Each law firm has unique marketing needs impacted by multiple factors. The ideal structure of your marketing should be developed with the help of a law firm marketing consultant. However, there are some strategies that are a good fit for most law firms looking to expand their marketing reach. We offer four great ideas to consider.
Law Firm Marketing Ideas Should be Based on Research
You could try to market your firm by the seat of your pants. It could be based on what you think you know about your market. Guessing and thinking out loud would be terrible ways to take a case to trial. They’re just as bad if you want to grow your firm. “Winging it” is not one of our top law firm marketing ideas.
Market research gives you critical information about your market and competition. You can learn about the current and projected demands for your services. You could also get ideas about adding new services that could do well. Research can help you decide whether a current practice area’s prospects are so dim it should be wound down.
What’s your firm’s reputation? If you hear only from friends and happy clients, you may have a very distorted view of how potential clients view your firm. Through research, you can . . .
- Better understand how to connect with prospects
- Learn how you stack up against the competition
- Get information on which to base your plans to increase your market share.
1. Referrals, Referrals, Referrals
Law firms are increasingly specialized. If yours is a more general law firm, you probably have some practice areas that are important revenue streams. You may be more of a boutique law firm, with a specific focus and perhaps a broader geographic reach.
Either way, it’s a very competitive legal marketplace. Other firms may be willing and able to spend a lot of money on digital marketing and advertising to try to reach potential clients. A better approach could be increasing the size and quality of your referral network.
Most firms rely heavily on other attorneys and professionals to send them clients. Improving and strengthening your network could result in a consistently increased flow of new clients. You will find other attorneys also eager to build their referral streams. It can be a “win-win situation” for everyone.
2. Stay in Touch with Your Clients
You may have a practice where your clients have a periodic need for your services. When that need arises again, you want to be “top of mind.” It’s much easier to keep a client than to find a new one. You can use email marketing and newsletters, or treat them to coffee or lunch.
That same client you’re already helped may end up needing other services your firm provides. You may have helped a real estate developer get a subdivision approved. She may later get into a dispute with her insurance carrier or want a divorce. Even if you can’t help her with a particular problem, it could be an opportunity to send her to another attorney who has sent you work.
There’s a lot of potential value when you maintain connections to clients, even if they never use your services again. Staying in touch can result in that client’s referring you to family, friends, or co-workers who are looking for legal representation.
3. Market Your Law Firm in Ways that Will Create Trust
You need to develop the trust of your potential clients, ideally before they even talk to you. Lawyers handle some of the most intimate, critical, and potentially costly or money-making issues in their clients’ lives.
Social Proof
Social proof is one of the top law firm marketing ideas, because it can help build trust. Social proof is the marketing term for reviews, ratings, case studies, and feedback from current and past clients. If there’s credible, believable evidence that you’ve done a good job for others, it helps develop the trust of a prospect.
Track Record of Success
Success builds success. If you can honestly say you or your firm has limited availability, it’s another kind of social proof. It tells the potential client that you’re doing a great job for others, that many clients trust you, and that word has spread. Limited availability can also add urgency to the prospective client’s decision to retain you.
Content Marketing Can Help Establish Trust
This trust can be gained by producing content that proves you’re an authority in your field and by making an emotional connection to your potential clients. Make your expertise and authority in your practice area known and you will gain the trust of potential clients. Show your potential clients you care about how the issues they face affect them and you’ll also gain their trust.
Use your content to show how well you understand your clients and their needs, two important things that can build trust. Your blogs, videos, articles, newsletters, and podcasts can discuss topics or issues your clients confront. All types of content provide a way to cover particular legal issues while discussing and acknowledging the problems and stresses your clients endure.
4. Track and Use Your Marketing Data
Without Data You Won’t Know Whether Your Law Firm Marketing Ideas Work or Not
The number of cases you handle and the revenue they produce may be your most important data. But there’s a lot more data that you can use to improve your marketing. Consider the following list of questions and map out what other data points you can track.
- How many of each type of case have you gotten in the past year? Month?
- Where are your clients coming from?
- How many and what types of cases are referrals?
- Who’s referring them to you?
- What statistics can you get about your website’s use?
- How many of your email blasts are opened?
- How big is your mailing list?
- How many potential clients are calling your tracking number?
- What’s the response to your speaking engagements?
- How many are viewing your video on YouTube?
- How many of your white papers have been downloaded?
This data is useful not only as raw numbers: You should use it to spot trends. You not only need to know what data is important, but how the data paints a picture of your firm’s success or opportunities for growth.
Once you get a good handle on your data, you can decide whether your marketing is reaching its goals. What’s working? What’s not? What efforts can be improved and how? What approaches aren’t worth continuing?
Tracking data can be cumbersome, and determining what data your firm should track, and how, can create a lot of added work. That effort is worth it. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to mapping and tracking data, find someone who does. Work with our seasoned law firm marketing consultant and you’ll have a clear path to success.
Law Firm Marketing Ideas That Can Help You Now and in the Future
An LMA law firm marketing consultant can help your firm reach its short- and long-term goals by providing:
- A strategic marketing plan
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) so you can measure the return on your marketing investment
- Advice that will lead to connections which will provide new opportunities.
As an attorney, you’ve learned the value of expertise. Like your clients, sometimes you need it, too. Contact us today at (919) 637-9144 to learn how we can work together and make your plans a reality.