Most new attorneys are understandably proud of themselves after finishing law school and passing the bar exam. Their friends and family boast about them and share their achievements with others. Unfortunately, they may have difficulty finding and obtaining new, paying clients. If this sounds like your situation, it’s time to learn how to market yourself as a lawyer.
Suppose you’re an attorney joining an established firm. In that case, it’s necessary to begin building your own “book” of clients to increase your value to the organization. In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about properly marketing yourself as a lawyer. This blog will show the fundamentals of legal marketing, the approaches that are worthwhile, basic digital marketing strategies, and much more!
If you plan on establishing your own law firm, you’ll need to attract paying clients immediately to cover your overhead and operational costs.
Regardless of the scenario, digital marketing is one of the most effective, low-cost approaches to obtaining new clients as a new law firm or new lawyer.
This article will discuss how to market yourself as a lawyer or law firm in the digital age. Keep reading to discover ten actionable steps and tips that will drive your marketing efforts within the weeks, months, and years to come.
Determine Your Marketing Budget
A well-planned marketing budget is essential to a law firm’s business strategy. Starting with an outline of your strategic goals and revenue targets will help determine the size of your marketing budget. By setting revenue targets, you can quantify the number of cases needed annually to meet these targets. This will differ based on your field of practice.
Consider how competitive your market is. For example, are you a commercial attorney attempting to establish a client base in a competitive city like New York, or a solo-attorney in a small town? The more competitive your market is, the more advanced digital marketing strategies you will need to market yourself as a lawyer.
Create an Attractive Legal Company Website.
Your law firm’s website is usually a potential client’s first exposure of you as a lawyer in the digital age. It’s your chance to create a positive first impression for potential clients looking for a lawyer.
Use high-quality pictures and prominent branding throughout your website, especially the homepage. Then, explain your services and practice areas in a clear and straightforward manner, avoiding complicated legal language. Highlight any awards, recognitions, or significant successes you or your law firm have accomplished.
Ensure Your Website is SEO Optimized
If you build a law firm website to advertise your firm, but no one finds it when they search online, will you gain additional clients? Will your website be worth creating? The simple answer is no.
In order to reap the benefits of your law firm’s website, make sure it is optimized for search engines, like Google or Bing. Google, or any other search engine for that matter, will only display high-quality, relevant websites to its users. There is a search engine algorithm that determines what a quality website is, and it is important to optimise your website for this algorithm in order for potential clients to find you.
You could be the best, most qualified attorney for your potential clients, but if they cannot find you or your services, they will never become clients or receive the needed legal assistance.
Claim or Create Your Free Online Accounts or Citations
Potential clients can locate you in a few other places besides your law firm’s website. There are several options to create internet profiles for free, from listings on state bar websites to review sites like Yelp and even some commonly used legal directories.
A great way to discover online accounts that are best for your situation is to start with a google search. A google search for legal services related to your practice area will show you the directories or online platforms that are being displayed within the search results. Start creating profiles in the directories or listings that are shown for those related practice areas. For example, if you were a civil law attorney in California, search “civil law attorney in California”. If links to websites like yelp appear, create an account in yelp or similarly helpful directories.
Make Sure Your Law Firm Has a Social Media Presence
By using internet advertising, you may reach new customers by going to where they are online. You’ll need to choose which social media sites are suitable for your law firm as well as your practice area as there are several to select from. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn or Facebook typically work best. These tend to work well for Business to Business advertising such as Trademark and Business Lawyers.
Social media advertising may have a big influence on your law firm’s development with some careful spending, creative planning, and timely execution.
Manage Your Law Firm’s Online Reviews
Customers may start leaving you reviews online on various review aggregation sites. It is essential to manage them professionally. The 2021 Clio Legal Trends Report indicated that 82% of customers who were looking for legal advice searched for client reviews and 81% of consumers searched for additional recommendations. A few negative reviews won’t hurt, but a steady stream of them might scare away potential customers.
Implement Content Marketing
Being a lawyer, you most likely are already a proficient writer; use it to help your legal practice expand. Blogging and content marketing is an excellent approach to establish your brand and authority. Demonstrating that you are an authority in a legal field gives you an opportunity to establish rapport and trust with potential new clients.
If you decide to create a blog, take your time and look for legal-related evergreen content that resonates with your potential new clients. This is typically in the form of addressing frequently asked questions. Make sure your content has a clear objective, has a consistent message, and provides excellent, useful information (without offering specific legal advice, of course).
Invest time in networking and business development
Plan out your time and effort by developing a networking plan. Be ready to participate in relevant discussions that enhance your business and generate recommendations.
In person and online communities help bring in new networking opportunities. The goal here is to be considered the go-to attorney for a group of people.
Lawyer referrals are a crucial part of every law firm’s expansion of business and increase in revenue. Learning how to develop referral connections with other lawyers or business professionals is a worthy investment to ensure a law firm’s sustainability.
Consider attending business networking events, community activities, or conventions regularly.
Consider Traditional Types of Marketing
Traditional marketing (i.e., offline marketing), which is dependent upon your region or area of practice, may be advantageous for your law firm. People still respond to billboard advertisements in the digital era.
However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that, regardless of how your clients learn about you, they’re probably going to do some web research prior to making any hiring decisions. More than ever, consumers have the power to weigh their alternatives. So, keep your website current and professional, and keep asking satisfied customers for feedback when possible.
Track Your Law Firm’s Marketing Efforts
It’s important to analyse the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, regardless of the strategy you choose for your law practice. Your marketing plan will be successful if you can identify the marketing approach that isn’t working effectively and the ones that are. This will allow you to reduce spending money on the ineffective strategies and increase your spending on the ones that do, bringing down the cost per acquisition.
Start by finding out how customers learned about you. Although only anecdotal evidence is produced by this approach, it’s an excellent place to start. But to properly understand how your marketing is performing, you’ll need to conduct a more thorough review, usually helped by the data your website or marketing campaigns collect.
Website tracking is the most effective method for monitoring the success of your legal firm’s digital marketing campaigns. For most law firms, the free edition of Google Analytics—an analytics tool that helps website owners understand their sites’ traffic and visitor trends—is a solid solution and a good place to start.
How to Market Yourself as a Lawyer?
Attorneys can sell themselves on their services better than most business professionals, believe it or not. They must promote their interpretation of the facts, their arguments, and their services every day. Although the complexities of marketing might be intimidating, a skilled attorney should not be deterred. This article provides basic guidance on developing an effective marketing plan.
When it comes to promoting a lawyer’s capabilities, today’s attorneys face new obstacles – and opportunities. It’s OK to be old-fashioned in marketing and operations, but your competitors who are adopting and implementing cutting edge strategies are taking advantage of the tools available to clients that could have been yours.
Sometimes the greatest method how to market yourself as a lawyer is to network with others. Remember that every chance in your life, even the courtroom, is a marketing opportunity. Other attorneys, judges, and even future clients will take notice if you prepare and present yourself well in court.
