If it seems like generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are suddenly everywhere—and everyone is talking about them—you are not mistaken. The last few months have seen an explosion of these tools and technologies, ranging from OpenAI’s constantly evolving ChatGPT tool to Apple’s recently announced Apple Intelligence tool. In fact, these announcements seem to occur so frequently that it can be difficult for the public to keep up with each newly launched technology, not to mention the implications of these tools and their potential impact on various industries.
Ever since generative AI tools have become widely available, every sector has scrambled to measure and predict how these technologies will affect their job markets and overall purpose. For instance, any field that relies on people to write content is wondering whether these positions are at risk, as their generative AI counterparts are able to compose written content in a fraction of the time (and, therefore, at a much lower cost). However, before these industries rush to embrace generative AI tools wholeheartedly, it’s essential to take some time to identify the limitations and potential drawbacks of entrusting AI with these critical tasks. As a small to mid-sized law firm, you understandably want to implement a cost-effective digital marketing strategy that supports your goals and expands your practice. This post will cover some of the current best practices for including generative AI in your law firm’s content marketing strategy in ways that minimize potential issues or challenges that could impede or undermine your efforts.
Using AI in Digital Marketing for Law Firms
There are several newly launched AI tools that can help law firms and other client-facing businesses streamline their marketing efforts and reach more of the people they are hoping to serve. Generally speaking, the use of AI in digital marketing affects three general areas and components of the digital marketing landscape: Generating content, personalization, and optimization for voice search. Here’s a brief overview of these top three AI digital marketing trends.
Using Generative AI for Crafting Marketing Content
One of the most attractive capabilities of generative AI tools like ChatGPT is the ability of this technology to generate paragraphs of content in mere seconds of receiving commands and parameters. For example, a personal injury law firm could tell ChatGPT to compose a 6 paragraph blog post that highlights the steps someone should take immediately following an auto accident. In no time, the tool will present clearly defined paragraphs of content that the law firm can post to its website, blog, or social media profile. You can even tell this tool to integrate targeted keywords into the body of the text, which makes the result more visible to search engine algorithms that will analyze the content and begin to present it to people searching for car accident information online.
However, as attractive as this option may seem, it’s essential to understand the limitations of using generative AI to write content for your law firm’s website or digital marketing materials. While the benefits of generative AI are attractive, the responses generated by these tools can contain factual errors or outdated information. Moreover, they may plagiarize or use copyrighted material when composing content and fail to provide the proper credit to the original author. For now, the most reliable and effective content still comes from experienced writers who are familiar with best practices for researching, analyzing, and crediting sources when crafting blog posts, websites, and social media posts.
Personalizing Your Marketing Efforts to Reach Potential Clients
Another promising capability of AI tools is their ability to make marketing campaigns more personalized to individual clients. Marketers can use AI technologies to analyze consumer behavior and create marketing campaigns that anticipate and address common client needs and concerns. Developing an email or social media marketing campaign that uses AI to customize the experience to individual clients is a powerful way to engage potential clients. For example, it’s possible to use AI across the omnichannel to note when someone is searching for legal advice or information about a legal topic and present an offer or ad that directs them to your law firm’s website or social media page. Although this capability already holds great promise for businesses, we have yet to explore the full range of possibilities for customizing your marketing strategy to engage with your audience on a personal level.
Exploring the Potential of Voice Search Optimization
As more people use voice commands to interact with their smartphones and home speaker systems, voice search features are becoming increasingly common. For instance, someone may have a question about estate planning and ask their smartphone to search for information. It’s critical to recognize that people search differently depending on whether they type their query into a computer or smartphone or use voice search to get Siri or Alexa to provide them with information about a topic. As a legal professional, you should craft your digital marketing content to appeal to both traditional and voice searches. Generally speaking, people tend to use more conversational phrases when using voice search tools, so try to integrate more informal and conversational words and phrases into your content marketing strategy. This purposeful effort makes it more likely that the search engine algorithm will present your information to potential clients when they perform an online or voice search in your area.
Should Law Firms Use AI for Digital Marketing?
Like any nuanced topic, the decision of whether to use generative AI tools when crafting your law firm’s digital marketing strategy is not black and white. Instead, it’s up to you to articulate your legal marketing goals and identify the strategies that best support your desired outcomes. As we continue to move forward into a rapidly changing digital and technological landscape, why not enlist the guidance of an experienced and knowledgeable digital marketing professional? With a highly qualified legal marketing expert by your side, you can make more informed decisions with greater confidence.
In today’s ever-changing digital landscape, it’s more important than ever for your law firm to implement a digital marketing strategy that drives traffic to your website and reaches more potential clients. Give LegalRev a call today at (800) 893-2590 to discuss your options with a highly qualified and friendly digital marketing professional.
