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As one of the many solicitors in London, running your own law firm is so much more than applying various types of law to help your clients. It’s also about learning how to market yourself effectively, define your unique selling point and differentiate your business from all the other firms that exist out there. To run a successful practice, you need a steady stream of paying clients who need assistance with the area of legal practice that you specialize in. This guide will walk you through the different marketing techniques that you should master and the significance they play in your business.
Strategies, Tactics and Plans
Before looking at some of the specifics of legal marketing its first important to be able to differentiate between a strategy, tactic and plan so you can use them as tools to help your business grow.
- A strategy is a long-term approach that guides you towards the achievement of your goals.
- A tactic is a tool that you use for short term goals
- A plan is a process which helps you implement your strategy to achieve your goals
All three will work together to create a much bigger marketing approach to attract clients to your legal practice and they will change over time as your business evolves and your marketing priorities change.
Brand Building
Your business should be recognizable, and you should work towards building a recognizable brand. This is fundamental for any aspect of marketing. Some key questions to ask when formulating your brand include:
- How do you want people to perceive your organization?
- What do you specialize in?
- What vision, values and customer experience do you want to create?
Once you have answers to these you can start to put together your image, style and voice and how this can be communicated on a consistent basis
Customer Avatar
Knowing your customer is so important in any business but even more so in a legal capacity. It’s important to know who you will be marketing to, what demographics your customers have, the needs, wants, fears and frustrations. With this information you will be able to build your ideal client persona which will help guide all of your marketing strategies.
Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel is essentially a roadmap that guides your client on a journey from discovering your business to instructing you to act for them. This process is usually divided into a series of stages:
- Awareness – The client recognizes that they have a problem and they start to research their options
- Consideration – The client begins to define their problem and identify ways that they can solve it
- Decision – The client will start to look for a solicitor to help them solve their problem
Your Legal Website
A website is essential for a solicitor because it acts as a kind of online brochure, advertising the legal services that you offer and educates clients on your area of specialism. If you don’t already have a website you should consult with a quality web design company in London to help you design and publish a responsive, user friendly site that effectively promotes your business. All of your marketing efforts should drive people to your service pages and then to booking a consultation or making an enquiry. Your website will often be the first interaction that prospects will have with your business which makes it even more important to have a good website that will leave the right impression. Include important pages that outline your credentials, the services that you can offer and what current and previous clients have said about your firm.
Marketing Metrics
As with every digital strategy you should be measuring your success, whether this is traffic, enquiries, consultations, whatever it is that you want to achieve for one of your marketing goals. The way that you promote your law firm will depend on what marketing objectives you want to achieve. With specific and clear goals in place you will be able to create a more focused marketing plan. Marketing your business online should be built around several key strategies:
Search Engine Optimisation
It’s important that when you are looking for an SEO company in London you opt for one that has specialist expertise in SEO for law firm strategies. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a technique used to help your business rank higher in the search engines such as Google. It involves a combination of on-page keywords and off page methods to build quality links to your website. If you are new to SEO a SEO company should be able to walk you through the basics to ensure that your website is properly optimized.
Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click (PPC) can be deployed to complement your SEO strategy. While SEO is a free marketing strategy, Pay Per Click involves creating paid ads that appear at the top of the search results pages. When someone clicks on the ad you will be charged a set fee. Ads should always be linked up to a landing page which encourages visitors to take some kind of action whether this is to book a consultation, fill out an online form or buy something.
Social Media
More and more businesses are using social media to build communities and raise awareness of their brand using social platforms. If you don’t currently use social media, you are potentially missing out on many opportunities to grow your business. Social media should be a tool used to entertain, educate and advise, ultimately driving people back to your website to sign up to your mailing list, book a call or fill out an online form.
Legal Directories
One method of increasing visibility is to list your business in online legal directories. Some of these are free to list your business while others are paid.
Google My Business
You can also claim your own Google Business Profile which will list your business when someone types in a search query looking for a legal practice in your locality. On the Google listing clients can leave reviews, see your opening times and find out where you are located.
Email Marketing
Email lists are a powerful marketing tool because they can be used as a way to educate prospects while also promoting your legal services and consultations.
Guest Posting
Guest posting is another strand to SEO, and it involves posting an article on a third party website with the aim of driving readers back to your website. Articles should be high quality, engaging and valuable for readers. They should be used to position you as an authority in your area of law and help to build your credibility as a legal expert. Many guest blogs include links back to your website which can be powerful SEO tool if you choose authoritative websites and blogs.
Offline Marketing
While there are many online strategies to promote your legal practice, don’t forget about traditional marketing too such as signage printing, board printing, presentation folders, foamex boards and roller banners all of which can be displayed in strategic locations to help you promote your business. This type of marketing is important if you are trying to establish yourself as a local practice. When thinking about offline marketing having high quality printed materials is important because this will leave an impression of your firm.
Measuring Results and Adjusting Your Goals
Regardless of what marketing tactics you choose, it’s so important that you measure the return that you get from each. Set up and review goals on a regular basis and review metrics such as website visitors, conversions, new sign ups to your email list, new enquiries whatever your goals were. When you measure your marketing frequently you are able to make minor changes to your campaigns to achieve even more success or perhaps switch to a different strategy if something isn’t working as you hoped.
Convert Visitors into Clients
While marketing strategies are great, they are only effective if you can close clients. Closing is one of the most important skills that you need to master as a business owner, and this is a very different practice to traditional sales. Closing is about recognizing a problem that your prospect has and then prescribing a solution that will help your client solve this problem to get them from where they are right now to where they want to be.
Final Thoughts
A marketing strategy for your organization takes time, planning and thought to create and implement. If you are crystal clear on your goals, understand your target market and monitor each of the strategies that you implement, there is no reason why any marketing tactic you implement won’t generate more leads and sales for your legal practice.
