What Steps Every Law Firm Should Follow for Effective Marketing

Although you may offer exceptional services, it is worthless if no one knows your business exists. Like other service-related businesses, law firms must engage in marketing to increase reach, attract customers, and grow sales and profits. Also, marketing is invaluable in establishing trust with your target audience and managing your reputation. 

Unfortunately, many law firms overlook marketing, with more than 50% of them lacking an annual marketing budget. It is mainly because they don’t have the time, expertise, and resources to create and maintain marketing campaigns. As a result, they lose a massive opportunity to generate more business and attain competitiveness.

Read on to learn four steps every law firm should follow for effective marketing.

1. Work with a Law Firm Marketing Agency

Lawyers are legal experts, not admin gurus. Subsequently, they may struggle with administrative roles like marketing, which can be overwhelming and time-consuming. Savvy law firms are increasingly working with law firm marketing agencies to handle this crucial function, generate high-value clients, and increase revenue.

Marketing for law firms is easier and more manageable with a skilled and experienced agency. These are some of the benefits to enjoy:

1. Attain professional help to create successful marketing campaigns, from SEO to social media marketing and paid advertising.

2. Get new ideas and perspectives into marketing your firm

3. Focus on your firm while experts handle marketing

4. Track marketing efforts to determine performance and improve as needed 

5. Save money by optimizing marketing spend

6. Access marketing tools and resources and leverage the latest trends to achieve marketing goals

7. Distinguish your firm in the burgeoning industry with an agency’s omnichannel experience.

2. Create Content

In legal marketing, content is king, allowing you to drive website traffic, increase sales, build trust and authority, and enhance brand visibility. It also helps your law firm connect with your target market by offering practical advice and insights.

By creating blogs, videos, infographics, and white papers, you reach new audiences and grow your caseload. Also, you rank highly on SERPS. When someone has a legal problem, they search for answers and suggestions on search engines like Google. Creating helpful content ensures your site attracts search traffic for people requiring legal solutions and services.

When generating content for your law firm, follow the tips below:

1. Familiarize yourself with your audience so you create content that appeals to them.

2. Use relevant keywords to enhance website ranking. 

3. Generate value-additional content –it should educate or solve a legal problem.

4. Use success stories to highlight client experience

5. Check the type of content competitors are generating for inspiration –not copying and identify what you can improve

6. Do not neglect user experience –content should be practical, easy to read, visually appealing, comprehensive, and optimized for search intent. 

7. Monitor performance

8. Be consistent and keep content up-to-date

3. Leverage Referrals

Referral marketing is a good choice if you want an effective way to market your law firm inexpensively. It is a low to no-cost strategy, and you use your existing customers to get new ones. However, you must offer stellar legal services with clear communication, active listening, personalization, transparent billing, and follow-ups to get referrals.

Satisfied customers are more likely to refer people to your law firm intentionally. Knowing when to request referrals, offering referral incentives, and using referral links can enhance the referral process. Also, you can use email marketing to foster referrals and develop a community around your brand.

Law firms can also partner with non-competing firms to get referrals. Since most firms specialize in niches, they may come across clients wanting legal services outside their practice area. In such a case, they may refer to a partner firm for mutual benefit. Also, firms can forge relations with professionals in complementary fields like real estate, tax preparation, and accounting.

4. Give your Website a Facelift

A website is an easy and inexpensive way for law firms to have an online presence and harness related benefits. However, many sites are flawed with design and technical problems, hindering their effectiveness. For instance, around one-third of law firm websites are not optimized for mobile devices. As a result, they miss advertising and reputation management opportunities.

Moreover, a website makeover can be an excellent marketing strategy for generating leads and sales, improving SEO ranking, targeting a broader demographic, and increasing credibility. Also, you transform your site into a 24/7 salesman to support your digital marketing efforts. Here are a few tips to enhance your website to make it more useful for visitors. 

1. Use white space generously.

2. Increase page speed – slow pages are frustrating and increase bounce rate

3. Include authoritative headings

4. Keep web pages consistent –styles, font choices, spacing, colors, heading sizes, and design elements. 

5. Make the site mobile friendly

6. Maintain ease of use

7. Use relevant and non-generic images

8. Utilize appealing calls to action

9. Create content regularly

10. Keep design up to date

Conclusion

Marketing is the lifeblood of a law firm, ensuring a steady level of client activity, increasing brand awareness and visibility, and boosting income generation activities.

However, it takes time, effort, and patience to create a winning marketing strategy, but a law firm marketing agency can help. Generating content, leveraging referrals, and renovating your website can help market your firm effectively and expand your client base.