Client Clerk

building a successful law firm

Are you a recent law school graduate with dreams of building a successful law practice? Or perhaps you’re a seasoned attorney beset by stagnation in an oversaturated practice area? Either way, keeping the following tips in mind can help.

 

First, however, let’s assume you have already done basic due diligence, including drafting a business plan, preparing a budget, and hiring competent staff. What then? What is the first step to successfully marketing your firm? 

 

In a perfect world, you would be fabulously independently wealthy. You would advertise on a high-visibility billboard, on local television, and what the heck, let’s take out a full-page ad in the Yellow Pages. However, money isn’t printed out of thin air (unless you’re the Federal Reserve). Moreover, if financial resources were no challenge, you probably wouldn’t need any marketing advice. 

 

How Should A Small Law Firm Spend Their Marketing Budget?

 

So, if you’re just getting started scaling up a law firm or want to take your established firm to a new level of success, but you have a very limited marketing budget, how should you allocate your funds? 

 

Suppose your firm can swing $10,000 a month or less on marketing. Should you allocate all of that to PPC (pay-per-click digital advertising)? Even if you do have a significant budget for Google, there is no guarantee that your firm will rank in one of the top sponsored positions. And if you’re just getting started with marketing your law firm, your website will not have enough content or time-tested skin in the game for Google’s esoteric algorithm. 

 

But alas, there’s an effective solution for any budget. And it’s one that doesn’t require a high-priced web programmer or flashy website. 

 

Tip #1 For Building A Successful Firm: Invest In A Landing Page

 

Even if your nascent or established firm has a modern, aesthetically pleasing website with great UX (user experience), how will potential clients find you if you’re in a highly competitive area? In other words, just because you (or the programmer) build it does not mean they will come. 

 

Having an outstanding website should be a goal. But in reality, your firm can have a website that looks like it was built circa 1999 and still be very successful. (Ok, maybe not 1999, but 2010.) 

 

The key to attracting potential clients is not through your website. Rather, the key marketing component for building a successful law firm is having an optimized landing page. What exactly does that mean? Imagine your website is like a brochure. (Ideally, your website should also be a clearinghouse of helpful content.) A landing page is a micro-targeted advertisement with an attractive, irresistible, free offer. 

 

Let’s use an example. Suppose your main area of focus is immigration law, and your practice is located in the Southeast, the region most saturated with immigration attorneys in the U.S, according to market research firm IBISWorld. To attract an influx of qualified leads, your landing page should focus on a sub-niche of immigration law, say, forms-based practice areas (work visas, green card applications). At the very minimum, your landing page should make the potential client aware within seconds of your firm’s area of expertise. The more competition in your area, the more your landing page should focus on a specific niche. 

 

A Landing Page That Will Attract Potential Clients Like A Moth To A Flame

 

If a person does an online search for “immigration attorney near me” and there’s a lot of competition, your website may not be clicked on because it’s not one of the first listings. However, if you have a landing page (which is often separate from your main website), the landing page will be more effective at attracting potential clients. Here’s why…

 

Your landing page will offer a free, valuable resource, such as a downloadable mini ebook titled “Top 10 Mistakes People Make When Applying For A Visa.” (The free resource should solve pain points in your practice area.) 

 

Intrigued because the potential client needs to apply for a visa or hire an immigration attorney for another reason, they will happily enter their information to download the free resource. The potential client’s information is then filtered into your CRM. 

 

How To Attract Potential Clients With A Landing Page

 

Now that you understand how a landing page works, let’s address a few important questions. 

 

  • Who will write the resource, design it, and prepare it as a PDF download?
  • How will potential clients find your landing page? 
  • How will you follow up with potential clients who enter their information? 
  • Who should design the landing page and how much does it cost?

 

The answer to these questions is that my legal marketing firm will help with all the above. For nearly a decade, I have been a plaintiff-acquisition consultant for large mass tort firms. I helped these firms acquire new leads by optimizing their intake firms. My marketing team has created thousands of landing pages for attorneys, and we have now expanded our consultancy services to small and mid-size firms. 

 

We will design your landing page, write the content for it, and market the free resource using our vast legal publishing network. People needing your services will see an advertisement for the free legal resource on social media channels or search engines. Best of all, you will not have to spend a fortune to compete with large firms.  

 

Expert Marketing Automation For Law Firms

 

Now the question becomes, with your highly effective landing page attracting several leads, how will your firm respond to all of these inquiries? And not only to the initial inquiry but all the way through the consultation booking stage and beyond? 

 

Along with having an effective landing page, scaling up a law firm requires working smarter, not harder. And the best way to live by that adage is to take advantage of recent advances in conversational AI. Think of conversational AI as marketing automation. When a prospective client emails or messages your firm with an inquiry (what is your address, what are your hours, how long is a consultation, etc.) AI technology automatically responds to the prospect in real-time. 

 

The automation technology frees you and your employees from spending lots of time on marketing. 

 

As the founder of Client Clerk—a marketing automation platform for attorneys created by legal marketing experts—it’s my goal to help your firm grow your business without the pain points. 

 

When you invest in a high-quality landing page, you’ll get a free year of Client Clerk’s automation and CRM features. You’ll also have access to my team of legal marketing consultants. 

 

3 Tips For Building A Successful Law Firm: Summary


To recap, here are the three things every budding law firm should do:

 

  • Get a customized, optimized landing page built.
  • Have an experienced legal marketing firm market the landing page. 
  • Use Client Clerk’s marketing automation and CRM features to communicate with prospective clients and book consultations—with very little effort. 

Schedule a Demo of Client Clerk’s Automation Features or contact us for pricing.

One of our legal marketing experts will get in touch with you to discuss your goals. With an influx of prospective clients thanks to our marketing expertise, you’ll quickly be on your way to building a successful law firm.

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