Marketing for Law Firms: A Quick Guide

Even if your focus as a lawyer is to provide your clients with the best legal services possible, you should not forget about promoting your business entirely. After all, you will always need new clients to ensure the survival and growth of your legal practice. For this reason, it’s crucial to invest in marketing for law firms. 

Changing Marketing Trends

Throughout the years, lawyers have always counted on personal referrals to obtain new clients. But as consumers become more reliant on the Internet, we have seen significant changes in how law firms bring new businesses to their offices. A recent study showed that more adults than ever are using digital sources, such as search engines and comparison sites, to find legal services in the UK. 

Indeed, lawyers can still count on former clients to direct them to new ones. However, they should adjust their marketing strategies and consider going digital to reflect the notable changes in how consumers find legal advisors. 

Digital Marketing for Law Firms

Going digital is perhaps one of the wisest decisions you could ever make, as far as your practice’s marketing effort goes. As legal consumers become more technology and Internet-savvy, showing up exactly where they are looking is a sure-fire way to gain your prospects’ attention. 

Besides bringing in more business to your law firm, digital marketing can also benefit your legal practice in more ways you can imagine. It can help you: 

• Build better brand awareness.
• Establish yourself as a trusted and leading authority in the area/s of law you specialise in.
• Expand your reach.
• Strengthen your credibility and reputation.
• Engage your prospects and earn their trust. 

Digital marketing encompasses several strategies designed to help your law firm reach your target market and achieve both your marketing and business goals. The methods that fall under the umbrella term “digital marketing” include: 

• Search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Paid search or pay-per-click advertising
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Content marketing 

Building a Marketing Strategy for Your Legal Practice

Regardless of the digital marketing strategies you wish to pursue, one thing remains the same: you need to plan your tactics carefully. By planning everything thoroughly, you’re more likely to succeed and obtain the results you’re expecting. 

1. Set your goals

As with any endeavour, it’s essential to have marketing goals in place. Having goals can help you identify the steps you need to take to achieve them. But don’t just make any goals. They should be SMART. 

• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Achievable
• R – Relevant
• T – Time-bound 

Here’s an example. Instead of simply targeting an increase in the number of new clients, you can say: “Within six months, I want the number of monthly leads we’re getting from SEO to increase from 15 to 30. By converting 25% of leads, we’ll be able to transform 3.75 more leads into clients every month.” 

2. Identify your audience

Marketing for law firms would be more effective and impactful if you know exactly who your target audience is. Therefore, before you start building a strategy, you should create a buyer or customer persona. A customer persona is the semi-fictional representation of your ideal client based on your target audience’s demographics, needs and wants, amongst other crucial data. 

Identifying your audience allows you to create digital marketing campaigns that resonate well with your prospects. In return, this could lead to happier clients, better services, more positive reviews for your legal practice, and more referrals. 

3. Scope the competition

Great military strategist Sun Tzu once said, “If you know yourself and your enemies, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” This is why you also need to take a good look at the competition to know where your legal practice fits into the market. 

Knowing who your competitors are, including their strengths and weaknesses, can help you determine the strategies you need to use to set yourself apart from the pack. For instance, if a close competitor doesn’t have an optimised Google My Business or GMB listing, you can focus on improving yours to attract more local prospects. 

4. Set your marketing budget

A study revealed that more than 50% of law firms don’t have a marketing budget. For someone keen to succeed, this is a big no-no. 

Having a marketing budget is crucial to the growth of your legal practice. It helps you identify which marketing channels produce the best results and attract the most number of leads. At the same time, it enables you to promote your legal services while staying within your financial parameters. 

5. Always measure your success

Regardless of the marketing strategies you will choose based on the steps discussed above, make it a point to measure their success. Keeping track of your campaign’s results will help you determine if you need to make adjustments to ensure that you’re making the most out of your law firm’s marketing. 

For each marketing strategy, determine the metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) you will use to measure its performance. For instance, if you’re aiming to reach more prospects through your blog, you can track your search rankings and the amount of traffic your website is receiving. 

Strengthen Your Digital Marketing Strategies Now

While referrals remain a reliable source of new clients, it still doesn’t hurt to take a proactive approach when promoting your law firm. Marketing your legal services online can do more than help you win more clients. It can also help boost your reputation, build trust, and ensure client satisfaction. However, to succeed, you should plan your strategies carefully. 

If you need help developing marketing strategies for your law firm, we at Kinetic are happy to assist you. We have a team of highly skilled and experienced digital marketing experts ready to lend you their expertise anytime. Please get in touch with us and let us offer you the services you need.