How to Get Clients with Facebook in 30 Days

Transcription

1 LAW FIRM MARKETING How to Get Clients with Facebook in 30 Days A Step-By-Step Guide to Facebook Marketing for Law Firms By: Edmund V. Yan, Esq

2 Thank You Thanks for downloading this comprehensive guide. You ll find useful tips to help your law firm set up an effective Facebook campaign to start getting clients today. For more details about Facebook and inbound marketing in general, please visit our blog at YanMedia.com. We have many more helpful information to help you build your online brand and get more clients.

3 About the Author Edmund V. Yan, Esq. is the Creative Director at Yan Media. An attorney and digital marketing expert, Edmund leads our company s strategic direction and manages our first-class marketing team. With his legal experience and understanding of legal marketing, Edmund delivers ROI-focused marketing solutions to law firms across the country. Earlier this year, Edmund was selected by Super Lawyers as a 2017 California Rising Star.

4 CONTENTS Click on Title to Go to Section 01 The Current Problem with Law Firm Marketing 02 The New Legal Marketing Gold Rush 03 Let s Create Your Firm s First Facebook Campaign 04 Top Performing Types of Facebook Ads for Law Firms Facebook Ethics Tips Free Custom Marketing Blueprint

5 PART 1 01 The Current Problem with Law Firm Marketing

6 PART 1 First, quality clients are increasingly hard to get because they re getting more sophisticated in their selection of attorneys. They do extensive research online before picking up the phone. So if your law firm doesn t have a strong online brand, you won t be getting the first call. Second, technology companies like LegalZoom are de-valuing legal services. And third, more and more attorneys are entering the practice of law, making competition even worse.

7 PART 1 A recent study found that 97% of law firms failed to deliver any kind of personalized content on their websites and social media platforms. Also, a recent survey showed that 90% of new clients stated that all law firms looked the same on the internet and their branding or lack thereof played little or no role in their decision to choose an attorney. This means the thousands of dollars spent each month on advertising has little or no contribution to overall profits.

8 PART 1 But despite these setbacks across the legal industry, some attorneys are earning more profits than ever -- while spending less time at the office. No matter where your practice is located, and no matter what condition it s in, you can attract high paying clients in droves... using the little known but effective Facebook marketing strategies I ll show you in this guide.

9 PART 2 02 The New Legal Marketing Gold Rush

10 PART 12 Imagine what your practice would look like if you had ten more estate planning clients per month. Or five more criminal defense cases per month. Or just one high-value personal injury matter per month. That s exactly what happened to the attorneys we work with when they started implementing Facebook marketing as part of their digital marketing strategy. And our clients aren t the only ones using Facebook to attract quality clients. That s because Facebook allows any attorney to target their prospects not just based on their age, sex, and occupation, but also their interests and needs.

11 PART 12 For example, if you re looking for estate planning clients, you can target your ads exclusively to Facebook users who are over 40 years old, have children, make over $100,000 per year, and have shown an interest in estate planning. I m not kidding. What would your practice look like if you re able to get in front of your ideal client every single day, showing them who you are, how you can help them, and why you re the right lawyer for them?

12 PART 3 03 Let s Create Your Firm s First Facebook Campaign

13 You probably downloaded this guide for one of two reasons: 1. You know Facebook marketing will help you get more clients, but you have no clue how to set up an effective campaign. 2. You re not sure if Facebook marketing is right for your firm, but you want to educate yourself because you understand the importance of digital marketing to stay competitive. What if I told you creating Facebook ads is fast, easy, and scalable -- and that you and your staff can start running ads today and get your first client from Facebook within 30 days?

14 But there s a caveat, Facebook marketing is easy and effective only if you know what you re doing -- just like advertising with Google AdWords or investing in Search Engine Optimization SEO. Lucky for you, I ll provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to set up an effective Facebook ad. You ll learn some of the strategies we use to manage Facebook campaigns for successful law firms. We ve run over $100,000 of Facebook ads for law firms and we ve learned a thing or two of what works best for law firms, and how to optimize campaigns to get results at the lowest cost. So follow along, take notes, and let s get started.

15 STEP 1 Create Your Facebook Business Page Before you can start running ads on Facebook, you need a Facebook Business Page. If you don t already have one for your law firm, click here and create one.

16 Facebook makes the process simple. Follow the instructions and you ll have a business page for your firm within minutes. I recommend using your personal Facebook account to create the business page so that you ll be able to invite your friends and family to like and follow the page. Your friends and family can help you market your services to their Facebook connections by sharing your posts in the future. You can always transfer your business page to another if you don t want to use your personal Facebook account to manage it.

17 STEP 2 Optimize It After you create your business page, you should optimize it by adding the following: 1. Firm name 2. Address 3. Phone number 4. Website 5. Hours of operation 6. Practice area s 7. Details of your legal services 8. Brief description of your law firm and what sets it apart 9. Logo 10. Cover photo 11. Profile pictures of attorneys and team members

18 STEP 3 Invite Your Facebook Friends to Follow Your Page You need to social proof your Facebook page by inviting your friends and family to follow your page. The more people following you, the more credible your Facebook page will look. This will help your firm s brand image.

19 STEP 4 Get Testimonials from Happy Clients You don t need to do this before you start running ads, but it will help improve conversion. Facebook allows its users to rate and review businesses, just like Yelp. This allows users to find law firms, while helping law firms like yours create greater brand awareness.

20 STEP 5 Load Your Facebook Ads Manager After you set up your Facebook Business Page, it s time to start putting together your ad. First, click the dropdown arrow on the top right corner on Facebook, and click Create Ads. STEP 6 Pick Your Campaign Objective Next, you ll choose your objective for your ad campaign. Facebook offers many advertising objectives to help you reach your marketing goals. After you decide what you want to achieve with your Facebook ads, you can create ads with that advertising objective.

21 Your advertising objective is what you want people to do when they see your ads. When you create an ad, you choose your objective first. The objective you choose aligns with your overall business goals, such as: Awareness: Objectives that generate interest in your legal services. Consideration: Objectives that get people to start thinking about your law firm and look for more information about it. Conversions: Objectives that encourage people interested in your law firm to take a certain action, such as subscribe to your newsletter.

22 Here s a little secret Facebook doesn t tell you: Some objectives are more expensive than others. For law firms, the best and most cost-effective objectives are Reach, Traffic, and Conversions.

23 The Reach objective shows your ad to the maximum number of people at the lowest cost possible. For example, if you d like to share your video on what to do after a DUI charge, you can choose the Reach objective to reach as many people as possible over the age of 18+ in a 10-mile radius of your office the day after St. Patrick's Day. The Traffic objective sends more people to a destination, such as a landing page on which prospects can schedule an appointment with you. Or to a recent blog post you published. The goal of the Traffic objective is to get as many prospects to a specific web page as possible. The Conversions objective drives valuable actions on your website and tracks the conversion rate of a specific action you want prospects to take. For example, if you re running a campaign to build your list so you can re-target prospects with an drip campaign, the Conversions objective can help you track the percentage of people who subscribe to your list. For your first campaign, let s keep it simple and select Traffic.

24 STEP 7 Select Your Target Audience This is where the magic happens. Facebook s marketing platform is powerful for law firms because it allows you to target the type of people you want to help. For example, if you d like to advertise your estate planning services to high-net-worth individuals in Los Angeles, you can narrow down your audience by age, location, and demographic on Facebook, like this:

25 After you select your audience, Facebook will give you an estimate of the total size of your audience and the amount of people you ll be able to reach depending on your budget.

26 STEP 8 Select Your Ad Placement Next, you ll select where you d like your ad to be shown. You can choose between types of devices mobile and desktop and platforms Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network. Never choose the default option, Automatic Placements, even though it s Recommended by Facebook.

27 Law firm ads get the most engagement at the lowest costs when it s displayed in the News Feed on desktops, so your selection should look like this:

28 STEP 9 Set Your Ad Budget and Schedule For your budget, you can choose to set a daily budget or a lifetime budget. I recommend setting a lifetime budget because you can control the maximum you want to spend for a certain time period.

29 More important, you can control the days and times your ad are displayed if you use a lifetime budget: We ve found that the optimal time to run law firm ads to get the most engagement and consultation requests is between 6:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m.

30 STEP 10 Set Your Ad Budget and Schedule Choose how you want Facebook to deliver ads to people based on what you're trying to achieve. Your selection affects who sees your ads to get you the best results for the lowest cost. For example, if you choose to optimize for link clicks, Facebook will deliver your ad to the right people to help you get the most clicks on the link in your ad for the lowest cost. I recommend selecting Link Clicks if this is your first time running an ad.

31 STEP 11 Select Bid Amount, When You Get Charged, and Delivery Speed Your bid amount determines how effectively Facebook can optimize your ad delivery. Your bid competes in an auction with other advertisers, who also want to reach the same target audience. I recommend selecting the Automatic bid amount if this is your first time running an ad.

32 Next, you can choose when you pay for your ad. For many optimization goals, you'll pay each time your ad is served known as an impression. Some optimization goals also let you choose between impressions and actions such as link clicks or post engagements. If this is your first ad, stick with Facebook s recommended option so that it balances efficient spending of your budget to achieve your objective with easy understanding of your results.

33 You can choose standard or accelerated delivery. I recommend the standard delivery. Accelerated delivery can be useful for promoting time-sensitive events such as seminars and quickly reaching a target audience. Manual bid pricing is required for accelerated delivery.

34 STEP 12 Upload Your Ad Image or Video Next, you can upload your ad image or video that you want to display. Facebook offers free stock images that you can choose from. If you want to create your own image with text, I recommend you use Canva. It s a free, easy-to-use designer tool.

35 And if you decide to create an image text, use Facebook s Image Text Checker before uploading it on your ad. Facebook discourages images with too much text. The more text you have, the more expensive your ads will be and the less your ads will be shown. To check if your ad s text-to-image proportions are okay, upload the image on the Image Text Checker to determine how much text is in your ad image. If the proportion of text to image is too high, you should reduce the amount of text so your ads will reach its full audience. The rule of thumb is the text should not occupy more than 15-20% of the image.

36 Also, you want to use an image or video that will capture your target audience s attention. Usually, Facebook users look at the picture first when they re scrolling their News Feed. You have about one second to impress them enough to convince them to read your ad.

37 For example, you may have seen the image below that we used to advertise this Facebook guide to you. We re currently using this image as our video ad s thumbnail picture. The yellow background, red button, and professional model instantly grab your attention. We ve tested other images using different colors, backgrounds and models, and this version is the clear winner because it had the highest click-through rate the percentage of viewers who clicked the ad.

38 Here s a few tips on how to select the right image 1. Make sure the image fits perfectly and is not distorted. Blurry images perform poorly on Facebook. The recommended image size is 1200 x 628 pixels, and the recommended image ratio is 1.91:1. 2. Pay attention to color. Use color that appeals to your target audience. 3. Use an image that is relevant to your legal services. 4. If you re designing your own text image, make sure it s designed well. Don t use images that s too cluttered. Keep the design simple and easy to read. 5. Target your audience s emotions. As you may know, people usually make decisions based on their emotions. Use an image that elicits the type of emotional reaction that will convince them to click on your ad or pick up the phone to schedule a consultation.

39 STEP 13 Use Compelling Text Just like in other forms of advertisement, writing ad copy is one of the most important and difficult aspects of Facebook marketing.

40 In your Facebook ad, you have three elements of text to impress your audience: 1. Headline: A great headline grabs your audience s attention and tells them what the ad is about. Be clear and concise. 2. Text: Tell people a bit more about the subject matter of the ad. If you re running a free consultation ad, tell your audience what problem you can solve and why they should hire you instead of your competition. You have to clearly state what you re promoting. 3. News Feed Link Description: Tell your audience where they're clicking to and what the landing page contains. Keep this section short.

41 Here s a few tips on writing effective ad copy 1. Create urgency and scarcity by using words such as limited time, today, call now, exclusive. 2. Use different copy for different audiences. For example, a high-net-worth individual and a middle-class individual have different concerns in divorce matters. Tailor your message to your audience. 3. Your text should be consistent with your image. Use both text and image together to tell your story. 4. Ask questions to engage your audience. Psychologically, when someone reads a question, their brain will trigger a curious reaction that increases engagement and creates a personal connection between your message and their needs.

42 STEP 14 Choose Your Call-to-Action Button Facebook allows you to add a Call-to-Action CTA button on most ads that you run. The CTA tells your prospect what you want him or her to do. For example, if you re running an ad to promote your new blog article, you should use a Learn More button. LEARN MORE

43 STEP 15 Set Up Facebook Pixel Before you launch your ad, you should install your Facebook pixel on your website. The Facebook pixel is a piece of code for your website that lets you measure, track and create custom audiences for your ad campaigns. For law firms, Facebook pixel is an excellent feature that allows you to re-target your website visitors by showing them your ad in their Facebook news feed. Let s say your website receives hundreds of organic visitors a month who are interested in your legal services. But only a small percentage of those pick up the phone to schedule a consultation with you. With Facebook pixel, you can immediately send an ad to their Facebook news feed and get a second chance to impress them. Powerful stuff. To install Facebook pixel on your website, follow these simple steps.

44 STEP 16 Click Place Order and Start the Approval Process Take a moment to review your ad copy, budget, and audience once more. When you re done, click Place Order. As long as your ad isn t discriminatory or inappropriate, chances are Facebook will approve your ad within minutes. Please note that your text cannot include direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person s disability or medical condition including physical or mental health, or financial situation. For example, you cannot use phrases like have you been seriously injured in a car accident or Broke? Bankrupt? Check out our legal services. For more info, you can check out Facebook s advertising policies here.

45 STEP 17 Track and Analyze Your Results You can manage your ads and track their performance in Facebook s Ads Manager. Like everything else, practice makes perfect. Your first Facebook ad isn t going to double your revenue. You need to look at how your ads are performing and test different ads to maximize results. When you re first starting out advertising on Facebook, review your ad performance every day. However, I recommend you let your first ads run at least a week before making any tweaks to the budget, audience, or image and text. Be patient and let the ad run long enough to collect sufficient data to make an informed decision to improve your ad. HOW TO GET MORE CLIENTS USING FACEBOOK IN 30 DAYS

46 Keep your eye on these important metrics: 1. Impressions: The number of times your ad was displayed. Your prospects may see multiple impressions of the same ad. For example, Facebook might show your ad to someone three times and that would count as three impressions. 2. Reach: The number of people who Facebook displayed your ad to. Reach is usually less than impressions because Facebook might display your ad multiple times to one person. 3. Amount Spent: The amount of money you've spent on your ad. This is obviously an important figure to track your ad s ROI. 4. Cost Per Lead: If you use Facebook s Lead Forms ad feature see below, you ll be able to track how much it costs for you to receive a lead. For example, if you run an ad to collect s by offering a free guide on how to beat a DUI, your Cost Per Lead will be the total amount you spent divided by the number of s you collected.

47 There are certainly many other factors to analyze to determine how well your ad performed, such as using Facebook s advanced conversion metrics. But the main thing to consider when analyzing your results is by looking at the four metrics above. STEP 18 Adjust, Rinse, and Repeat By analyzing the key performance indicators of your Facebook ads, you ll begin to see what s working and what s not. You ll notice that some of your ads are performing better for a specific age group or people with certain interests. The key is to test, test, and test. Run ads to different types of people you re targeting. Use different images and text to appeal to certain demographics. Once you find the right ad type that appeals to your target audience, run it over and over again until you see a significant decline in performance. If it s not broken, don t fix it.

48 Nonetheless, be creative and try different ads. Use your personality and brand your ads accordingly. If you re funny, add that element into your ads. In the next section, I ll show you the different types of ads that your law firm should be running.

49 PART 4 04 Top Performing Types of Facebook Ads for Law Firms

50 PART 1 4 Now that you know how to set up a Facebook ad campaign, let s quickly go over the types of ads you should be running to promote your legal services.

51 PART Blog Ads The most effective Facebook ads for law firms are those that provide value. Blogs are an excellent source of communication for attorneys to showcase their knowledge in their practice area s and answer questions for their prospects. Use blogs to build a personal connection with your prospects. Legal blogs usually get the most clicks on Facebook and generate the most consultation requests -- if you do it right, of course. First, provide useful and practical information on a topic that your target clientele cares about; don t use legalese. Second, write a compelling heading and ad text to entice the reader to click and read more. Third, add a Call-to-Action at the end of your blog post; invite the reader to learn more by scheduling a consultation with your firm.

52 PART Ebook Ads Ebooks provide even more value than blogs because they give more practical information in greater detail. With ebooks, you get an opportunity to collect a prospect s name and address, and start an marketing campaign. If the ebook looks valuable on its face, prospects will gladly give you their contact information to download a copy. With Facebook ads, you can advertise your ebook and lead prospects to a landing page on your website where they can download your ebook after they provide you with their contact info. These ads perform very well and has a strong ROI if you select the Traffic objective and target the right audience.

53 PART Free Consultation Ads Many law firms don t offer free consultations to avoid unqualified prospects. However, I advise most of our law firm clients to offer free consultations in their Facebook ads. You can train your staff and create a system to weed out the tire kickers before scheduling a consultation. Try running free consultation ads to your firm s Facebook followers and friends of your followers. Also, if you import s of your clients on your Facebook, Facebook will create a Lookalike Audience of new people who are likely to be interested in your legal services because they're similar to your clients -- don t worry, Facebook doesn t sell those s to third parties. These are low-hanging fruits that you should consider offering a free consultation to. Best of all, Facebook allows you to easily target your ads to these groups of people.

54 PART Video Ads At Yan Media, we love video ads. We produce animated video ads for law firms to educate and entertain their prospects on Facebook. Some of our clients produce their own instruction videos. Videos are highly effective and I encourage you to create video ads on Facebook to boost engagement and for branding purposes. More important, Facebook is encouraging video marketing on their platform and the cost of video ads are very reasonable. The videos with the most engagement are about one minute long, so you don t need to invest in a 10-minute video. Your video can be a how-to video, a client testimonial video, or a video introducing your firm and your services. P.S. Try to make your videos entertaining. Add your personality and firm culture in your videos.

55 PART Lead Form Ads Facebook s Lead Ads is an excellent advertising tool for attorneys. Whether your firm wants to encourage prospects to sign up for your newsletter, download your ebook, schedule a free consultation, or attend a webinar, lead ads simplify the signup process. To create a lead ad, select the Lead generation objective when you start creating the ad. Caveat: Lead ads are very expensive compared to other objectives such as Traffic and Conversion. I recommend reserving the use of Lead Ads to advertise to your Facebook followers or to re-target people who found you organically on Google.

56 PART Retargeting Ads If someone visits your website after finding you on Google or after clicking on a Facebook Ad, they may not call you or fill out a form to schedule a consultation right away. With Facebook, however, you can remarket to them by using your Facebook pixel to create a Custom Audience from your website. This is one of the best features of Facebook marketing. The ability to retarget warm leads increases the chances of them becoming a client. Retargeting campaigns are very complicated to do if you re a first-time Facebook advertiser, so I wouldn t recommend creating one now.

57 PART 5 05 Facebook Ethics Tips

58 PART 15 I m sure many attorneys are avoiding Facebook because of ethics considerations. But just like maintaining a website, blogging or advertising with Google AdWords, you shouldn t be afraid of advertising on Facebook as long as you follow the ethical guidelines of your state and the ABA.

59 PART 15 Here s some quick ethics tips to keep in mind when advertising on Facebook and I m sure you already know most of them 1. Don t guarantee results. 2. Don t claim to be a specialist or expert in your practice area s if you re not a certified specialist in your jurisdiction. Avoid using words such as expert, expertise, specialist, and speciality. 3. Make sure you have an up-to-date disclaimer and policy page on your website.

60 PART If you re using Facebook s lead forms ads, make sure you provide a link to your disclaimer and policy page. Don t elicit confidential information on your lead form ads. 5. Don t misrepresent any facts about your practice and law firm. 6. Don t provide legal advice in Facebook s comments section or private messaging platform. 7. Add your law firm s name, address, and phone number on your Facebook page.

61 PART 6 06 Free Custom Marketing Blueprint

62 PART 16 What do you think your practice would look like if you actually implementing all the Facebook marketing strategies that we mentioned in this guide? Do you want to find out?

63 PART 16 I ve set aside some time to personally design an advance marketing campaign for you, free. I d be happy to design a custom marketing plan for your firm, identify your perfect target market of prospective clients, and show you how to have them coming to you in droves. This way, you ll be able to get more clients... without having to talk to tire kickers or unrealistic people who want to waste your time.

64 PART 16 I offer this service because this is one of the ways I get clients. I m an attorney who specializes in helping successful law firms attract more high quality clients. And there s a good possibility your market has a large pocket of underserved clients who would be very responsive to the marketing strategy I ll be giving you for free. And if you find the plan I create for you valuable, you might want to become a client. If this is the case, our marketing services start at $1,497 per month.

65 PART 16 With that said, please understand that I m not offering you a sales pitch in disguise. I promise not to pressure you or pester you in any way at all. In fact, if you feel I ve wasted even one second of your time, let me know during our call and I ll immediately write you a check for $300 to compensate you for your time.

66 PART 16 But before we go further, you need to know that I can t help every attorney. I can only be of benefit to attorneys who are: 1. Well-respected in your local area. 2. Willing to advertise. 3. Running a successful law practice. 4. Able to close the prospects I help them get. If you fit that criteria and you re interested in learning how my team and I can help, here s what do next:

67 PART 16 Schedule a free planning session with me by simply clicking the link below. You ll see a form with a few questions about your business and what you re looking to accomplish. Once I have that information, I ll do some market research for you and set up a time to go over it together. Ready to get started? Click Here to Schedule Your Free Strategy Session

68 PART 16 Thank you for downloading and reading this guide. I look forward to meeting you soon. Sincerely, Edmund V. Yan, Esq.