Every law firm, from niche boutique firms to global behemoth firms, needs three essential marketing strategies in place to ensure their marketing is effective. If any single element of these strategies is broken or missing, your overall digital marketing strategy (no matter how good) won’t work.
Law Firm Marketing Strategies that Really Work
If you’re looking to attract business from other businesses or business from individuals and consumers using digital strategies and successful law firm marketing, you’ve come to the right place.
Most professionals I know get bombarded with a barrage of marketers trying to sell them on all types of digital marketing services and tools to help them land potential clients. And, while there are some incredible tools out there that can help you rank higher on a search engine and drive traffic to your website, the truth is that there are three core strategies that are sure to land new clients and grow your law practice.
So, let’s break down each of those three strategies and look at some real-world examples of what these strategies look like for a large global firm looking to attract prestigious and hard to reach (business to business) B2B clients, a high volume-based firm seeking to get as many individual leads into the door as possible, and a growing firm who is just starting out building its practice.
Law Firm Marketing Plan
Your firm needs each of these three strategies in place to have a successful digital marketing plan that makes all of those long-spent marketing efforts worthwhile:
- Awareness Strategy
- Nurture Strategy
- Conversion Strategy
Each of these strategies is part of what’s called the client journey and helps move your potential client down a path toward becoming a firm client.
But what does this actually look like in a law practice? Let’s talk about each in turn, so you can better understand what these strategies are, and how you can create your own marketing map that incorporates each practice.
Strategy 1 : Awareness Strategy
If you’ve ever felt like your marketing plans leave you exhausted and waving your hands to plead with potential clients, “Look at me! Over Here!” it’s likely that you need a stronger awareness-building strategy in your digital marketing plan.
The Awareness Building Strategy is focused on making your target audience aware you exist. This strategy is typically comprised of ads, social media marketing like Facebook ads, radio ads, television ads, sponsorships, conferences, speaking opportunities, and podcasts. The goal of these types of strategies is to introduce your audience to your firm and the services you offer in every possible way. The goal is attention.
Strategy 2: Nurture Strategy
Your nurture strategy is focused on keeping your firm top of mind with your audience, far beyond that coveted good first impression. This strategy is built around making as many touchpoints with a potential client as possible until they hire your firm. Examples of a nurture system might include white papers about your practice areas, email marketing campaigns, client alerts, social media marketing campaigns, and even re-marketing campaigns, all of which fall under the heading of online marketing.
Strategy 3: Conversion Strategy
Your conversion strategy is the final and most important element of any great marketing plan that makes the bottom line of your marketing budget well worthwhile. This strategy is focused on actually turning a lead into a client. Examples of this strategy in action typically involve an intake system (super helpful when built into your firm’s website), a follow-up system, and may include an entire sales team that is responsible for taking phone calls and collecting contact information, qualifying leads, and performing targeted follow-up communication.
This system can also include a component of an automated email marketing program that helps nurture and do automated response in the form of appointment reminders, review requests, and so much more to not only help convert leads into clients, but convert clients into advocates–a highly-prized feat many law firms don’t even realize they need. This strategy could also include a sophisticated re-marketing campaign as well, in the form of social ads that populate on a potential client’s Google search.
Law Firm Marketing Plan for Every Firm
As you can see, these three strategies can look very different and include various tactics and techniques crucial to a law firm’s success. The key to ensuring these three legal marketing strategies work well is to have a cohesive overarching marketing strategy that connects each smaller strategy to the other, so that your potential clients and leads are always making their way from one phase of the client journey to the next seamlessly, ultimately becoming a firm client.
So, now that you’ve wrapped your mind around these strategies, let’s talk about what the client journey actually looks like at a large global B2B style firm, a high volume law firm – where a large quantity of leads is key, and at a brand new, just-starting-out practice or law firm.
Large Global Law Firms focused on Business to Business Marketing
Large Law Firm Awareness Strategy
A large global law firm may use a strategy of pushing each attorney to attend conferences and events that allow them to network and develop relationships. They may sponsor golf tournaments and charity fundraisers, and work hard to get their names in the most prestigious publications focused on legal services through strategic PR initiatives. This is all part of their awareness strategy.
Global Law Firm Nurture Strategy
Similarly, these same firms will use various forms of nurture strategies to help cultivate deeper relationships with their lawyers’ key contacts. This might look like free webinar invitations, white papers, and invite-only firm events. They may send out targeted email campaigns in the form of client alerts and invite their key and target audience to read their relevant blog posts or to join them for fun events, like baseball games and spa days. This is all part of their nurture strategy.
Conversion Strategy for Large Global Law Firms
Finally, a large firm will typically have a team of business professionals responsible for supporting their lawyers or professionals with business development efforts. This might be in the form of pitch development, RFP responses, and various forms of follow-up from email to phone conversations or clicks on your law firm website. With sophisticated systems like CRMs and ERMs in place, these firms will focus heavily on making consistent and regular contact with their clients and prospects and doing targeted cross-selling across practice areas and industries.
But what would this same setup look like with a high-volume B2C firm?
High Volume Law Firm focused on Marketing to Individuals
Awareness Strategy for High-Volume Law Firms
A high-volume firm will rely heavily on its awareness strategy. They would make plenty of room in their marketing budget for all types of advertising, like social media ads, Google Ads, radio ads, television ads, etc. Their goal is to create as much exposure and garner as many eyeballs on them as possible – far more exposure than the old practice of handing out business cards.
This type of firm would likely be out in their communities and doing a lot of work to bring their name to the public at-large. For example, their lawyers will likely be attending events, sponsoring events, and managing their own social media page to promote their legal services and meet their prospects where they are on the social media platforms most popular at the time – like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, etc.
This type of firm may invest in billboards and sponsor high-traffic events, like cultural events, fairs, concerts, etc. They may also use strategic marketing efforts like PR initiatives to get their name out to the public, as well. You can pay to be listed on those legal directories until the cows come home, but actually reaching clients with that info requires stronger marketing efforts.
Nurture Strategy for High-Volume Law Firms
Similarly, their nurture system would also be robust with likely weekly or bi-monthly email marketing campaigns, promotions with landing pages, and various types of nurture-focused communications aimed at letting clients and potential clients know you’re there for them. They would likely have a very sophisticated marketing strategy that utilizes funnels they create with the idea of nurturing their audience through every stage of the client journey.
Beyond email marketing, they would likely have a sophisticated system for nurturing leads on social media or grabbing info from the use of search engines. For example, they may have a high-tech messenger bot in place on their firm’s website or a quiz funnel that ends with a request for an email address and phone number. They may also have a direct mailer campaign for potential clients who enter promotions and attend in-person events. This would also likely include re-marketing ads directed at anyone who lands on their firm’s website or interacts with their brand online, such as their law firm’s LinkedIn or Facebook page.
High Volume Law Firm Conversion Strategy – Lead Conversion
This same type of firm would have a very sophisticated intake and lead conversion strategy in place. They would likely have a full-fledged sales or business development representative team as part of their law firm marketing strategies. This team would be responsible for screening leads, qualifying the leads, and moving these points of contact from the lead stage, to the prospect stage, through consultations, quotes, and in-person meetings with their attorneys providing legal services in a variety of their practice areas. And, if a prospective client doesn’t hire on the spot, this type of strategy would include a dynamic follow-up process.
Now, if you’re sitting here feeling overwhelmed, then you’re likely in the phase of business where you need something a bit less robust, which it totally ok because even the behemoth law firms know you need to grow your law firm and lawyers from fledgling to monolith.
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither are most marketing strategies, especially a digital marketing strategy. They take time to develop, and it can often be years before your audience recognizes your brand as the guru of legal services.
If you’re just starting out, then here is a way you might create a legal marketing plan that includes these three types of strategies for your law firm.
Small Law Firm Marketing Plan
Awareness Strategy for Growing Law Firms
For this type of law firm, having a strong social media presence will be key (bonus points if your content points back to your law firm website). It’s low cost (often free) and an easy way to start building your audience — even if you don’t have one. You’ll also want to consider investing some in social ads and possibly even pay-per-click (PPC), if you have the room for it in your firm’s marketing budget. These marketing efforts are key for every law firm’s awareness strategy.
Effective Nurture Strategies for Small Law Firms
The simplest and most affordable nurture strategy out there is going to be email marketing. With ROI of $38 to 1, it’s one of the fastest and simplest ways to stay connected with your law firm’s target audience. You’ll want to be emailing prospective clients at least once per month to get the best results.
Lead Conversion Strategy for New Law Firms
Finally, your conversion strategy may not include a team yet, but this doesn’t mean having a good intake system and leads system isn’t crucial. Keep track of where your prospective clients find you, keep note on a spreadsheet or in notebook, and create a reminder system for you to follow up with those who don’t hire on the spot.
So, that’s it. Those are the three strategies that will elevate your law firm marketing and enable your law firm to grow from whatever size you may be. I hope you learned something and are inspired to try to implement some of these marketing efforts into your own law firm marketing plan. Remember these three strategies are key in moving your potential clients through the client journey and converting them to firm clients.
If you’re still not sold on this tried-and-true practice or simply have too much on your task list to take on any other actions, By Aries would love to perfect your digital presence. Give us a call!
