Client matters, practice management and professional development all compete for time when you run a legal practice, including CPD undertaken through providers such as Legalwise Seminars. Generating suitable new work adds another commercial demand. A law firm marketing strategy should identify the matters and clients you want to attract, with digital marketing for law firms, marketing spend and performance measures supporting that direction.
Running a law firm requires you to be a solicitor while you juggle clients, keep your CPD courses and points up to date, research, appear in court, manage juniors and the list goes on. It also requires you to fill your sales funnel and keep the practice doors open.
Enquiry numbers alone do not tell you whether that funnel is producing the work your practice wants. Effective law firm marketing connects the matters you want to develop with the clients who need that expertise. Your legal marketing needs to communicate what you do in terms that are relevant to the prospective clients you want to reach.
In order to brief the marketing professionals correctly and to empower you in checking on their direction, our Legalwise Seminars team has collated four key principles below.
Your Expertise Vs Client Needs
Your expertise and immense talent is only a small portion of what a client ultimately wants, and that can be a jaw-dropping discovery for many professionals.
First off, your client should have a delightful client journey from the moment they make their first call to your offices or land on your website. And it does not end until the client changes law firms.
If you and your marketing professional focus on the client and their experience at every touchpoint they have with your firm, you will be head and shoulders ahead of the competition constantly. How do you do this?
- What are the pain points for clients?
- State on your website that you understand that pain point.
- Display empathy and knowledge of client needs, not just a services list.
- Call or email new client contacts quickly. You will look helpful.
- Do not make your website complicated. Use a UX designer to lead its development, not a graphic designer.
A prospective client may search for their problem using different language from the terminology used inside your practice. Effective digital marketing for law firms connects those searches with useful information and the relevant service. The client's language therefore has a practical role in marketing for lawyers, particularly when planning website and search content.
Don’t Throw Money At It
Expensive marketing does not equal successful marketing. Niche strategies will reap better ROIs than a massive splash. For example: Yes, you need social media but not every platform.
Define your goals as well as your niche area of expertise. Select two platforms and create the best strategies possible for them with your marketing professional. Did you know you can outsource blog writing? It does not have to be you writing the content, so do not ignore this important tool.
Marketing spend directed towards your preferred practice areas has a defined commercial purpose. A channel attracting enquiries for matters outside those areas consumes budget without contributing to the work you want to develop.
Law Firm Marketing Strategy
The practice areas and types of matters you want to develop should influence where your marketing budget goes. A useful law firm marketing strategy identifies that work before allocating budget across available marketing channels. Australian Government marketing-plan guidance also links target markets and marketing goals with tactics and measurement.
Connect:
- Priority practice areas with the matters you want.
- Content with the problems prospective clients are researching.
- Channels with the audiences you need to reach.
- Enquiries with the matters your firm actually retains.
Law firm business development also brings work into the practice through referrals and existing client relationships, alongside enquiries generated by lawyer marketing activity. Tracking where retained matters originate shows which activities are contributing to the practice areas and types of work you want to develop.
Use The Professionals
You have no doubt told clients to use professionals at least once, so now it is your turn to walk the talk. Use the best certified company available for your CPD courses, use the best H.R. consultant you can find and use marketing professionals if you want your business to soar.
You do not have to start with bells and whistles immediately, but you will benefit from a strong marketing foundation that is easily scaled.
Your role is still important once specialist work is outsourced. The marketing team needs accurate information about your services, preferred matters and clients so its activity reflects the commercial direction of the practice.
What Happens After the Enquiry?
A suitable enquiry still needs an effective response. If prospective clients wait too long for contact or cannot establish what happens next, marketing has generated an opportunity that the intake process may lose. Review how enquiries are received, who responds and how suitable matters are progressed. This gives your marketing activity a clear handover point to the people responsible for converting an enquiry into a client relationship.
Check Your ROI
Bringing in professionals does not let you off the hook completely, but mostly. Ensure that you agree on key performance indicators (KPIs) with your marketing professionals.
- Via what channels are new leads finding the firm?
- What is the ratio between website visitors, quotes and signed-up clients?
- How popular are the social media ads?
Talk to peers about KPIs they are using and find the most relevant ones for you.
Website traffic and enquiry numbers record activity at the start of the acquisition process. For marketing for law firms, the next useful measure is whether an enquiry fitted the work you wanted and became a retained matter. Tracking the source of those matters provides a practical basis for measuring law firm marketing ROI and deciding where to allocate future marketing spend.
Legalwise Seminars is here to help our peers in the legal fraternity grow. From CPD courses to helpful insights, we are here for you.
Keep your law firm marketing niche-focused and your CPD current with Legalwise Seminars.
