Marketing a law firm is tricky business, especially when you’re spending most of your time and resources on handling clients and cases. You may not know how to market your firm or how to get started in the first place. As a result, many law firms simply avoid marketing altogether. This doesn’t have to be the case as we’ve put together a comprehensive law firm marketing guide to help you promote your practice in 2024.
In this guide, we take you through the essentials and break down a few effective marketing strategies (both offline and online) for your law firm. Let’s take a look.
The Ultimate Guide to Law Firm Marketing in 2024:
Law Firm Marketing Essentials: What You Need to Get Started
Before getting started with law firm marketing, you need to lay out the essentials. This includes having a goal in place and defining your target audience so you can streamline your marketing efforts.
1. Well-Defined Goals
Make sure to clearly define the goal you want to achieve through your marketing efforts. This should align with your larger business goals. It should also be measurable and achievable. For example, if you’re using PPC ads to market your firm, your goal may be to achieve a 3% click-through rate within the first two months.
2. Target Audience
The foundation of your marketing strategy depends on the people you want to reach. You’ll obviously be targeting people who need legal help, but what does this target audience look like? Clearly lay out key characteristics, pain points, and needs as well as what they’re looking for in a legal service.
You can even create separate segments of different target audiences. For instance, you’ll have a segment of existing clients you want to nurture for continued services. Then you’ll also have a separate segment of high-value potential clients who are seeking long-term representation. You could additionally have a segment of potential clients who need the one-off legal help.
3. Market Analysis
A solid understanding of the market is crucial to effectively promote your law practice. You’ll need to study the geographical location and practice area as well as your target audience to assess your business opportunity. You can make use of audience research software solutions to conduct this analysis.
Source: brandwatch.com
4. Competitive Analysis
It’s also important to take a closer look into your competitors to see how they’re marketing their practice. This will help you identify opportunities to make your firm stand out from the competition. Make use of competitor analysis tools to understand their marketing strategies and market share as well as how their audience is responding to their efforts.
5. Core Messaging
Finally, you need to come up with a core message that you want to deliver through your marketing efforts. What do you want people to know about your law firm? Why should they choose you? This message should speak to their personal pain points so they can form an emotional connection with your firm.
Offline Marketing Strategies for Law Firms
Now that we have the basics covered, it’s time to look into the practical steps to promote your law firm. For starters, let’s explore some of the marketing strategies that you can apply offline.
Ask for Client Referrals
When it comes to serious decisions such as which law firm to hire, people need to be assured that the practice is reliable. That’s why referrals and recommendations play such an important role in marketing your law firm.
In fact, a Martindale-Avvo report found that almost 90% of people who get a recommendation for an attorney eventually consider the attorney. More than half of them (51.6%) contacted or interviewed the attorney while 46.9% researched their reputation online. So one of the most effective ways to market your practice is by getting your past and existing clients to refer you.
Engage with Your Local Community
As a law practice, the main types of people you’ll work with are people from your local community. If you’re going to effectively promote your firm, you need to actively engage with this community to build your reputation and strengthen your connection with prospects. Some ideas for local community engagement include:
- Sponsoring local sports teams
- Hosting or sponsoring local events such as fundraisers, charity runs, and festivals
- Hosting free legal advice clinics and educational seminars to share your expertise
- Participating in community forums and local organizations
- Supporting local charities and causes
For instance, Steinberg Law Firm participated in a local free clinic hosted by ICNA Relief. The firm’s employees volunteered to help with the distribution of free food and free health screenings.
Digital Marketing Strategies for Law Firms
As you can see in the Martindale-Avvo report from above, almost half of people who received an attorney recommendation researched their reputation online. This speaks volumes about the importance of maintaining an online presence for your law firm. With that said, let’s take a look at some of the best digital marketing strategies that you can use to promote your practice.
Have a Well-Optimized Website
Your website is one of the first places your prospects will look to learn more about your firm. As such, it needs to be well-optimized to reflect your professionalism and answer any questions your prospects might have before contacting you.
For starters, make sure your site loads quickly to prevent visitors from bounding. When they land on your site, they should be greeted with a copy that draws them in and addresses their main pain points.
It should also be well-designed with high-quality images and your firm’s logo. Don’t forget to highlight any awards and recognitions that could strengthen your credibility to someone who’s just heard about you. Additionally, your website should be easy to navigate, allowing visitors to easily find what they need such as the services you provide, previous client testimonials, contact options, and so on.
Check out the following website from Dunaway Law Firm, which clearly highlights the firm’s phone number along with an offer for a free case evaluation. At the top of the page, visitors can clearly see the options to see the firm’s practice areas, testimonials, and blog. They even have a chat window to provide more assistance to visitors.
Source: dunawayfirm.com
Create Valuable Content for Your Audience
The content that you create is one of the most effective ways to showcase your expertise. When you can talk in-depth about a particular legal topic, it shows the audience that you know what you’re talking about, which will make them more likely to trust you. Moreover, providing your audience with valuable content helps you establish a strong connection with them as they realize that you care about their legal needs.
Create blog posts, video content, social media posts, and other resources that tackle the cases you specialize in. This can help you establish authority in the field and address your audience’s key concerns. Additionally, have a section answering frequently asked questions to further address any doubts they might have before they decide to work with you.
Another important type of content to create is case studies. These will help your audience get an even better understanding of your legal prowess by showcasing what you’ve done for your previous clients. This can be an effective way to win over prospects as 37.3% of people agree that information about past cases and their outcomes are helpful when looking for an attorney, according to the Martindale-Avvo report.
While it’s sensitive to talk about your cases in detail, you could find a way to showcase the outcome of certain cases. For example, Mike Morse Law Firm shared a Facebook post highlighting the latest settlement amount recovered for a client by one of their attorneys.
Make the Most of Client Reviews
Similar to recommendations, reviews also provide social proof to give credibility to your law firm. According to a Clio study, client reviews were the biggest factor influencing people’s decisions before hiring a law firm. Out of 100, client reviews had a hiring impact score of 52.
So it’s crucial that you get more clients to review your practice and find a way to share these reviews with prospects. Your Google My Business listing is one way to share your reviews. Additionally, you can make use of your social media pages and websites to highlight your best client reviews.
See how Jacobs Jacobs highlights client reviews on their website homepage. You could do something similar to add more credibility to your practice.
Source: jacobs-jacobs.com
Improve Your Local SEO
Based on the Clio study from above, locale is another major factor influencing hiring decisions. People seek legal help from firms located in the same state or city, which makes it crucial to improve your visibility in local searches. You want to make sure that a local audience can find your practice when they need legal assistance.
Start by optimizing your GMB listing to include all the essential details about your firm. It should include your firm name and address along with contact info, operating hours, services, and relevant photos. Reviews from your clients also make a great addition to this listing. Make sure to add your firm’s location in Google Maps so people can easily access the directions.
Source: google.com
Additionally, you should ensure that your firm is listed in local directories including Yelp, Avvo, and YP.com. This will further enhance the credibility and visibility of your firm in local listings. If you can get backlinks from relevant community and local organization websites, you can further strengthen your local SEO efforts. Consider working with a local SEO agency for expert assistance in improving your local ranking.
Maintain a Strong Social Media Presence
With 73.8% of internet users searching for brand information on social media, it’s important to maintain a strong social media presence even for law firms. People are going to check out your social media page to learn more about your business. What you’re posting and how you’re responding to people will give them an idea of your firm’s expertise and professionalism.
It’s important to share a steady stream of posts that provide valuable information to your target audience. This could include bite-sized law marketing tips and facts that will expand their legal knowledge or, at the very least, guide their hiring decision.
For example, Allen Law Firm uses Facebook to regularly share information about different types of legal assistance. They also encourage people to get in touch to see if a specific type of assistance is right for them.
Be Responsive and Reachable
Even something as simple as being reachable could be the main deciding factor when people seek out legal assistance from a firm. It’s important to ensure that prospective clients can reach you when they need you, which makes it vital to open up multiple channels for contact. Besides your phone and email, give them the option to reach you via social media and website chat so you don’t miss out on the opportunity to engage them.
Additionally, make sure to be highly responsive across all these communication channels. You should quickly respond to messages, comments, and questions to engage your audience. This is another vital factor influencing hiring decisions according to the Clio study. In the Martindale-Avvo report, it’s the most helpful information for 61.5% of people when they’re looking for an attorney.
This is likely because when you’re responsive, it gives them the assurance that you’ll be there for them. So they’re naturally going to choose a law firm that cares about addressing their needs and concerns. See how West Law Firm responds to a prospective client’s question about a possible case and encourages the prospect to give the firm a call.
Take Your Law Firm Marketing to the Next Level
Law firm marketing can be time-consuming and challenging, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. The above tips and strategies should give you some idea of how to effectively market your firm both online and offline. If you’re still in doubt, you can always get expert help by working with marketing agencies that specialize in law firm promotion.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you create a marketing strategy for a law firm?
You can create a marketing strategy for a law firm by defining your goals and target audience, following which you can develop a strategy to reach this audience.
What does marketing do in a law firm?
In a law firm, marketing comes up with strategies to promote the firm’s services and boost its reputation.
Do law firms need marketers?
Yes, law firms need marketers to help them reach the right target audience and improve its firm’s reputation.
How do you market litigation?
You can market litigation by developing a strong brand and creating compelling content to showcase your expertise.
