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    Marketing Basics for Lawyers

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      When you’re building up your firm, it can be tough to get the word out about the services that you have to offer. And with so many evergreen ways to market your law firm, where do you even begin?

      But don’t worry, you don’t have to become an influencer just to sell your skills.

      You can use any platform you want in your legal marketing strategy. What matters is knowing where your potential clients look for recommendations and leveraging your law firm marketing to meet them in those spaces.

      It may seem overwhelming to start, but follow these law firm marketing tips and you’ll extend your reach in no time.

      Decide on your goals

      The most important aspect of any law firm marketing strategy is to decide on your goals. Before you spend a cent, you need to know why you’re marketing in the first place.

      Consider your business objectives and where you want your marketing strategy to improve. The best way to get your brain rolling on this is to consider where you want your business to be in one, five, and ten years.

      • Do you want to up your client intake?
      • Do you want to grow in a certain niche?
      • Do you want to raise your hourly rates?
      • Do you want to establish a more focused brand?
      • Do you want to develop your professional reputation online?
      • Do you want to become a thought leader in your field?
      • Do you want to be a legal influencer?

      (Now that last one may not be something you’ve considered, but if you create a solid content marketing strategy, you could find yourself on Instagram’s Explore page.)

      Figure out a content marketing strategy

      Content marketing involves creating valuable and helpful content that you strategically share to boost awareness about your firm. And while content marketing is often used on social media, it also can also include blog posts, email newsletters, podcasts, and more.

      But don’t go wild and try to do everything at once.

      To begin, you need to focus on one or two areas that your potential clients are interested in. Stick to your editorial calendar so that you create consistent content on a regular basis.

      To know where to start with your law firm marketing, you need to create client personas.

      Create client personas

      Client personas are fictional examples of the types of people that you’re aiming to market to. By creating these personas, you can strategize what content to make and where you should post it. This helps you gain a better understanding of your potential clients and gives you insight into what they’re looking for, what they need, and anything they’re struggling with.

      Once you know this, you can start to empathize with them and create content that matches their needs. And if you meet their needs, they’ll see you as a trusted source and consider hiring you in the future.

      To give you a clear picture of your client personas, outline their:

      • Age
      • Income
      • Job
      • Living situation/lifestyle
      • Relationship status
      • Brand preferences
      • Goals
      • Hobbies
      • Hopes and fears
      • Primary motivators in making decisions

      These categories help you pinpoint what content to make and where to post it.

      Choose your platforms

      What you don’t want to do is post the same content everywhere on the internet and expect people to like it. That’s going to make your law firm look spammy and insincere, and will likely turn people away from you.

      Instead, you want to use your client personas to figure out which platforms to invest your time in. 90% of Americans from ages 14 to 64 are using email, so an email drip campaign is never a bad place to start. Or if you want to cater to young people, most of TikTok’s user base is under 40.

      But ultimately, you need to figure out where your ideal clients will be. Once you know that, you can hone in on that area.

      Stick to an editorial calendar

      To create a successful content marketing campaign, consistency is key. You want to put out helpful content at a rate that your firm can sustain. This could be a blog a week or a blog a month, depending on your marketing budget.

      That’s why you need to brainstorm topics based on your client personas and stick to regular schedules for publishing content. This could be blog posts, legal videos, or even some Instagram Reels, but the most important thing is that it’s quality content delivered consistently.

      The calendar ensures that you have given yourself enough time to properly research a topic and plan a post. This also helps you gain a bird’s-eye view of your strategy, so you can be sure you’re creating content across your different client personas, and not just honing in on one or two.

      Check in with your team periodically to see if the editorial calendar needs changing. Your goals might be too big at first, and you may need to trim down your content or consider hiring a marketing agency so your employees aren’t overburdened with marketing work on top of their regular workload.

      Utilize marketing automation

      Marketing automation helps you take some of the admin work off of your employee’s backs when it comes to marketing. The right marketing automation tools can allow you to automate marketing drip campaigns, client follow-ups, and legal workflows.

      Marketing drip campaigns

      A marketing drip campaign is a series of helpful emails a person receives in their inbox that also encourages them to reach out to you for future services or refer your practice to their friends. An email drip campaign is an excellent way to prove to your potential clients that you have expertise that will help them with the legal questions they’re facing.

      Think back on those client personas and create a series of emails that will help them address a certain pain point they have. With the right marketing automation tools at your fingertips, you can also automate these campaigns to save time.

      Automatic text message and phone follow-ups

      Your helpful online content might get a potential client to check your website. And if they filled out a form to receive a downloadable guide, you’ll have their contact information. One of the best ways to obtain new legal clients is to follow up with them via text message or phone call.

      Again, these processes can be automated with the help of the right client relationship management (CRM) software features. Automating follow-ups via text message or pre-recorded voice call is a good way to keep potential clients engaged and stop them from moving on with another firm before they hear back from you.

      Intake analytics

      You’re a lawyer, not a marketer, so you may need some help identifying how well your current marketing efforts are performing. Look for software tools with robust intake analytics capabilities that can help you find the ROI on your marketing investment and better target your efforts in the future.

      Maximize your law firm marketing with Rocket Matter

      When you choose the right legal practice management software, law firm marketing can be a breeze. Rocket Matter integrates with multiple popular legal CRM software and also offers its own client relationship management and workflow automation features.

      Schedule a free demo with Rocket Matter today to see how your practice management software can help you boost your legal marketing strategy.

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