Are you ready and prepared to grow your law firm for the year 2023? In this guide, we at founderactivity have put together everything you need to know to about law firm marketing strategies. The practice of bringing in potential clients into your law firms in known as law firm marketing. Your strategies to market your law firm can include a mix of digital marketing, SEO, digital ads, blogging and print media.
What is Law Firm Marketing?
Law firm marketing is known as the process of marketing a legal practice in order to attract more clients. Your marketing process can include.
- Brand awareness
- Increasing lead contact information
- Scheduling consultations with potential clients
- Turning potential clients to clientele
- Increasing repeat business and referrals
The techniques use in marketing law firms can either be from traditional methods like referrals and local advertising or through digital means such as website promotion and search engine optimization (SEO). Marketing in legal firms can be handled by the sales and marketing department or it can be outsourced by third party providers.
Do Law Firms need Marketing?
Marketing your law firms and the legal services you provide is an important part that affects the growth and success. It is a very effective method to consistently attract and gain more clients. There are lawyers who rely on the reputation that they have built to keep new clients coming in. However, for law firms who are not there yet, a strategic marketing plan is how they are able to ensure that the business name resonate with clients in legal services industry.
Marketing Terms for Law Firms
To implement a marketing plan for a law firm, you should aware of its terms. Importantly, understand the basics before you plan on moving for planning and execution. The list below will educate you on the marketing terms you need to know.
- Marketing leads
- Conversion rate
- Call-to-action (CTA)
- Landing pages
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Return on investment (ROI)
- Pay-per-click (PPC)
.1. Marketing leads
A potential client for your firm is known as a marketing lead. People who become a marketing lead is someone more than just who visits your company website. Marketing leads are the potential clients who shows an interest in speaking to you. They are the ones who fills in an application at your firms, calls your firm or who provides their contact information to stay in touch.
.2. Conversion rate
The conversion rate is known as the ratio of people who visit a website or advertisements to people who become a lead (potential client). Conversion rates can be tracked on either one page or your entire website. This will help you to look at the progress of converting leads into paying clients of the firm.
.3. Call to action (CTA)
Call to action or known as CTA is best known as the request of a visitor at your site or a lead who wants to take the next step into becoming a paying client. This is recognized through an option on your website that leads to your “Contact Us” form or an option that is a paid advertisement that will link them to your website.
.4. Landing pages
Webpages that is built to get visitors to take an action like clicking a link, filling out a form, booking a consultation or make a phone call are known as landing pages.
.5. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO the acronym for search engine optimization is referred as the practice of optimization of websites to help them appear at the top search for relevant keywords.
Keywords or keyword phrases are words or phrases that represent the subject you build your webpages around. For example, when you are looking for a family lawyer in Brooklyn of Manhattan, your target keyword would be “New York Family Lawyer”. After inserting your target keyword in a search engine of your choice and search, your search will signal websites and show up on your search results that is related to the keyword.
.6. Return on investment (ROI)
ROI or also known as return on investment is a performance that is used in many business areas. Most importantly it is used in marketing. To keep your business profitable and to continue to grow your law firm, you should ensure that you receive good returns on the investments that has been for marketing activities.
.7. Pay-per-click (PPC)
An advertising model where advertisers pay an amount every time a visitor on the websites clicks on one their advertisements is called pay-per-click.
Traditional Marketing Steps for Law Firms
Marketing tactics that use promotional channels like referrals, print media, broadcast, billboards, and local promotional sponsorships is known as traditional marketing. These methods have been used successfully for decades and remain effective even today.
1. Referrals
Mouth to mouth or best known as referrals are the pillars of legal marketing. Any satisfied client can be more persuasive than any ad coming from experience. Your satisfied clients will often mention to their friends, family and colleagues about the experience making referrals your most successful lead to customer generation. Thinking cost effectively, referrals are absolutely free. Your referrals can also include from other attorneys in other legal practice areas.
2. Print Advertisements
Printing advertisements in one of the oldest ways to promote law firms and even remains as an important tool today. This encompasses a wide range of media which includes direct mail, newsletters, newspapers, flyer, brochures and magazines. These media methods can help you raise brand awareness which can your business remain at the tip of the tongue when clients want to seek legal assistance. These ads can also be included in your website so that it can support the digital marketing efforts.
3. Television and Radio Advertisements
Radio and television advertisements have been proved as an excellent method to reach local audiences. It helps to build brand awareness which will help you target specific demographics. They help as an alternative to drive traffic to your company website.
4. Public Transportation Advertising
Advertising on public transport will allow law firms to reach local audiences every time they are out and about in the bus or the subway. This method helps to consistently reinforce brand awareness. Most of these ads are placed on locations like bus stops and benches. They also appear on exteriors like busses, trains and taxis. This allows the advertisement to travel from one place to another while promoting to your target audience along the way.
5. Outdoor Advertising & Billboards
Billboards are a great way of advertising and is the most common way for advertising. For your law firm to build brand awareness in strategic locations, a billboard would be ideal. By occupying every billboard for your law firm is another billboard that your competitor cannot use. It will easily promote your brand to your target market which will keep your competitors away from grabbing your customers.
6. Local Sponsorships and Networking Events
Local sponsorships offer an effective promotional partnership that is an inexpensive to market your law firm. To start, get involved with your community and begin networking with community leaders and the local businesses. You can also set up speaking events or sponsoring an event in the community. These public event will give you the opportunity to hand our flyers, brochures or even business cards to create connections and generate leads.
Digital Marketing Steps for Law Firms
To improve your law firm’s presence, promotional efforts should be set in place. This can begin by allocating a marketing budget which is normally 15% of the annual revenue to the marketing department.
Further, after the marketing budget has been set for the marketing department, it will be time to set a marketing strategy. Your marketing plan should include:
Follow the steps below to improve the awareness of the law firm through marketing:
7. Website
Today, in the digital age, the law firm’s website is the potential client or lead’s first impression of the company. This will be your chance making an impression on visitors through the website who are looking to hire a lawyer.
On your website, use quality pictures and the law firm logo. Clearly state the services your law firm provides and the practice areas your lawyers cover. Highlight your accomplishments, recognitions or any important experiences and ensure your contact information is up to date and displayed.
8. Search Engine Optimization
What if your law firm website is all prepared for your clients but no one finds it when they look for it online? Make the best out of your law firm website by ensuring that your site follows the SEO practices properly. The most critical part is that your website is well designed. It will include having usable and quality content. That is what search engines such Google and its users look for.
9. Social Media Presence
If you want to attract new clients, you have to be present where they are. In today’s world, your biggest stage where your clients are available is on social media. There are many social media platforms you can choose to grow your law firm’s online presence. But most importantly you have to pick a platform where you know you are able to reach your target audience. Through brainstorming the best ideas on how to market your law firm on social media, it will significantly impact the growth of the company.
Few platforms that can be used to create a social media presence is listed below:
10. Online Reviews
Referrals connects you to clients but a great online review will help you attract lots of potential leads from the web. You can collect positive reviews on famous sites like Google and Facebook. And be used to showcase your law firm as a business that can be trusted and clients would love to work with. You are able to respond to these reviews so that your clients will be aware that your law firm is current and is aware of the feedback received.
11. Content Marketing
While optimizing the content that is already published on your site, you have the chance to further enhance your marketing efforts by creating new content. It is a great way to make sure that your web pages rank higher with new keywords and also engaging with your readers. This can either position you or your firm to lead in the legal practicing industry.
In addition to optimizing the content you already have on your site, you can enhance your marketing efforts by creating new content. This is a great way to ensure your web pages rank higher for new keywords, while also engaging with your readers.
This may the best marketing strategy that law firms can use to create loyal clients out of the leads. This happens because content marketing has the ability to provide value to your current and potential clients. It may also inspire them to stay as loyal customers beyond the legal services they pay to your law firm.
Blogging is a start to begin your content marketing journey of your law firm or use video content creation so that your clients can have some visual insight.
12. Networking and Business Development
In the law firm industry, you will spend more time networking with other legal professionals, be sure you take the best value out of those conversations. Use a conversation strategy, as how long and where you you are going to spend your time and energy. Prepare to engage in conversations that are meaningful so that you have the ability to use the information to build brand and leads.
Referrals are from other attorneys who are the key components of any law firm’s development and revenue growth. Figuring out how to build relationships with other attorneys is an investment that will be worthwhile since it ensures the sustainability of a law firm.
13. Target Audience
Recognizing who your target audience is will help you create content that your potential clients will find attractive and want to engage with. Whenever you decide to write a blog post, an email or when updating your website, create content that caters to your target audience. Also, you can use social media platforms to create content to attractive your potential clientele.
14. Measure Results
To make the most use out of your marketing budget, ensure you evaluate the results so that the marketing efforts pay off in an quantifiable way.
You can do this by:
- Establishing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure the number of website visitors that is generated through SEO and ad campaigns, the number to leads, lead to client conversion rates and the revenue.
- Tracking your segments through campaigns, media channels and potential audience to recognize which method is more effective than the other.
Measuring your results will help you to optimize your business performance. This will help you to perform better on strategies that are working and conclude the strategies that underperform. You should also be sure to keep your budget on target. Such as recording your ROI (return on investment) for the marketing activities, allocating 15% of revenue towards marketing and work with the financial department of your business to keep marketing within the budget and investments profitable.
What Is the Goal of Marketing in Law Firms?
The goal of law firm marketing can be recognized to gain and maintain more clients. By achieving this goal, it will require some primary objectives.
Such as;
- Building awareness for the law firm so that you can attract more clients.
- This will set for lead generation where you will be able to receive contact information in order follow up on potential clients with marketing efforts.
- The follow up process will allow you to turn potential clients into customers successfully.
- Lastly, as the client has been acquired, this process can be repeated in order to keep generating leads.
Law Firm Marketing Tricks
- To increase efficiency of the firm, you can outsource people for unimportant tasks
- Most lawyers can experiment with social media channels to promote themselves such as TikTok
- To generate leads, use your law firm SEO as an effective tactic
- To provide a better client experience, you should optimize conversion rate and website design
Best Tips for Law Firm Marketing
- Take a client-centered approach to marketing
- Invest strategically in marketing activities
- Invest in extra support if needed
- Track the performance of your campaigns
As we have come to the conclusion of our article, marketing law firms have a lot of challenges. You will have to overcome people’s distrust over lawyers to a larger market. The marketing department at your firm will help the law firm to reach the next level of business operations. Your marketing plan and process of strategically executing it ensure you the best results.
Why don’t marketers like trampolines?
They’re afraid of high bounce rates.
