In an ideal world, simply creating a business profile on Facebook would be enough to get clients to want to hire your firm. Unfortunately, you’re competing for clients with over 1.3 million other attorneys across the country. So legal marketing is the only way to get your firm to stand out.
Legal marketing is any advertising method used by a law firm to interest a wider client base. That includes using SEO on your website, starting email campaigns, and creating social media profiles. Legal marketing typically costs a law firm about 1.9% of its total revenue each year.
There’s a lot more to legal marketing than running a simple Facebook ad and hoping potential clients reach out. So, let’s talk about what legal marketing is, why your law firm needs to get involved with it, and how marketing can change your firm for the better.
Every year in America, about 100 million lawsuits are filed with the courts. With over 1.3 million lawyers across the nation, that averages about 77 lawsuits per lawyer each year.
Unfortunately, it’s just not that simple.
There’s a lot more to running a successful law firm than simply having dozens or even hundreds of attorneys to work cases. After all, having 500 lawyers at your disposal doesn’t guarantee that you’ll actually have clients to work with.
Another thing worth mentioning is the demand for lawyers.
Americans have remained relatively steady when it comes to hiring lawyers since 2008. That means hoping other law firms become overloaded and their client overflow ends up at your front door is not even in the realm of possibility.
Clients aren’t going to fall into your lap.
And that’s exactly why your law firm needs to invest in legal marketing.
There are two things to keep in mind when it comes to legal marketing: It’ll probably cost you a good amount of money and it takes time to see real results.
That’s why it’s a good idea to be like 47% of American law firms that set an annual marketing budget. Legal marketing aims to get the public interested in hiring your law firm instead of the one down the street or across town.
Let’s go over a few basic ways that you can get your firm involved in legal marketing.
Just about every adult in America is active on at least one social media platform. That’s why about 80% of lawyers maintain a professional profile on sites like Facebook and Instagram. Your clients aren’t always going to come to you, so you have to go to them.
A business profile on Instagram and Facebook can do wonders for marketing your firm to the right people. You can run targeted ads that display on the news feeds of people within your local area, in a certain age group, and/or with specific interests. You want the right people to see ads.
Your social media profile is also a great place to share posts about your niche in the legal field, interact with followers through likes and comments, and respond to messages that you receive. That means your marketing tactic might not even require you to spend money.
Social media marketing can absolutely be a game-changer for your law firm. Here’s a short video describing in-depth what the purpose of social media marketing really is.
Around 86% of law firms in America have a website representing the firm. Yet, only 38% of law firms will keep track of analytical data to see if their website is actually working the way it should. And a mere 30% of firms will have a website with a blog.
Creating a website is the first major step toward marketing your firm, but you need to be willing to go a few steps further. Investing in professional SEO services will get your law firm to rank on Google when potential clients search certain keywords, like “divorce lawyer los angeles.”
A website with a blog is perhaps even more useful when it comes to generating interest in your law firm. Writing well-written blog posts that can inform the public on legal matters or provide basic legal advice can help you prove yourself a knowledgeable figure in your niche.
You know how expensive it is to hire a lawyer in America, with some clients spending between $100 and $300 an hour. Losing in the courtroom means that clients aren’t getting any of their money back. That explains why they’re overly cautious about hiring the right law firm.
Sometimes, the best marketing tactic is working on building and maintaining relationships with your clients and leads. One of the easiest ways to do this is by setting up email campaigns. These are completely automated emails that keep your firm’s name at the forefront.
The other benefit of keeping these relationships, even well after the lawsuit has ended, is potential referrals. About 62% of people will get input from family and friends before hiring a lawyer. Simply giving one client a good experience can help you to double your client base.
As you may know, marketing isn’t something that works overnight. In marketing, there’s something called the “Rule of 7.” That means that a client will have to see your face or read your message seven or more times to encourage them to actually reach out.
So, don’t set a $10,000 budget and spend it all in one day. Your firm needs to create a long-term legal marketing plan before you should expect to see results.
There aren’t any set guidelines regarding how much your firm should be spending on legal marketing. After all, that all comes down to the methods you choose to use.
For example, referrals and Facebook interactions will cost you nothing. On the other hand, investing in pay-per-click (PPC) ads can cost you several hundred dollars for every user that clicks on your ad.
On average, law firms seem to invest about 1.9% of revenue in legal marketing.
If you’re marketing strategically, that 1.9% of revenue spent on marketing won’t hurt your firm. After bringing in a few new clients because of your marketing, it’ll practically pay for itself.
One of the biggest legal marketing mistakes your firm can make is doing too much too soon. As excited as you might be to bring in new clients and boost your revenue, spending your entire marketing budget in a day will be a huge bust.
You need to focus on the long game.
For example, it might take over half a year for your law firm to gain that top rank on Google for just one keyword. A Facebook user might have to click your ad five or more times to actually want to contact you.
If you’re not getting any bites or leads after months, you may want to re-evaluate your current marketing strategy.
Legal marketing is something that every law firm needs to do to lock down new clients and drastically improve revenue. The problem is that legal marketing is a little more complicated than many assume.
The most important thing you can do is create a marketing budget and develop a marketing plan. If you’re unsure about how to best market your law firm, it’s a good idea to get the professionals involved.
It’s better to spend some money on strategies that definitely work than spend a lot of money on legal marketing that goes nowhere.
