As a solo attorney (or an attorney in a small law firm setting), you may be unsure of how to proceed with your law firm marketing efforts. Much of the marketing advice online is meant for firms with extensive human and financial resources at their disposal — enough to build out massive content funnels that take six months (to a year) to kick into gear. Establishing a strong online presence through a professional, user-friendly law firm website and effective law firm marketing strategies is crucial for attracting potential clients and converting visitors into clients. Too often, marketing tips for small law firms follow the same general advice pattern, just scaled down.

Let’s take a look at some marketing tips for small law firms that can be used to position you effectively, even with more limited resources (and a more limited knowledge base) at your disposal.

Do small law firms need marketing?

Small law firms don’t “need” marketing, but it is certainly encouraged if you are trying to develop a consistent funnel for acquiring new, prospective clients. Inbound leads are often generated online these days, making it crucial for a law firm’s marketing strategies to be strong and engaging. Millennials and Gen Z clients are more inclined than other generations to do their research online and to contact a law firm based on their online media consumption habits. Thus, engaging them where they are at (i.e., social media spaces, forum sites, or in search engine results), is a critical tool for growing your small law firm.

Of course, you would not necessarily need to build out a funnel if you already had a strong funnel based off word-of-mouth and in-person networks, and you did not have a desire to grow your firm past its current size. We encourage you to clarify your vision and then choose a marketing strategy that matches that law firm growth vision.

Do small law firms need social media?

Increasingly, a social media presence is seen as a “default” for businesses — even if you are not intending to use social media as a vector for growth. Social media pages can be used to demonstrate to potential clients that you are a legitimate, active law firm. With dead social media, some Millenial and Gen Z clients may assume that you are not an active firm engaging with clients (and community) on a regular basis.

Some Important Marketing Tips for Small Law Firms

So, what marketing tips for small law firms should you consider? A professional and user-friendly law firm’s website is crucial for enhancing online visibility and attracting potential clients. A well-structured law firm marketing plan can guide your efforts and ensure that you are implementing strategies effectively. Let’s run through a few important ones.

Don’t be afraid to lean into the small law firm advantage and the problem with churn firms

By default, as a solo attorney or small law firm, you are at a perceptional disadvantage as compared to larger firms with more resources at their disposal (and with a higher marketing budget, for that matter). To overcome this perceptional disadvantage, it’s important to turn the preexisting narrative on its head by exploring the unique advantages that you’re able to provide a client in the small firm context. You can do this by explaining how “churn” firms work, and how your own legal services are more client-oriented due to your size.

As a rule, the general public is often unaware that many large law firms operate as “churn” firms — these firms either refuse to work up edge cases, or they will even not work up cases that are legitimate and actionable, but where the cost-benefit of working up the case is not sufficient for the firm to explore. For example, a churn firm would rather be done with a client’s case by resolving it through a quick settlement at $20,000 in one month, rather than working up the case over six months, and securing a settlement of $100,000. They have such a high volume of inbound leads coming in, that they’d rather push for the certainty of quick, easy settlements.

That’s all well and good for the large law firm, but the client experience is terrible from both a customer service and a results-based perspective. They would do a lot better to work with a small firm that is willing to explore every nook and cranny of their legal argument and factual narrative, so as to maximize the compensation payout. Though not every large law firm is a churn firm, it’s worth explaining what sort of issues a prospective client can run into if they don’t use client-oriented firm services like yours.

Plan out your marketing strategy based on the funnel you’re willing to create (given your resources, risk appetite, etc.)

Don’t implement a law firm marketing plan simply because it’s “trendy,” or because you’ve heard from other firms that it’s the way to go these days. There are a number of different funnels that you can set up for inbound leads, and which funnel will be most useful for your small law firm depends on your resources, risk appetite, and overall content/brand preferences. Choose your strategic approach based on these factors (i.e., your specific limitations and needs) — not on broader, more general assumptions! A well-optimized law firm’s website is essential for converting inbound leads into clients.

Suppose that you are interested in exploring social media marketing on a platform like Instagram. Though there are many different sub-strategies that you can implement on the platform (i.e., video-focused, image-focused, text-heavy, mixed media, etc.), the main decisional divide for a law firm is between organic and paid content. Both work well for generating inbound leads.

Paid content is effective, and can be hyper-targeted towards an audience that is likelier to convert (i.e., to contact your firm with a legal claim inquiry), it isn’t cheap, and it does not necessarily lead to a long-term, sustainable audience on the platform. Every time you want to promote your firm’s services, you would have to run another paid marketing campaign on the platform. The costs of running an extensive campaign might be excessive if you’re a small firm with a minimal marketing budget.

Organic content can also be effective, but on a different timescale (and there is much less certainty). Social media platforms don’t guarantee visibility for organic content in the same way that they do for paid content. When you pay for a marketing campaign on a social media platform like Instagram, the platform ensures a specific number of impressions for your content. By contrast, organic content is not guaranteed to receive any number of impressions. You could release a piece of content and get less than 100 views. You could also have it go viral and get millions of views.

How successful your content will be is not merely luck. Outside of longshot viral wins, most law firms with an effective organic social media presence have built it over a long period of time, having uploaded consistent, well-produced, informative, entertaining legal content that is targeted at audience preferences on various platforms.

Local SEO will likely be more efficient to prioritize over a more general SEO strategy

According to experts in the search marketing industry, nearly 50 percent of total search queries are embedded with a “local intent” — that is to say, the user has either explicitly typed in a geographic keyword to aid their search, or the algorithm has sussed out (based off prior user queries and related queries, in addition to location data) that there is an implicit local intent to the query. That’s significant. In fact, it’s significant enough that ignoring local SEO is almost certainly going to suppress a law firm’s ability to deliver online marketing content that reaches its intended audience and grow its client base.

Local SEO will likely be more efficient to prioritize over a more general law firm SEO strategy. Local SEO essentially takes into account a number of ranking factors to increase the visibility of your optimized content (in search results). These factors include, but are not necessarily limited to the physical proximity of the end user to your law firm, the relevance of your law firm practice areas and services to the end user’s search intent, and how prominent your firm is in your local industry such that you can be said to have authority in the legal space.

To maximize these (and other) factors, you’ll want to not only optimize your content for local keywords — for example, by creating a range of optimized pages for each city/county that your firm locations serve — but you’ll also want to ensure that you are being featured by other media organizations in such a way that builds up your authority rankings. For example, if a local newspaper reports on your law firm online, then that article will help contribute to a higher authority score in Google’s search algorithm.

Forum sites are increasingly important for ranking high in search results

Starting this year, Google is adding new complexity to their organic search results by including high-quality forum posts (i.e., posts from sites like Reddit and Quora) as part of their search engine optimization strategy to provide relevant answers for user queries. Given the relative newness of this initiative, there will be a great deal of opportunity for small firms — who might not have the resources necessary to dedicate to comprehensive marketing efforts — to rank high in search results by building profiles on these forum sites and answering user questions.

If you think this change is likely to have only a minimal impact, think again!

Though the initiative only just started this year, there has already been a significant shift in user engagement on search, with double-digit percentage increases in organic traffic to forum sites like Reddit and Quora. These SERP results are very likely to skew search results even more in the future, as users get familiar with the possibilities of finding answers to their search queries through forum links.

To take advantage of this opportunity, start profiles on the major forum posting websites and answer a range of popular law-related questions. Do so comprehensively, and you’ll find that you don’t just rank higher on Google search results — you may get inbound leads directly from the forum site, too (through your profile on that site). This is a great way to diversify your online presence, so you’re not entirely dependent on your law firm’s website or social media profiles to reach audiences.

Don’t dismiss email marketing as a legitimate pillar of your overall marketing strategy

Email marketing is an older, reliable form of marketing. As a law firm, this would involve the use of direct email messaging to promote your firm services. Obtaining positive client reviews can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns by building trust and credibility. One of the challenges of email marketing is that you need access to a mailing list in order to send direct email messages to prospective clients. Building up a mailing list organically is an option, of course, but many firms simply choose to pay for access to large, preexisting mailing lists.

Email marketing campaigns are often seen as archaic in the age of social media, but that perception doesn’t necessarily match the practical reality — for executing a legal marketing funnel that will ensure a flow of inbound leads, email marketing continues to be an excellent choice with advantages that make it worth serious consideration. The data seems to support this. According to a recent study, the email marketing industry is speculated to grow up to 227 percent in the next four years.

To engage in email marketing, you can send regular newsletters to grow a loyal readership (at the cost of more resources to build out the content you need for said newsletters), or you can send out newsletters for seasonal marketing pushes to raise brand awareness when you need it. Each has advantages and disadvantages, so don’t just assume that there’s a “best” way of handling email marketing — these strategies all fit certain paradigms for firm resources and inbound lead expectations. The email marketing strategy that you implement should take into account what you need, and what you’re capable of executing.

Define Your Target Audience

Defining your target audience is a crucial step in creating an effective law firm marketing strategy. Your target audience refers to the specific group of people who are most likely to need your legal services. To define your target audience, you need to consider factors such as demographics, interests, and pain points.

Demographics include age, gender, income level, education level, and occupation. For example, if you specialize in family law, your target audience may be individuals between the ages of 25 and 50 who are going through a divorce or have child custody issues.

Interests refer to the hobbies, activities, or topics that your target audience is passionate about. For example, if you specialize in environmental law, your target audience may be individuals who are interested in sustainability and conservation.

Pain points refer to the specific challenges or problems that your target audience is facing. For example, if you specialize in personal injury law, your target audience may be individuals who have been injured in an accident and are seeking compensation.

By understanding your target audience’s demographics, interests, and pain points, you can create marketing messages that resonate with them and address their specific needs. This targeted approach ensures that your marketing efforts are more effective and that you are reaching the right people with your law firm marketing strategy.

Create a Professional Website for Your Law Firm

A professional website is essential for any law firm looking to establish an online presence and attract new clients. A well-designed website can help you showcase your expertise, build trust with potential clients, and differentiate yourself from competitors.

When creating a website for your law firm, consider the following key elements:

• Clear and concise messaging: Your website should clearly communicate your law firm’s mission, values, and services. Potential clients should immediately understand what you offer and how you can help them.
• Professional design: Your website should have a professional design that reflects your law firm’s brand and is easy to navigate. A clean, modern design can make a strong first impression and encourage visitors to explore further.
• Search engine optimization (SEO): Your website should be optimized for search engines to improve your visibility and attract organic traffic. This includes using relevant keywords, optimizing meta tags, and ensuring that your site loads quickly.
• Mobile responsiveness: Your website should be mobile-friendly to ensure that it can be accessed on a variety of devices. With more people using smartphones to search for legal services, a mobile-responsive design is crucial.
• Content: Your website should have high-quality content that provides value to your target audience and establishes your law firm as a thought leader in your industry. This can include blog posts, case studies, and informative articles.

By creating a professional website, you can establish your law firm as a credible and trustworthy source of legal services and attract new clients. A well-optimized, user-friendly website is a cornerstone of any successful law firm marketing strategy.

Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential to measuring the effectiveness of your law firm’s marketing efforts. KPIs provide insights into how your marketing strategies are performing and help you make data-driven decisions.

When tracking KPIs, consider the following key elements:

• Website traffic: Monitor the number of visitors to your website and track changes over time. This can help you understand how well your online presence is attracting potential clients.
• Social media engagement: Monitor engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments on your social media posts. High engagement can indicate that your content is resonating with your audience.
• Lead generation: Monitor the number of leads generated from your marketing efforts and track changes over time. This can help you assess the effectiveness of your lead-generation strategies.
• Conversion rates: Monitor the number of conversions (e.g., new clients) generated from your marketing efforts and track changes over time. High conversion rates can indicate that your marketing messages are compelling and effective.
• Return on investment (ROI): Monitor the ROI of your marketing efforts to ensure that you are getting a good return on investment. This can help you allocate your marketing budget more effectively.

By tracking KPIs, you can measure the effectiveness of your law firm’s marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions to improve your marketing strategy. Regularly reviewing these metrics allows you to adjust your approach and ensure that your marketing efforts are aligned with your business goals.

Contact Walker Advertising for Helping Growing Your Firm’s Client Base

Whether you’re a solo attorney or you’re part of a small firm with plans for expansion, it’s important to grow your client base in order to hit your revenue and client growth goals.  Here at Walker Advertising, we can help.  We operate a number of popular attorney networks — including our Los Defensores and 1-800-THE-LAW2 brands — through which firms are able to access leads for various legal claims.

The leads we acquire through our various online marketing efforts — from social media marketing to targeted web ads — have been pre-qualified by our team so that you aren’t hassled by a flood of leads that are simply not relevant or actionable for your purposes.  By accessing these quality leads, you’ll be well-equipped to select the best ones to grow your firm business.

Best of all, you won’t have to spend your valuable time and effort on building out your online marketing efforts.  Don’t worry about SEO optimization, trend analysis, or any other complex marketing issues.  Instead, use us to access pre-qualified inbound leads, and focus your limited internal resources on providing quality representation to your existing (and new) client base.

Contact Walker Advertising today to connect to a member of our team who can explain how our legal networks can help your firm business thrive in this ever-changing digital marketing landscape.

We look forward to assisting you.