There are over 450,000 law firms in the United States alone. No doubt most of them are wondering how to market themselves—legal services aren’t the same as marketing a new blender. They are at a higher price point and often something that affects the outcome of a client’s life. Add to that a competitive marketplace, and it can feel overwhelming to know where to start.
This in-depth guide on how to market a law firm will walk you through what sets marketing for a law firm apart, what challenges you might face, and some of the best strategies to employ. With our help, you’ll see that marketing a law firm is possible to do well no matter your budget.
What’s special about marketing for a law firm?
When you’re marketing a law firm, you need to dig into the specifics. What sets a law firm apart from other types of services?
Very niche target audiences
Going for an everyman approach with your advertising isn’t going to work, as the target audiences for law firms are incredibly niche. There are 21 different fields of study for lawyers to choose from in the US, meaning at least 21 different specializations for a firm to have. Those seeking a real estate lawyer are going to be very different from those seeking a civil rights attorney or a family practice lawyer.
You’ll also want to consider the kinds of cases you’re capable of taking on. Some may require more resources and staffing than you have available, so it wouldn’t make sense to try and target people in that bracket. Think about the kind of business you most want to attract.
A strategic advertising plan that includes SEO research and smart content marketing is so important for legal services. Honing in on specific, niche keywords and creating content around them that these audiences want to engage with can help your firm be ahead of the pack.
Regulation can make advertising tricky
While there are advertising regulations no matter what industry you’re in, the specific rules that apply to law firms are much more nuanced. There are separate rules and best practices encouraged by the American Bar Association (ABA), not to mention government and state bar association regulations that vary from state to state.
The purpose is to uphold the institution’s ethics and to prevent it from making misleading claims to potential clients. Here are three of the most important ABA rules when it comes to marketing:
- Rule 7.1: Communications Concerning a Lawyer’s Services
- You cannot make false or misleading statements or omit facts necessary to prevent the statement from being misleading.
- Rule 7.2: Communications Concerning Specific Rules
- Essentially, you’re allowed to advertise through any media, but there are stipulations regarding how and when you can call a lawyer or a specialist, what kinds of recommendations cannot be paid, and more.
- Rule 7.3: Solicitation of Clients
- This rule covers how and when it’s appropriate to reach out to specific clients directly to offer your services.
Remember: you’ll also need to consider your specific state’s rules and regulations. Some states, like California, are particularly strict with how they allow law firms to advertise, so keep that in mind.
Reputation and professionalism are vital for trust
With law firms, more than many other industries, reputation and professionalism are important for securing and retaining clients. Clients aren’t just hiring you, they’re often trusting you with intimate details of their personal and professional lives. The outcomes of cases often have a dramatic impact on their lives. That makes it a relationship that’s not to be entered lightly, so ensuring your reputation highlights your wins, strengths, and demeanor can go a long way.
When it comes to marketing, professionalism should guide your tactics. Gimmicks and gags might help get you clicks but can damage your reputation, making you appear unserious and less trustworthy. In a competitive marketplace with so many unique rules when it comes to marketing, it’s just not worth the risk.
Instead, use SEO to bolster your website and the content you offer to ensure your pages appear useful, intelligent, and relevant to your target audience. Plus, when your pages appear higher in searches, it signals to potential clients that your business is trustworthy.
How to market a law firm on the Internet: 5 key steps
Once you understand what’s unique about marketing a law firm, you can start building your strategy. We can help you get started in just five simple steps.
Step 1: Establish a clear brand and niche for your firm
While there are tons of law firms out there, the number of fields and specialties within those fields will help you start distinguishing what makes your law firm different. By creating a brand and settling into a niche, your law firm goes from competing against almost half a million firms to only the small number within your pocket of the profession.
For instance, if you’re a law firm that focuses on family law, see if you can single out some of your specialties within family law that could help set you apart. Maybe you focus more on divorce proceedings, perhaps estate planning services, or maybe you focus more on elder law. Finding ways to highlight your firm’s strengths on a more granular level should give you the power to develop a clearer, stronger brand.
Step 2: Demonstrate expertise and credibility in content
Even today, content is king; custom content is a great way to show off your firm’s expertise and boost your credibility. By leveraging your niche expertise to respond to your target’s specific concerns and questions, you can capture traffic for your website and boost your reputation as a leader in your field.
To start, you’ll want to understand exactly who your audience is. This can be done by conducting detailed research and creating an ideal customer profile (ICP) full of demographic, psychographic, geographic, and behavioral data. Armed with this information, you can start creating content with them directly in mind.
For this to work, you’ll need to craft intelligent, well-written work that fulfills a real need. Hiring a legal SEO content team can be a smart move—you can leverage a team of dedicated specialists without needing to hire writers or pull your staff off more pressing projects.
Step 3: Invest in search engine optimization (SEO)
When individuals or businesses look for a lawyer, they often start with a Google search. Considering that most people never venture beyond the first page of search results, nabbing top spots can be a real boon for businesses. That’s why law firms need to invest in their SEO.
SEO includes having a technically sound, mobile-optimized website and regularly producing high-quality content centered around the right keywords (the likely search terms of your ICP). With these areas covered, you can boost your rankings on Google and increase the likelihood that the right people will find you.
The real key here is high-quality content. Long gone are the days when keyword stuffing was enough to help you climb the rankings. As Google has wisened up to such tricks, producing the best content possible with the help of talented pros like those at Ranq is your best strategy.
Step 4: Foster strong relationships for the referral stream
The weight a referral carries for law services is significant due to the personal nature of the service and its relatively high cost. Having a strong referral stream is also an effective way to find high-quality clients in your specific niche. How do you go about building one, then?
The most important thing to remember is that you need to invest as much time getting to know your clients as they’re taking to get to know you. You must demonstrate your value—maybe with a free consultation. Overall, the goal is to dedicate effort that shows potential clients that you’re worthy of their loyalty.
Once built up, the power of your referral stream is the quality of customers it can bring you. It can turn one-time clients into lifelong relationships where you become their trusted source for their legal needs.
Step 5: Use targeted PPC campaigns when necessary
Even law firms can benefit from the simple power of PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. Given the competitive marketplace and the importance of standing out among search rankings, implementing a PPC campaign can be a good way to get your marketing strategy off the ground or give you a boost during slow periods. After all, according to a 2019 study, 57% of people look for a lawyer on their own, which most likely means turning to Google.
A PPC campaign will ensure that your firm appears at the very top of the page in a sponsored spot for whatever keywords you select. The more you understand about what search terms are resonating with your target demographic, the better you can find ways to implement them in your campaigns.
PPC campaigns are especially effective at keeping up traffic while SEO builds. Because PPC spending is high and the results go away the minute you quit it, it’s best to improve SEO to a place where you can gather organic traffic.
What marketing challenges do law firms face?
Even with those best practices, law firm marketing can be tough. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common challenges when figuring out how to market a law firm.
Strict regulations make marketing difficult
As said, advertising legal services comes with a staggering number of rules and regulations to do so, well, legally. You’ll have to grapple with the ABA standards, regulations imposed by your State Bar, and whatever other advertising laws your state has. Being aware of all these is no easy task, as many law firms come to find out.
Because of this, you can’t be cavalier about the kind of marketing communications you’re sending out. Ideally, you’d have an experienced marketing team familiar with compliance standards to review all comms before they go live to eliminate room for error.
Legal industry is highly competitive
Considering how competitive law school is, with high LSAT scores a must and acceptance rates at the top schools as low as 6%, it should be no surprise that things don’t get any easier after graduation. With nearly half a million law firms in the United States, the only way to thrive is to find a way to cut through the noise.
Finding your niche and doing the necessary research on your exact target audience is so crucial. Both will help you survive among a much more manageable number of competitors. By getting as granular as you can, you can speak more directly to the exact people most likely to hire you, helping your messaging stand out and increasing your chances of success.
Complexity and price of services are hard to sell
Instead of a product, legal service marketing is essentially selling your breadth of expertise and your track record in the courtroom. What really complicates matters is that your expertise is in an area of study the average person often doesn’t understand themselves.
Many of your marketing communications need to do as much educating as they do selling. You have to help your audience understand what it is you offer and why it’s worth the price before you can get them to see why they should choose you. Again, focusing on a niche target audience can help cut down on some of this.
Best law firm marketing strategies: SEO, Content, Social Media
When you put together a marketing strategy for your firm, there are a few tried and true strategies that can help you get started.
SEO vs. PPC
SEO is your best friend here. When compared to PPC, organic SEO is more valuable to focus on because it promotes more long-term growth at a lower cost. Knowing what keywords to use and how to use them can help your site soar in search rankings, making it that much easier for your target audience to find you. That’s why services like the ones we provide at Ranq are so valuable.
PPC (or pay-per-click) advertising, on the other hand, is going to be more expensive and only provides a short-term boost. That doesn’t mean it won’t have a place in your strategy, though. It can be a great way to help you get your campaign off the ground while you build your SEO.
Content marketing
Because of the challenge that comes with clients understanding your legal services, content marketing is an incredible component of your marketing strategy. Creating content that answers your audience’s queries helps you sell your specific legal services while educating potential clients. Plus, they’re more encouraged to reach out if they view you as an expert, offering you another opportunity to capture them.
This is where Ranq’s team shines. We can dedicate the resources necessary to craft compelling, competitive content that can help you reach your targets.
Social media and referral marketing
Creating a reliable referral network is one of the strongest resources you can have at your disposal. It takes a lot of work to create one, but the results are higher quality clients that you can build a long-term relationship with.
That said, it’s still the 21st century. Your firm should have a solid social media presence—that means regular postings on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Social media is another easy way to help potential clients find and engage with you. You’ll want to be careful though, as the rules and regulations about law firm marketing apply to socials as well.
Need a law firm marketing agency? Ranq are your expert witnesses
Ranq can help your marketing efforts lead to real long-term growth. When the marketplace is as competitive as it is for law firms, you should take all the help you can get to make your business stand out. With Ranq, you can leave the bulk of that work to us.
Our team of professionals will do the intensive SEO research you need to boost your pages in the rankings while crafting original optimized content just for you. We know that only expertly crafted content can help you nab that number-one spot.SEO takes a while, so don’t wait. Reach out to Ranq today and get started.