What Is Reputation Management and Why Do Attorneys Need It?
For many of us, reading online reviews is an integral part of the shopping process, whether you’re looking for the tastiest burger in Austin, Texas, or the best personal injury attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. Your online reputation should reflect the quality of your legal services.
Reputation management is an important part of marketing for attorneys. If clients search for your law firm online, what will they find? Lists of online directories packed with glowing reviews from the grateful clients whose lives you’ve changed? Or a few scattered 5 star reviews mixed in with negative reviews — sometimes from people who have never even spoken with you or anyone at your law firm.
Unfortunately, people are far more likely to head to the internet to complain (even if unjustified) than to praise an attorney. Negative reviews can mean the difference between a client contacting your law firm or moving on to the next name in the search results, so it is critical to not only monitor your online reputation but to actively build positive reviews.
Why Do Law Firm Reviews Matter?
Data from a 2020 Bright Local Survey on consumer behavior tells us why active reputation management is a vital component of any law firm marketing strategy:
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93% used the internet to find a local business in the last year
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87% read online reviews for local businesses in 2020
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73% only pay attention to reviews written in the last month
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52% wouldn’t consider using a business with fewer than 4 stars
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20% expect to receive a response to their review within one day
5 Most Important Review Factors
The numbers in the previous section reaffirm what attorney marketing specialists have known for a while — online reputation management is a critical part of maintaining the health of your law firm. When potential clients search online for reviews, here are the most important ranking factors they consider:
- Star Rating
- Legitimacy
- Recency
- Sentiment
- Quantity
What Reputation Marketing Services Do We Offer?
Monitor Reviews
Gather existing reviews from 80+ general and niche review sites, including Google, Facebook,Yelp, and niche related directories. We will monitor these reviews daily.
Respond to Reviews
Weekly manual responses to all positive reviews. All negative reviews will be sent to the client for guidance on response.
Showcase Reviews
Create a page on your website to showcase your positive reviews. We will add new, positive reviews to your review page each week.
Get Reviews
Creation of a templated landing page to collect reviews with custom links to 3 review sites.