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As a law firm, your primary goal is to provide top-notch legal services to your clients. However, in order to continue providing those services, you need to grow your business. In today’s competitive legal marketing landscape, it’s essential to have effective strategies in place to attract new clients and retain existing ones.
In the blog post below, we’ll discuss three effective strategies for growing your law firm and staying ahead of your competition.
The first step in growing your law firm is to acquire new clients. This can be achieved through various methods, such as networking, referrals, and digital marketing. Most law firms have all but abandoned traditional marketing such as billboards and ads on bus stop benches to market online. Even though this requires outsourcing to qualified lawyer marketing professionals the ROI is much better and is more trackable.
Networking is a great way to build relationships with potential clients and other professionals in the legal industry. Attend local events in your area, join professional organizations, and participate in online forums to expand your network and increase your visibility. Another great offline method to increase the visibility of your law firm is to sponsor local events and youth sports teams. It’s relatively inexpensive and helps create top-of-mind awareness for your firm.
Referrals are also a powerful tool for client acquisition. Encourage satisfied clients to refer their friends and family to your firm. You can also reach out to other professionals, such as accountants and financial advisors, who may refer their clients to you for legal services. While referrals may not be as useful for some law firms such as criminal defense, they are excellent for the majority of firms.
In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for client acquisition. Invest in a professional mobile-friendly website, create social media profiles, and utilize search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve your online visibility and attract potential clients. Every year more people use their cell phones to perform searches so it is crucial that your website functions optimally on all devices. Also, if you’re a divorce lawyer it’s highly unlikely that someone contemplating divorce is searching for one on the family home computer!
Branding is an essential aspect of growing your law firm. It’s how you differentiate yourself from other firms and establish a strong reputation in the legal industry. It is important that you invest in creating your brand so that it doesn’t look like someone created it at their kitchen table.
Start by defining your brand identity. What values and principles does your firm stand for? What sets you apart from other firms? How many years of experience do you have? How many awards and honors do you have? If you are listed in organizations such as Super Lawyers, brag about it. Use this information to create a unique brand message that resonates with your target audience.
Next, ensure that your branding is consistent across all platforms. This includes your website, social media profiles, and any marketing materials. Consistency helps to build trust and credibility with potential clients. Don’t neglect social media, consumers these days expect to see you on social media and will look for you on platforms such as Facebook to see what others say about you and to see if your firm interacts and answers questions.
Finally, consider investing in a branding strategy that includes advertising, sponsorships, and community involvement. These efforts can help increase brand awareness and attract new clients to your firm.
In today’s digital age, technology plays a crucial role in the success of any business, including law firms. By leveraging technology, you can streamline processes, improve efficiency, and provide better services to your clients.
One way to utilize technology is by implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system. This allows you to track and manage client interactions, automate tasks, and improve communication with clients.
Another useful tool for law firms is legal practice management software. This software helps to streamline administrative tasks, such as time tracking, billing, and document management, allowing you to focus on providing quality legal services to your clients.
Additionally, consider investing in marketing automation software. This can help you create targeted email campaigns, track website visitors, and analyze data to improve your marketing efforts and attract new clients.
A small family law firm was able to double the number of new monthly retained clients through a strategic digital marketing strategy implemented by Forward Lawyer Marketing. The firm was skeptical about internet marketing but decided to invest in our strategy after understanding our process and seeing the results we had generated for other law firms in all different areas of practice.
After completing a website re-design that gave the firm a clean, fresh, and modern look, we implemented a local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program designed to improve search engine rankings over time. Right off the bat, we identified the most competitive keyword phrases that the firm would like to show up for when a potential client conducted a search for their legal services. Prior to us coming into the picture, the firm ranked on the first or second page of Google for 0 of those 20 keywords.
Due to the lack of presence on search engines they were not generating much website traffic. The below is a snapshot of their Google Analytics the month prior to Forward Lawyer Marketing starting SEO. You will see their site only saw 137 total visitors and only 79 of them coming from organic traffic.
In only a few short months we started to see gradual improvements in their organic placement on Google which resulted in modest increases in relevant website traffic. Over the next few months, we saw continual improvements in these rankings which translated into more steady increases in their organic website traffic. Fast forward two-plus years.
We have been very successful in increasing the firm’s organic presence and have increased the number of keywords we are tracking from 20 to 118. Of those 118 family and divorce keywords we are tracking, our client’s website is ranking on page one of Google for 103 of them, and on page two for an additional 12.
This has translated to significant increases in their organic (and overall) traffic. In the below 1 month span the 755 organic visitors the site saw was a 855% increase from the organic traffic the site was seeing prior to Forward Lawyer Marketing starting their SEO campaign.
The case study below is for a Texas criminal defense law practice that is seeing double the monthly revenue monthly from a year ago. We have now been working with is firm for about 18 months and the screenshots below will show you improvements in that time period. The first one below shows initial keywords and rankings when we started working with them at the end of August of 2019.
Below were the keyword rankings for the law firm after the first 6 months:
Below is a screenshot showing the traffic for the first month when we first took over the online marketing for this criminal defense law firm. You can see that the overall traffic was 751 visitors, with 390 coming from organic traffic.
After 8 months with a modest SEO budget traffic had increased to 973 total visitors with 616 coming from organic traffic.
Month 12 Traffic. Here you can see that overall traffic had increased to over 1,100 overall visitors with 869 coming from organic traffic.
Four months later we convinced the client to implement a more aggressive budget that included bulking up content, on-page optimization, link building, and social media. Below you can see the dramatic results of these increased marketing efforts. Overall traffic for the last month was 2,937 visitors with 2,011 coming from organic traffic.
These are the results overall for this Texas criminal defense law firm. The increase in traffic and leads has resulted in doubling the monthly revenue for the firm.
In addition to calls being generated from organic and paid search, their strong local rankings on GMB have generated 151 additional calls in the last 30 days, including 16 requests for driving directions to the office. How successful would your practice be with an additional 300 calls per month?
This case study is for a personal injury law firm we started working with a year ago. When we started they were trying to rank for 75 keywords and only 5 were on the first page, with two on the second page of Google.
Now after one year of search engine optimization work, we are tracking 208 keywords for them with 135 on the first page of Google and 41 on page two.
When we first started working with them in March of 2020 they had 790 overall visitors for that month with 495 coming from organic traffic.
Current traffic for the last 30 days was 1,329 with 987 organic visitors.
In most law firms, the responsibility of implementing growth strategies falls on the managing partner or a designated marketing team. However, it’s essential for all members of the firm to be involved in the growth process.
Lawyers can contribute by networking, building relationships with clients, and providing quality legal services. Support staff can assist with administrative tasks and help to maintain a positive brand image through their interactions with clients.
Growing your law firm requires a combination of effective strategies, including client acquisition, branding, technology utilization and hiring quality people (this Recruiter CEO Interview covers what employers look for when scouting talent). By implementing these strategies, you can attract new clients, establish a strong brand, and improve efficiency within your firm. Remember to involve all members of your team in the growth process and continuously assess and improve your strategies to stay ahead of the competition.
It is next to impossible to grow your law firm on your own. The best strategy is to reach out to a reputable lawyer marketing agency that has the expertise and experience to help you grow your law firm. Forward Lawyer Marketing has been marketing for lawyers since 2013 and has helped hundreds of firms nationwide build their legal businesses. Contact us at (888) 590-9687 for a free consultation and audit of your website if you have one.
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