, but ultimately, how do we evaluate this data and make decisions that contribute towards goals? Can the ChatGPT SEO Assistant provide us with ranking difficulty? What about the search intent? Or the search volume? It’s a clever tool—yes—but will it really be able to take away the power of human’s interpreting data?

How AI could revolutionise the future of SEO[4]

On the other side, some predict AI will revolutionise SEO by enhancing Google’s search algorithms with more accuracy and personalisation. Keyword research and content optimisation are also predicted to improve with on-page SEO[5] recommendations and generation. Predictive SEO can help businesses detect potential algorithm updates and adjust strategies accordingly. And as voice recognition technology continues to dominate our devices (Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa) AI can help analyse these voice queries and provide insights on content optimisation for voice search. What’s more, AI-powered chatbots could provide instant assistance, though I speak for myself (and I guarantee a few of you) when I say this: there is nothing more frustrating than being met with a Hi, I’m Amelia, your AI Assistant, when you just want to speak to another human being and have been met with Sorry, I didn’t quite understand that, at least five times already.

We will always crave that human element and something real

It begs the question if AI continues to develop the way it is, and let’s say for example ChatGPT begins to dominate content creation (which is a believable prospect), will there come a point where Google has a responsibility to claim what’s written by humans and what’s written by robots? Similarly to the way Instagram told its influencers they had to start claiming their paid advertisements (which isn’t seen as authentic compared to their organic content). If Google don’t develop something to detect real human work, how can content generated by AI in the click of a button be ranked on par with authentic, researched and content-rich articles?

To conclude…

I don’t believe AI is apocalyptic to SEO, though at this point it’s hard to say it’ll also revolutionise it. I believe it’ll change the way we search informationally, and I believe it will assist our already available tools as a free alternative, but we will always rely on human skills, thought processes and creativity to decide whether something is good or bad for the overall strategy of an organisation—which differs for every business and unfortunately, even AI cannot know every individual firm’s strategy. But then again, here I am with my predictions based off other people’s predictions, just like everyone else!

Regardless, you either choose to use these new tools or don’t, but don’t get left behind in the new wave. Make sure you’re aware of what’s out there and what you can utilise as the technological world continues to evolve.

Disclaimer: everything in this article that is not directly referenced to an external source is opinion-based and an interpretation of information already out there. It is not to be taken as facts.

[1] SERP: Search Engine Results Page. When you type into Google, your results that you see is the SERP.

[2] There are different search intents in SEO, which means certain keyword searches have different intentions behind them. Sometimes, users want to find information and sometimes they want to buy from you. You can read about the different search intents here.

[3] Users expect high-quality content, a seamless user experience and fast page-load times. Not to try and sell to you here (maybe I am), but that’s why we offer the full service at Accesspoint: SEO, website design and digital marketing. Sometimes, having your site and SEO managed by different agencies can create a disjointed approach where your site designers have no idea what the SEO strategy is for the business and fail to incorporate this into the new designs and development of the site.

[4] All predictions in this paragraph have been taken from a recent article by Alex Bider, CEO and Senior Internet Marketing Consultant.

[5] On-page SEO refers to meta tags, headings and the way content is optimised on the page to cater favourably towards search engines and the keyword you wish to rank for.