How to market a law practice in 2023 | Law Firm Marketing

How to market a law practice – what to do and how to get it right.

The legal sector is among the most competitive out there with the clients being their main driving force.

As an increasing number of people (and businesses) use online search to find legal services, it is important that law firms develop effective online marketing strategies to outdo their competition and secure a consistent caseload.

While word-of-mouth is the most commonly used technique, simply talking about your law practice and hoping that clients will find you is not enough to attract new clients.

To attract prospective clients to your law firm, you need to engage in marketing that gets you noticed. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be expensive native/ traditional marketing.

Marketing strategies for UK law practices – introduction

There are numerous digital marketing methods that you can incorporate into your law firm’s marketing strategy starting from search engine optimisation ‘SEO’ to pay per click ‘PPC’ advertorials on news sites.

You can of course use native advertising to promote your firm. But, whichever method you choose, it is crucial that you develop a strategic marketing approach.

You must ensure your money and resources are invested well so that you can focus on what you are best at – running your law firm and practising law.

Our team of legal marketers has covered the basic points you need to know about how to market your law practice below.

The basics of how to market your law practice online

Start with creating your law firm’s marketing budget and consider your current spending

Planning your marketing budget is vital and should be the first step you take before you commit to any kind of marketing activity.

There is no specific amount of money that you should spend. But, you need to plan how much you want to invest, what goals you want to achieve and whether your budget will allow you to achieve them.

Think about how much revenue you will need to make to turn your plans into reality. Consider the stage your firm is at; is it new or well-established?

Also, don’t fail to forget about your local competition. Check what they are doing – do they advertise themselves online, do they have a better website than yours? Do your research.

Check the following:

If your firm is well established, when was the last time you revised your lead generation strategy? Is your firm only relying on word-of-mouth marketing and CMCs?
If you get your leads from CMCs, how much do you pay for each lead/ how much does it cost you monthly?
If you already have a website for your firm, does it generate traffic and leads? Overall, do you think it was a good investment? Who made the website for your – was it a specialist legal web designer or a freelancer? Can you see any issues and could they be improved?

(If you don’t have a website) Build an SRA-compliant law firm website

Do you Google search businesses you don’t know before you make an online purchase? A lot of people do. And your clients are not different.

Your legal practice’s website is usually the first place they end up on. This is why it is important your website looks professional, is secure, and SRA-compliant (if you are an SRA-regulated firm, of course). And not only because you may get a fine from the SRA for not complying with their Transparency Rules. The role of the digital badge is to help your firm differentiate itself from unregulated providers.

A great law firm website is easy to navigate, comprises good quality photographs (that don’t look too stocky), highlights your legal experience, displays your contact information in prominent places and has clear calls to action.

And remember, your website should be made for your clients, not to impress other solicitors. As much as you may want to make it look impressive, if your content doesn’t communicate well with your prospective clients, they will not want to use your services. Your website needs to speak to them and provide the information they are looking for.

Optimise your website for search engines (SEO)

In order to maximise your website’s return on investment, your website should follow SEO best practices. It should not only look professional but also be structured well and target relevant keywords.

If your website doesn’t show in your prospect’s Google search results, the likelihood that it’ll generate any income for your law firm is low. (Unless, of course, you put a lot of resources into promoting it on social media or pay for online advertising).

You may hire a legal SEO specialist to help you. Contact our team for a free SEO audit!

Claim your law firm’s social profiles

Claim your online profiles on Google My Business, Trustpilot, Law Society solicitor directory and others. There are plenty of opportunities to promote your law firm online.

As many as 88% of online customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Take advantage of this and ask satisfied clients to leave a review of your firm online.

Manage your online reviews

Having an online presence provides opportunities for your satisfied clients to leave positive reviews and those who are unhappy, challenging and negative ones. It is important to learn how to manage both.

Turn asking happy clients to leave a review at the close of every case into a habit. People often do research before they choose their lawyer and having positive reviews on Google (and other review platforms) will certainly help you gain more new clients. You can also read more about how reviews can help you boost your SEO.

If someone leaves a negative review of your firm, don’t just ignore it. Offer a kind and empathetic response and work towards earning more positive reviews that will outweigh the negative.

If you encounter a fake review, you can report it to the site owner. Trustpilot, for instance, has procedures in place to help tackle fake reviews.

Maintain your social media presence (or not)

You may have been previously advised that having an active social media presence is crucial. While it may be true for some industries and areas of law, our experience has shown that the majority don’t depend on it.

If you are active on socials, review your followers. It is likely that a large chunk of them are other businesses rather than individuals needing legal services. So, instead of investing in social media manager who will post on your behalf, we usually advise our clients to invest that money in website optimisation, advertising, branding and web design.

It is important to have social media profiles as they can be used for advertising campaigns, but if you are not a fan of Instagram, you don’t need to force yourself to post on a daily basis.

If you do, however, make sure you keep track of your conversions. Make sure you analyse your data and check whether your money is being invested well.

Market your legal content

Use your knowledge and experience to build your brand and authority within the legal sector. Show off your expertise through blogging and generate new leads and linking domains as a result.

People often search for answers to their questions on Google. If your website can provide answers to legal questions, you place yourself in a better position to gain new clients.

If you write blogs for your website, ensure they are optimised for search engines to give them the best chance to rank and show in search results.

Interesting content may get you good quality backlinks (other good websites linking yours) which will improve your authority score.

What about native and traditional marketing?

Not sure if you are ready for digital marketing? Been thinking about advertising your law firm using billboards or ads in local newspapers, etc.?

It is true that traditional methods of marketing may work for certain practice areas. However, in today’s digital age, you are likely to achieve more using online advertising methods.

After all, whether your clients hear about you on the radio, or find your advert in a local magazine, they are likely going to look you up online before they get in touch.

In conclusion, whether you decide to use traditional methods of advertising or not, maintaining a professional website is imperative. Make sure you also request positive reviews from your recent clients.

Don’t forget to measure your results and marketing efforts

You need to analyse your data to be sure that your marketing methods are effective.

If you don’t measure the results of your marketing efforts, you will not know which campaigns and techniques are bringing in clients and generating revenue. This is extremely important as you will want to know which campaigns are worth investing more / less, and which ones to stop overall.

The easiest way to track your website performance is by implementing website tracking – Google Analytics. This is a free online tool that will tell you how many people visit your website and which pages get the most attention. Using Google Analytics is a great solution for law firms.

If you are employing someone to market your law practice online, do your site’s SEO, don’t be afraid to ask them for data and statistics. There is no reason why they shouldn’t provide you with those.

Our advice on how to market your law practice:

– If your website has never brought you a single client, then you may want to have it re-designed by a legal web designer. A website should work for you and generate business. If it doesn’t, something is likely wrong. There might be issues with your content structure that are affecting your search engine rankings or something as simple as your website missing calls to action (asking your prospect to complete a certain action). Request a free audit from us. Discuss how to market your law practice with us.

– If you are paying more than £100 – £130 per lead, you may want to revisit your lead generation methods with a marketing consultant. If you are using CMCs to deliver leads, you may want to consider using pay-per-click as it is usually a cheaper method of generating new leads. Consult with our PPC expert Joel.

Bear in mind that marketers are not equal to one another and they specialise in different areas, whether it is legal marketing, retail or gastronomy. If you have previously had a bad experience with marketing, don’t just write it off.