Before joining the team at LawLytics, I used to work closely with solo and small law firms across the country as a marketing consultant. I advised on and implemented a variety of digital marketing practices to help my clients reach their business goals within their local market.
One such client was the owner of a growing family law practice who was successful in attracting a more affluent clientele in the area. Although she was passionate about family law and well established in her practice area, she was looking to expand into personal injury matters. She felt the demand was there, and it was the right move for her as both an attorney and a business owner. Luckily, we were prepared with the right tools and strategy to successfully integrate her expansion with her current practice while keeping her clientele and marketing separate.
Whether you desire a change in your practice similar to my client or you are influenced by the market, it’s important to evaluate your website for its readiness to travel that road. Read on for the scenarios your website should be equipped to handle and how to know when you need a second website to best support your practice.
When the market may demand a change
Is your website flexible enough to handle the changes you may want or need to make to your practice areas? The market may demand a change in how you conduct your business regardless of your intent to make an adjustment, and your website and digital strategy should be able to adapt quickly in scenarios like the following:
- New or different policy: The law may not change often, but attorneys can sometimes find themselves needing to pivot their marketing or practice areas to fit a change in policy.
- Product or company-specific cases: It’s common for a practice area to revolve around a product or a certain event. Attorneys who are looking to use their website to target new clients involved in a recent event may need to add to or adjust their practice areas.
- Significant changes in the economy: A booming or struggling economy is likely to have an influence on several types of markets and affect consumer behavior, prompting attorneys to adjust their digital marketing strategies.
- Significant changes in other markets (such as real estate): Attorneys may want to react to certain market changes and make adjustments on their website when those markets are experiencing highs or lows.
- Significant improvements in technology: Tech is always growing and evolving, and it’s difficult to predict the next game-changing tool. Certain developments in technology may demand a reaction from attorneys depending on their practice area.
- National or global events: During the COVID-19 pandemic, attorneys experienced a shift in consumer behavior and changes in market demand for certain practice areas.
How to know you need a second website
For many small law firms, a single website is all they will ever need to attract potential clients online and serve their digital marketing needs. However, there are some cases in which it would best serve your firm to have multiple websites.
Some of the reasons to consider having more than one website include:
Incompatible practice areas
Let’s revisit the example I gave earlier about an old client of mine who was practicing family law and wanted to expand into personal injury. Because these two practice areas are completely different concepts, it’s likely you’ll have two different strategies for attracting leads online. In this case, it’s best to create a clear division with two websites.
Geographic or jurisdictional differences
As a marketing consultant, one of my clients was a personal injury attorney who provided different services between his two offices, one in Georgia and the other in Florida. In Georgia, he offered representation for injury involving car and trucking accidents, slip and fall, and other common injuries. In Florida, however, he specialized in boating accidents and injuries obtained on cruise ships.
Although he practiced personal injury in both states, it was most beneficial to his marketing strategy to have two separate websites. That way, he could keep his leads and his matters separate, and focus on effective content marketing strategy that would work to target the differing clientele.
Language differences
Lawyers who serve a bilingual local market likely need their websites to work double time to effectively communicate with all their potential clients. Having multiple websites in this scenario can help you to deliver the best client experience possible with both content and design, where applicable, customized to each language.
Disparate branding
Another one of my clients was a personal injury attorney who managed two websites for his firm and was motivated by his disparate branding strategy to target his two ideal client personas. One client persona was the typical personal injury client in need of experienced, reliable, and professional representation. This website also featured his partner who was targeting a similar client persona.
In contrast, the other client persona my client created was someone who was drawn to an attorney who is aggressive and understands high-stakes car wrecks, likely involving luxury vehicles. This required a second website to allow him to effectively target this unique, ideal potential client online and keep the messaging clear and consistent.
Creating practice area pages with the LawLytics content generation tool
Staying flexible during changing times can be a significant asset to you and your firm. With LawLytics, members have the control to make quick and easy changes to their website to help maximize their visibility online.
The LawLytics content generation tool is the quickest and easiest way to create practice area content for your law firm website. Choose from over 200 practice area topics, complete the customization prompts, and publish new high-quality, locally optimized pages directly to your website – never stare down a blank page again.
Creating a new law firm website is an investment in your firm’s future and LawLytics makes it easy to get started. Stay flexible to the needs of your practice and the demands of the legal market with quick content creation, user-friendly technology, and expert support along the way. If you’re interested in knowing more about our new content feature or would like to see the LawLytics platform in action, you can find a video demo here. Or, schedule a 20-minute, interactive demo with a product expert.
