How to Maximize Cross Promotion in Your Legal Marketing Strategy

 Posted on January 22,2015 in Campaigns

The American Marketing Association (AMA), in collaboration with the Duke Fuqua School of Business and McKinsey and Company, recently reported, via The CMO Survey, that marketing budgets consume almost 11 percent of firms’ annual budgets.

As the CMO Survey provides analytical data to support the cost of marketing for business to business models, is there a way that small firms or solo practicing attorneys could slash their marketing budgets to provide cost-effective social media marketing practices?

There is, and it is referred to as cross promotion. This essential marketing strategy can and should be utilized in every type of professional social media marketing campaign. The strategy is quite simple. Cross promotion provides a quick and relatively cost-free method of increasing traffic to already established social media profiles.

There is a catch, though. For cross promotion to work, first established social media sites already need to be operational. For example, if you or your firm already engages your target demographic on Facebook, you must establish other social media platforms, such as LinkedIn or Twitter, to actively cross reference the profiles.

If this is the case, then it may be the opportune time to contact your marketing manager or consult with an experienced online marketing firm to establish an overall marketing strategy and to learn more about the benefits of cross promotion.

If, on the other hand, you or your firm currently hosts and maintains several online profiles, the following information may provide additional insight as to why cross promotion is essential to your client conversion percentage and your marketing budget.

Professional Profiles

As mentioned, if you are currently active on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, ensure that you have taken the time to accurately complete your professional profile pages. Often, an incomplete or misleading profile can quickly send a prospective client directly to a competing lawyer or firm.

It is also key to remember that as a member of the legal community, it remains in your best interest, due to ethical considerations, to keep your personal online persona separate from your professional marketing efforts. It is best to complete all profile pages with professional expectations in mind to provide an appropriate overview of professional services offered.

It is just as important to include a professional profile image, not because you wish to share your personality, but to promote your professional sincerity, enthusiasm and reputation. Logically, a prospective client who lands on a profile page without the opportunity to place a face with the content is more likely to search elsewhere.

Link Together All Accounts

If adding a new social media component to your campaign, such as Twitter, take the time to announce this on your Facebook page and visa versa. Engage your targeted audience and ask them to follow you on both platforms. By implementing cross promotion, not only do you increase your level of exposure and activity, but you also increase the percentage of converting the “fan” to client ratio.

Posting Timely and Relevant Content

This may be one of the very most important aspects of cross promotion. Asking prospective clients to visit several social media areas to endorse your professional experience will mean nothing unless you are providing them with interesting and relevant content that keeps them engaged and coming back for more.

Establishing an effective social media marketing campaign as well as incorporating cross promotion into an established campaign is an extremely effective way to increase internet traffic and overall conversion rate of turning prospective clients into retained clients without breaking the marketing budget bank.

Since 2008, OVC INC. has been bringing innovative and cost-effective strategies to the table for attorneys as a means to grow their business and to increase their maximum online return on investment. If you have questions on cross promotion, contact our team at 630-635-8000 to schedule a consultation today.

About the Author: Greg Wildman is the President of OVC, INC. Since 1999, Greg has developed hundreds of websites for attorneys from his company's inception as Online Video Concepts, LLC to the modern era's OVC, INC. Greg's knowledge of law firm marketing has helped many attorneys establish online presences through custom website development, Search Engine Optimization, legal directory partnerships, social media marketing, content writing and more.