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    Online Marketing Checklists for Law Firms

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      Two things to keep in mind when crafting your firm’s online marketing efforts: 1) get the optimization basics down and don’t get overwhelmed with bottomless lists of tips and technical jargon, and 2) memorialize repeatable processes so you don’t miss a step. In other words, create your own set of checklists as you fine tune your process. Checklists reduce errors and help you to be more consistent and complete in carrying out tasks and avoiding mistakes.

      Use the checklists below as a guide for SEO, Newsletters, Blogging, and Lead Generation to inform your marketing team at the firm of the steps you need to take each and every time you start a related activity.

      Blogging Checklist

      ✅ Shoot for a minimum of 300 words. 700 is a sweet spot.
      ✅ Keep title to 7-9 words.
      ✅ Introduce the post with a question or solution. “How to” posts or those with numbers in their titles are popular.
      ✅ Include at least one image in the blog post. Make it a social-media-sharing-friendly size.
      ✅ Incorporate one or two of your SEO keywords in the copy and title of your blog post.
      ✅ Keyword should appear in alt text of all images and graphics.
      ✅ The post should include links to any to other relevant pages and/or blog posts on your website.
      ✅ Meta description should include detailed or expressive text.
      ✅ A call to action should appear at the end of your post.
      ✅ Distribute each blog post via social media, i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook, & Twitter.

      SEO Checklist

      ❎ Conduct keyword research to determine most searched words with as little competition as possible.
      ❎ Select a target keyword for every page of your website.
      ❎ Build inbound links to your website with your desired keywords in your link text.
      ❎ Title of each page should be 70 characters long or less and include your target keyword.
      ❎ Each page should have a meta description 156 characters or less and include your target keyword.
      ❎ Target keyword should be included in H tags, image “alt” attributes, and occur naturally in your text for each page.
      ❎ Each section of the web page or blog post should have a subheader which is usually an H2.
      ❎ Website URL structure shouldn’t be cryptic but should support readable keywords.
      ❎ Establish anchor listing in the major social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+
      ❎ Establish a complete profile on Google Business. This anchors your law firm to local search and enables potential clients to see your contact information and reviews.
      ❎ Include both an HTML and XML site map and a robot.txt file.

      Newsletter Checklist

      ✓ Distribute a firm newsletter once a month to all of your email contacts.
      ✓ Draw people back to your website with new, interesting content or offers.
      ✓ Make sure you track statistics for each send, including open rates, which links get clicked, and your website traffic.
      ✓ Never send newsletters on a Friday: Mid-week is typically best between 10am and 12pm
      ✓ Research optimal send days and times to make sure your newsletter reaches the largest possible audience.
      ✓ Use tools like SubjectLine.com to ensure that your email has the best chance of being read.
      ✓ Use very sparse text. Summarize articles and initiatives and lure people back to your website to find out more.
      ✓ Make sure that people can easily sign up for your newsletter on your website.

      Lead Generation Checklist

      ❐ Build dedicated website landing pages for specific lead generation opportunities.
      ❐ Website home page should have a lead generation call to action above the fold on the right side of the page.
      ❐ Set up automated email lead nurturing campaigns so that visitors who fill out opt-in forms receive automated emails at regular intervals.
      ❐ Calls to action should include actionable language or clearly express a value proposition.
      ❐ Calls to action should be obviously clickable, highly contrasting buttons.
      ❐ Forms should have more elements if you want more qualified but less leads, and less elements if you want more but less qualified leads.
      ❐ Construct a thank you page for your forms that showcases more of your services.
      ❐ Make sure visitors can view your site easily and fill out your forms on a smartphone.
      ❐ Optimize your landing page for mobile as many conversions today take place on mobile devices

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