Editor: What To Know
- In most cases, the bulk of the clients that you will be dealing with is going to be locally based or clients managing a case that is being handled in your locality.
- A lot of people may not be logged in to social media specifically to find a lawyer but just the fact that you are visible starts to influence their purchase decision.
- At the end of the day, they will be making this decision based on a number of factors besides your technical competency because they themselves don’t have the skills to gauge your technical competence.
Marketing for any kind of business is challenging but it is even more challenging for a business as technical and intimate as law. Moreover, hiring a lawyer is usually a large expense for a client. This forces the client to look through multiple options before finalizing one service provider because they don’t want to invest their money in something that they won’t get a good return on.
At the same time, you also need to have an approach in which the customer feels comfortable. Law, being the technical field that it is, makes it difficult for a client to gauge the quality of your services. At the end of the day, they will be making this decision based on a number of factors besides your technical competency because they themselves don’t have the skills to gauge your technical competence. If you are looking to grow your business, here are some strategies that can help.
Referrals
Due to the high level of risk involved in selecting a lawyer, many people prefer to find a lawyer through a referral. This will be through friends, family, or even acquaintances. Recently, as online communities have started to develop a lot of momentum, people will also look into reviews and online ratings for different service providers. Chances are, even if your client finds you through a referral they will still research you online to find out what other people who have used your service are saying.
Personal Website
There is no doubt that the internet is a powerful platform but within the internet, you need to know where you place yourself. There are multiple ways to market yourself online, and they can all have drastically different results. A personal website is a great source of traffic but you need to have systems that will drive customers to this platform. Using Paid Advertising for attorneys through a PPC campaign is an effective solution. With this approach, you will create all kinds of banner ads and select a certain client profile that you want to market these ads to. These ads will show up based on the browsing activity of the traffic audience. Optimizing the criteria of the target audience is the key to getting the best response.
Social Media
In the early 21st century, we started seeing a big move toward the internet. After the inception of social media platforms, people were flocking to the internet faster, and in greater numbers, than ever before. Today there are billions of people available on social media and just being visible on these spaces can win you a lot of clients. A lot of people may not be logged in to social media specifically to find a lawyer but just the fact that you are visible starts to influence their purchase decision. In the case that they need a lawyer, they will already have you in mind and this increases your chance of doing business with them. The more visible you are to them, the easier it will be to win them over later on.
Local Ads
Laws and legal systems do vary from state to state. In most cases, the bulk of the clients that you will be dealing with is going to be locally based or clients managing a case that is being handled in your locality. This is why local advertising can really be beneficial. Even if you are advertising online or out of state, you need to let the clients know exactly what locality you’re based in and the specialized services that you provide. For local ads, you can use newspaper ads, radio ads, billboard ads, TV ads, or anything else that will focus on the local population. And remember advertisement design and messaging is vitally important.
Business Clients
One of the best ways to get a regular stream of high-paying clients is to create business relationships and render legal services for organizations. Small to medium scale businesses and large corporations are always involved in a certain amount of legal work and need someone reliable they can count on for their legal needs. This will also open up doors to more business because the people within that organization will be familiar with you and, in the case that they need a lawyer for their personal matters or for a friend, they will most likely refer to you before reaching out to someone else.
The challenging part about growing your business using marketing is that the results can be very sporadic. Sometimes you might see some fantastic results for a particular kind of marketing strategy but after a little while, it goes extremely quiet. Even though you are investing more money into it, it isn’t bringing you new clients. This is why you should have a long-term approach and stay consistent with your efforts even when business is a little slow.
