Moore Legal Technology

Guest contribution from Alasdair Thomson, former Partner at The Glasgow Law Practice, Co-Founder of Peloton Communications Group, Director at Curated Media and Phase 2 Legal.

The introduction of Alternative Business Structures (ABS); through the Legal Services Act 2007 and the Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010, paved the way for a potential reshape of the legal market by enabling non-lawyers to have a stake in, or to even own, a law firm. Since then, a total of 950 licences have been given, with 892 of these still in use as of March 2017. (Although ABSs have not been fully introduced into Scotland, it is understood that the Scottish Government is going through consultation to draft legislation allowing its implementation, and therefore Scotland’s position remains relevant to the discussion of future-proofing your firm). The question therefore is, what is the effect of this on law firms and what can be done to stay competitive in an already saturated market?

Job Title: Account Co-ordinator

We’re pleased to note our article on ‘The future of Marketing for Law firms’ has been published in leading legal sector publication, Legal Futures. You can view the article here. You can also view the post in our insights section here.

The Peloton Communications group provide online business generation and creative strategies for the legal sector. Comprising of Curated Media, Moore Legal Technology, and Network Legal, our companies work with law firms in the UK and beyond from our collaborative work space in central Glasgow – and we want to share that space with you.

At Moore Legal Technology, we specialise in helping law firms increase their turnover and client base. Put simply, we help our law firm clients leverage the internet to increase the number of profitable, new enquiries.

In 2017, lawyers continue to make fundamental mistakes relating to their online presence that will be preventing them from using the internet effectively to increase their turnover, enhance their brand and attract better talent, among other things.

At Moore Legal Technology, we pride ourselves on being one step ahead in the digital marketing world. While it won’t be necessary to alter your entire online marketing strategy this year, it is clear that SEO techniques should become more forward-thinking, slick and more in-line with user experience/intent. In this blog we have outlined a few of the main predictions for law firm search engine optimisation in 2017.

This week, Amazon launched their latest attempt to encroach into every aspect of our lives product, the “Dash” button. These small plastic buttons are designed to take away some of the mundanity of our daily lives. Connected to the internet and your amazon account, these allow you to order replacements or top ups for daily staples like bin bags, fabric softener, coffee or condoms.

The topic of the effectiveness of email marketing for law firms and professional services companies is one which marketers regularly debate; is it on its way out? The answer is that it certainly doesn’t appear to be. One of the best statistics to quash this argument is the fact that nowadays more than 200 million emails are sent every minute, according to this article. In a society where everyone’s inbox is updated daily with a fresh batch of emails, it’s essential that yours stand out. And what we tend to find from speaking to many lawyers in firms without a marketing department (whether inhouse or outsourced) is that email marketing is almost always put on the back-burner, whether because their contacts database hasn’t been updated in years or they simply don’t have the time or resource. Below we’ve outlined 5 of our top tips for making sure your law firm’s newsletter is effective in capturing the attention of recipients. If marketing through email is an unfamiliar concept to you, please click through to read more on the benefits of email marketing for law firms.

Google recently updated its document on local ranking signals. The addition of ‘prominence’ to the document would suggest that businesses which have been focusing on quality SEO work are subsequently more likely to benefit from a boost in local search rankings. In this blog I will elaborate on what this really means and what your firm should be focusing on going forward for great local search rankings.

Every day the MLT team drive organic and paid traffic to our clients’ websites with the end goal of generating business leads. However, in order us to help generate quality leads, we must have a solid knowledge about the type of law firm we are working with, for example:

Since launching Google Ads in 2000, Google has shown paid ads to the top, right-hand side and at the bottom of the search results – the amount varying on how many advertisers are competing for the specific search term.

It’s no secret that over the past year mobile has had a tremendous effect on how people access the internet and, as a result, how law firms approach their marketing.

Law firms have faced many challenges due to changes in the legal sector such as new types of legal service, law firm mergers and pricing pressures (outlined in more detail here). It is likely that firms will continue to face further obstacles in the future.The good news is there are a number of ways that your law firm can significantly improve its business leads and beat competitors by developing a prominent online presence. In this digital age, more and more people are seeking legal services online. Below, I have outlined four major predictions for the online world in 2016 which can hopefully act as a guide to how your firm can come out on top next year.

Like some of my colleagues (especially at our sister companies Curated Media and Unlock The Law) you may have been eagerly awaiting 21st October 2015 aka ‘Back to the Future day’.

Google has revamped its local SEO algorithm, making it a huge ranking factor for local businesses like law firms. On 6th August, the “Snack Pack” results moved up the SERPs (search engine results pages) and more than halved in number.

Social Media Marketing has become unavoidable for businesses throughout the UK, and as our Social Media Expert Stacy Nelson stated in her latest blog ‘law firms without a social media marketing strategy are missing out on a good chunk of business.’ 

This article was first published by Howden Insurance Brokers, and is re-published here with permission.

 Solicitors are risk averse by nature, and the perceived risks of social media marketing can put a lot of law firms off. However, social media is becoming ever more prevalent in modern culture. This head-in-the-sand approach could mean law firms without a social media marketing strategy are missing out on a good chunk of business.