Customized experiences have transformed consumer marketing, and professional services marketing won’t be far behind.
Want proof? In Right Hat’s 2024 Top of Mind Survey of 100+ legal services buyers, 93% of responders said they’d give a law firm information about their location, industry, and legal and business issues in exchange for a customized website experience. And offering customized training was cited as the #1 way to show that your firm values a client relationship — above even providing responsive service and flexible pricing.
Customization is more than putting someone’s name on a page. It’s considering what will most interest your audience and not asking them to waste time and energy on what doesn’t. It’s giving them a convenient pathway to learn more about you and your offering without expecting them to do the work themselves. It’s providing a more efficient, streamlined experience that makes their lives easier.
This is especially important when you consider how little time most visitors actually spend on law firm websites. At approximately two to five minutes, it’s probably a lot less than you think. Rarely do people pause to explore what else you might have to offer beyond what they specifically came to see. But customization can help you change visitor behavior by delivering information that’s exactly what they didn’t know they wanted to see. This will increase visitor engagement (helping drive SEO as well) and demonstrate that your firm is both technologically advanced and considerate of your clients in providing the best user experience.
Far from the days when targeted marketing seemed a little jarring and “Big Brother-ish,” today’s websites have conditioned us to expect and even welcome customization. For example:
- In consumer goods, you might see “Customers who bought this item also bought,” which lets you view other items. You might also receive a notification or coupon when an item you previously viewed but didn’t purchase goes on sale.
- In publishing, “You may also like” is often used to link to stories that follow up on a topic you’ve searched or read about. Or a news feed might automatically deliver links to related stories.
- In food delivery services, you can reorder a previously enjoyed meal or repeat a saved grocery list without starting from scratch. You may also receive suggestions about side dishes that will complement your meal.
What can customization look like for law firms? As a start, many firms already invite visitors to subscribe to blogs and newsletters or opt in to emails and updates. Here are some ideas to help you take customization further:
- Design an experience on your site inviting visitors to answer a few simple questions to create a curated-for-them landing page. Build the page by tagging information from across your site that focuses on an industry segment, geographic area and/or business issue.
- Enhance the global and section search features on your site so you can present relevant information to visitors as they type. Predictive search and categorization of results have become table stakes in website search. The experience should be the same on a law firm website.
- At the end of a services description, or on an insights page or at the end of an article, create a user experience that leads visitors directly to other articles, alerts, blogs, podcasts and webinars on related topics. (All destinations should be part of your site; there’s no reason to give someone a road map to go elsewhere.)
- In your email marketing, make sure you are sending people only items of interest to them and not just spamming them with everything the firm puts out. Research has shown that buyers who receive indiscriminate emails from a firm tend to stop paying attention to anything you send.
- When advertising on social media, use data to segment audiences based on demographics, behavior, interests and other relevant criteria. Tailor ads to each segment’s specific needs and preferences. Find out where your target audience is active on social media and customize ads to suit the needs of specific platforms.
- Create a customized training program for a client company using your inside knowledge of their operations, resources and key issues.
Whether it’s a shopping list based on previous purchases, bespoke tailoring or personal coaching, a custom experience is always perceived as more valuable than something off the shelf. Legal services marketing is no different.
Want to talk more about customization? Contact us today.