Case Study: Improving Website Content and Legal Directories Submissions
Background
The Marketing Legal was asked to adjust a law firm’s website content for an English-speaking audience, research legal directories categories and enhance the firm’s directories submissions.
The client is a European law firm specialising in energy and projects law. The firm wants to shake up its marketing to reach more international clients, improve its website and its approach to legal directories.
Challenges
Website content
The firm hadn’t focused much attention on its website for a number of years. As a result, its English language content was not consistent and contained numerous grammatical and syntactical errors.
Directories submissions
They had hired a directories consultant in the previous year, but the consultant hadn’t managed to achieve a ranking for the firm, despite its impressive work stream and client base.
Solutions
The firm instructed The Marketing Legal to fix both problems.
Website content
We conducted an audit of the firm’s website content and identified significant inconsistencies in tone, style, and the level of English used across different pages. The content was not only uneven in quality but also failed to effectively communicate the firm's expertise and professionalism. This inconsistency was impacting the firm’s credibility and their ability to attract international clients.
The Marketing Legal systematically rewrote all web content for the About Us, Services and People pages. We focused on clarity, coherence, and precision in legal terminology, ensuring that each section was not only engaging but also tailored to the needs of an international clientele.
The result will be a website that is more in line with international standards that is more accessible for and appealing to English-language clients.
Legal directories submissions
We assessed the two legal directories submissions the firm had used last year to identify the reasons that the firm had not been ranked the year before. We determined that:
Information was not structured and there were too many long blocks of text.
Lawyer bios were inconsistent.
There was no signposting, making it difficult for researchers to identify key aspects of the firm’s offering.
Ranking feedback was provided, but it did not put the firm in the best light.
The firm’s work would merit inclusion in the rankings and compared favourably to its competitors.
The consultant the firm hired in the previous year made glaring and basic errors in their approach to the submission. To fix this, we embarked on significant amendments to the structure of the firm overview, ensuring that information was signposted and easy to read.
We edited the lawyer biographies in a way that better highlighted their experience and expertise and positioned them as leaders in the market.
We also ensured that ranking feedback built an evidence-based argument for the firm’s inclusion in the rankings, pointing the researchers to the firm’s key points of difference with other firms and the calibre of its work.
This resulted in two submission that showcased the firm’s work and individual lawyers in a way that researchers could understand – making it more likely that the firm would be granted a research interview and secure the rankings it was aiming for.
Conclusions
The revision of the firm's digital presence by The Marketing Legal has effectively enhanced its ability to engage international clients. By refining the website content and legal directories submissions, the firm now presents its expertise and professionalism more coherently to an English-speaking audience. The website improvements ensure consistent, clear communication of the firm’s strengths, meeting the expectations of potential clients. Moreover, the optimised legal directories submissions have corrected prior mistakes, and now highlight the firm's offerings, potentially improving its visibility and rankings in legal directories.
This case study demonstrates the impact of improving marketing strategies in improving a law firm's international reach and market position, setting a solid foundation for ongoing growth.