What is Digital Marketing for Law Firms?

Marketing for law firms was once a straightforward affair. However, the word of mouth referrals and traditional marketing techniques that once dominated the legal sector are no longer the most effective- or sustainable- solutions to bring in more business and grow your firm.

While these methods aren’t completely irrelevant, the massive shift in consumer behaviour to online activity over the past two decades has meant that firms now need a succinct digital strategy to take on marketing for law firms.

How do firms delegate marketing resources?

Two decades may sound like enough time to have got to grips with digital marketing. However, the legal sector and law firms have often lagged behind- One survey even found that while over half of firms rated the importance of digital marketing as 4 out of 5, when asked how much budget was allocated to it, almost half of the survey’s respondents claimed it was only 15% or less of their total marketing budget.

This may be surprising, especially when back in 2013, Google reported that 96% of people looking for legal advice used a search engine- and with digitisation still ongoing, the number has likely grown since. Ultimately, these findings suggest that there’s a significant disconnect between what firms think they need to invest in to grow their business and what they actually need.

Marketing for Law Firms That Works

Unlike marketing for B2C and many B2B businesses, marketing for law firms has an added layer of difficulty- there’s the challenge of maintaining the professional and formal etiquette of the legal sector while creating marketing that’s insightful, eye-catching and engaging enough to reach new audiences and retain your existing one.

An effective digital approach to marketing for law firms brings an array of opportunities, including:

Improving Brand Awareness
Establishing Your Firm as a thought-Leader
Differentiating Your Firm From Competitors
REtain and Nutrue More Existing Clients
Improving ROI to Grow Your Law Firm
Reach and Generate Qualified Leads

Improving Brand Awareness
Establishing Your Firm as a Thought-Leader
Differentiating Your Firm From Competitors

Brand awareness is key to running a successful firm- the more of your target audience are aware of you, the more business that will come your way. This can be achieved with regular engaging social posts, tailored to your audience, alongside a robust SEO strategy and paid advertising so that new prospects can find you through the search engine results pages.

Credibility is everything when it comes to marketing for law firms- those that see you in a credible light are more likely to ‘know, like and trust’ you, and it’s also an opportunity to position your firm as a voice of authority. Whitepapers, webinars, articles and magazines are all examples of how you can demonstrate your firm’s credibility and help to establish it a voice of authority within the sector.

Law is a traditional sector that isn’t exactly renowned for innovation. However, with more technology and an increasing number of legal professionals and clients working from home, many firms are starting to look a little different. For example, more firms are adopting CRM software to stay agile and adaptable as a team. Your marketing needs to showcase exactly what sets your firm apart, so if you have a virtual firm- embrace that identity, or if your firm has recently undergone positive transformation- share the news with your audience.

Retain and Nurture More Existing Clients
Improving ROI to Grow Your Law Firm
Reach and Generate Qualified Leads

Marketing for law firms isn’t just about bringing on new clients (as that would be unsustainable); it’s also about retaining your existing clients, as acquiring new clients can cost five times more than it does to retain them. Email marketing, regularly sharing relevant content on social media, and other techniques of nurturing relationships and providing value are all crucial to keeping clients loyal to your firm. Not only that, but a close relationship with clients will also enable you to understand their needs better, innovate to meet those needs, and win more clients in the future as a result.

Overall, firms want their marketing to provide a healthy and sustainable ROI. This can only be achieved through creating a holistic digital marketing strategy that’s tailored to the specifics of your firm and your clients, which is then tracked and monitored to identify what’s working well, if there are any issues, and opportunities for improvement. This will allow you to incrementally grow your marketing while ensuring that you stay on the right track.

Finding new clients in a competitive market such as the legal sector is always challenging, but when you’re able to build authentic relationships with qualified leads, that process becomes a whole lot easier. Through using a conversational marketing approach to LinkedIn lead generation, your firm can build a sustainable network of contacts that you can reach and via specific audience filters, ensuring you meet the decision makers you need.

What's the Take Home?

As a traditional sector, successful digital marketing for law firms may seem like a formidable task. However, through understanding what sets your firm apart, knowing how to communicate that clearly to your target audience, and having the right team and tools to do it, your firm can keep ahead of the curve and reap the benefits in the form of growing your business.

If you want to find out more about marketing for law firms, you can see all the components that you’ll need to include in your firm’s marketing strategy on our services page.