Even the lawyers who are adept at handling cases might not always be experts in marketing. Rainmaking doesn’t come naturally to all lawyers, but it is a crucial skill irrespective of how you choose to offer your services.
Whether you have a law firm with multiple attorneys in the team or you are offering your services solo, you should have a strong marketing plan in place. Legal marketing is an area where you should do thorough research to ensure that your law skills are recognized in the field. Legal marketing skills might be the one factor that sets you apart from the other lawyers.
Surviving the Competition
To say the skill of legal marketing is a survival skill for a lawyer would be an understatement. Marketing doesn’t always have to be an expensive affair. All it takes is a strong plan to implement your methods that align with the approach you have in mind. You should have a long-term objective laid down for your legal firm. There should also be short-term goals laid down so that you can progress towards the long-term objective. And to do this, you will have to take some time steps.
Branding at the Crux of Legal Marketing
Like every other business out there, you should create a signature identity for your law firm. Branding in legal marketing focuses on showcasing the firm to let people know why they should trust the firm. You should follow an approach that projects your law firm’s core values that sets it apart from other similar firms. A lot here depends on your area of expertise. When you are sure about the kind of identity you want to build for your firm’s brand, you would be able to manage the firm’s marketing in-house or even outsource it as and when required. You can even show the above things by making a video for your brand.
Know Who Your Audience Is
To improve your law firm’s marketing as a brand, you should have a clear picture of your target audience. You should be clear about the ideal type of client you want to work with. It is not enough to gather an email list of potential clients; You should apply relevant filters based on demographics.
Ensure that you do not broaden the clientele market too much or make the mistake of overfitting the ideal client pattern. There should be limited profiles that you target through your campaign. If you aim at a broader market, you might end up spending more on your marketing than you expect. Overfitting can sometimes lead you to miss potential clients.
Once you have the target audience in mind, you would easily figure out the sources to find the profiles. You can use them to enrich your mailing list and remove leads who are unlikely to turn into clients. This would stabilize your long term marketing scheme.
Understand How People Pick their Attorneys
To become a better marketer for your legal services company, you should think from your client’s perspective. When a person who fits your “ideal client” description starts hunting for an attorney, how would he do it? From where the client would look for leads? On what grounds would the client compare the legal firms? On what basis would the final decision be made? Knowing this would help you reframe your marketing campaign in a way that it projects an actual solution to the client’s problem. Different potential clients based on the demographics and other traits would have different behavioral patterns when researching and finalizing a legal firm. When you know exactly what your client is looking for, you can strengthen the conversions using a strong marketing campaign.
Various factors can influence the decision that your potential clients make. Your website, for example, can make or break their impression of your firm. You would need a resourceful website that delivers all the essential information in a crisp layout. It should create a lasting first impression and tell your clients how your firm differs from the others in the field. It should present compelling reasons to make them choose you over your competitors. Delving into the website of your competitors can also give you fresh ideas to improve your website.
Factors to Consider in Legal Marketing
1. Strengthen your Search Engine Ranking:
Visibility on the internet is as vital for a well-established firm as it is for a firm that has just launched. It is all about making your potential clients notice you and staying in their sight so that they do not go anywhere, even for their future requirements.
2. Listings in the Right Place:
It will be helpful if you create effective campaigns through social media platforms and legal directories. Knowing the target audience is also useful at this stage. Tweak your ad(s) based on the platform where your business is listed.
3. Do Not Underestimate the Traditional Methods:
Blogging could be one of the oldest marketing tools, but it is still one of the most potent tools to consider. Productive blogs on your website and guest blogging on other sites can bring good traffic and reach. Another benefit is that it gives you a platform to showcase your expertise, which strengthens your credibility.
You can also choose billboards, pamphlet circulation, and print media ads for a more localized approach.
No matter what approach you choose, ensure that you continuously monitor your marketing performance, and periodically improve essential aspects. Work on shortening the marketing channel through various sources. Focus more on the sources that bring more relevant leads and find creative ways to improve conversions. Only when you have the chance to work with optimal clients, you would be able to build a loyal clientele that further strengthens your career in the long run.
