Running a client-centered law firm entails placing your clients at the heart of your thinking. This goes above and beyond what you supply in terms of legal deliverables. Client-centric law firm implies putting yourself in your client's shoes and looking at their experience of choosing an attorney and going through the legal process from their perspective. It also means thinking about how you can provide a good client experience in an efficient way for your firm.
Relationships and a good word-of-mouth reputation are the best ways for lawyers to get their best work. But with the internet, what has changed is that a lawyer's relationship and reputation can be built more rapidly due to recent forms of digital communication such as social media.
A client's access to and selection of legal firms has undergone a sea change, and the results have been spectacular. As a result of digital marketing, lawyers can now develop their professional and business skills in a matter of months rather than years.
As intimidating as digital marketing may appear at first, the key is to deconstruct what makes up your law firm's digital footprint into its subcomponents.
Let's take a closer look at this!
The activity of acquiring new clients for your law business is known as law firm marketing. Digital marketing, SEO, blogging, print, and digital commercials, and other forms of advertising are all included in a law firm marketing strategy. You may also use law firm marketing to automate certain duties as part of your marketing strategy. You can spend a great deal of time and effort promoting your business, no matter how you do it.
Legal marketing is a delicate balancing act that requires careful consideration of your resources, money, and time to let you concentrate on practicing and running your practice. The goal is to establish which law firm marketing strategies are most effective, and understanding where to begin is essential.
You'll find all the information you need here to properly promote your law practice—from SEO to networking to everything else. This article will help you understand essential law firm marketing terms, how to start constructing your marketing strategy and assess your efforts. In addition, you'll get knowledge about marketing statistics, best practices, insights into the legal sector, and the most effective techniques and tools for marketing your law firm.
A marketing strategy for a law firm, no matter how big or small can be put together quickly and effectively with the right approach. These strategies can help you reach your goal, whether you desire to build a long-term solo firm or a fast-growing consulting business.
Here are 21 law firm marketing ideas that can help you grow your law firm:
You should begin by defining your marketing objectives. In other words, set yourself SMART objectives. To make your marketing strategy successful, you must first identify specific, measurable objectives. SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) will help you achieve your objectives. Set clear objectives up front so you can track your progress and see what is and isn't working.
Consider the following factors when formulating your objective:
The next step is to connect each of your objectives to a larger purpose.
Consider the following marketing objectives:
A well-thought marketing budget is an essential component of any legal firm's business plan. Identifying your goals and calculating the amount of revenue required to achieve them are the important steps in figuring out how much money you should set aside specifically for law firm marketing campaigns. The next step is to determine how many cases per year you need to bill in order to reach your revenue target. Each practice area will have its own set of rules and regulations.
Your complete law firm marketing budget can be determined once you've laid the framework. Take note of your legal firm's current status, i.e., are you just getting started, or has your firm been around for a while? Consider the competitiveness of your market, i.e., if you're a commercial lawyer attempting to create a clientele or if you're the only family lawyer in a small town?
Don't forget to account for the potential costs of law firm marketing technologies in your entire marketing strategy. Examples of law firm technology include content marketing systems as well as individual apps for SEO, social media scheduling, and email campaigns.
Once you've established a marketing budget for your legal practice, it's critical that you stick to it. As long as you don't keep an eye on the bottom line, you won't be able to build your business by acquiring additional clients. It's crucial to keep track of this data so that you can proactively move the focus of your efforts to the marketing strategies for law firms.
Even legal firms need to devote time to building their brand. Growing your business depends on being able to resonate with and connect with the proper kind of customers, which is made possible by having a strong brand.
To begin with, figure out what your goals are. Once you've figured out your brand's main values, write a one- to two-sentence summary of those values. And distill them into a one-sentence statement that reflects your core beliefs.
Develop your value proposition from there. What sets you apart from the competition is your unique commitment to customers. Once you've figured out your unique selling point, you can begin writing it. It's a one-sentence summary of your value propositions, highlighting what sets you apart.
Identifying a buyer persona is the next step. This is a semi-fictional depiction of your ideal customer. All of your attempts to attract and keep new customers will be much more effective if you have a customer persona to guide them. As a result, you'll get more referrals and higher ratings for your law practice.
Use market research and insights from your firm to create a buyer's persona while marketing for lawyers.
Having an idea of where your law company stands in the market will help you get ahead of the competition. It is possible to differentiate yourself from the competition if you know your competitors, their strengths, and their limitations.
For example, while competitors A and B are both working on their SEO efforts, you may utilize this as an opportunity to make yours the best it can be. Additionally, this will assist you to win over local customers who might otherwise have chosen a competition.
It doesn't have to be difficult to undertake competitor research. Find law firms that specialize in the same field as you by searching for them online. Check out their website and social media accounts to see how they stack up against each other. Your local competition can easily be found with a basic Google search.
Often, a prospective client's initial impression of your legal company comes from your website. First-time website visitors in search of a lawyer have a terrific opportunity to make an excellent first impression with you.
Using high-quality images is a fantastic place to begin. Then, state your services and practice areas in a concise and unambiguous manner. Make a point of mentioning any accolades, distinctions, or noteworthy events you've had, and be sure to include your contact information clearly.
If you currently have a website or are planning to construct one, check out our law firm website checklist. There are numerous examples of high-quality and high-converting landing pages for law firms in this article that cover all of the essential elements.
It's possible that potential clients will find you in other places outside your legal practice website. Online profiles can be claimed for free on a variety of platforms, including review sites like Yelp and state bar directories.
Some other platforms include:
Advertising your legal practice and the services you provide as an attorney online can make it easier for potential clients to locate you, but there is no magic formula.
You must go where your potential customers are if you want to use online advertising to bring in new business. There are a plethora of social media platforms to choose from; you must choose which ones are best for your legal business and practice area. Advertising on social media may have a big impact on the success of your law practice if you do it right.
Using social media to market your legal business can be accomplished in a number of ways.
When you have a large number of online profiles for your legal business, clients may begin to post evaluations. These have to be carefully monitored.
82% of customers searched for reviews, and 81% looked for referrals when seeking legal help, according to the 2021 Legal Trends Report. One or two bad reviews are fine, but a steady stream could scare away potential clients.
You should always ask for an online review at the end of a case, especially if the customer was exceedingly delighted. However, be sure your request complies with the advertising guidelines of your state bar.
If you're already good with words, put them to good use in expanding your law practice. There are several benefits to blogging and content marketing, such as increasing your brand authority. In addition, you can utilize content to demonstrate your knowledge in a certain field. You'll gain the confidence of potential customers if you're able to answer their basic questions. It's more probable that they'll hire you if you show that you're an expert in a particular field.
If you're going to establish a blog, do your research and look for evergreen content marketing services that pertain to the legal profession. Maintain a consistent pace and defined purpose for your material, and ensure you deliver high-quality, useful content.
Attend local networking and bar events to make the most of it. Think about what you want to get out of each interaction and how you want to spend your energy and time on it. Have a plan for engaging in meaningful conversations that will help you establish a name for yourself and generate recommendations.
An important part of every legal firm's business and income growth is to get recommendations from other attorneys. As a result, developing referral connections with other attorneys is an investment that will help your law practice grow and prosper.
No matter what strategy you use to promote your law business, it's critical to track the return on your marketing investments. You won't know whether your strategies are making revenue or failing if you don't measure them. If you can figure out which of your marketing tactics aren't working, you can stop investing in them and focus on the ones that are. This will help your marketing plan flourish.
In order to attract more customers, you may wish to create a brand-new website. Or perhaps you've been in business for a long time and have a fantastic reputation, thanks to the numerous positive reviews you've received. In order to find out, all you have to do is check the numbers.
Start by finding out how your clients found out about your business. Although this is a low-tech strategy that simply provides anecdotal evidence, it is an excellent place to begin. Of course, you'll need a more in-depth analysis for the most accurate results.
In order to monitor your legal firm's online marketing activities, you need to use website tracking. Google Analytics is an excellent option if you're an attorney business looking for a low-cost way to monitor your website's traffic. Using Google Analytics, you will learn things like the referring domain of a visitor, how long they spent on your site and the total number of individuals that have visited your site.
Outsourcing legal operations or employing a marketing consultant, site designer, SEO specialist, or other sorts of law firm marketing services to assist your firm's needs may be worthwhile, depending on your goals and marketing budget.
At the same time, you're a specialist in the field of law and own a business. So, if marketing isn't your strong suit, you should consider hiring a law firm marketing company. Consider your options before deciding to collaborate with an outside law firm marketing agency.
Increasing your search engine rankings necessitates the use of link-building strategies. High-quality inbound links are considered votes of confidence by Google and hence are a major ranking component. In addition, creating shareable content is a key component of a successful marketing strategy.
The following are some alternative ideas for gaining links:
Video could be a significant aspect of your content strategy. However, the use of video in legal marketing is still a challenge for many businesses. There's a lot to cover here, but let's focus on a few key areas where video might help you bring in new customers.
To get the word out about your legal company, you may use promotional videos. It's always a good idea to solicit video testimonials from some of your most loyal customers. It helps to establish your credibility and authority, which goes a long way toward persuading potential clients to hire you.
Promotional videos for a legal firm tend to offer a more polished and professional image than other forms of media.
Law companies haven't had a lot of interest in webinars in the past decade, despite their growing popularity among other industries. The COVID-19 pandemic may have had an impact on that. However, law companies are discovering that webinars are an effective marketing tool for a variety of reasons.
Webinars can either be delivered in real-time to a live audience or recorded and subsequently viewed at a later time. As a result, they might continue to draw in new customers even when they are no longer in use.
The following are a few other pointers for a fruitful webinar:
Lawyers make or break a law firm. Make sure each lawyer in your firm has a well-written attorney bio on your website. The majority of lawyer profiles are tedious and resemble a resume. Customers want a somebody who not only has the appropriate educational background and law degree but also is a person they can talk to and who they feel comfortable asking questions of.
In the bio section of many lawyers' websites, they list their education and experience. Despite the fact that this information isn't the primary focus, it must be included someplace.
It is critical that your legal firm's website has practice area sections. As a result, these sites should place a high value on creating in-depth material. Practice area pages are the antithesis of a standard law firm service page. Your visitors will be more likely to stay and interact with your content if you use these pages to give in-depth content and a rich user experience.
It is possible to achieve four essential objectives by using practice area power pages:
Topics must be explained in a way that non-specialists can understand. Avoid jargon, especially if you're working in a technical field, and explain things in plain language. Consider using graphics and video whenever possible to convey more complicated concepts. Engaging audiences are particularly well-served by visual media like video. It gives the name a face and generates trust and authority.
Despite the fact that email marketing may not be your only kind of outbound marketing, it is one of the most critical. Email is one of the most successful ways to reach both existing and new consumers, despite the rise of social media and other communication modes.
Sending targeted emails to your network can help you create your brand, build a reputation, acquire repeat business, and convert new leads into paying customers. With a minimum of effort, no less.
Ads on Facebook are becoming increasingly popular, and it's easy to see why. If you're looking for an audience, Facebook has more than two billion users in less than a decade. Because of this, over seven million businesses are currently advertising on Facebook.
It is difficult for most legal firms to get started, but those who do so correctly experience great results.
Consider the following if you want to advertise on Facebook in 2022:
Marketing for law firms may have a different meaning for you. The ability to retarget people who have previously shown an interest in legal services is now available to law firms.
Most visitors to your firm's website, LinkedIn profile, or Facebook ad will not call or email you after their initial encounter with you. Your ad may be clicked on by a potential customer, but they may never get in touch with you. They may have assumed they didn't qualify for the help you were giving, or they had already contacted another law firm to follow up on their behalf. Suppose this person later finds out they're eligible for compensation or that the law company they hired isn't operating to their expectations. Your ad can be brought back to the attention of the individual who first saw it, encouraging them to call you for a free consultation.
Keeping track of the results while marketing a law firm. It is essential to ensure that your hard work pays off. Make sure you know how your potential customers are finding out about you. How many people are coming to your site and converting into leads or paying customers? How many of your social media advertisements are being clicked on? Take a look at all of the essential metrics for the marketing campaigns you've run.
Even if you think your website is great and clients adore it isn't enough to make a good impression; you still need statistics to back it up. To be sure, you'll have to check the numbers.
S
Fantastic tips
P
Thanks for sharing
L
Very well put
J
Good suggestions. Will surely implement these.
C
I also read your web design examples blog. It was very helpful.