Law Firm Marketing: Small Steps To Reach Big Goals

Are you a legal company owner who wants to promote an emerging business or a lawyer who just dreams of starting an enterprise? In any case, we’d recommend you begin with creating a roadmap that would help you move towards your goals — a law firm marketing strategy. “What is it, and where should I get it?” you may ask. Well, there are two primary possibilities. You can either hire a specialist or create it yourself. As the second option seems more tricky and challenging, this detailed guide will spell out everything you need to promote your legal business. 

Why Is Marketing Important for Law Firm Promotion?

The times when lawyers could just rent an office in the city center, hang a sign with their surname on the front door, and get dozens of clients have sunk into oblivion. Now, having legal practice somewhat resembles a sports competition, and the trophy goes to the one who has a well-structured training program. So, here are the main reasons why you need a substantial legal firm marketing strategy: 

• It increases brand awareness. The more people know about your business — the bigger number of clients you get. Of course, you may wait until your customers share your contact information with their friends and relatives, but this process may take years, and you definitely wouldn’t like to wait so long. 
• It can improve the reputation of your law firm. Favorable reviews from customers, publications in media, and a user-friendly website — all these elements build your business image that serves as a magnet for new customers.The more trustworthy your company seems, the quicker it will grow. 
• It helps your business to survive in the highly competitive legal market. You may hire the most professional lawyers in the whole world, but if your firm isn’t on everyone’s lips, competitors will steal all your clients. 

Visibility and expertise are two equally important aspects of any business promotion. If you provide high-quality services but do not have access to a broader audience, your law firm won’t gain success. However, if you are active on social media but the legal help your clients get leaves much to be desired, the result will be the same. A good law firm marketing plan will keep these two aspects of your business in balance. 

How To Market Your Law Firm Successfully?

For this, you need to prepare a well-structured law firm marketing plan. It is a complex plan that outlines the sequence of steps to take and a set of tools to use so that your company reaches its business goals and brings value to your customers. Simply put, it explains what your law firm should do to gain success. The creation of this strategy implies several essential steps:

1. Identify your target audience 

Who are your prospective clients? Ex-spouses dividing assets after divorce? Corporations struggling with legal issues? Property owners willing to sell their houses? 

To market your services to particular consumers, put yourself into their shoes: learn everything about their needs and pains and offer them exactly what they want.

Remember, choosing only a few customer personas and providing top-quality legal services to them is definitely better than gaining the reputation of an all-nothing law firm.

2. Analyze your competitors

Study the market and identify your major opponents — legal companies in your area that provide similar services to the same audience. Analyze these law firms marketing approaches, methods of communication with clients, price list, customer reviews — everything that can give you a hint of what should be done or avoided in your business promotion. For instance, if you see that most people complain that the prices for legal services are unavailable at the websites of some of your competitors, add one to your site. Show that you care about your clients’ comfort. 

3. Identify your mission

Define the values your company will bring to your customers. Do you want to offer premium quality legal services or make judicial help available to a bigger number of people? Help people deal with family-related issues or consult businesses? Whatever path you choose, honesty, transparency, excellence, and customer focus are the principles every law firm should adopt. 

4. Choose your tone of voice

Your brand voice should echo your firm’s identity. It should be visible in anything presenting your law firm: texts, images, videos, advertisements, and business cards. Depending on your audience and values, it may be friendly, authoritative, reliable, competent, approachable, etc. For instance, if your company specializes in cases related to family law, you need to be empathetic, but in case you provide services to business giants, use a reserved and professional  tone that will persuade everyone, “We’ll have everything figured out.” 

5. Set clear business goals

What do you want to achieve with the efforts in marketing law firms use? It can be raising brand awareness, getting more clients, or improving reputation. Don’t aim at everything simultaneously. It’s always better to focus on a few goals and reach them one by one than try to cover everything and get nothing. 

6. Define your budget

Another rule of effective marketing for legal firms states, “Money is important.” The amount you can spend determines whether you can afford to hire a marketing specialist or pay for ads and sponsored content. If you realize your finances are very limited, consider getting a sponsor, enter into a partnership that will allow you to divide expenses, or take on credit. If you start your legal business fully packed, it’ll bring profit quicker and, correspondingly, will allow you to repay the loan faster than if you waste months on searching for money for advertising or a new office.

7. Select effective marketing tools

You might utilize digital law firm marketing tools, such as social media and emailing, events, print advertising, or PR efforts.There is no need to use all tools at once. Choose a few that you think can best meet your goals and test them. Think of the things that can increase law firm marketing effectiveness, such as apps for legal document drafting. 

Follow the steps above in order to develop a working law firm marketing strategy that will help your business reach its business goals and widen the client base. Don’t get upset if it does not seem ambitious enough. Be realistic. Be consistent. Small steps bring one to big goals.

How To Construct a Marketing Plan for a Law Firm?

Now, as we have defined what a marketing strategy for a law firm means, it’s time to go practical and create a plan. It shows exactly what, when, and how should be done to reach so that the law firm reaches its business goals. Typically, marketing for a law firm implies the following core elements:

Legal services offered

Is your law firm all-inclusive, or does it specialize in certain areas of law, such as family, personal injury, or business? Make a list of all services you can offer so that you attract the right clientele.

Niche target market

Identify your target market. Your law firm can serve startups, individuals, corporations, or non-profit organizations. Once you have chosen the general category, lower it to more specific groups of people: individuals who go through a divorce process, victims of family abuse, small businesses, etc. 

Short- and long-term business development goals

They can range from increasing website traffic to broadening client demographics. When you reach them, it will show you the progress of the marketing campaign. All goals should be SMART:

• Specific;
• Measurable;
• Achievable;
• Relevant;
• Time-bound. 

Don’t jump too high. Instead, walk up step by step.

Regular business development activities

Marketing for law firms does not work if you do not work. Schedule regular activities that foster business growth, such as networking events, social media posts, or weekly blog articles. They will keep your law firm visible.

Content

Decide what you want to share with your customers and make a detailed content law firm marketing plan. It may include blog posts, newsletters, and posts on social media. Prepare all the texts and visuals beforehand and set specific deadlines for each piece to be published. Define the goal of each post, e.g., to engage the audience, inform it about something, or drive business growth. If your customers see how your company works and get a general understanding of the atmosphere in it, they are more likely to trust you. 

Key performance indicators

Control is an essential part of any business process. If you set measurable and realistic KPIs, you can evaluate how successful the whole law firm marketing plan is. Consider such factors and website traffic, client inquiries, newsletter subscriptions, or social media engagement. Don’t expect to reach the goal for every of these indicators. Instead, focus on the progress: if the results get better every month, you’re moving in the right direction. 

Conclusion

Effective law firm marketing for attorneys is one of the keys to success. Business promotion is about careful planning, analysis, and interaction with the clientele. Understand who you work for, how you can meet their needs, what services you can provide, and what value you can bring to these people. Once you understand all these, you’ll be able to build a strategy that will lead your law firm to acknowledgment and success and your clients — to the legal solutions they expect to find.