Law Firm Marketing Strategies: 5 Ways to Succeed in 2022

Law firms must continually market themselves to attract new clients, but to truly excel, the strategy can’t just be “set it and forget it.” Law firm marketing strategies need to evolve from year to year, and 2022 is no exception. However, it can be overwhelming to determine where to invest your team’s time and energy for the best marketing return. To help you get started, here are five basic and actionable tactics your law firm can employ to upgrade your online marketing strategy for success this year.

1. Law Firm Website Optimization

Research indicates that 93 percent of all online experiences start with a search engine, and 75 percent of internet users never venture past the first page of Google (or other search engines, such as Bing). Most law firms have a website to market their services, but ensuring new clients find your website requires effort toward search engine optimization (SEO). Simply put, if no one can find your website when they search relevant terms online, you are likely losing potential business to competitors who do appear in top Google organic (i.e., unpaid) search listings.

There are common search terms that legal consumers type into Google and other search engines, often including their own specific location (example: “Philadelphia law firms”) and/or the specific legal practice area or service they are interested in (example “divorce lawyers in Philadelphia”). To point search engines in the right direction and improve your visibility to potential clients, you need to make sure that these terms appear on your website, which is where SEO comes in.

SEO is an entire marketing discipline of its own, but good place to start is in evaluating the descriptions on your website for the services your law firm offers. Make sure these descriptions are clear, well-written, and include important basic information, such as your law firm’s location, practice area(s), and any other answers to relevant questions about your practice that a potential client might be wondering about when initially searching for legal representation. In addition to well-written, optimized descriptions, make sure your website is user-friendly and easy to navigate and that your contact information is clear and prominently placed.

If a member of your team has time and bandwidth, there are many free resources and tools to learn basic SEO principles. Or, if your firm has room in the marketing budget this year, consider hiring an SEO agency to evaluate your website and make improvements. Even small tweaks to the copy on your website can make a big difference in your ability to appear on Google over time, and in turn, effectively grow your leads.

2. Content Marketing

Most lawyers are also good writers, and you can put those skills to use to market your law firm through high-quality website content, such as blog posts, guides, and articles. Content marketing is closely tied to SEO and is an excellent way to build your brand and showcase your expertise in a particular legal area. When you provide interesting and helpful answers to potential clients, you can become a topical authority in your practice area, which will help increase their confidence and trust in you and increase the chances that they will decide to retain your services.

If you decide to create a blog on your website, take an educational approach by providing thoughtful, helpful information through evergreen practice-related topics that don’t directly offer legal advice. You can also focus on existing content by providing commentary or occasional updates to demonstrate your continued interest in happenings within the legal industry.

For more information on developing your law firm’s content marketing strategy, check out this helpful webinar, Content Marketing for Law Firms:

3. Law Firm Digital Advertising and Content Distribution

Even if your firm is making headway with SEO and content marketing, getting noticed on the internet isn’t easy. Alongside an effective website and strategic content, paid digital advertising uses targeting to put your message in front of the people whose online behavior indicates that they want to find you—rather than people who aren’t necessarily in the market for legal counsel.

Digital Marketing Tactics

There’s a wide range of digital advertising options, and each option has different benefits, risks, and drawbacks. Some common solutions include:

• Paid Search Advertising : Your law firm pays for your listings to appear at the top of paid search results for relevant terms on Google or Bing, and usually pays a set amount each time a visitor clicks on your ad, known as pay-per-click (PPC).
• Targeted mobile ads: Your firm’s advertising is directed to specific mobile users via SMS text messaging advertising, mobile banners, and in-app advertisements.
• Social Media Advertising: Your law firm pays to promote your content on a social platform, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or the newest platform on the scene, TikTok.
• Video Advertising: Your firm pays for your videos to appear at the beginning or middle of video content on streaming platforms such as YouTube.

For each of these options, it’s important to evaluate where your prospective clients are likely to be spending their time online. For example, are your target clients more likely to be on LinkedIn or Facebook? The answer to this question will depend on your demographic as well as the type of services you offer, among other factors. With careful research and skilled implementation, digital advertising allows you to target and connect with prospective clients who are ready to act.

4. Email Marketing for Law Firms

To keep your law firm and your services top-of-mind, it’s vital to reach out and engage with potential, and in some cases existing, clients. Email marketing is an effective way to keep in touch and distribute all the valuable content you create, along with critical updates about your law firm.

Email Campaign Types

While client email newsletters continue to be an effective way to market your law firm in 2022, there are other email options and campaign types that will also help you connect with leads.

• Drip campaigns: A series of emails sent to a specific audience to give them valuable information and/or resources concerning their needs.
• Re-engagement campaigns: Messages directed to former clients who may require additional services.
• Email blasts: One-time emails notifying readers of important events such as a change in the law or a significant court award or settlement.

Email Marketing Automation

Whether you want to send out a monthly e-newsletter or holiday wishes to past and current clients, a software platform can make staying in touch via email much simpler. With legal practice management software in particular, client management features help you proactively anticipate clients’ major life events based on their age, status, or other activity. Your law firm can automate the process of sending these client communications both individually and through group engagements. So, rather than sending potential clients duplicate emails, you can segment your email list into groups to send each group the content most relevant to them.

5. Organic Social Media

To attract new clients, law firms must go where they are – on social media. Your social media accounts also give you additional channels to share and distribute any content that you have developed for your website. There are many social networks to choose from, so you’ll have to determine which channels are the best fit for your firm and practice areas:

• Twitter. Useful for following and engaging thought leaders in meaningful conversations.
• LinkedIn. A professional network that can help your firm stand out among the competition.
• Facebook. Lawyers can use a Facebook to position themselves as an authority in their niche and help attract new clients.
• YouTube. Potential clients always have questions that legal professionals can answer, sometimes even before asking. Short, share-able videos can answer common questions quickly and efficiently and provide value without a sales pitch.
• TikTok: This is an up-and-coming platform focused on short video content. Currently, the users of TikTok skew younger, but the platform is growing astronomically. Some lawyers are now making creative and effective use of TikTok by providing quick answers to general legal questions.

To help manage your social content (without logging in to multiple social media platforms numerous times each day), consider a tool such as Hootsuite to schedule posts, check replies, and monitor topics to see your potential clients’ interests.

When marketing on social media, always ensure that you follow the ethics and marketing rules within your jurisdiction and avoid creating inappropriate attorney-client relationships online.

Measuring Law Firm Marketing Success

Over the past few years, some law firms have struggled to keep up with the needs of their current clients without giving much thought to finding new ones, while others have adapted quickly to discover new ways to find and retain those in need of legal services. A key to this success is in actually measuring the return on the marketing investments your firm makes.

No matter what marketing strategies you decide to employ, don’t do it blindly. Actionstep can manage and track virtually anything, including marketing campaigns and related activities, to create budgets, set timeframes, and gauge results. With Actionstep's robust reporting tools, you can also create dashboards, run custom reports, measure your firm’s performance, and identify profit centers and areas of concern.

To find out more about how Actionstep's highly comprehensive legal practice software can help you manage and market your law firm in 2022, schedule some time to talk to our team.