Law Firm Marketing

 

Any healthy practice will require some form of lead generation to bring in new clients and grow the firm’s reputation over time.

Marketing, whether traditional or digital, is one of the more effective ways to keep your practice on the right trajectory. So, how do you get it right?

Today we’re taking a look at our top 10 marketing techniques for growing a legal practice. Hang on! The legal marketing tactics we’ll cover range from the boring, data-driven stuff to the downright absurd, yet highly effective:

Let’s get started!

 

Our first technique has been around since the Code of Ur-Nammu:

 

1 – Show Me a SIGN!

 

Props to Alexander Shunnarah. You can’t really define him as just an attorney anymore. He’s more like a brand or a even a legend in Alabama.

Billboards work…if you use them the right way. It’s important to note that this technique is impression-based and does not target a specific audience. You’re casting a wide net by putting your brand in front of every passerby driving down the interstate with billboard ads.

 

Billboards are best suited for larger firms that can afford to dominate the space in a local market. Do leverage them if you can afford a large-scale campaign combined with other forms of local advertising to build a brand over time

 

Don’t leverage billboards if you manage a smaller firm. You don’t have the budget needed to become a household name in the local market. Leverage targeted advertising first to grow the practice.

 

2 – Google Ads

 

This is that targeted advertising you can use to rapidly grow a smaller firm into a large practice. With billboards we were casting a wide net. Now we’re spearfishing.

Pick the legal service you want to promote the most, find the keyword related to that service with the highest search volume, and build your first campaign around a single keyword.

 

Being specific like this will help you keep your costs low and you’re only serving ads to people who are looking for the top service your firm offers. A word of caution though…

 

It’s easy to assume that Google Ads is an automatic thing you setup and forget. It’s not. Proper management can be handled in a few hours each month though, making this one of the easiest ways to quickly boost revenue.

 

3 – Retargeting

 

If you’re already running Google Ads or getting website visitors from traditional advertising, you might as well leverage retargeting to stay on the minds of these prospects.

The old saying goes, ‘not everyone is a customer today’. That applies in the digital realm just as much as it always has. We all lead busy lives. That’s evident in the fact that most people spend no more than 2-3 seconds on a website like yours before they decide to either keep reading, leave, or take some sort of action like a phone call or contact form request.

 

You can stay on the minds of all those site visitors who left with retargeting. It allows you to serve up ads to people who recently visited your website, and the cost of retargeting is very low in comparison to Google Search Ads. In fact, they work very well together when you drive traffic from search ads to your website and then retarget it on a more affordable platform like Facebook.

 

4 – Content Marketing

 

Law practices often have a mix of both B2C and B2B sales. Do you do LLC formation or close commercial real estate deals? If so, there’s a B2B component to your practice that would definitely benefit from content marketing.

Setup an email newsletter through automation software, and ask all your new clients to opt into your subscriber list. Consistently publishing a newsletter on your site will help your SEO (more on that later), and it will allow you to establish yourself as an expert attorney in the eyes of your subscribers.

 

That startup you just setup with Articles of Incorporation might need help with tax resolution down the road, and the investor you just represented at closing will probably be a buyer again soon. It’s worth mentioning that hiring a good PR company can target investors for you, and help your startup with funds.

 

Be on their mind in the future when they need more of the services you offer.

 

5 – Old School Networking

 

Early on when I was just getting started in my digital journey, I needed clients. Without an established brand, the only way to get clients was to earn trust one handshake at a time.

I started out visiting every local business networking group I could find, and quickly learned who the best referral partners were for my fledgling digital agency.

 

 

The same technique works well for most attorneys who deal in the B2B space. A collections attorney can get business from just about any decision-maker from doctors to home builders. We all have occasional issues with nonpayment, right?

 

On the B2C side, a closing attorney can pick up business from high producing real estate agents in the local area or from a good title company.

 

If divorce is your thing, make sure the entire Chamber of Commerce knows who you are and what you do. Busy professionals fall out of love all the time, and you want to be on speed-dial when they do.

 

Even in our digital era, it’s still all in who you know. Get out there and build strategic relationships for your law firm.

 

6 – Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

 

Here’s another tactic that has a high long-term payout, but it’s definitely not the best place to start if you’re a younger firm in a competitive niche like accident and injury.

Google defines SEO as helping the search engines to understand the content of your site. The reality though is that SEO is all about ranking a page to generate inbound leads and produce an ROI for the business.

Good SEO takes time to build up. Unfortunately, a lot of attorneys in your space figured out the value of SEO a long time ago. They’ve been building up their sites with quality content and link-building for years.

 

Fortunately, that makes it a little easier for a good SEO to go toe-to-toe against your competition. We can do things like spy on their backlink profile and analyze their content to see what Google favors in your local market and service niche.

 

SEO leads are considered to be some of the most well-qualified inbound leads a law practice can get. If you’re serious about long-term growth, this is the tactic for you.

 

PRO TIP: Techniques #4, #7, and #10 will all boost your SEO a bit

 

7 – Attorney Directory Listings

 

Legal service leads have a high price tag, especially in certain areas like accident and injury. When the Internet started to dominate the advertising space, legal business directories started popping up everywhere to capitalize on this.

 

These sites are just as common today as they were in the early 2000’s. Claiming your listing on as many quality sites as possible will help your SEO. It’s especially effective for ranking your law firm in the local map search.

Take the time to get listed everywhere, but understand that it WILL take time… We have a list of about 300 sites you can join! Or if you value your time, and you’d rather practice law than enter the same phone number and address over and over on different web forms, just get some help with it.

 

Whether you choose to do it yourself or outsource the work, the bottom line is, you have to list your practice everywhere possible so you can be seen on Google.

 

8 – Social Media

 

Social media gives you a lot of audience targeting options. Managing a big class action suit against a major brand? Facebook allows you to target the audiences of larger brands, making social the perfect place to display ads to someone who might qualify.

 

We’ve already mentioned how you can leverage the low-cost CPM in Facebook to retarget your website visitors affordably. In addition to that, you can also leverage LinkedIn to target your B2B prospects like business owners and real estate agents.

 

9 – Multi Channel Advertising

 

We’ve already sort of covered this without you realizing it by mentioning retargeting. Multi channel is simply that – leveraging different marketing channels to develop one coherent strategy.

If you do email newsletters, why not upload that subscriber list into Google Ads or Facebook for retargeting. If you do SEO, it makes sense to also run Google Ads for the same keywords. You’ll have a higher overall impression share on the page #1 results for your most important keywords.

 

Multi Channel isn’t just limited to the digital space either. Promo codes in print, radio, and TV can be used to track website leads from those sources. Those site visitors could also be prime candidates for retargeting so that they get exposed to your brand multiple times after receiving the first impression.

 

10 – Press Releases and Big Events

 

If you’re trying to gain recognition in the local market, consider a concentrated PR effort. Getting recognized by Super Lawyers or something like the ‘Top 40 under 40’ is definitely a newsworthy event. Larger firms might even qualify for something like the Inc 5,000 fastest growing companies list. Consider announcing these awards and recognition through press release distribution.

 

PR backlinks will help your SEO and if you do it right, you might land even more powerful backlinks and recognition from local media outlets.

Legal marketing doesn’t have to be difficult. It just takes time, effort and the right strategy that’s custom tailored to your firm’s business development goals.

If you’re not sure where to get started, feel free to reach out to Webology for a free marketing consultation. We’re recognized as a top Search Engine Optimization Company by DesignRush, UpCity, Page Optimizer Pro and many others. We’ll take a comprehensive look at your brand, develop ROI models, create buyer personas, and put it all together into a strategy that’s just right for your practice.