Running a successful law firm is more than winning cases – it requires a robust digital marketing strategy that positions your firm as a leader in your industry. Having the BEST law firm marketing strategies makes all the difference.
STRATEGY before TACTICS is key. Most law firms focus their energy on short-term marketing tactics such as Social Media, Content Marketing and Email Marketing without a thorough understanding of the market, audience insights, core messaging and the strategies which will bring the big growth and ROI.
You wouldn’t walk into a courtroom without a strategy and a thorough knowledge of the case! The same applies to Marketing.
In my experience as a Fractional CMO, your competitive edge will be the research, foundational work and understanding of the tactics to develop the best law firm marketing strategies.
Throughout this guide, we’ll explore a comprehensive range of marketing strategies to aid the research stage.
Understanding the Best Law Firm Marketing Strategies
A powerful Digital Marketing Strategy increases the visibility of your law firm and positions your as the leader in the market place. An effective law firm marketing strategy targets a variety of marketing channels that all lead back to website. This boosts website traffic and helps convert visitors into genuine leads.
1. Website: Your Most Valuable Asset
Think of your law firm website as your digital storefront. It represents you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days week. It is your hardest working asset and will often be the first touch point of your potential clients.
So what first impression does it make?
Your website should be easy to use and navigate with a design that positions you as the authority in your field.
When building a successful website you should consider these design components:
- Is the website mobile responsive?
- Is the website content engaging and well written?
- Is the website easy to navigate?
- Does each practice area have a separate page that breaks down specific topics in detail?
- Does each Lawyer/Partner in the firm have a bio page?
- Does each page include a clear call to action and contact information?
- Does the website contain a news or blog section to help keep content current and updated regularly?
- Is there a built-in SSL certificate (HTTPS) for enhanced website security?
- Does the website contain high-quality images of staff, the firm’s offices and a professionally designed logo?
Your website forms the cornerstone of the best law firm marketing strategies by showcasing your expertise, building credibility and attracting potential clients. To maximise engagement and keep users interested, uploading diverse content formats is critical. Reports show that 66% of online consumers prefer watching videos under 60 seconds to learn more about a business.
To take things a step further, incorporate short-form videos across other social media platforms as part of your marketing campaign.
In fact, 94% of marketers who use video marketing found it to be successful.
2. Drive Organic Traffic Using SEO
The best law firm marketing strategies will prioritise Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is a powerful long-game strategy that can have a massive impact on where your website appears on search engines like Google. Essentially, your goal is to consistently create informative, engaging and relevant content that aligns with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.
When done well, SEO efforts increase your website traffic.
This can lead to more enquiries and clients over time. Google Search states that content is the most important factor that Google considers when ranking your website.
While effective, SEO is an ongoing process. It requires sustained effort to yield impactful, long-term results.
Use these tried-and-tested strategies to bolster your law firm’s current SEO efforts:
Types of SEO Strategies
| Strategy | Benefits | How It Works |
|---|---|---|
| On-Page SEO | Improves the user experience on your site by making content easily accessible, clear and digestible. | Keyword optimisation on page copy, optimising website code (if necessary), internal linking and using relevant header tags to structure content. |
| Off-Page SEO | Building your brand’s authority and online reputation. | Sharing your law firm’s details on relevant online legal directories, obtaining backlinks from authoritative sites and gaining client reviews. |
| Local SEO | Enables you to reach clients within a defined geographical radius. | Optimising Google Business Profile (GBP), using local keywords in your website copy and asking happy clients for online reviews. |
| Technical SEO | Helps improve the user experience on your site behind-the-scenes to enable Google to index and rank your content easily. | Checking the backend of your website by performing routine site audits and ensuring your website is easy to crawl. Technical SEO can involve updating outdated website plugins (if your website is WordPress) or resolving website loading time issues. |
3. Google Business Profile (GBP) is Critical for Local SEO
If you want more people to find your law firm locally, claiming your Google Business Profile . Creating a Google Business Profile can greatly increase your chances of appearing in local search results, helping attract nearby clientele. This is particularly useful because most people won’t look past the first page of Google. Reports even suggest that up to 75% of online searchers never make it past Google’s first page. In fact, firms featured in Google’s local map pack notice an increase in website traffic by up to 400% .
That’s massive.
You can quickly create a GBP listing in about 10 minutes, but keeping the information current is crucial because Google will send you emails when information needs to be reviewed. This can range from a simple business hour change for public holidays or updating contact information after a change of address. If you dedicate time each week to optimise your Google Business Profile listing, you’ll make things a lot easier for your firm in the long run.
4. Content Marketing to Build Authority
Sharing helpful and valuable content should be a key focus for any successful law firm. Content marketing involves creating informative content that educates your potential clients and positions you as an authority in your practice area. The good news? Blogs aren’t the only content format. You can diversify your strategy by producing eBooks, case studies, videos, checklists and much more.
Blog Content Is King
While there is a wide range of content options available, one of the most important tactics to incorporate as part of content marketing is blogging. Approximately 77% of internet users actively read blogs. Content marketing not only helps you stay connected with your community by delivering relevant, practical advice but is also a fantastic way to attract new clients. Think about what questions, concerns and challenges your target audience might be facing and provide them with helpful and engaging content that provides clear solutions.
For instance, you can use your blog as an opportunity to address common legal questions that arise in your practice area. You could explain legal processes, offer insights on recent law changes or discuss your firm’s approach to specific legal issues. You could even offer practical advice for navigating specific legal challenges.
Short-Form Video Content
Video marketing should be another pillar of your content marketing efforts because a good video can quickly grab a user’s attention in ways that text alone cannot. Research shows that more than 80% of video marketers report that videos have been very successful at helping them generate leads, particularly for legal services.
Why? Video provides a platform to showcase the firm’s lawyers, the offices, share success stories and answer common questions—humanising your firm in a unique and captivating way.
Keep Your Content Fresh and Consistent
Publishing regular and relevant content online plays a significant role in getting your content indexed and ultimately ranked by search engines. Whether it’s an insightful blog article posted weekly or a short-form video uploaded monthly to your website and shared on your socials, consistency is key.
You need to continually adapt and refine your strategy based on changing SEO trends. Most importantly, factor in your firm’s overall business goals. The results might not happen overnight. However, if you focus on high-quality content and aim for consistent posting, your firm’s search ranking will continue to increase steadily.
5. Online Directories: Best Law Firm Marketing Strategies
While websites are essential for online visibility, using online legal directories can further bolster your digital marketing efforts.
Directories are so beneficial to the success of your firm’s online marketing due to online authority, link building and driving traffic to your website. For a relatively small cost, online directories can increase the likelihood of new clients discovering your practice. They achieve this by enabling you to tap into their already established digital marketing strategies.
This is because many platforms have been around for a long time. They would have spent considerable time, effort and money on optimising SEO, paying close attention to Google’s algorithm updates.
6. Email Marketing for Law Firms
Email remains one the most effective marketing strageies with the highest return on investment. A successful email marketing campaign should offer valuable information for readers.
Use this as a way to encourage them to visit your website. This might be by sharing your most recent blog post, law updates or upcoming seminars and events. When done properly email marketing is very profitable. Studies have shown an impressive return on investment (ROI) of $36 for every dollar you spend on a campaign.
7. Utilise the Power of Social Media
Most Australians actively use social media in some form. With almost 70% of Americans (similar numbers in Australia) turning to platforms like Facebook and Instagram for information and updates, creating unique, shareable and relevant content is a brilliant way to maintain a strong social media presence, helping keep potential clients engaged.
Remember to share photos, news updates, run Q&A’s or polls to increase engagement levels and post consistently to ensure visibility within newsfeeds.
8. Generate Client Reviews
When choosing a service or product, most people rely on referrals and online reviews from trusted sources, family and friends to guide their decision. Did you know that if you actively ask previous clients to leave a review online then you have a higher chance of securing them?
One study showed that a whopping 72% of people will write a review when asked, especially if they’ve had a positive experience. So, next time you wrap things up with a client, ask them to leave you a quick Google review sharing their experiences.
Generating positive reviews goes hand in hand with the best law firm marketing strategies. Actively encouraging past clients to share their experiences with your law firm plays a huge role in building brand reputation. It can increase your visibility and influence the decision-making process for new leads.
You can start by sending an email or text to clients upon successfully resolving a case, asking them to share their positive experience via Google Review or a preferred platform. You can even integrate automated feedback systems that automatically message past clients. You can ask them for an honest review in exchange for a small discount or free consultation for their next case.
Client testimonials really are marketing gold.
They help convert potential leads into clients by establishing a foundation of trust and confidence based on first-hand client feedback.
Positive reviews on a global scale, like the Coca-Cola brand, are valued at over 80 billion dollars. When you start getting amazing feedback through happy client reviews you’ll notice the difference in inquiries, leads, and ultimately your conversion rates. This goes a step further than simple brand promotion.
Building a foundation of authenticity is key to winning over potential customers in 2024. Almost 86% of people say that brand authenticity plays a key role when deciding what brands they use, trust and recommend to friends.
9. Paid Advertising (PPC) Can Supercharge Visibility
Content marketing, social media and search engine optimisation all have a part to play in your digital marketing plan. However, there are instances where introducing paid advertising as part of your legal marketing strategy is beneficial. While other forms of digital marketing are seen as a ‘slow burn’ (especially when you’re first starting out), pay-per-click or PPC offers immediate visibility. It can also help generate leads much faster.
This marketing strategy generally works by selecting specific search terms, known as ‘keywords,’ that you think a potential client might search for online to find your law firm’s services.
Let’s look at a scenario to illustrate how this would work. Imagine your law firm is based in Sydney and specialises in Family Law cases. You’ve noticed from website and social media data that most of your clientele live within a specific area of Sydney. Based on this, your chosen keywords might look something like this: “family lawyer northern beaches,” or “best divorce lawyers Sydney,” or “child custody lawyer manly.”
While it’s more complex than simply paying Google for any keyword under the sun, understanding how Google Ads campaigns operate can give your legal practice that much-needed competitive advantage. This applies to similar law firms within the same geographic region.
10. Marketing Budget: Determining How Much to Allocate
The best law firm marketing strategies and deciding how much to set aside for your marketing plan, will require you to assess where your firm is at right now. This is usually measured by determining your current market position, competitor analysis and what your short and long-term goals look like—from simply growing brand awareness within the community or increasing case intake to taking your marketing efforts global.
According to this source , The US Small Business Administration recommends a budget between 7% to 8% of your total firm’s profit towards marketing to simply maintain market share … more if you are looking to increase that share.
FAQs about Best Law Firm Marketing Strategies
What is the most effective way to market a law firm?
Determining the single most effective way to market your law firm will require thorough research to develop a solid marketing strategy BEFORE you implement a firm Marketing Plan. Consider what could be improved based on where you are at as a business and your firm’s goals. For example, email marketing has an impressive ROI. But that doesn’t mean that social media or a well-designed law firm website should be disregarded.
How can I get my website found on Google?
The best law firm marketing strategies will include consistently uploading high-quality, optimised and helpful blog content to help Google discover your law firm website. Think carefully about the needs of your audience when creating content. Consider what terms they would search for.
To appear in searches, create helpful blog posts answering your target market’s questions by employing strategic keywords (terms people would search to find this content). Claiming your Google Business Profile (GBP) will also help.
Conclusion
Staying across marketing tends is paramount to creating best law firm marketing strategies and marketing plan that will accelerate your firm’s growth. From using email effectively, getting more Google reviews and optimising content, marketing involves testing strategies, assessing their success and fine-tuning your strategy to your specific business.
Remember, your marketing efforts are not about ‘quick wins’. It’s okay to start small by optimising your website before slowly exploring paid advertising. Ultimately, the goal is to choose the marketing path that aligns with your law firm’s needs, long-term business goals and target market.
