Marketing for Law Firms: Your Comprehensive Guide

So you just got out of law school and have decided to start your law firm. How do you reach your potential clients? You will not learn the details of marketing for law firms within the walls of law school.

However, your ability to effectively execute marketing for a law firm will make or break your business.

It is through effective marketing for law firms that you will be able to set your firm apart from the rest and get a steady stream of clients through the door.

Marketing your law firm entails many different aspects. Billboards, TV commercials, and radio ads are all forms of marketing. Over recent years, SEO has infiltrated this field and opened up new opportunities for marketing law firms online.

If you want to start marketing your law firm, here is a comprehensive guide.

• Things You Should Know Before Starting Your Marketing Campaigns
• Marketing Terms to Know
• Different Types of Marketing
• How to Track Results
• Calculating ROI
• How to Create a Marketing Plan

Things You Should Know Before Starting Your Marketing Campaigns

Marketing for law firms is not something that you just dip your toes in. There are some questions you need to answer before starting your attorney internet marketing campaigns.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

You need to consider who you are trying to reach with your marketing. It does you no good to put up a billboard in an area that does not have many potential clients. The same goes for TV commercials and radio ads. You want to ensure that you reach your target audience with your marketing.

Identifying your client persona will help you in this regard. A client persona is a fictional character that represents your target client. When creating your persona, you will need to consider their demographics, interests, needs, and goals. This will help you to create marketing campaigns that are tailored to them.

What Does Your Marketing Funnel Look Like?

A marketing funnel is a process that potential clients go through, from when they are first exposed to your law firm to when they become paying clients. It is essential to clearly understand your law firm marketing funnel so that you can tailor your campaigns to each stage.

A perfect example of a marketing funnel is when someone sees a TV commercial for your law firm. They then go to your website and fill out a form. This puts them into your marketing funnel. You will need to nurture them until they are ready to hire you.

Throughout this process, you will need to track your metrics to see what is working and what is not.

Create a Brand and Brand Identity

Your law firm is a brand. And like all brands, it needs to have a strong identity. Your law firm brand identity is how the public perceives your law firm. It includes your name, logo, tagline, and any other visual elements that you use to represent your firm.

Your brand identity should be consistent across all of your marketing materials. This will help people remember you and associate you with specific values, whether you’re a personal injury attorney or a bankruptcy attorney.

Some things to consider when creating your brand identity are:

• What kind of feel do you want your law firm to have?
• Who is your target audience?
• What values do you want to convey?

Once you have answered these questions, you can move towards effective lawyer branding.

What Is Your Unique Selling Point?

Competition is fierce in the legal industry. You need to find a way to set your firm apart from the rest. This is where your Unique Selling Point (USP) comes in. Your USP is what makes your law firm different from all of the others out there.

It could be anything from your location to the type of law you practice. Once you have identified your USP, you need to ensure it is front and center in all your marketing materials.

What Are Your Growth Goals?

It is essential to set realistic growth goals for your law firm. This will help you measure your success and ensure that you are on track.

• Some things to consider when setting your growth goals are:
• How many new clients do you want to bring in?
• How much revenue do you want to generate?
• What markets do you want to target?

What Is Your Budget?

Marketing requires investment. You need to consider how much you are willing to spend on your marketing campaigns.

Your budget will determine the types of marketing channels that you can use. If you have a limited budget, you may need to focus on cheaper channels like social media for lawyers.

If you have a larger budget, you may be able to invest in more expensive channels like TV or radio.

You should also consider how much you are willing to spend on marketing over time. You need to ensure that you have a consistent stream of leads coming in. You will need to continuously invest in your marketing.

Marketing Terms To Know

Marketing is a broad field, and some terminologies can be confusing. Here are some key marketing terms that you should know when it comes to marketing for law firms:

Marketing Lead

A marketing lead is a potential customer who has shown interest in your product or service. Marketing leads are generated through various marketing activities, such as SEO, PPC, and content marketing.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a roadmap that outlines your marketing strategy and activities. It helps you achieve your marketing goals and should be reviewed and updated regularly.

Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. They could be in the form of leads, customers, or any other metric that you are tracking.

Call-to-Action

A call-to-action (CTA) is a statement or button that encourages people to take the desired action, such as “Sign up now” or “Buy now.” It is mainly used in marketing and advertising to encourage people to take a specific action.

Landing Page

A landing page is a web page that people are taken to after clicking on an ad or CTA. It typically contains information about the product or service that was advertised and includes a CTA.

ROI

ROI stands for “return on investment.” It is a way to measure the profitability of an activity or campaign by comparing the amount of money invested to the amount generated.

Different Types of Marketing

As we said before, marketing for law firms is a vast field. There are different types of marketing that you can use to reach your target audience. Here is a brief overview of some common types of marketing:

SEO

SEO involves optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages. It is a long-term law firm marketing strategy that can help you generate organic traffic to your site.

It works best if you focus on using keywords that are relevant to your business and creating high-quality content. Lawyer online marketing content for SEO for law firm websites should be keyword-rich, informative, and well-written.

PPC

PPC is a type of online advertising where you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. You can use a short-term lawyer internet marketing strategy to generate immediate results.

To use PPC advertising effectively, you need to target your ads to appear when people search for terms related to your business.

Social media

Social media marketing is a form of law firm internet marketing that involves using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to promote your business. It is a great way to connect with potential and current customers and create a community around your brand.

To succeed with social media for attorneys, you need to create attractive, engaging, high-quality content. You also need to be active on social media, responding to comments and messages in a timely manner.

Directories

Local law firm directories are a great way to promote your business to people in your area. They can help you to reach new customers and generate leads. You need to create a listing for your business to be listed in a directory. This listing should include your business name, address, and phone number. It should also include a description of your business and keywords that people might use to search for your business.

Google Business Listing

A Google Business Listing is a free listing that appears when people search for your business on Google. A Google My Business for lawyers listing includes your business name, address, and phone number. You can also add photos, hours of operation, and other information to your listing. To create a Google Business Listing, you need to claim your business on Google My Business.

Video Ads

Video ads are a type of online advertising that uses video to promote a product or service. If you need law firm marketing ideas, you can use video ads on social media, law firm sites, and apps. To create a video ad, you need to create an engaging video that is relevant to your business. You also need to choose a placement for your ads, such as Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram.

Podcast Ads

Podcast ads are a type of audio advertising that is played during a podcast episode. They can be used to promote your business, product, or service. To create a podcast ad, you need to create an audio file that is relevant to your business. You must also choose a placement for your ads, such as iTunes or Google Play.

Local Sponsorship

In this form of marketing for law firms, businesses sponsor local events, such as sports teams, festivals, or charity fundraisers. This can help them to reach new customers and generate brand awareness.

To be a sponsor, you need to choose an event that is relevant to your business and make a financial contribution to the event. You will also need to provide promotional materials, such as banners or T-shirts, to the event organizers.

Television Ads

Television ads are a type of video advertising played on television. They can be used to promote your business, product, or service.

To create a television ad, you need to create a video that is relevant to your business. You also need to choose a placement for your ads, such as cable TV or network TV.

Billboard Ads

Billboard ads are a type of outdoor advertising that uses large, eye-catching displays to promote businesses. They can be used to generate brand awareness or to promote special offers. To create a billboard ad, you need a creative design that will grab attention. You must also choose a placement for your ads, such as a busy street or highway.

There are many different types of marketing for law firms, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. You need to choose the right type of marketing for your business in order to be successful.

How to Track Results

There is no way to determine the success of your law firm digital marketing campaign without tracking the results. You need to set up metrics to track the number of leads, sales, or customers you generate from your marketing campaign.

You also need to track how much money you spend on marketing and how much revenue you generate from it. Each marketing method has different metrics that you can use to track results.

SEO

The main metric for tracking SEO success is website traffic and conversions. You can use Google Analytics to track the number of visitors to your website from organic search. Google Tag Manager can help you track conversions, such as leads or sales.

Google search console focuses more on technical aspects of your website, such as sitemaps and indexing. Third-party programs such as Semrush or Ahrefs can also provide insights into your SEO progress.

PPC

The primary metric for tracking PPC success is conversion rate. This is the percentage of people who click on your ad and then take action, such as buying a product or signing up for a newsletter. You can track conversion rates in Google Analytics. You can also use Google Ads Account Manager to track the number of clicks and conversions.

Social Media

The main metric for tracking social media success is engagement. This includes likes, comments, and shares. You can track engagement in each social media platform’s analytics tool.

For example, Facebook Insights shows you the number of people who have seen, liked, or shared your posts.

Twitter Analytics shows you the number of people who have retweeted or favorited your tweets.

Google Analytics Acquisition Report shows where certain types of traffic came from and can segment that traffic by social media platforms. From the report, you can see if anyone came to the website from a social media platform.

Directories

The primary metric for tracking directory success is website traffic. You can use Google Analytics Acquisition Report to track the number of visitors to your website from a directory.

Billboards, Local Sponsorship, and TV Ads

These are harder to track, but you can do a couple of things. You can either see if “Branded Traffic” (people who search the firm’s name) increases, or you can advertise with a specific URL or phone number that you can track.

Calculating ROI on Marketing

Calculating your return on investment (ROI) for marketing campaigns is critical to understanding whether or not the campaign was successful. To calculate ROI, you need to know three things: the cost of the campaign, the revenue generated from the campaign, and the campaign’s goal.

There are two different equations used in calculating the ROI on marketing.

The Simple Calculation for ROI in Marketing

This method determines the ROI by subtracting the marketing costs from the sales growth and dividing the difference by the marketing costs.

Put simply; ROI = (Revenue Growth – Marketing Costs) / Marketing Costs

This method is used when the marketing campaign’s goal is to generate sales growth. It can be difficult to accurately attribute sales growth to specific marketing campaigns, so this method is best used when few other marketing campaigns are running at the same time.

Additionally, this method doesn’t take into account the time value of money, which can be important when evaluating long-term campaigns.

The More Complicated Calculation for Marketing ROI

The second method takes the difference in the sales growth, average sales growth, and the marketing costs and divides it by the marketing costs, i.e.:

ROI = (sales growth – average organic growth – marketing costs)/marketing cost

The second method is used when the marketing campaign’s goal is to generate brand awareness or website traffic rather than sales growth. This method accurately attributes website traffic or brand awareness to specific marketing campaigns.

If you are running multiple marketing campaigns at the same time, this method is more accurate in determining which campaign is attributed to the sales growth.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

As we said before, marketing for law firms is not something you will implement overnight. You need marketing to effectively reach your target market, track your progress, and make necessary changes along the way. Before we go any further, it is crucial to understand a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a formal document that outlines the goals, strategies, and tactics you will use to achieve your desired level of growth. It explains what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it, and who will be responsible for each task.

Now that we know what a marketing plan is, let’s go ahead and look at how you can create one.

Create an Executive/Business Summary

An executive summary is a high-level overview of your law firm marketing strategy. It should include your company’s mission statement, a brief description of your target market, a summary of your marketing goals, and an overview of your marketing strategies.

When creating an executive summary, be sure to keep it short and to the point. The goal is to give the reader a general idea of your lawyer marketing plan without getting into the nitty-gritty details.

Create the Firm’s Mission, Values, and Vision Statements

The first step in creating your law firm marketing plan is to develop your company’s mission, values, and vision statements. These three things will be the foundation for your marketing decisions.

Your mission statement should be a brief description of what your company does. It should answer the question, “What business are we in ?” It should also explain the motivation behind your business.

Your values are the principles that guide your decisions and actions. They should be reflective of the type of company you want to be in. For example, if you value customer service, you should ensure that your marketing campaigns are focused on providing excellent customer service.

Your vision statement is a description of what you want your company to become. It should be aspirational and something that you can strive to achieve.

When potential clients or customers see your marketing materials, they should be able to tell your company’s mission and values. If they can’t, then you need to go back to the drawing board.

Keep in mind that your mission, values, and vision statements should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. As your business grows and changes, so too should these three things.

Explain the Market and Competition

The goal of any marketing campaign is to reach a specific target market. In order to do that, you need to first understand who your target market is. After all, you can’t market to everyone.

When defining your target market, be as specific as possible. Include factors such as age, gender, location, and interests. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to create marketing campaigns that appeal to them. You can identify your target audience through market research or market segmentation.

Once you have a good understanding of who your target market is, you need to take a look at the competition. Identifying your competition will help you create marketing strategies that will allow you to differentiate your business from them. Knowing what they’re doing will give you a better chance of success.

To learn more about your competition, you can do a competitive analysis. This will involve researching their law firm marketing strategies, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and figuring out what you can do to stand out from them.

Identify the Ideal Customer

Not all customers are created equal. Some will always be more valuable to your business than others. These are the customers you want to focus your marketing efforts on. Failing to do so only means that you’re wasting your time and money marketing to people who will never generate significant revenue for your business.

The best way to identify your ideal customer is to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. It considers factors such as age, gender, location, interests, and needs.

Creating a buyer persona requires you to do some market research. You can gather this information by conducting surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Once you have all the data, you can start creating a profile of your ideal customer.

When creating a buyer persona, it’s essential to be as specific as possible. The more information you have, the easier it will be to create marketing campaigns that appeal to them. You should also update your buyer persona on a regular basis as your business and target market change over time.

Identify and Describe Goals

Every marketing campaign should have specific goals. You need to know what you want to achieve before creating a campaign to help you reach those goals. Lunging into a campaign without any direction is a recipe for disaster.

Some common marketing goals for law firms include increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and boosting sales. However, your goals will depend on your business type and your selling products or services.

No matter your goals, make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. They should also be aligned with your business’s overall goals.

You can determine the goals for your next marketing campaign by conducting a SWOT analysis. This will help you identify your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. From there, you can start setting realistic and achievable goals.

Look at your current marketing statistics before setting any goals. This will give you a good starting point to work from. You should also set goals for each marketing channel you plan on using. That way, you can track each channel’s performance and determine which are worth your time and money.

Show the Actual Marketing Strategies

You can use several marketing strategies to reach your target market and achieve your business goals. Experimenting is the best way to determine which will work for you. Try out different marketing channels and see which ones generate the most leads or sales.

You should be able to point out what they are in a way that shows you understand the material. Some common marketing strategies for law firms include:

• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
• Affiliate marketing
• Native advertising
• Influencer marketing

Your channels will depend on your target market, business goals, and budget. You should also consider the strengths and weaknesses of each channel before choosing one. For example, if you’re selling a product requiring much explanation, you might want to use video marketing instead of social media marketing.

Relying on just one marketing channel can be disastrous. You need to use a mix of channels in order to reach the broadest possible audience. The best way to determine which channels to use is to experiment. Try out different combinations and see which ones work best for your business.

You should also consider using multiple channels simultaneously. For example, you can use social media for lawyers to generate leads and then use email marketing to convert those leads into customers.

You need to have a plan for how you’re going to execute your marketing campaign. This plan should include specific tasks, deadlines, and responsible parties. Without a plan, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks.

Your marketing plan should be detailed and actionable. It should also be flexible enough to accommodate changes. Things will almost certainly not go according to your law firm marketing plan, but that’s okay. Just make sure that you are prepared to adapt as needed.

Establish the Marketing Budget

One of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign is the budget. You need to determine how much money you’re willing to spend on marketing before you can create a campaign that is within your budget.

The size of your budget will depend on a number of factors. Your marketing goals are one of the most critical factors. If you have ambitious goals, you’re going to need a larger budget. The type of business you have is another important factor. A small business will have a smaller budget than a large corporation.

You also need to consider the channels you plan on using. Some channels are more expensive than others. For example, TV advertising is typically more expensive than social media marketing for law firms. You should also consider the ROI of each channel before you allocate your budget.

Some channels have a higher ROI than others. For example, email marketing has a higher ROI than TV advertising.

Your target audience is another essential factor to consider. If you’re targeting a small niche market, you can get away with spending less on marketing than if you’re targeting a large mass market.

Your sales funnel is the final factor to consider. The length and complexity of your sales funnel will impact your marketing budget. If you have a long and complex sales funnel, you will need to spend more on marketing to generate enough leads.

You need to establish a realistic marketing budget before creating a campaign within your budget. The size of your budget will depend on a number of factors, including your marketing goals, the type of business you have, the channels you plan on using, and your target audience. You should also consider the ROI of each channel before you allocate your budget.

Show the Financial projections and the expected ROI

When evaluating the potential return of an investment, you need to consider the risk involved. Higher-risk investments typically have higher returns. However, there’s no guarantee that you will make money on a high-risk investment. You could lose all of your money.

You also need to consider the time frame of the investment. Short-term investments typically have lower returns than long-term investments. However, short-term investments are less risky than long-term investments.

You need to determine your risk tolerance before you can invest. Risk tolerance is the amount of risk you’re willing to take on. It varies from person to person. Some people are willing to take on more risks to make more money. Other people are risk-averse and only want to invest in safe, low-risk investments.

You need to have a realistic expectation of the return you can expect from an investment before making a decision. The ROI typically measures the return of an investment. The ROI is the percentage of the original investment that is returned to the investor.

For example, if your law firm invests $100,000 in a new marketing campaign and the campaign generates $1 million in new business, the ROI would be 900%.

It’s important to note that the ROI is not the only factor to consider when making an investment decision. You also need to consider the risk involved and the time frame of the investment.

Conclusion

Marketing a law firm can be a daunting task. With so many aspects of marketing, it’s essential to understand the options available to you.

Before starting a marketing campaign, you need to know your sales funnel, identify your target audience, create your brand and identity, come up with a unique selling point, and establish your growth goals.

You also need to set a budget and come up with a marketing plan. Importantly, you need to know how to track the results of your marketing campaigns and calculate the ROI. Also, create a solid marketing plan that will help you track your progress and measure your success.

At Law Firm Sites, we understand how difficult it can be to market a law firm. That’s why we offer a wide range of marketing services designed to help law firms grow their businesses. We offer everything from SEO for law firms and content marketing to social media marketing and pay-per-click advertising. Contact us today to learn more about our services.