Law firm online marketing is a little different than marketing for other types of businesses. Advertisements are more expensive, professional regulations are stricter and the competition tends to be fierce.
At the end of the day, though, you’re still doing the same things that other businesses are doing. You are analyzing your business, identifying your best clients, and communicating the value of your services to anyone who might need them.
It really isn’t about what you’re doing. It’s about how to do it right. Marketing for lawyers is a niche area of online business development services. At FORWARD Lawyer Marketing, we have spent years developing the experience and insights necessary to unlock your success on the web. Feel free to contact us at any time to talk about your firm and how we can help.
Making the decision to invest in online marketing is a great first step. After that, there is a relatively well-established workflow to get you up and running as efficiently and effectively as possible. Here’s an overview of the process:
As you might expect, we are relatively familiar with the process of hiring a digital marketing agency for law firms — albeit from the other side of the table. During the vetting, bidding, and interviewing process, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
At FORWARD Lawyer Marketing, we work with many different types of law firms on all kinds of projects. We’ve learned that the best way to feel out a potential business relationship is just to start talking — feel free to contact us at any time about the scope of your marketing needs.
Small law firms are a big part of our business — and of the legal profession in general, for that matter. While many solo practitioners, partnerships, and smaller companies tend to go with big online marketing clearinghouses, this usually isn’t the best way to stand out from the crowd.
There is much more to online marketing than simply going through a formula. For small, growing firms, it’s essential to develop an image and a set of tools that you can use to pursue your unique business goals. That’s something you’ll only get from a marketing service that gives you personalized attention.
Small businesses have a lot to gain from a robust online marketing strategy. It helps differentiate your business at a critical time for growth. It gives you oversight on budgets and insight into marketing ROI. Finally, partnering with a dedicated lawyer marketing firm gives you an ally who truly wants to see your business succeed.
At FORWARD Lawyer Marketing, your firm is more than a client number. You get dedicated account management, responsive communication, and people who really listen to what you want. You’ll also get a full range of high-quality services to fully customize your marketing plan.
Marketing plans don’t need to be all that complicated. In fact, some of the best ones start from a very specific vision. Here are some examples:
You don’t always have to play by the book when it comes to online marketing. In fact, sometimes it’s better not to.
Niche firms sometimes do well by making a splash with their marketing and advertising. We can help you finesse the process so you get the type of attention you want.
If you think there’s a specific technique or approach that might attract your ideal clientele, feel free to give us a call to discuss how to implement it. If you would like some unconventional, creative ideas from our end, that is also something we would be more than happy to provide upon request.
The definition of “big law firm” is constantly changing. Not so long ago, a firm with 20 lawyers might have raised some eyebrows. These days, the big firms employ thousands of lawyers and sometimes tens of thousands of support staff members.
Luckily, you don’t need to be DLA Piper or Skadden to make a good impression online. In fact, you probably don’t want to just copy the big guys. Midsize, regional law firms are still big businesses, but they have much different marketing concerns than do the international enterprise-level organizations.
For example, imagine you are responsible for marketing a personal injury practice that has multiple locations across a general geographical area, such as Southwest Florida. Your priorities would probably be establishing a local web presence across all of your territories, targeting copy for specific towns, running campaigns for accidents on specific highways, and so on.
Even if you were one of the biggest players in the area, you would probably still want to establish the idea that you were local experts in the immediate area around each of your offices. Of course, it all depends on your unique vision for your business — marketing is a set of tools, not a set of rules.
Branding is one of the core tools in the marketing toolbox. Nearly everyone is familiar with the basic concept of branding: a unified image of a business. A brand frames perceptions, sets expectations, and promotes recognition for the business.
The challenge with branding law firms is often maintaining a professional image and following advertising ethics while setting expectations correctly and attracting the right types of cases. For example, it is not acceptable in some jurisdictions to claim that you are a specialist without highly specialized credentials — but that is exactly the type of language laypeople are expecting to see.
A law-specific branding strategy takes this professional limitation into account, communicating authority and experience in ways people can easily understand — without stepping on any regulatory toes. Of course, digital law firm branding also involves many general online branding concerns and techniques:
So, how do you promote a law firm online? As a lawyer, you’ll probably be very familiar with this type of answer: It depends on the law firm.
We would love to tell you exactly how to promote your law firm in a short, informative article. However, the fact is that the best approach is always a customized one. Contact us anytime. We will hammer out the details, build a plan and start you on a measurable, accountable path towards growing your business online. Call our law firm online marketing experts at (888) 590-9687.
