How to Market a Law Firm: 8 Marketing Strategies for Lawyers

The legal industry requires a different marketing approach than traditional businesses. PR is more challenging for law firms because you need to protect the privacy of clients. You also have to consider what marketing strategies work best based on the practice area and adjust your marketing goals accordingly.

For example, social media marketing can be great for estate planning, tax, and family law. On the other hand, accidents and personal injury require less educational marketing as the cycle of decision-making for clients is much shorter.

Once you know your target audience, you'll be able to decide how to attract new clients and which marketing strategies to employ. In this article, we will dive into eight creative ways to generate buzz around your law firm and secure more quality clients.

Add video to your marketing strategy

In a recent poll, 72% of customers said they would rather learn about a product or service by video. Quickly, video has overtaken the internet as it's the most personable form of social media. Online marketing for lawyers is non-negotiable in today's digital landscape.

In Complete Guide to Digital Marketing for Lawyers, we cover how video has taken the digital marketing world by storm. That is one of the reasons we designed the Intaker chatbot with video. You can film an intro and create different videos by practice area or language.

Video is the best way to showcase your personality and build a personal relationship with prospective clients across all social channels. Some lawyers have been blowing up on social media for their helpful, funny, and engaging content. Examples of lawyers making quality videos:

• Anthony Barbuto
• Mike Mandell
• Kevin Kennedy

‍We hope that this article gave you some inspiration on how to spice up your law firm's digital marketing. Let us know what information you found most helpful. We would love to hear your digital marketing success stories in the comments below.

Beefing up your social media presence

In Complete Guide to Digital Marketing for Lawyers, we explain how to choose social media platforms that meet your marketing objectives. Being active on social media can help exorbitantly drive up high-quality leads for your law firm. Thanks to awesome free tools like Canva and Buffer you don't need a professional marketing team or any extra help to get started posting like a pro on social media.

Canva has pre-made templates designed by professionals that you can customize to fit your firm's branding. Buffer is a tool where you can upload a post and schedule it to publish on all of your social platforms at a future date.

If you are trying to post regularly, you may find it easier to content batch. Meaning you make multiple graphics at one time and schedule them to be posted later. It is recommended to post three to five times per week on average.

When posting on LinkedIn and Facebook, make sure you put your best foot forward by having your homepages set up correctly. You'll want a professional headshot and cover photo, engaging biography, and to add relevant work experience.

If you're making the page for the firm rather than a specific lawyer, you'll want quality photos, a clear description of your firm, and social evidence of your successes, such as reviews.

PPC campaigns to generate leads

Pay-per-click campaigns are a form of advertising where you spend money first to make it back. According to a 2022 study, for every one dollar a lawyer spends on Google ads, they make an average of two back. More than 85% of people use the internet to find local law firms, and PPC makes you more likely to be found.

If you're looking for a faster way to generate legal leads, PPC could be the right approach. SEO is a long game because it's organic, whereas the pay-to-play model allows for more immediate results. You're essentially buying your way to the top of Google and allowing anybody in your area searching for an attorney to find you more easily.

Keep in contact with email marketing

Email marketing may not be the most innovative suggestion on the list, but it is a tried and true method of engaging clients and leads. You're likely to make forty dollars in return for every dollar you spend on email marketing.

Lawyers who consistently stay in touch with their ideal clients spend 33% less overall on marketing because when people need a lawyer, they already have this firm in mind.

Some people aren't convinced about putting energy into email marketing since it can be considered outdated, and the open rate is only 20%. But, it's an easy way to consistently stay in contact with potential leads and maintain a relationship with past clients.

Email marketing is inexpensive, easy to set up, and has a high ROI. If it's not already part of your marketing plan, it should be, especially if you practice the kind of law where clients may hire you again.

Geo-fencing and geo-targeting: qualifying leads for lawyers

A great way to deter unqualified leads is through geofencing and geo-targeting. Geo-fencing is setting virtual location specific boundaries. Geo-targeting is changing the type of content consumers receive based on their location.

For example, you can geo-target your state with Google ads to reach more qualified clients nearby. You could even take it a step further by diversifying your ads by the practice area most needed for different cities within the state.

Suppose a particular neighborhood experienced a natural disaster, such as a fire. You could send ads to that demographic about the damages and injuries. If another has a high elderly population, you could send estate planning ads there. The opportunities are endless. Read the Google Ads Help article, Target Ads to Geographic Locations, for more information.

You can also add your business profile to Google my Business and Google Maps to increase your visibility online. To learn how, read the article, How to Add or Claim Your Business Profile on Google.

Other tools you have might also possess geo-fencing capabilities. With Intaker, you can adjust settings to only show chatbot for website visitors based in a particular area. See Intaker's Location Rules article for details on how to set location perimeters for your bot.

Clever SEO strategy

SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank in search engines and is an outstanding tool for law firm marketing. To learn more about why SEO is essential, visit our blog post, Complete Guide to Digital Marketing for Lawyers. Here we are going to talk about an often overlooked SEO strategy.

Most likely, you have heard about researching competitors and using specific keywords you find on their pages. A less utilized strategy is finding commonly asked questions on Quora, Bar Association Forums, and Facebook pages. Find out what legal questions people ask online, and start writing blog posts around these topics. If you want to rank higher in  Google search results, doing your research in this way is sure to help get you there.

Consider a podcast

Podcasts are a growing modality to show off your expertise. Between 2018 and 2021, the number of regular podcast listeners grew by 29.5% which is a huge leap in such a small time frame. Podcasts are also becoming increasingly popular amongst an older demographic. From 2020 to 2021, the number of Americans 55 years and older who tuned into monthly podcasts grew by 18%.

If you are already blogging, you can easily record a podcast about that same topic without conducting any additional research. Podcasting is great for answering questions, helping potential clients get to know you, and positioning yourself as an industry thought leader.

47.95% of lawyers said podcasting sounds good but is unrealistic for them to take on at this time.

If you're unsure about committing to hosting a podcast, test the water by being a guest on someone else's first. If you enjoy the process, add a co-host or partner to help take some pressure off. Podcasts are low-cost, high-value tools that will set you apart from other lawyers.

Send handwritten notes and follow up with clients

Show your clients extra appreciation by sending a handwritten note once they've wrapped up working with you. Elderly clients, such as those in estate planning, will be particularly delighted to have received such a thoughtful expression of gratitude.

There is a website called Handwrytten where you type out your note, and someone hand writes and sends it for you; the price starts at $3.25. It's well worth it to please clients, leading to referrals and positive reviews.

Intaker also offers digital text templates for your more tech-savvy clients who don't want to mess with traditional mail. You can draft a personable message to send to everyone and ask for a positive review online.

We hope these strategies gave you some inspiration on how to spice up your marketing strategy. If you are yet to try Intaker, book a demo to learn more about our chatbot, business texting, lead management, and workflow automation services. We’re here to help take your law firm to the next level.