Archives February 2022

MARKETING GUIDE FOR LAWYERS: 7 TIPS AND TRICKS FOR LAW FIRM MARKETING

In today’s competitive market, law firms need to constantly be evolving their marketing strategies if they want to continue to land new business and grow revenues. Gone are the days when superior legal skills and word of mouth were enough to keep clients happy and drum up new business. Clients expect innovation and technological advancement, which applies not only to practicing law but to marketing efforts as well. The following marketing guide for lawyers will help you make sure your law firm is on the right track to reaching new clients and growing your business.

1. Build a Brand

A good marketing strategy involves creating a solid brand for your law firm. Branding is about more than just coming up with an eye-catching logo and official business cards and letterhead. It’s about developing a strong message that you want to convey to your clients and potential clients. What image do you want to portray, and why should clients choose your law firm over another? Branding is about figuring out what your firm does better than the others and what makes you unique. Once you figure out your brand, you can incorporate it into all your other marketing efforts to make them more successful.

2. Make Sure You Have a Strong and User-Friendly Website

Today, a good website is the best way to reach clients. If you don’t already have one, now’s the time to build one. Even if you do have a website, you should take a close look to make sure it’s doing what you need it to do for your law firm. Your website should be clean and easy to navigate, clearly conveying your brand and ways for potential clients to get in touch with you. In addition to a clear mission statement, you should consider having specialized web pages for every service you offer. If you’re not tech- or design-savvy, you should hire an experienced web designer to help you build a website that will wow your customers. After all, your website is your 24/7 presence and a way to give your clients information even when you’re not available.

3. Create Original Content

While having good website copy is important, you need to be trying to reach a broader audience. You need to show your clients and potential clients that you’re up on current developments and are always honing your expertise in the areas you practice. The best way to do that is to regularly be creating original content to offer insights to your clients. This should include both blog posts on your website and more in-depth articles in relevant publications. If like many lawyers, you’re too busy to create content yourself, you should partner with a vendor who can handle content creation for you. The important thing is that you’re getting your name out there and demonstrating your expertise.

4. Get to Know SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of using certain targeted keywords and strategies to get your firm ranked higher in internet search results. SEO comes into play in your website copy and the other content you create. When potential clients run a web search for lawyers in your practice area or information on one of your specialties, you want your law firm to appear within the first few search hits, not on the fifth page of Google results. SEO is important and requires a fair amount of thought and strategy. This is another place you can partner with an expert vendor if you’re not getting the results you want on your own.

5. Embrace Social Media

In 2019, social media is much more than a place to share viral cat videos or clever memes. Social media is a valuable and necessary marketing tool for any business, and law firms are no exception. There are several social media platforms to choose from these days, and no firm should try to master them all. Pick a few that you think your clients are most likely to use, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and make a point of regularly posting content on them to get your name out there.

6. Capitalize on Good Reviews

Like any other business, law firms benefit greatly from positive reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, or LinkedIn. Good reviews from current and past clients are one of the best ways to convince new clients to use your services. Don’t be afraid to directly solicit positive reviews from your current clients. Not only does it help you grow your business with new customers, but the feedback will also help you ensure that you’re offering the best services possible. You should also include some of these positive testimonials on your website.

7. Monitor your Marketing Efforts

A marketing strategy is only helpful if you know it’s effective. That’s why it’s important to rely on tracking, reporting, and analytics tools to see how much traction you’re getting on your website and your various social media posts and articles. You should figure out what exactly you’re trying to accomplish with your marketing strategy and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that you want to meet. If you’re falling short of your KPIs, you need to develop a plan to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Having the right marketing strategy is key to retaining clients and attracting new business. The marketing guide for lawyers outlined above is a great way to get started. At any step of the way, you should consider partnering with legal marketing experts to make sure you’re getting the most out of your law firm marketing strategy.

16 Lawyers Share Their Best Law Firm Marketing Tips

So you need to get more clients for your law firm. You’ve heard online marketing works, but you’re not sure where to start. Between Google, Facebook, PPC, SEO, and online reviews, there’s a lot to consider—and there are plenty of consultants who will claim that their solution is best.

How do you know what law firm marketing tactics will work for you? How do you know what to invest in and what to ignore?

We’ve published several tips from individual law firms here, and we hope you find them useful.

1. Take advantage of free law firm marketing options

“I think you should maximize your free marketing opportunities before spending a lot of money on marketing. For example, claiming your listings, getting a 10.0 Avvo rating, etc.”

– Heather Meglino, Managing Partner and Owner at Meglino Morse Law

2. Position yourself as a thought leader

“For us, (and I work in digital marketing as well as law) it’s all about internal and external SEO, and inbound marketing. The content (whether it’s videos on your site, monthly newsletters, etc.) will depend on your ideal/target clients. Setting yourself up as a subject matter expert through inbound is the most cost-effective lead generation tool out there!”

– Mandy Woodland, Owner at Mandy Woodland Law, PLC Inc.

3. Create educational content and promote it in the right places

“For our law firm, we have found that we gain the most traction through writing timely educational articles about estate planning-related issues. While we post these articles to our firm’s website and social media sites, we have found the most immediate results from posting to LinkedIn.”

– Matthew J. Tuller, Principal Attorney and Owner at the Law Office of Matthew J. Tuller

4. Build meaningful relationships with clients

“We are located in a very small, conservative resort town. Business is still based on relationships—who you know and how you are perceived as contributing to the community. A website is essential for credibility and general info, but networking and relationships are key.

It will be interesting to see how this changes as the current face-to-face generation phases out and the face-to-phone generation phases in.”

– Karen Klukiewicz, COO at Patrick Neale & Associates

5. Focus on securing referrals

“I have a referral-based practice. It’s important that my website be modern, clean, and work on both desktop and mobile.”

– Danielle Huntley, Principal at Huntley Inc.

“We do a lot of cross referrals and have a very strong referral network. We also blog, speak at symposiums, teach, and are regular guests on talk radio.”

– Leslie Lelii, Office Manager at Virtus Law, PLLC

6. Take steps to multiply your referrals

“[T]ry to categorize the best groups your referrals come from and hone in on them. Develop relationships with your referral sources. Reach out, thank them, recognize their contributions. The referrals will not only keep coming, but will multiply.”

– Sean Robichaud, Lead Counsel at Robichaud’s

7. Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth

“The best marketing is word-of-mouth. I still get about half of my clients from word-of-mouth. Past clients are the best source of getting new clients!”

– Jonathan G. Stein, owner, Law Offices of Jonathan G. Stein

8. Prioritize online reviews

“Our paid and free profiles on Avvo actually seem to be the best return on investment, combined with the intense level of effort that we have put into building our website and newsletters into a real library of resources for people who are trying to learn more about estate planning. SEO of our website and making sure the many, many, many directories that are out there have accurate listings for us seem to be the next most useful steps.

We have been blessed with a ton of great reviews, and I hear all the time that the reviews were one reason even people who were actually referred by another client or a professional adviser made their appointments.”

– Loraine DiSalvo, Partner at Morgan & DiSalvo, P.C.

“My free profile with Avvo has … been a truly great marketing tool. I have received so many inquiries for legal help and many have become clients. I also utilize a strong referral network, and I am very involved in my state and local bar associations as well as the ABA where I have speaking opportunities. I’m still working on my website.”

– Kari Petrasek, Attorney at Petrasek Law, PLLC

9. Claim your presence online, but also focus on your community

“I do everything I can to claim my online presence with websites, directories, and assorted profiles. I do get several calls from having a good Avvo profile and a premium (paid) profile.

Otherwise, I pay little for advertising. We instead cultivate a good reputation in the community by sponsoring/supporting community events and organizations, personally networking within the community, and sending care packages to referral sources and others who seek to help us. We try to be very genuine in our approach and it has always worked for us.”

– Ruth Goldner, Attorney & Counselor at Goldner Deeg PLLC

10. Build a quality website that convinces visitors to choose you

“I’ve found that the best leads come straight from my website. People Google “Kingston criminal defence lawyer” and I come up in the top three results. I think I have a good website compared to the other people who also come up on the first page and it draws people in to contact me. By this time they’ve already checked me out and, I think, like what they’ve seen. I’ve found these clients are easy to land, even on the first phone call, with no follow up.

I’ve found that referrals from lead generating sites are less committed. They’re often shopping around or are just looking for free legal advice, it seems.”

– Simon Borys, Principal lawyer at Simon Borys

11. Invest in SEO …

“For online marketing there are two primary principles: Have a valuable website, and create valuable content. If you demonstrate your value instead of describing it, potential clients will flock to you.

At our firm, Palace Law, we have taken steps to build our internal SEO and external SEO. We have videos on our website introducing who we are and offering free information to potential clients. The latter (often called freemium services) is one of the most important things lawyers can do. Offer up valuable information to potential clients for free, form contracts, legal research, and instructional videos, and you’ll find that this not only increases your SEO, but also draws in a lot of clients. We also advertise and maintain profiles on paid and free sites.

– Jordan Couch, Attorney at Palace Law

12. … But know that it’s a long game

“I like SEO marketing, in that it helps keep you top of mind for people for when they need you, but I find the issue with that is timing.

People only retain a lawyer when they need a lawyer. [Legal services are] not an impulse buy item. So unless your SEO marketing is catching [potential clients] just when they need you, it doesn’t seem to generate a lot of immediate, direct ROI.

I think when people need a lawyer, they either think of you because you’re top of mind because of your previous SEO marketing, or they just Google you, which is why I think my website is the best tool.”

– Simon Borys, Principal lawyer at Simon Borys

13. Target local prospects with digital ad campaigns

“Our firm is currently running a Google Ad campaign for our surrounding counties—any time someone performs a Google search for family law attorneys in our county, they see our website. It has produced a huge surge in new client intakes.”

– Ebony Anderson, Paralegal at McCabe Russell

14. Try QR codes

“One fun thing we have had success with is running traditional print ads with scannable QR Codes [that lead] to our website … After each of our ads, we always seem to get business through the QR link.”

– Seth Kruse, Associate Attorney at Kasper & Associates, PLLC

15. Get onto social media

“Social media marketing is the future for lawyers. Most people perform research on their smartphones. I get one to two significant cases per year from paid marketing efforts on Facebook for a minimal investment.”

– Barry Walker, Managing Partner at Walker Law

16. Consider your practice area

“[Questions about marketing strategy] really can’t be answered meaningfully without knowing what areas you practice in, and without thinking about how your clients find lawyers. My practice is limited to representing other lawyers—90% or more of my business comes from referrals. A good website, occasional blogging, some Twitter use—these may be helpful, but you still need to differentiate yourself from all the other lawyers buying Adwords, sending out email newsletters, etc. What works for a lawyer in one practice area may not work for someone with a different practice.”

– Eric Cooperstein, Attorney at the Law Office of Eric T. Cooperstein, PLLC

When it comes to law firm marketing, find what works for you

Investing in marketing can get your law firm plenty of new clients—but it needs to be done right. Consider your practice area and your clients, and what works best for them (and you) before spending your time and money on any law firm marketing efforts.

To conclude, here are a few overarching themes from everyone’s advice above:

  • Invest in your online presence. A well-designed website and strong online reviews can help potential clients find you and choose to hire you.
  • Invest in SEO. Investing in SEO for your law firm website can do a lot to help people find you.
  • Build your referral networks. Build relationships with your referral sources, and be active in your community to help gain more referrals.