The legal industry is one of the most competitive out there; it seems every potential client is constantly being fought over, and you have to do all you can to win. This means that great marketing can make your law firm stand out from the crowd, but it also means that making just one of the common mistakes below can cost you big time. Read on to discover some of the most frequently made law firm marketing faux pas—everything from having an atrocious website (or none at all), trying to bring in just anyone as a client rather than defining a clear target audience, and skimping on what clients love the most: success stories.
Understanding Legal Marketing
Legal marketing refers to the variety of strategies and tactics that any law firm might use to get its services out into the world and attract clients. These can be anything from branding and standard content marketing to broad social media engagement and focused search engine optimization (SEO). The central goal is to differentiate your law firm from the numerous competitors in the (likely) crowded area, build a large amount of trust with potential clients, and establish a strong online presence through effective SEO.
In other parts of this, I will consider:
The continuous push from big tech and startups alike to combine AI and data analytics with every part of every possible industry. Many people have come up with ways to suggest what the future client — those who will be in need of legal services far into the future — will want out of the law firms they work with. There is, of course, no way to do this, but it's probably going to be pretty ordinary.
Common Marketing Mistakes in Legal Marketing
If your law firm is not online in 2022, you are leaving tons of opportunities on the table—and potentially tossing them into the hands of your local competitors. Maybe you are online but can’t keep every platform updated. Here you’ll learn how to strategize and prioritize where your time (or your amazing new social media team) should focus your efforts.
Know who your ideal client is. Know what platforms they most often use. Just that. If you know that information, you have completed 50% of your marketing. Other companies that aren’t good at marketing will slop marketing content across the internet hoping someone will see it. Don’t be that guy.
The other 50% of your marketing strategy, obviously, is to go to the right people with the right message. Although we will touch on messaging here, it is not the main topic.
Avoiding Marketing Mistakes
A strategic marketing plan for law firms starts with a profound look at who your potential clients might be, what they need, and who your competitors are, the specific clientele they serve, and their strengths and weaknesses. SEO will help you get to the one question every lawyer wants the answer to, given there are so many law firms and solo practitioners: how do I get new clients for my law practice? To do this, you will get an objective and an overarching "theme" as to where you want to be in the next few months or years.
The rationale for why SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an obvious one – you want to be found on the internet. Having a website up and running alone won’t get you that far. Clearly though, SEO is not enough. Content marketing (i.e. creating content that clearly highlights the areas of your practice) will help you to show clients what areas of law you’re proficient in.
Legal Marketing Best Practices
Maintaining a consistent Brand Image across all platforms is key to building trust and recognition. If someone stumbles across your brand and can identify the message, visual identity, or tone of voice as yours, then you've built a level of reliability that makes them comfortable and more likely to purchase from you.
Providing fresh, relevant content is also a major MIL, similar to managing a college course load. You have to weave in some new tracks during a late-night study cram or revamp the playlist for a workout. No one is going to listen to the older hits over and over again. People won’t see the need to continually update their lists.
Data tracking is leveraged to deliver metrics that drive decision-making. This grouping of metrics is a subset of the larger metric body spoke of earlier.
There are many mistakes law firms commonly make in their marketing that stop them from growing. These include not defining who precisely they're trying to reach with their marketing, not properly utilizing digital spaces in a way that aligns with their business goals, and not having any way of measuring whether what they're doing is successful. All of these mistakes lead to wasted resources or missed opportunities. Instead, firms should conduct a thorough audit of what they're already doing, see what they can improve, and be clear on why they're doing it.
Leveraging word-of-mouth, creating a website that is optimized for search, offering amazing and customized content for existing clients, and leveraging paid marketing will get more people through the (digital) door. But effective legal marketing is not about checking things off the list and forgetting about them. It's constantly coming back to the above points and thinking about the business needs. This is not a one-size-fits-all problem, even within the niche field of law.
