There’s no question that law firms know marketing can attract new leads, increase their client base, and establish their reputation as the authority in a specific niche. There are countless things to be done when managing a law office—but the need to get clients is paramount among the to-dos. We have put together 5 clear steps that will help to increase your firms exposure and get more clients in the door.
Number 1: Make sure you have a marketing budget. You should spend at least 2.5 percent of your gross revenues on marketing. Otherwise, you’re just pretending to market. That 2.5 percent does not include the salaries of any of the people that you may have hired to perform the work. This is money that is spent on generating new business, advertising, taking clients out to lunch, visiting clients – it’s all direct marketing initiatives. You have to put your money where your mouth is. If you’re not spending 2.5 percent, you’re not being serious about marketing, and you’re not going to get any results.
Number 2: Don’t waste any money on marketing that is not measurable. If you can’t measure it, don’t do it. For instance, TV, billboards and public relations are widely used, but after you’ve spent $20,000 on it, do you have any way that you can check to see if it actually generated any results? What you should do is pursue the techniques that you can measure. That would include website marketing where you can track clicks, form completions and phone calls as well as other avenues such as Google AdWords and Facebook advertising, both of which provide you with very detailed conversion metrics. The same thing is true with email newsletters. It’s possible to send out an email newsletter and get a report on how many people actually opened it, and if there are links inside it, how many of the links were clicked on and who clicked on them. That’s all measurable stuff.
Number 3: If it works, increase your budget. If you find that your ads are getting positive results, consider increasing your budget. Investing in more advertising can help you grow even more, especially if you already have some evidence it can work. Consult your advertising professional, if you use one. You can even consider branching out to different types of outlets for your ads. Just be sure to continue finding out which clients found you through advertising so that you can measure what is working and what isn’t. On the other hand, don’t raise your budget if you see no positive results. Sometimes advertising with a particular outlet doesn’t work out. Don’t keep investing in something that doesn’t work. Instead, look for another type of outlet for your advertising budget. Keep measuring what is bringing new clients, and don’t be afraid to admit defeat and try something else
Number 4: Create a great website and provide valuable FREE resources. For any law practice, one of the first marketing steps should be to set up a website. The site should really showcase what you do. Meaning, it should clearly state your specialty and your niche. If you offer several different services within your type of law, outline them very clearly. But your website should also offer something else to potential clients — helpful resources. This could mean offering a free ebook or even just a list of links for people looking for general information within your area of expertise. Offering these resources will bring more people to your website. And those people are more likely to need your services at some point, since they are already looking for resources on similar topics. Once you’ve created some free resources for people who visit your website, go one step further. Make some connections with people and businesses in your community who can promote your information and give those resources away to them for free. This can help you amplify your reach. Providing free information and resources for people in your area can help you build useful connections and trust in your brand.
Number 5: Develop and implement a sensible social media strategy. You may be resistant to becoming active on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter because the process feels intimidating, you don’t know where to begin, or because you question the value of social media marketing to your business. But becoming active on these sites can pay you dividends. Not only do the sites offer you opportunities to communicate directly with members of your target audience and to learn from others in your same profession, but also they can even provide you with a no-cost means of doing some informal market research. Furthermore, you don’t have to become a visible presence on every single social media site right away, or even ever. Instead, establish your social media goals, develop a strategy for achieving them, which includes deciding which sites you’ll focus on, and then implement your strategy, slowly and deliberately. Implementation includes spending time at the start of each day reading the comments that have been posted on the sites you’ve decided to become active on, answering questions, initiating discussions, making announcements, and so on, and then doing the same at least once more each day.
To learn more or get a free Web Presence and Marketing Analysis contact us today!
