If you are a solicitor and you want to grow your law firm, the core question you may frequently be asking is “How do I market my legal services?”.
It’s a great question, and as a former solicitor and now UK law firm marketing specialist, one that I am more than happy to answer for you.
Whatever position you find yourself in, whether you need just a few more clients or a lot more clients, let me share with you the strategy and tactics that will win you new clients consistently.
It is this that you are really after, isn’t it?
Consistent new client instructions for your law firm.
I know that many solicitors do their marketing in batches. When they are quiet, they spend a lot of time working on marketing. Then they get busy, so they stop spending time on marketing, which sadly leads them back to the ‘being quiet’ part again. This is what I call the law firm marketing roller coaster.
The Law Firm Marketing Roller Coaster
The 8 Stages Of The Law Firm Marketing Roller Coaster
Stage 1 – No clients. Market frantically.
Stage 2 – Busy with all of the clients generated. Stop marketing
Step 3 – Become quieter as matters complete.
Step 4 – Back at the bottom of the marketing roller coaster. Start marketing frantically again.
Steps 5-8 – Rinse and repeat…
Now I don’t know about you, but I hate roller coasters. I simply do not see the point. You can put me in a boat and race me up and down huge waves, but do the same on a fake car on a steel platform and I have no interest.
Whether you are a fan of real life roller coasters or not, I am sure you are with me and would agree that from your business’ perspective, it would be much better if you were not riding the law firm marketing roller coaster, wouldn’t it?
Isn’t it much better to have a steady and consistent flow of new client enquiries and instructions which are not dependent on you taking action all of the time?
It is, and this is why it is the method that I teach all of my consultancy clients.
How To Market Legal Services Part 1 – Automate & Outsource.
Choose the most effective marketing methods for promoting legal services, then ensure that they are outsourced and automated as much as possible. I will look at the most effective methods soon, but first please let me stress the importance of this point.
You are a well-qualified, intelligent, articulate person.
You can rightly charge hundreds of pounds an hour for your services, so please answer me this question; why is it that so many solicitors try and do all of their marketing themselves when they do not know what they are doing and more importantly when they can pay someone a fraction of their hourly rate to have it done for them?
It is one of the most common reasons that solicitors fail when it comes to marketing legal services, and for me it beggars belief.
I understand that we are all hard wired to conduct a little self-sabotage, but honestly, the amount of harm that this causes in terms of lost new client instructions is substantial.
Well, Nick, I know I agreed to add three new articles this month to my website, but I just haven’t found the time to write them, let alone add them to my WordPress website. I know that if I do it consistently I will attract more visitors to my website, which in turn will lead to more enquiries for my services, but I have been too busy.
Or..
Sorry Nick, I know that every time I send an email newsletter I receive new instructions and recommendations, but I haven’t had time to dive into the email marketing software and plumb in my next message.
Seriously?
Remember, you can pay someone else to do all of your legal marketing for you at a fraction of the cost that you can do it yourself, but more importantly, that marketing will then be carried out consistently for you every single month.
No excuses, no ‘sorry I have been too busy’, it will just be done for you.
Then, and this is the fun part, your only job is to check the figures and ensure that your supplier did a better job of producing new clients for you this month than last month.
I can introduce you to a whole host of suppliers that can handle every aspect of marketing legal services, simply email me, but please hear this message clearly. You should not be doing your own marketing; that is only going to lead to failure.
How To Market Legal Services Part 2 – The Best Marketing Tactics For Solicitors
Question: Which are the most effective methods for marketing legal services?
Answer: The ones where your clients find you at the exact moment in time that they are looking to choose a solicitor.
You can make your life really easy or you can make your life really hard. It is pretty much that simple. Your ‘self-sabotaging’ self aside, the right thing to do has to be the first one doesn’t it?
If you appear before your clients at the exact moment in time that they are looking for your services the chances of them asking you to act for them are substantially increased.
This is called ‘attraction’ marketing.
Think about your potential client’s journey. He is moving house. He needs a solicitor. He asks his closest friends if they can recommend a solicitor, but they all say they can’t remember who they used as it was some years ago and that solicitor never kept in touch with them…
Therefore, they do what we all do and head to Google. They type in “conveyancing solicitor plus their location” and they see a list of advertisements for conveyancing solicitors. They find a firm that they like the look of and get in touch. The instruction follows.
The other type of marketing is called ‘interruption’ marketing, which is appearing before lots of people who have absolutely no interest in your legal services attempting to make them call you or click through to your website.
It is a scattergun approach and consequently costs more to do and is less effective.
Examples of interruption marketing include:
- Social media (so much noise, so little time)
- Television advertising
- Newspaper/magazine advertising
- Spam email marketing
I am not saying that these methods cannot produce results. They all can, to a certain extent. It is just harder and usually costs more to make them work.
Examples of attraction marketing include:
- Google Adwords
- Regularly adding quality content to your website to attract more organic/free visitors
- A regular email newsletter to your growing client database
- A well managed referral network (where each month you track all referrals, thank and reward those referring to you and make contact with those who have gone quiet).
If you are not doing all of these things, correct this and you will see dramatic results.
If you are doing some of them but managing the process yourself, outsource to an expert for even better results.
How To Market Legal Services Part 3 – Your Role In Marketing
Once you choose a form of attraction marketing to implement, your role is simply as follows:
- Find suppliers who can run this marketing method for you;
- Interview and select your preferred supplier;
- Every month run through their figures and ensure that they are generating more client instructions this month compared to last month and that your return on investment continues to rise.
Summary – How To Market Legal Services
You now have a formula to follow to grow your law firm. It involves little of your time. It frees you up to do what you are best at; running your law firm.
If you need more clients, you know exactly what you need to do to make this happen.
If I can help at all, please let me know.
In addition to providing consultancy services, I am a Google Partner and offer fully managed Google Adwords services and also provide a Client Communication & Prospect Builder service, which includes creating bespoke content that is added to your website every month and then sent to your growing email marketing database.
Should we talk?
Call me now on 0117 290 8555 or make a Free Online Enquiry and I will be in touch.
Alternatively, download one of my free books or guides below:
Google Adwords Whitepaper For Solicitors. Click here to receive your copy:>>
FREE BOOK: 6 Fastest Ways To Win New Law Firm Clients – Click to download now:>>
Click Here to Download The Complete Legal Newsletter Marketing Blueprint For Solicitors :>>
Ready To Take Action And See Results Now?
Please call 0117 290 8555 to arrange a mutually convenient time for a telephone discussion, Email me or complete a Free Online Enquiry. There is no cost or obligation. We will have a chat about where you are and where you would like to be and I will suggest some things you can do to get there quickly.