What Is Law Firm Marketing? Must-Know Legal Marketing Tips

So, what is law firm marketing? Is it important? We are going to dissect this question and share ideas on how you can attract clients to your law firm. 

If you own a law firm, don’t give legal marketing less attention. Why? Your law firm is a business and should be treated as such. Do what other companies are doing to get clients. 

How good your legal marketing strategy is will determine how successful your law firm will become. If you deploy effective marketing strategies for lawyers, you’ll get more clients and generate record revenues consistently.

You may be wondering how marketing for a law firm works and how to go about it. Well, I have good news for you. You can outsource your marketing projects while focusing on your business. 

However, we will explain what marketing is for law firms, and share several vital marketing ideas you need to know. If you plan to manage your marketing campaign independently or acquire more knowledge, the ideas in this post will significantly help you. 

What Is Law Firm Marketing?

Law firm marketing refers to strategies deployed to attract new clients and entice existing clients to repeat patronage. Legal marketing involves a mix of tactics such as SEO, prints, paid adverts, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, referrals, and traditional marketing. 

You can use these strategies to market your law firm while tracking the results. Note the strategy that yields the best results and focus more attention there. 

Is Marketing Important For Law Firms?

This question is similar to saying, “Do law firms need clients?” Of course, marketing is vital to law firms. Marketing is crucial for any business that wants to generate more revenue. 

It is one thing to establish a law firm and another to get people to know your firm exists. The American Bar Association has stated that there are over 1.3 million lawyers in the country, meaning massive competition is already waiting for you. 

The massive amount of law firms operating across the United States of America shows that consumers already have numerous options to choose from. 

On the other hand, the high number of lawyers in the country shows the extent of the competition faced by new and existing law firms. However, new law firms may face more challenges to gain popularity and attract more clients. 

Marketing is vital for business growth. And when you have an effective marketing plan, you can achieve your targeted goals. These include a higher number of cases and higher revenue. 

So, if you own a law firm and want more clients, invest in legal marketing. You don’t have to be the one managing the marketing campaign for your law firm. Hire a competent agency to manage it for you. 

How To Perform Law Firm Marketing: Offline & Online Strategies

There are several ways you can do marketing for your law firm. I will divide the strategies into various segments to make it easier for you to understand. These include traditional and online marketing (search engine optimization). 

Strategy #1: Traditional Marketing Strategies For Law Firms: Offline Method

Traditional marketing is a popular option used by law firms in those days to acquire clients. It is an effective strategy, although digital marketing has taken over marketing. 

Combining traditional marketing and other strategies is a great way to achieve and exceed your targeted goals. Using the various strategies will ensure you take advantage of every opportunity to get clients for your law firm. 

1: Design an attorney business card:

The omnipresence of digital platforms doesn’t take the place of business cards. As a lawyer, business cards serve as a valuable extension of your professional identity. 

Giving your well-crafted attorney business cards is a great way to establish a tangible connection with potential clients. It serves as a tactile reminder of your encounter, making it a breeze for clients to remember and reach out to you. 

Your business cards can serve as a great way to establish trust with clients. It contains vital information about your legal practice, including your contact details. 

Clients value having a business’s contact details ready whenever the need to contact one arises. A look at your business card will remind them of how professional you were, including how friendly you were. 

Nobody hands over a business card to a prospect with a sad face. You have to be smiley and be friendly to the client. Otherwise, your business card will be rejected. 

A Handy Tip: Your business cards shouldn’t be a standalone marketing tool. Incorporate it into a comprehensive marketing plan. 

The design of your business cards can impact how it captivates prospects. That is why adding a logo and links to a well-designed website on the business card is advisable. 

You can hand over your business cards to clients in any setting. These include during informal meetings and networking events. 

2: Participate in networking events: 

How involved are you in the events happening in your local community? Do you participate or wait for the organizers to invite you?

If you’re a lawyer, don’t wait for event organizers to send you an invitation before you attend local events. Make yourself available. Sponsor part or the entire event if you have the financial capacity to do so. 

If there are photo adverts with adverts, take advantage of that to advertise your business. You can even create a photo booth for those who attended the events to take quality pictures and use the opportunity to promote your company in the booth.

You can give your business cards to attendees, and remember to print your law firm’s name on the photo booth. 

Other strategies to get networking opportunities:

• Sponsor sporting events
• Sponsoring or hosting local events 
• Participate in any local Chamber of Commerce meetings

You can request to speak at local events. Make your presence felt whenever you attend any event. Give out your business cards to prospects, and if you’re delivering any speech, ensure it relates to your legal practice area. 

Strategy #2: Online Marketing For Law Firms: Online Method

Online marketing is a more effective marketing strategy to get clients to your law firm. It comprises different strategies designed to help you create massive awareness and be easily found by prospects online. 

Examples of online or digital marketing strategies:

• Search engine optimization
• Local search engine optimization
• Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)
• Email marketing strategy
• Social media marketing 

Search engine optimization and local search engine optimization stand out among the numerous online marketing strategies. Do you know why? That is because they are cost-effective marketing strategies. 

In SEO, you don’t have to pay Google or any search engine to showcase your website at the top of the search results. Provide valuable content and ensure your on-site and off-site SEO strategies are well-executed. 

If you adhere to SEO best practices and write valuable content, the Google search engine will rank your website high in the SERP (search engine result page).

You have to pay to run ads for PPC and social media marketing. Creating a social media account is free. But you have to run paid adverts to get higher visibility on the platform. For instance, when you run ads on Facebook, the platform will showcase your business to a broader audience. 

Unfortunately, when funds in your ads account are finished, your website will disappear from the search engine results pages. And as you’ll find out when you start running ads, some keywords are highly competitive. You’ll have to pay higher for such keywords before Google will agree to display your website on their search engine results page. 

What are the benefits of SEO and local SEO?

• Higher ranking in search result pages
• Increase in organic traffic to your website
• Get sustainable traffic from search engine
• You don’t need to pay to get your website displayed at the top of the search engine results.
• Cost-effective marketing strategy. It has lower CAC (customer acquisition cost) than other marketing strategies.
• You can build high authority in your niche with SEO. 
• SEO can help you create brand awareness
• Local search engine optimization can showcase your business to a broader audience. 

How To Perform SEO For Law Firm

How can search engine optimization (SEO) help you to acquire more clients for your law firm? Here are the simple strategies you can deploy. 

1: Build a professional and high-quality website:

Do you have a website? If yes, you’re good to go. If not, create one right away. 

Having a website is the first thing you need to take. It is essential for online marketing. If you have a website, do the following: On-page, off-page, and technical SEO to excel online.

Create valuable and well-optimized blog posts:

Research your competitors to see the type of content they are creating, and conduct keyword research using premium tools. Examples of keyword research tools include Semrush, Ahrefs, AnswerThePublic, and other tools.

 Place your keyword strategically and naturally in the content. Avoid keyword stuffing and cannibalization. Produce content that provides value to your potential clients.

When you provide valuable content that answers prospects’ questions, they may consider you whenever they need legal advice. 

Add powerful Call to Action (CTA) in your content: 

Adding CTAs to your content encourages your visitors to take action, promotes engagement, and creates opportunities for further interaction between you and prospects. Your CTA can range from urging visitors to contact you for a free consultation or download a how-to guide.  

Fix redirects and broken links:

If you encounter links that don’t work or point to the wrong pages, fix them. Google search engine won’t index a page with such links. 

Optimize your law firm’s website speed: 

How fast does your website load? Use tools like Pingdom, GTmetrix, or PageSpeed Insights to check your website loading speed. 

Google search engine wants websites to load super fast, such as in half a second. It wants websites to load that fast to deliver a better user experience.

Update your sitemap: 

Does your sitemap reflect your current site’s structure? If not, update it right away. Your sitemap file is crucial, as it guides search engine robots to index your web pages.

Make your website mobile-friendly:

Most of your visitors will come to your website via mobile devices. 64.1% of traffic comes from mobile devices, while 35.9% comes from desktops. 

Your law firm website should be more accessible for mobile search visitors to navigate and take action. 

Create keyword-rich titles and metadata:

Add your keyword to your title and metadata to give visitors and search engines an idea of the context of your content. 

Perform  local search engine optimization: 

You can perform local SEO by incorporating location-specific keywords in your content. For instance, if you’re a divorce lawyer based in San Francisco, your location-specific long-tail keyword can be “Divorce lawyer in San Francisco” or “San Francisco divorce lawyer.” 

Most people also conduct local searches with the keyword “near me.” So, your keyword can be “San Francisco divorce lawyer near me.”

Another way to perform local SEO is to claim your Google Business Profile or create a profile for your business in online legal directories. 

Examples of online legal directories include:

-Justia

-Avvo

-FindLaw

-SuperLawyers

Note that most of these directories aren’t free. You have to pay subscriptions to keep your profile active on the platforms. 

Google My Business (now called Google Business Profile) is owned by Google and is free. However, you must create a well-optimized and professional-looking Google Business Profile to benefit from listing your business on the platform. 

Avoid using keywords in the wrong places. An example is placing a keyword in your business name. Google frowns at this, so be careful. Write your business name the way it is.

You can include your keyword in the business description, but ensure it sounds natural. Avoid forcing keywords into sentences. There are better ways to perform search optimization than that.

Another important thing you need to do is your contact details. Include your address, phone number, email, website URL, and other relevant information on your business page. Make it easier for prospects to know about your services and contact you. 

Leverage the power of reviews: 

A Google Business Profile increases your chances of appearing in local search results. Additionally, clients can grant you reviews on your profile. 

Reviews are powerful and can have a massive impact on your business. Statistics show that 48% of potential clients are more likely to visit a website after reading reviews.  

Positive reviews have a higher impact on prospects. But that doesn’t mean the negative ones will destroy your law firm’s reputation. Well, it depends on how you respond to such reviews. Do you empathize with your unsatisfied clients and show willingness to solve their problems? 

The way you respond to negative reviews counts. Statistics show that 56% of consumers will change their perspective on a business depending on how the company responds to a negative review.  

So, how you respond to negative reviews matters. You have to show empathy and commitment to client satisfaction. Additionally, ensure you respond to positive reviews too. Show appreciation to your clients and make them feel you value their patronage. 

Finally, remember to solicit reviews from your clients. You can remind them to write reviews after delivering satisfactory services. Send them the link to your Google Business Profile or where you want the reviews. 

But above all, you must ensure your services are top-notch. Deliver quality legal services that will keep your clients happy and satisfied. 

Conclusion

I have defined the question, “What is law firm marketing?” I also provided several marketing ideas your law firm can deploy to get clients online and offline. However, you can hit your goals by focusing on online marketing. 

 You can use online marketing strategies like search engine optimization to improve your website ranking, organic traffic, and brand awareness. With local SEO, you can make finding you online easier for potential local clients. 

Search engine optimization is a complex strategy, so you need an expert to help you optimize your website appropriately and ensure you appear in search engine result pages. 

For legal marketing help, you can contact a law firm SEO expert, a firm that is always available to help lawyers find clients quickly. Hire experts to optimize your website and make it easier for prospects to find you online.