Legal Marketing Tips: Nine Expert Opinions You Can’t Afford To Miss

Back in early March, Answering Legal released a new eBook called “How Attorneys Are Marketing Their Firms In 2020: A Survey Article”. The project examined 21 different legal marketing questions, revealed survey results from real attorneys and featured expert advice from a panel of today’s top legal marketing minds.

Our eBook understandably did not get much focus this spring, as the pandemic quickly turned our attention to more important matters. But, we feel that the expert advice inside the book is too important to not be seen, and in this blog post we’d like to spotlight nine of the best legal marketing tips that were shared with us.

Jan Roos – Founder of CaseFuel

On why firms should consider specializing their services:

"You have to think of your brand as occupying real estate in someone’s mind. It takes energy to uproot someone’s go to. How many people in your market are competing for ‘lawyer’? Compare that to ‘the lawyer for high net worth divorces involving oil field royalties’ and you’re going to be way easier to recommend, remember and harder to price shop if someone needs services you specialize in."

Amy Juers – CEO at Edge Legal Marketing

On the value of having a strong relationship with local press:

“To be frank, this is one of the most effective ways to get free advertising. While a lawyer cannot and should not promote their firm’s services directly via media relations, gaining media coverage and airtime opens the door to showing the local market that they are the go-to firm for help. Strong relationships do not happen overnight, though, so remember to be patient, persistent but not overbearing. These reporters are bombarded daily. Some keys to success include having a deft touch; be responsive to inquiries and meet press deadlines.”

Michelle Calcote King – President of Reputation Ink

On how law firms should be using pay per click advertising:

“Google AdWords can be an effective strategy for law firms targeting consumers — personal injury, labor and employment, family law, trusts and estates, etc. — as consumers are much more likely to rely on a Google search to find a law firm than corporate clients are. Pay-per-click advertising is a good way to ‘prime the pump’ while you wait for your organic SEO to become effective (as organic takes time). PPC can also enable you to capitalize on an immediate opportunity, whereas organic SEO is a long-term strategy. For example, let’s say a new law is passed that impacts your clients. You can set up a PPC campaign on that specific law and generate leads immediately.”

Jeremy W. Richter – Attorney at Webster Henry

On what a law firm website’s homepage needs to accomplish:

“Potential clients may hear about your firm by word of mouth or social media, but they go to your website to learn more. When they get there, you need to confirm their hopes and convince them that you have a solution to their problem. You can’t convince potential clients you have the solution to their problems if what your website tells them is that you participated in moot court 15 years ago and you were the editor of the law review. You need to affirm to the potential client that you have something they want and you can be trusted to deliver whatever that is.”

Rodney Warner – Legal Content Writer

On why law firms should be creating case studies:

“Case studies are important marketing tools that can help generate trust. Why there aren’t more of them on law firm websites is beyond me. A case study can show the type of issue the firm works on, the kinds of problems their clients have, what they do to address them, what makes the firm’s approach unique or at least successful and the great (and measurable) outcome this client got. This is all part of the firm’s social proof: this is what we did for others, this is what we can do for you. Instead of empty marketing babble that can fill law firm websites, here are facts. Facts are more credible than copy any day and more likely to generate trust by the website visitor.”

Gerry Oginski – Founder of the Law Office Of Gerry Oginski

On why lawyers should make the time to create videos:

“Creating videos is a one-time investment that pays dividends forever (at least as long as YouTube is around). By the way, that’s exactly how I got started creating hundreds and thousands of videos to market my solo law firm. After the first video I created began to generate calls to my office, I figured that if one video could compel someone to call, then I have to do a second and a third. That’s when I realized that Google and YouTube loved fresh new content. Video has helped me generate calls and valid cases that have resulted in settlements of more than twelve million dollars over the past eleven years. Is video worth your time and effort? If done correctly and consistently, the answer is yes.”

Jay Ruane – Partner at Ruane Attorneys

On if lawyers should be podcasting:

“I think podcasts are great, but 90% of lawyer podcasts suck. Too many lawyers throw up a podcast with no focus or follow through. You hate to see a podcast with 6-10 episodes and then nothing for months or years. If you are going to do a podcast, you need to follow through so you have consistent content. Consistency provides reliability which gets traffic.”

Amy Juers – CEO at Edge Legal Marketing

On whether law firms should be using Instagram:

“Instagram should be considered as part of a social media strategy. Depending on the demographics of a firm’s target audience, consider Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook too. If a firm focuses specifically on estate planning, this is a different audience that needs to be reached than, for example, a global IP law firm. Take into consideration the target audience and put energy toward the social platforms where most of this audience is present. B2B firms should focus on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and B2C should include these but also add Instagram and Facebook.”

Michelle Calcote King – President of Reputation Ink

On why law firms should care about their online reputation:

“The world now conducts its business online. Before the rise of the Internet, law firms relied on word of mouth to build and maintain their reputation. Now, however, word of mouth has transitioned online in the form of online reviews, media articles, social media comments and more. Even if a potential client is referred to the firm by a trusted connection, they will nearly always research the firm online before they contact the firm — and if they find bad reviews, negative articles or a lack of information, you may lose the referral.”

Download your free copy of “How Attorneys Are Marketing Their Firms In 2020: A Survey Article”.