As a lawyer, you may feel like marketing your law firm is not necessary. After all, you have a degree, experience, you’re smart, you aced the bar exam, and you have a good reputation, right? Clients will flock to you for your qualities,and, well, everyone needs a lawyer sometime in their life, right? The problem is, no one else knows how great you are but you at the moment you hit the market and swim in the shark tank. The truth is that actively marketing your law firm is crucial if you want to grow your business methodicallyin hyper-competitive markets towards a revenue goal, which you are hopefully setting every year. In business, we are always only really competing with ourselves, and to think that business will simply take care of itself is a chaotic way to think, making ourselves our own worst enemies to achieving our goals. As with any business you need to plan now to be successful later, and part of that planning includes a focused, goal-oriented and measurable marketing strategy. In this article, we will explore the reasons why you really do need to actively market your law firm, even if you don’t really feel like it, or feel like you’re really above all of that.
1. Increase Your Visibility – You Need to Be Seen to Be Hired
One of the main reasons why you need to actively market your law firm is to increase your visibility. Not only are you one of many law firms available in your local market, there are also coming tools that will swerve your services. In today’s digital age, potential clients are searching for legal services online, and if they can’t find you on page one, they will choose another law firm. If you think that by searching your firm’s name you’re visible online, think again.
2. Build Your Brand–Your Brand Is The ‘Why’ Anyone Will Hire You
Branding is more than your logo and some colors; branding is a voice, an attitude, a set of associations conscious and unconscious that you relay to an audience to elicit a reaction; in this case, we want to elicit a sales reaction and a referral action. Before you ever go to market with tactical tools, such as a website, or some brochureware, you need to define your brand. Consider this: Why do you exist as a firm? This is a good place to start when identifying who you are in the market and why your potential clients should care. Add to this starting point the values you live by; services are important, of course, but what will differentiate you from the myriad of same-same service providers are your values – and your track record. Mission-based marketing is founded in understanding your brand, and then expressing that brand image to your potential customers.
Law firms that have won multiple awards in recent years for their branding and marketing efforts include:
- Baker McKenzie
- Norton Rose Fulbright
- White & Case
- Latham & Watkins
- SkaddenArps
- Paul Weiss
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Davis Polk
- Morrison & Foerster
- Hogan Lovells
3. About Differentiation – What Makes You Different and Better than Other Lawyers?
There are many, many, many law firms out there, and it can be difficult to differentiate yourself from the competition, especially on services alone. By building a focused brand around a mission, you can actively marketing your law firm in a unique way that no one else can. For example, you might specialize in injury law. But you could add components of passion and compassion to the way you express your service sets that draw people to you on an emotional level. This can help you differentiate yourself from the competition and attract clients who value your unique, branded qualities.
4. Build New Relationships – Love Or Hate It, You Need a Big Network
Marketing is not just about advertising your services; it’s also about building relationships with potential and existing secondary providers and clients. Actively marketing your law firm means building relationships within a partner network who will refer new clients to you. This sounds basic, but so many law firms don’t do much in the way of referral marketing. Think about all of the various secondary service providers out there who cross paths in your field, such as accountants or research firms. Creating new and widening network partners is a smart way to market your firm. This coupled with actively asking for referrals from existing clients you’ve successfully worked with can lead to long-term relationships more powerful than any other form of marketing.
5. Keep Up with the Competition – There Are Always Better Practitioners, How Do You Become One of Them In The Eyes of Your Audience?
The legal industry is highly competitive, and if you don’t actively market your law firm, you may fall behind the competition. In advertising they say it’s not who gets to market first who wins, it’s who claims the market first who wins. Think about this when you think about how to strategically position your law firm. Here’s a good example from beverages: How did Coca Cola become the soda leader? Afterall, there were and are all kinds of soda brands? Well, they did this by calling themselves ‘The Real Thing’. That statement says leadership and there is no other. In law marketing we can’t of course go out and say explicitly that we are better than another, but there are ways to use language to suggest leadership and quality in other ways.
6. Demonstrate Your Expertise – Show, Don’t Just Tell
Many law firm websites tell people what they do instead of show them. The power of any brand marketing comes from showing people what you do. This can be done with case studies (without naming names), testimonials, and video presentations. By creating content that shows rather than tells, you showcase your knowledge and experience in your field in ways that people will enjoy reading or listening to. This can help you attract clients who are looking for an attorney with a deep understanding of their legal issues and who also understand the psychology of people.
7. TargetSpecific Audiences – Not Everyone Is A Client
For example, if you specialize in estate planning, you should create marketing campaigns that target individuals who are over 50 years old and have significant assets. By targeting specific audiences, you can tailor your marketing messages to their specific needs and interests and save yourself a lot of time and money trying to ‘boil the ocean.’
8. Build Your Online ReputationUsing Reviews and Testimonials
The wisest of us say all you really have is your reputation. In this online age, this old saw is arguably more important than ever and easier than ever. By actively marketing your law firm, acquiring testimonials and positive reviews, you can improve your reputation and build trust. Easy ways to do this are to request reviews through Google Business, LinkedIn and platforms such as Trust Pilot.
Actively marketing your law firm in these ways will help you generate new revenue. By being methodical about building a brand that resonates and differentiates, widening your referral network, showing potential clients why you’re great instead of just telling them, you can create a company that has the capacity to invest in new technology, expand your practice areas, and hire additional staff.
