By Legal Futures Associate MLT Digital
During the course of the last year, AI has emerged as one of the most transformative developments in the legal marketplace. As a law firm digital marketing agency committed to prosperity, trust, and innovation, we’ve been at the forefront of integrating AI into our practices.
Our mission goes beyond adaptation; we view AI as a catalyst for client growth, the development of our team, and our overall mentality.
In this article, we will explain the ways in which we have been using it, sharing some of the tools we have been using and hopefully help you make your marketing efforts more efficient and effective. We’ll explore how AI is revolutionising law firm marketing and creating unprecedented opportunities for growth and success.
If you’re eager to find out more, you can visit our website here.
1. AI in law firm content creation
AI-powered content writing and editing tools have emerged as a game-changer for law firm marketers. These tools, largely built on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, utilise natural language processing and machine learning to generate content based on user prompts.
We have been using AI to help create and edit blog posts, social media content, email copy, landing page copy and ad copy.
AI-generated content is not perfect, with potential for what’s become known as “hallucination” if not prompted in the right way. It therefore still requires thoughtful prompting before such creation, in addition to human editing and verification afterwards, but it can significantly reduce the time it takes to create that content. It can also help to remove the daunting prospect of facing a blank page and can also help everyone in any given law firm to write in a consistent brand-aligned tone of voice if trained properly.
Additionally, if you have fee earners who are normally reluctant (or unwilling) to come up with ideas for content for the website (that will help them grow their practice) then a number of these tools will create ideas for you autonomously.
Some example prompts for the purpose of writing content whether for your website or for emails could include:-
- “Draft an article outline based on the following ideas: [insert ideas]”
- “Summarise this text in plain English: [copy and paste text]”
- “Rewrite this text according to our brand which is as follows: [copy and paste brand/tone of voice guidelines]
- “Provide counter-arguments for the following: [copy and paste text]”
- “Rewrite the following but expand on it: [copy and paste text]”
- “Edit the following by making it more concise: [copy and paste text]”
For the purposes outlined, we ourselves use Writesonic, which caters to the specific needs of digital marketing agencies, particularly regarding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Some features of Writesonic include:
- Keyword suggestion tool
- Meta description and title generation
- Content optimisation
- Blog post ideas
- Structured data generation
- Content quality and readability
2. Enhancing visual content with AI
In need of imagery for your marketing materials that transcends the clichéd stock imagery scattered across the internet?
Tools like DALL-E and Midjourney enable the generation of new images and variations based on user prompts. While AI-generated images will not entirely replace traditional photography for law firms, AI can be harnessed for image analysis, processing and tagging to optimise search engine visibility.
One can make significant cost savings here without compromising on quality.
Here are some notable examples:
RunwayML
- RunwayML is a platform that offers a variety of AI-powered tools for creative expression, including image generation. It allows users to create and manipulate images using AI models, making it popular among artists and designers.
DALL·E
- DALL·E, developed by OpenAI, is an advanced image generator that uses a text-to-image approach. It is capable of generating images based on textual descriptions provided by users, demonstrating the potential for AI to understand and create visual content from natural language.
Midjourney
- Midjourney is an AI platform designed for visual content enhancement, using advanced algorithms to generate unique images for marketing purposes. While it does take some time and technical skill to properly set up, it can allow you to create impressive logos, artwork, and other graphics based on your own descriptions.
Canva
- Canva incorporates AI elements into its design platform, providing a user-friendly interface for creating visually appealing graphics, presentations, and marketing materials. It streamlines the creative process with features like image recognition and design suggestions, making it a useful choice for enhancing visual content without extensive design expertise.
Artbreeder
- Artbreeder is a popular platform that leverages AI to enable users to generate and manipulate images. It allows users to blend and evolve images using AI algorithms, offering a unique way to create visually stunning artwork.
This Person Does Not Exist
- This Person Does Not Exist is an example of an AI-driven image generator that creates realistic-looking portraits of people who do not actually exist. It uses a type of AI called a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to generate lifelike faces.
3. AI & video marketing
Over the course of the past year I have noticed a lot more law firms beginning to use video to engage with their target market. We’ve adopted this strategy ourselves through our Your Law Firm Success podcast which incorporates both audio and video.
As anyone involved in this will know, post production can be a fairly time consuming process. Similar to the other ideas we’ve discussed, AI powered video tools can streamline the video creation process.
AI tools can assist in video tagging and classification, automate video editing, post-production tasks, and generate video summaries, closed captions and transcripts.
We’re not suggesting that AI-generated videos are used to replace authentic footage of law firm staff and offices, but instead improve the efficiency and effectiveness of video marketing efforts.
There are several AI-driven video production and editing tools that have gained popularity in recent years. These tools leverage artificial intelligence to automate and enhance various aspects of video creation and editing.
Here are a few examples:
Magisto
Magisto is an AI-powered video editing tool that uses machine learning algorithms to analyse and edit videos. It offers features such as automatic video stabilisation, facial recognition, and automated editing styles.
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro, a widely used video editing software, incorporates AI-powered features like Auto Reframe, which automatically adjusts the aspect ratio of videos for different platforms, and Adobe Sensei, a framework that utilises AI and machine learning to streamline video editing workflows.
Lumen5
Lumen5 is a video creation platform that uses AI to turn text content into engaging videos. It automates the video creation process by analysing the provided text and matching it with relevant visuals, audio, and video clips.
Animoto
Animoto is a cloud-based video creation service that employs AI to help users create marketing videos, social media content, and more. It offers features like intelligent video editing, design templates, and a library of licensed music to enhance the video creation process.
Wibbitz
Wibbitz is an automated video creation platform powered by AI. It enables users to transform text-based content into videos through automated video editing, voiceovers, and the integration of visuals and graphics based on the provided content.
These tools demonstrate the diverse applications of AI in video production and editing, showcasing how artificial intelligence can streamline and enhance the creative process for content creators and businesses.
4. Harnessing AI for data analysis and search
AI has already transformed the way search engines like Google rank and understand content. Google’s RankBrain algorithm utilises machine learning to interpret search queries and improve search results.
Law firms can benefit from AI-assisted analytics to gain valuable insights from their website and marketing data. AI can provide a deeper understanding of user behaviour, preferences, and satisfaction, enabling law firms to optimise their marketing strategies and improve client experiences.
AI and paid advertising
In the realm of paid advertising, AI is beginning to revolutionise the way businesses target, reach, and engage with their audiences. We can expect this to continue as major search engines incorporate more and more AI into their biggest revenue-generating platforms.
Personalised targeting
AI empowers advertisers to create highly personalised and targeted campaigns by analysing vast amounts of data to identify specific audience segments based on demographics, behaviours, and preferences. This enables advertisers to deliver tailored messages to the right people at the right time, ultimately maximising the impact of their ad spend.
Dynamic ad optimisation
Through AI-driven dynamic ad optimisation, advertisers can automatically adjust and personalise ad elements such as images, copy, and calls-to-action in real time based on user interactions and performance data. This dynamic approach ensures that ads are continuously optimised for maximum relevance and engagement.
Predictive analytics
AI facilitates predictive analytics in paid advertising by forecasting future trends, identifying potential high-value customers, and predicting the likelihood of conversions. By leveraging predictive insights, advertisers can allocate their budgets more effectively and refine their targeting strategies for better ROI.
Automated bidding and budget allocation
AI-powered tools enable automated bidding and budget allocation, allowing advertisers to optimise their ad placements and bids based on a range of variables such as user intent, historical performance, and competitive dynamics. This automation streamlines the process and enhances the precision of ad spend allocation.
Enhanced ad creativity
AI can also be utilised to generate and test ad creatives at scale, helping advertisers to uncover valuable insights into which ad variations resonate best with their target audience.
On the 23rd of January Google revealed its first Gemini AI powered search ad features. These include automatically generated relevant content for advertiser’s creative and performance assets including images, headlines, descriptions and content.
Conclusion
The integration of AI into law firm marketing strategies is poised to revolutionise the way in which we market law firms and attract new clients for them.
With advancements occurring practically every day, now is the time to embrace AI when it comes to law firm marketing.
By continuing to harness the power of AI, we can uncover new opportunities for client growth, team developments and our overall approach.
If you’d like to find out more about incorporating AI into your law firm, please get in touch.
