5 Marketing Tools to Attract Clients & Expand Your Practice
When you think of <a href="http://www.theoldstate.com/law-firm-digital-marketing-agency">law firm digital marketing</a> strategies, you probably picture personal injury attorney billboards or a spread in a local magazine featuring men in expensive suits. In the legal industry, most dollars are spent on print, billboards, and sometimes digital advertising, but most ads tend to look the same and rarely differentiate from each other. Believe it or not, this is actually good news for law firms—this means in a sea of sameness, it’s easier to make your firm stand out. Just by thinking about your marketing differently, you can attract exactly the type of clients you want and grow your practice.
Law firms in 2021 have a range of tools at their disposal to modernize their marketing efforts and take their firm to the next level.
For those just starting their practice, those expanding their service offerings, or even those firms looking to expand their client base, utilizing a digital inbound marketing strategy can achieve all of that and more. Here are just a few ways your firm can learn how to attract clients:
- Focus on the client, not your firm. In today’s world of overwhelming information, Google searches, and social media, most people don’t have time to stop and process the ads they see. You have to grab their attention and interrupt their scroll in a matter of seconds. Talking too much about your firm’s reputation or accolades won’t get you very far. People simply don’t have time for it. However, if can you provide them a reason to engage with you by educating with information that is helpful, useful, and relevant, you can build a long-lasting relationship that pays dividends. A great attorney/client relationship is built on trust and with solid content marketing, that trust can be earned even before a person becomes your client. Don’t tell them how great your firm is or how many cases you’ve won...prove it to them with thoughtful and targeted content.
Purchase a CRM and marketing automation tool. With sophisticated marketing tools, your firm can not only create a robust database of current and prospective clients, but you can track their engagement with your firm, analyze which content they respond to, and figure out which clients are most profitable for your firm. And best of all, your marketing communications to them can be automated and scheduled which helps you stay in regular contact with them without having to do it manually.
Forget billboards. Spend your ad dollars on targeted digital advertising. Rather than hoping your prospective law firm clients see your billboard or print ad in a magazine, you can determine exactly the type of client you want, find them on their digital platform of choice (Google, Facebook, Instagram), and serve them content that speaks directly to them. By identifying and addressing their pain points, you can position your firm as the best solution to their problems. Digital advertising is also cheaper than most billboards and can be effectively measured and tracked. It’s not based on traffic estimates on a major highway.
Rethink your website. Before you spend time and effort enhancing your marketing strategy, make sure your most valuable digital tool is up to par as well. Think of it this way, your website is the front door to your business. A poorly designed or non-optimized website can immediately turn off your clients and hurt your reputation. Spend the time and money to get it right and make your website something you can be proud of as well as a useful tool to market your business.
Find out who your ideal client is. Carve out time to analyze your client base and determine which clients are most profitable to your business. Create a persona—a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience. A persona is used for branding decisions in all advertising and marketing channels and can help you tailor messaging to the personal demographics and attitudes of your audience. Marketing without a clear persona in mind can create an unorganized and scattered strategy.
At The Old State, we’ve helped many law firms re-tool their marketing strategies. We specialize in making all of our client’s digital tools work together in a coordinated way that brings customers in the door and grows their businesses for years to come.