8 Components of Successful Small Law Firm Marketing

Small Law firm Marketing is the single most important aspect of law firms. Marketing is what brings in new clients and without marketing, a law firm would not survive.

Law firms who take marketing seriously, invest heavily in it and devise a comprehensive strategy that includes all aspects of marketing such as digital marketing, SEO, blogging, print and digital ads, social media management, and PR.

Your law firm marketing plan may also include other avenues, including leveraging technology to automate various tasks that aren’t handled by the client’s marketing team. They say you need to spend at least 10 hours per week marketing your firm. And even if you try to break that down, it can easily fill up all of your time.

The tricky balance of deciding which areas to invest in for law firm marketing and what not to invest in can make it difficult to focus on other aspects of running your business, such as practice and running your firm. The objective is to determine as early as possible what marketing channel(s) is working best for you and to invest more energy in that activity.

To help you with this, we have put together the following information that will guide you through the process of how to start building an effective small law firm marketing strategy.

Clearly define your target audience

Depending upon your area of practice, your future clients will look a lot like your past clients. Make sure that you have a clear image of who they are… their ‘buyer persona’. This would include having a clear sense of where they typically live, eat, send their kids to school, vacation, etc.

You should take the time to understand what type of issues that they have and how you can help them resolve those issues. This will help you to develop content to assist them in their ‘buying journey’.

All of these details will help to develop a clear picture of who you are looking to connect with and most importantly, where you will likely engage them – online and offline. It should be the information that informs your future decision on where to concentrate your resources.

Develop a realistic marketing budget

Once you know who you are trying to reach for your new business, a well-defined marketing budget can help keep your business plan on track in that journey. To come up with a marketing budget, you need to know your goals and how much revenue you really need. A lawyer needs to calculate how many cases per year they need to bill in order to meet their revenue goal. This varies depending on what type of law is practiced.

Marketing campaigns can be very expensive, but they’re worth it if your marketing budget is a good indicator of the effectiveness of your campaigns. Consider the stage of your law firm, for example whether you are just starting out or have been established for a while. You should also think about how competitive your practice area and geographic region is. For example, would you like to target a competitive area like New York or focus instead on establishing your law firm in a more rural area?

Ensure that any costs related to marketing are factored into the budget. For example, if you want to use law firm marketing software, budget for that upfront or you might be surprised by it after-the-fact. AI writers are used in many different scenarios, including content marketing, social media management, and email campaigns. For example, you might use AI to optimize your website for search engines or drive traffic through your social media channels or newsletters.

Once you’ve created your marketing budget, make sure to respect what you’ve set aside. If everyone is always seeking out new cases to take on, your law firm won’t grow if you’re not keeping track of your bottom line.

Create an engaging law firm website

With the web as their platform, savvy lawyers know they need a seamless and professional-looking website that can capture new clients. It’s your chance to make a great first impression on site visitors who are looking for legal representation.

First, ensure that your blog’s images are easy on the eyes & help to communicate your message. Studies show that readers remember 94% of what they see and read, while retaining just 25% of what they hear and say. Make sure to use good quality photos because people will remember the things they see quicker than the written word. Then, clearly and concisely state the services you provide and practice areas you cover.

Look at the website to be a location to answer your prospect questions, engage them with your resources, and offer them easy ways to contact you when they are ready to talk.

Make sure your website can be found through search engines

If you create a small law firm marketing website to market your services, but potential clients can’t find it online, how will they ever learn about you?

You need to always prioritize SEO when it comes to your law firm website. We can help you with that – connect with us today! It is important that your site is well-designed and the content relevant, as this will help people stay on your site for longer and convert better. This is what Google and its users are after.

In order to rank well in the SERP despite changes in search algorithms, it’s important to design your content specifically for long-tail keywords. For example, instead of just using the word “lawyer,” also include the name of your city. Using long tail keywords in your content will give you the best chance of competing with other pages and being found by potential clients

By providing an accurate description of your services and contact information in your Google Business listing, you will give potential clients the opportunity to engage with your firm.

Another key to being found on search engines like Google is to have citations/listings of your business on directories across the internet. There are tools like Semrush.com that will help you submit your listing to the 60-100 top online directories, such as yp.com, Yelp, CitySearch, etc.

Don’t forget to get social

To attract new clients through digital advertising, you should go to the places where they spend their time. In this day and age, your prospects are on social media. There are many social media channels to consider. But, not all of them are equal. You will need to explore the options to determine which social media channel connects best with your target audience.

Be prepared to respond to messages through social media. If someone has a question that you can answer, the quicker that you can respond the higher the chance that you can continue that conversation… possibly in your offices.

Monitor your law firm’s online reviews

Once we’ve got a few online profiles for our law firm up, we might be getting reviews from clients. To manage this, it is necessary to have a strategy in place. According to the 2021 Legal Trends Report found that 82% of consumers looked for client reviews and the research found that 81% of consumers sought referrals when seeking legal counsel. While a few negative reviews won’t cause any significant damage, an excessive amount of them will affect your establishment’s personality on Yelp/Google/etc.

Make sure to always ask for a review from a satisfied customer. You can also do this at the end of cases that were especially good. Though it’s not illegal in most states, you should double check with your state bar before asking for a referral. We could write a whole blog post about this, but suffice to say that ignoring negative reviews is never a good idea.

Don’t ignore traditional marketing channels

Do traditional marketing strategies such as offline marketing work for your law firm? Yes, they often do. Since billboards are still effective for some people, it might make sense to consider using them in your marketing strategy.

But, you have to remember that no matter how they hear about your company, clients are likely going to do research online before making any decisions. Nowadays, consumers are better at evaluating their options than before. So, keep your site up-to-date & maintain a strong online presence by focusing on what your customers want.

Market, measure, then market some more

Justice may be blind, but you can not be blind to the success or failure of your small law firm marketing activity.

For every marketing tactic that you employ to win new business, it is critical to plan a measurement step into the process. Use unique website URLs for any campaign. Or set up a specific phone line to receive calls from an ad campaign. Do whatever it takes to determine how effective your small law firm marketing efforts are.

At a bare minimum, make sure that whoever answers your office phone line is prepared to ask new inbound client calls ‘How did you learn about our firm?” Even though the caller may not have only seen one marketing effort, you can get a sense for some of the influencing tactics.

Without this feedback loop, you will not be able to determine how best to move forward on future marketing.