Proven Marketing Strategies for Law Firms

Here we share our tried and tested marketing ideas for law firms that work. We will explore some of the best, proven law firm marketing strategies. These are based on tried and tested strategies that have worked for us in the real world.

While everyone seems to have an opinion on marketing, it is another matter to implement the idea. Also, it is always dangerous to assume without testing the concept before. Well, we have done that for you, as all of these strategies are based on our own experience.

Here are some cases in point of “what some people say”: social media is a waste of time, Google Ads is a waste of money and SEO is just a headache.

The critical point here is that it is better to do something than do nothing. Marketing is a highly dynamic discipline; therefore, your firm needs to remain active to get the best results.

This article will examine some of the proven law firm marketing strategies in a step-by-step format. If you have any questions at any stage, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Lawzana team.

Create a marketing plan for your law firm

Where do you want your firm’s marketing to take you? How will your firm reach that point?

The most reliable method to address these questions is to make a marketing plan.

A marketing plan does not need to be long; however, it should include relevant action points for your law firm.

A well-made marketing plan can take your law firm to the next level. It can support your business by transforming your goals into reality by guiding your firm in the right direction, setting objectives and milestones, taking actionable measures, and more.

If you have never created a marketing plan before, you may be wondering where to start and what you should include in your firm’s marketing plan.

Objective

Starting with a goal is an excellent place to start. Would you like to position your firm as a leader in a particular practice area? Are you looking to get more clients? Are you looking to expand the firm in a new area of expertise? Are you looking to bolster your firm’s reputation? Having a goal will allow your firm to create a focal point so that the points in the plan all link back to this goal.

Tactics

What are the methods that you, your marketing team, or your agency outsource will do to get you there? There are virtually infinite marketing tactics such as social media, paid advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), and so on. Further on in this article, we look at some of these tactics in more detail.

Metrics

What will the measure of your success be concerning your marketing efforts? Consider the number of leads or new clients you expect to generate from your marketing campaigns. You can also consider the campaign’s return on investment (ROI) by analyzing how many clients or by categorizing by type of client if some practice areas are more valuable than others, then deducting the marketing campaign cost.

Build an impactful website for your law firm

Your website is the hub of your online presence. It’s the one online channel that combines all of your areas of expertise and showcases these to the outside world.

This is why your various marketing tactics should lead back to your website. Your law firm’s website needs to stand out with first-class, contemporary design, offer an outstanding user experience (UX), and provide a seamless user journey to explore and find the information your potential clients are looking for.

If your website is old-fashioned, unattractive, or not user-friendly, you need to fix this before you do anything else. There is no point in investing in paid advertising, for example, only to send users to a website that is unlikely to inspire potential clients to contact you. This would be a waste of your firm’s resources and may damage your firm’s brand reputation along the way.

At the fundamental level, your firm’s website should tick the following boxes:

• Be responsive across all devices (mobile, tablet, and desktop)
• Provide engaging and valuable content
• Be simple to navigate
• Have separate pages for different areas of expertise. You can also consider breaking this down by topic, the more targeted, the better.
• Have a separate page for each lawyer or specialist
• Have clear call-to-actions (CTAs) / easy-to-find contact information
• Create a news or blog section and generate useful content
• Ensure the website offers the latest security (e.g., HTTPS) – if your website is not secure, this will impact your search ranking on Google, etc.
• Have up-to-date and professional staff headshots
• Display a precise and professional logo

Be sure not to include any of the following:

• Include multiple extensive paragraphs with long, drawn-out sentences.
• Not including headings that stand out
• Not including sufficient content on the homepage
• Overuse of lawyer stock photography
• Having deadlinks, links that lead to broken pages

Use Microsoft Word fonts; apart from serif fonts, the rest will make your website look old-fashioned. Adding premium fonts is a simple yet effective step to make your website look more attractive. Modern web fonts include Roboto, Open Sans, or Lato). All of these fonts are available free of charge.

It is increasingly challenging to grab the attention of busy people in today’s society. It is therefore critical that the hub of your firm, your website, is appealing and offers value to your potential clients.

All of your marketing tactics will lead visitors back to your website. This is why it is imperative to maintain a high standard for your firm’s brand reputation.

Optimize your local SEO

The Google Three Pack is typically the first thing people see when searching for a particular local service. The Google Three Pack is the method where Google displays the top results for a local business search. It consists of three local businesses that Google considers relevant, prominent, and nearby in relation to the search user. The results feature the three selected Google Business Profile listings (three packs) and a map of these three results.

Therefore, it is extremely valuable for your law firm to optimize your local SEO to get into this three-pack.

It is difficult, but if you take the appropriate steps, given some time, you have a good chance of getting on the list.

Here are some steps your firm can take to get you along the way:

• Set up or update your law firm’s Google My Business listing
• Make sure that you complete your firm’s profile. Google will guide you on this.
• Be sure that all of your contact information is consistent across all of your online profiles. Not just in terms of information but also in the exact way it is laid out. This should include your online directories and social networks. It is an essential step for SEO.
• Include firm photos, make posts, and complete every step that Google recommends. Personalize your firm’s listing by adding your staff and office images. These extra details will differentiate your listing from other firms.
• Add your website address wherever it may be deemed relevant
• Ensure your listing is kept up to date. Google will sometimes email you, for example, before a. long weekend or to make a routine check. Check your profile and update your office hours if they will change over the long weekend. Likewise, if your firm has moved address, ensure you promptly update it in your profile.

Include your law firm in relevant online directories

Online directories have lost popularity in recent years. Back in the old days of SEO, they were compelling when backlinks were virtually made equally.

A backlink is a link from your website to another website. Search engines such as Google use backlinks ranking signals, or factors that impact your site’s position in the search rankings, as when a website links to another website, it means they believe the content has value. 

However, things changed when Google began focusing instead on high-quality backlinks rather than the number of backlinks, quality over quantity. High-quality backlinks can help increase your firm’s ranking position on Google and be more visible in the search engine results.

So why should firms today bother with online directories? The answer is that it is a quick win. While it is true that they are not as powerful as before, they still hold value, particularly the online directories that are higher up in the search rankings.

The point is that large corporations fund online directory websites and make large investments in their SEO to ensure that they rank highly in the search rankings. Therefore, your search ranking will be boosted by taking the straightforward step of creating a profile.

Many online directories offer the choice of a free listing. So, you can enhance your SEO at no cost.

Create content that is optimized for SEO

We have alluded to it above, but what exactly is SEO? It is the process of conducting a set of activities that pushes your website higher up in the search rankings for a particular target keyword. If your target audience is searching for the ‘best property lawyer in Bangkok’, effective SEO will support your site in being visible on the first page of Google for this search term or keyword. That is the “optimization” part.

What are the differences between SEO and PPC?

SEO aims to boost your organic or unpaid search ranking. This is great in the long term since your firm can receive relevant website traffic at no direct cost. One drawback of SEO for some firms is that it can take time to see the results, months or even years. Any reputable SEO agency offering overnight success is, well, not reputable. Whereas PPC (pay per-click) can generate virtually instant results, as you can pay to be high up in the search rankings or visible on social media, it can be an expensive option, particularly in the long term.

As with many business matters, it may be a good idea to test both approaches to see what brings your firm the results you are looking for. For example, you could focus on growing your SEO over the long term while getting quick results with PPC. Moreover, PPC can support the growth of your SEO if done correctly.

A case in point is that PPC will allow you to test keywords and ideas instantaneously. This research tool can be an excellent way to market research before investing heavily in a particular direction for your content creation. Comparatively, SEO can take months or years to see results. 

Google decides which websites to show in the search results depending on the quality and relevance of the site’s content. This is no different for law firms.

Essentially, your firm will benefit from creating a range of appealing and engaging content. Such content will drive traffic to your website, which is a solid indicator to Google that the type of users you would like to attract to your website also enjoy your content. Google’s core job is sending people to the best website for what they are looking for. Therefore, the most effective way to get to the top of the search rankings for your target keywords is to create consistent content that delights your website visitors.

What type of content works best for law firms?

Law blog posts

Blog posts are one of the most effective forms of content for law firms, as you can write directly about your work area. You do not necessarily need to be a marketer to do this. As you will write about a topic you already know about and are passionate about, you can publish it on your firm’s blog. The marketing step is to ensure that your content is engaging for your target audience, so do some research on the type of posts that are popular among your target audience, reasonably easy to understand, and of interest to your audience. You may consider adapting content themes and categories to your blog content so that, after some time, you may have enough content to put together a downloadable guide, e-book, or white paper that can be shared with high-level publications to promote your firm as a thought leader.

Remember to include a CTA (‘call to action’) in every blog post, as it could lead to a new client or growth in your network. You can create a template for blog posts and keep the CTA there, adapting to the particular blog post content. This will mean that you do not omit a CTA from your blog post. Here are some examples of blog post CTAs:

• Sign up for our newsletter
• Contact our office if you have any questions
• Download the guide

You can also repurpose your content and publish it on other websites, expanding your network while strengthening your firm’s website’s search engine optimization and helping build your law firm’s brand as a thought leader. You can publish on other legal blogs, law directories such as Lexology or Mondaq, printed publications, and local publications. Guest posting is a straightforward way to build up your firm’s practice by leveraging others’ networks and repurposing your written content.

Newsletters

One way to use your blog posts is to publish weekly, monthly, or quarterly newsletters for your law firm. While some people believe that email marketing and newsletters are old-fashioned, the vast majority of the world still uses email, so if you do not take advantage of email marketing, you are limiting your opportunity to reach a significant proportion of your client base. The best practice is to establish a consistent publication schedule that works best for your subscribers and allows you enough time to create valuable, high-quality, and relevant information—if you do not have the content ready, it is best not to send a newsletter. This is often the most significant challenge for law firms concerning newsletters, sticking to the schedule, and planning the content for maximum impact. Law firms with in-house marketers or agencies supporting them will usually build an editorial calendar for their content, including newsletters, to help them plan their content.

LinkedIn articles

Another way to distribute your blog content is via LinkedIn content. You can publish an article on LinkedIn and share it with your network, who can then easily share it with their network. If you have a strong network on LinkedIn, this can be highly effective as it means that a single piece of content can reach a large number of valuable people in your target audience. This is a great way to expand your professional network, increasing the chance of client referrals and building your personal brand recognition.

Infographics

Infographics are an underused yet powerful tool for law firms to reach their target audience effectively. Much of your target audience may be attracted by a visual format, so this is a direct way of finding those people. While many lawyers may not be comfortable with graphic design, you could consider hiring a graphic designer if you do not have someone in-house who can perform this task. Alternatively, many free online design tools offer quick and easy solutions for this type of content for your law firm, such as Canva, which has a selection of free templates to get you started. Infographics can be embedded on your website pages or used to support your firm’s social media posts or other supporting collateral materials. As with all visual assets, they can sometimes deliver a message that would take many words. They can be a great way of explaining legal process steps relatively simply.

Podcasts

You will need to plan your time to create this type of content requires lots of planning and time, but it can be beneficial, and some law firms find the experience of conducting podcasts to be enjoyable. Making podcasts for your law firm should focus on answering legal questions or explaining complex legal concepts in a fun, easy-to-follow way that allows you to reach a mass of your target audience who are interested in your area of legal practice.

Webinars

Webinars are a great way to reach an unlimited number of people in your target audience, saving you time and money. Moreover, the webinar can be recorded. Therefore, you can continue using the content to reach out to your target audience who can engage with it in their own time. There are many free tools to get you started, such as Zoom or GoToWebinar. As people signing up must leave their contact details, you can follow up with the participants by sharing valuable, relevant information or asking if they have any particular questions.

Video

Videos are an effective way to demonstrate your law firm’s personality, highlight the communication strengths that your lawyers offer, and create a connection with your target audience. You should consider SEO when developing online video content by including search terms in your video headline and description to attract a more significant number of visitors to your website. YouTube is not just a social network; people go there to search for information, making it another channel to support your firm’s discoverability, alongside Google. A good place to start is by looking at your frequently asked questions and creating videos on the most pertinent and strategic topics for your firm. Another way to create engaging videos that promote your firm is to create case studies or even client testimonials if you have clients willing to do so.

White papers

Backed up by the power of data and statistics, white papers are designed to address a definite issue within your legal practice area and explore the information related to it in detail. The information laid out within a white paper also guides the reader on the best way forward to solve the issue being discussed. Law firms have the expertise to successfully create their own white paper material and then place these on their website to generate more opportunities to connect with their target audience, who can become potential clients. One thing not to overlook is graphic design, as poor design can reduce the impact of the actual content, so be sure to hire a professional for this task if you plan on creating a white paper for your law firm. A graphic designer can help make your content more appealing to your readers and create more impact.

Client testimonials and reviews

Satisfied clients are a great way to build trust in your firm. If prospective clients notice that you have successfully helped people like them solve similar problems, this could be a convincing factor to encourage them to reach out to you. Testimonials and reviews can be done in several ways. They can be collected and displayed on a page on your law firm’s website, or you can ask clients to give you a review on Google or other review sites. Just be sure that you are working within the boundaries of the laws and ethics that regulate law firm advertising in your region and that your clients are comfortable doing this publicly.

E-Books and guides

Relative to print books, e-books do not require much financial expense and are easy to distribute. One way to develop e-books is by building up your blog content on a related topic and creating an in-depth guide for clients interested in a particular area of your legal services, or you may wish to write an e-book focused on addressing a core issue. An e-book can be an effective lead magnet, which means that it is a handy way to bring in new prospective clients. For example, a property lawyer might create an e-book related to the “Singapore Property Legal Guide” and share it with their network via social media and email or promote it through advertising.

Guest lectures and speaking at events

This is a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. When you put yourself forward as a leader among your peers, you are in a strong position to be acknowledged as an expert and be recommended to potential clients. You can speak at events and go into detail about a topic relevant to your area of practice, whether that is legal conferences or other industry events. Make sure you capture and share the video content of your speech on your social media networks and website. If it is high quality enough, you may be able to repurpose this content as another asset to attract new clients and contacts.

Content Summary

Content is a critical part of marketing for law firms that will support a firm’s business development strategy. As mentioned previously, your law firm’s website is the hub, and everything on this content list will lead traffic back to your website. By experimenting with different types of content in your marketing planning and adding the content to your website, you have an increased chance of reaching a range of clients and establishing your position as a leader within your practice area.

Paid advertising (PPC)

This is the most efficient means to quickly get your website to be more visible in the search rankings, e.g., on Google search. One of the most popular and largest networks is advertising with Google through Google Ads. You can use this service to bid on relevant keywords for your law firm and target audience. You are only charged when someone clicks on your ad. Therefore, if managed properly, it is an effective and efficient way to get people to your website.

By paying through this means, you will be bidding in an auction for your ad to appear, ideally in the first three Google search results, though your ad can appear lower if you do not bid as high as others competing for the same keywords.

One thing to consider is that paid advertising typically yields a lower conversion rate than organic search or visitors coming to your site directly. So you should manage your expectations and budget accordingly. It takes experience to determine if an ad campaign is successful; however, you can consult an expert to manage the campaign fully or at least get a new campaign set up to track conversions properly, and this information can be used in the reporting to assess the ROI.

You can also use paid advertising to conduct market research to see what keywords and messages attract different people in your target audience.

Here are some ideas to get you set up:

Make a dedicated landing page and do not send visitors to the homepage. The landing page should be customized for the ad in terms of content and keywords. This will improve the engagement and conversion rate (percentage of visitors who perform the desired action when visiting the page, such as contacting you). People want to find the information they are looking for quickly and easily; otherwise, they will leave the page.

PPC campaigns need to be monitored and you cannot just ‘set and forget’. For example, you need to analyze the reports in the dashboard, test ad copy and landing pages to see what works best, review the performance, and refine; it’s an ongoing process.

Remarketing

Have you ever visited a website, perhaps an online store, and decided not to buy that new phone, then browsed online and noticed an ad appearing for the same product?

This technique is ‘retargeting’ or ‘remarketing’; there is a difference between the two terms, but they are used interchangeably.

Using this method can bring back people who have already visited your website and, if used strategically, yield great results.

As you grow your online presence, website traffic will increase. However, only a small percentage of these people will take action, such as contacting your firm. Some visitors may not be ready to take up your service; they may still be shopping around, as they are at the beginning or middle of the buying cycle. Yet, a proportion of these visitors will be ready to select a service in the near future. An effective retargeting strategy can keep your firm top of mind, so they contact you when they are ready.

How does retargeting work?

You can retarget website visitors through advertising and social media networks. There is some technical setup on your website to add the appropriate tracking of your visitors; then, you can connect this with an advertising service such as Google Ads or Facebook ads and set up an ad campaign to retarget these visitors. 

As it only targets the people who have already visited, it is usually a highly cost-effective way to generate leads. However, you should set it up correctly to avoid being viewed as spam.

Recommended platforms for remarketing:

• Facebook
• Google Ads
• LinkedIn

Law firm email marketing

Email marketing can be a great way to engage your existing audience, and even though it can be hard to grow subscribers, these can form some of your most valuable audiences.

You can use content marketing such as a newsletter, as detailed above, to provide free content regularly. Doing so offers your audience value by providing targeted law firm marketing information. 

Email is an effective platform to promote your services, as it’s more direct than social media. It is your opportunity to communicate directly with a segment of your target audience, so just be sure you are selecting content relevant to that subscriber.

Here are some tips for effective email marketing:

• Develop a system for when people up to your list, e.g., a welcome email series
• Set up email sign-up points in all the relevant places to maximize your chance of growing your list, e.g., blog posts
• Set up a regular newsletter schedule and stick to it; consistency is important

Ideas for your regular newsletter:

• Sharing your most recent blog posts
• News and updates from your law firm
• Analysis of a current law, policy, ruling, or court case
• Addressing frequently-asked-questions from your clients

Law firm social media marketing

Incredibly, many law firms are not using social media, and most are underusing it. Perhaps it is not viewed as a serious channel for law firm marketing; however, there are great opportunities to increase your firm’s online presence if your firm looks at social media strategically.

Social media should be an extension of your overall law firm marketing strategy. You need to identify the appropriate channels for your law firm’s brand and test to see what works.

LinkedIn and Facebook are the two stand-out channels to start with; LinkedIn has a high-quality, professional audience, whereas most of your audience is likely to be on Facebook; you need to find them.

If you are going to be active on social media, focus on brand image. Get some high-quality and attractive professional photos and generate lots of content so you can stick to a regular posting schedule.

Approach a photographer and arrange a session. Get a bunch of photos that can be used for various purposes. In other words, get shots in generic/non-specific locations. These should also be usable on your website.

Advertise your social media posts

Organic reach on social media is low, so if you want your content to have any impact, you will need to boost it through paid advertising.

You can do this sensibly by not investing too much in advertising posts that perform poorly. This will improve the ROI of your social media advertising.

In conclusion, successful marketing plans are essential for legal companies to thrive in the cutthroat environment of today. Law firms can improve their online presence and draw in valuable clients by putting into practice tried-and-true strategies like developing a thorough marketing plan, designing a compelling website, boosting local SEO, and employing a variety of content marketing techniques like blog posts, newsletters, infographics, podcasts, webinars, videos, white papers, client testimonials, and more. Incorporating paid advertising techniques like PPC campaigns and retargeting, together with carefully utilizing email marketing and social media platforms, may further enhance a company's exposure to and interaction with its intended audience. Ultimately, law firms may achieve sustained development and position themselves as leaders in their fields by investing in comprehensive marketing campaigns catered to the firm's objectives and target audience.

If you have any questions related to law firm marketing, do not hesitate to contact our expert team at [email protected]