There are a lot of options for digital marketing for criminal defense attorneys. Some of them are free but still effective for your ROI. This is why Lawyer SEO and content marketing for lawyers are such accessible ways to market law firms.

However, there are several upgrades to those free options. If done right, you might get a considerable boost in ROI. This ROI could translate to more brand awareness, trust and reputation, and criminal defense leads.

That said, spending on criminal defense marketing is an investment. Some law firms don’t even have a marketing budget, so it’s not a trivial matter. Hence, you’ll need careful consideration of your current status, resources, and law firm marketing goals.

Here are a few tips on spending on digital marketing for criminal defense attorneys:

Identify Your Criminal Defense Marketing Goals

Several marketing strategies benefit law firms in various ways. Of course, you can always spend on every aspect of your marketing, but that’s not always an option for every criminal defense law firm. Hence, you want to identify what you want from your law firm marketing efforts to know where you should spend your money.

Here are a few guide questions to help you identify your criminal defense marketing goals:

• Do I need more traffic on my criminal defense law firm website?
• Do I want to be more visible to locals in my area?
• Do I need more backlinks for my law firm website?
• Do I need someone to handle technical SEO?
• Do I need a content writer to help with my legal blog?
• Do I want to build a presence on social media?
• Do I need to promote an event?
• Do I need more reviews?
• Do I need to build trust with my audience?

If you’re a complete beginner with criminal defense marketing, then your budget should go towards building a great website with a strong linking strategy. On the other, if you already have an SEO expert and a content editor running your website and a legal blog, you might want to consider criminal defense advertising.

Everyone’s different. Your optimal strategy depends on where you are in your digital marketing.

Look Into Your Free Options

There are a lot of accessible options for criminal defense marketing. For example, Google Search Console is entirely free and is still used by SEO experts today. Likewise, some limited free versions of keyword research tools can be enough for basic, foundational SEO and content marketing strategies.

Again, there are multiple aspects of digital marketing. For example, you could run your legal blog without paying anyone, then let an SEO expert do all the work with your website and keywords. Likewise, you could run your website on your own and have someone manage your social media accounts.

This is to say that you don’t have to feel pressured into paying for every marketing strategy out there. However, this means the things you choose to do yourself should be well-implemented. So, do your research, audit your performance, and adjust your tactics accordingly.

Consider Whether You Have Solid Criminal Defense Marketing Foundations

Some digital marketing strategies only work as supplementary tactics. For example, if you spend on Google Ads, you should already have a well-optimized landing page to facilitate conversions. Otherwise, people will click on your ad and close the tab seconds after seeing your website.

Likewise, before you spend money on the look of your website, you should consult an SEO expert first to ensure your link strategy, user experience, and SEO keywords are optimized.

Note that many strategies associated with digital marketing for criminal defense need to work alongside each other. For example, law firm blogging only works optimally with a great lawyer SEO. Likewise, email marketing needs to have a strong landing page to get people to sign up for it.

In short, set up the foundations of your criminal defense marketing first. You’re better off spending on foundational strategies than buying ads that won’t yield the desired conversions.

Your Criminal Defense Marketing Is Unique

How your criminal defense law firm approaches digital marketing will differ from that of an eCommerce site. Your keywords, backlinks, site design, landing pages, and CTAs will vary from other niches and industries. Even how your CTAs, taglines, and titles are worded will differ from websites in other niches.

Hence, consider this when you’re spending your law firm marketing budget. Here are a couple of factors that affect your optimal criminal defense marketing strategy:

• Your target audience’s interest, online usage, and content preference
• The agency that will handle your marketing strategies
• The content editor who’ll review your legal blogs
• The platforms you’ll purchase PPC ads from
• The way you want to represent your criminal defense law firm online

The above factors are some of the most crucial considerations before spending on digital marketing for criminal defense attorneys. For example, if you hire a content editor for your legal blog, it must be someone who understands SEO, legal content, and your audience. Otherwise, the editor you choose isn’t going to make content that valuable to your audience and effective in boosting your marketing strategy.

Likewise, if you’re going for a re-design of your law firm website, it should reflect branding. Some eCommerce websites might get away with some wacky, neon-filled website, but that’s not ideal if you want to seem commanding and experienced. Of course, some lawyers inject humor into their online brand, but you want to do so intentionally. If you’re going to hire someone to design your website, it should be someone who specializes in the kind that you want.

Basically, the products and services you spend your money on should fulfill your specific needs. Therefore, the more tailor-fitted your SEO and marketing efforts are to you, the better the ROI you’ll yield.

Make Spending On Your Law Firm Marketing Worth It

The goal of spending on your marketing strategy is to get an upgrade. That could mean reducing your time to work on your digital marketing or finding experts who could implement your strategies better.

Whatever the case, spending on products and services should bring more ROI than you could achieve on your own. Hence, you should consider your choice of experts, services, products, and tools.

Author’s Bio

JC Serrano is the founder of 1000Attorneys.com, one of the very few private enterprises certified to process lawyer referrals by the California State Bar. His marketing strategies have continuously evolved since 2005, incorporating ever-changing SEO strategies into lawyerleadmachine.com.