How To Build A Money-Making Website For Your Law Firm
Legal Marketing Update for Lawyers Who Care About the Business of Law
If feels like the legal industry has finally embraced cutting-edge website design yet, I wonder, is it too little too late? For many years lawyer websites often consisted of a landing page, some pillars or scales of justice, and a phone number to call the attorney. Slowly website design companies began to emerge that could help lawyers create websites that were dynamic. It felt painfully slow compared to most other industries and, even now, lots of law firm’s websites need some serious updating.
It feels a bit like trying to outrun a tsunami though. There are so many ways to market your firm now that, just as lawyers are getting serious about building a website that actually represents who they are as humans, lots of other industries are shifting to other platforms to sell their services to consumers.
Lawyers have been made to believe that if they slap up a website, dump loads of money into pay-per-click ads and drive tons of traffic to their site, they will have clients ringing them up. Those days are long gone and it’s because our industry is INSANELY over-saturated.
Recently “Local Services” were rolled out and before lawyers could even get those ads up and running (there’s an entire background check process), marketing companies were already trying to sell services to help businesses “dominate” local service ads. Does it exhaust you just thinking about adding another tool to your marketing arsenal? Sometimes it all feels like too much and you probably feel like you’re throwing money into a black hole at times, which… you probably are.
Should Your Law Firm Be Doing Paid Advertising?
So, what is a business savvy attorney to do when they can’t seem to keep up with all the changes in the legal marketing world (don’t even get me started on the chaos that is currently Facebook ads and the upcoming iOS 14 update)?
Step One: Don’t panic
Step Two: Don’t throw thousands of dollars at paid ads hoping to compete
Step Three: Stay true to who you are and where you’re going
See, if you’ve been doing marketing the Law Prophet way, these changes won’t affect you much. Forming deep human connections with your tribe of raving fans has nothing to do with the online feeding frenzy that is paid legal marketing. I don’t know about you, but I can think of better ways to spend thousands of dollars a month than getting my law firm to show up somewhere in a list of 500 other law firms in my area and hoping my avatar client lands the roulette wheel on me.
I always say this, and I’ll say it again here…if you can’t commit to a long-term plan (12 + months) of paid ads, don’t waste your time or money. If you can’t outspend the big spenders in your niche or geographic area, don’t even try. Do you know that some law firms have people who monitor certain key words and how much firms are spending on those words? Let’s say you drop 1k per week on “brain injuries” thinking it will help clients find you. Well, Big Spender Bill gets notified that he’s not at the top and decides to crush you, the little bug that you are to him. He will outspend you until you lose your will to compete and then he will continue to dominate search engine rankings while you attempt to cover payroll with a drained bank account and no new business to show for it.
Let me be clear; I’m NOT telling you NOT to do paid advertising. I AM telling you not to waist money on paid ads until you’re ready to commit to a long-term plan that costs a decent chunk of change… like a minimum of $3,500.00 per month which is actually NOTHING when trying to compete in the paid ads world.
Get your law firm noticed online, without breaking the bank
10 Tips & Tricks to Establish Your Law Firm’s Online Presence
Getting more clients to your law firm is so much more complicated than a high ranking in search engines or trying to be the biggest ad spender in your market. We challenge you to try these more organic ways of marketing. The bonus? They will also get you ranked high in search engines but they won’t cost you any money.
Consider the journey your client is on
If you’re a personal injury attorney, close your eyes and imagine someone you love just got in an accident with a big rig and is in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. What do you do first (spoiler alert, the answer is NOT “look for an attorney”)? Where do you go looking for answers? What help do you need? How do you feel emotionally? Spend a lot of time on this exercise and then use what you learn to create content your avatar client actually needs and wants. Add it to your website, social media and anywhere else that makes sense for your firm. Use this same process no matter what your practice area is. You will be amazed when you realize the kind of content you should be creating versus what you have been creating. Provide what your avatar client needs on your website and they will find you.
Understand the importance of your fan base
When someone needs an attorney it’s rare that the first place they go is the internet. Think about a time you needed an attorney. What did you do? Chances are you tried to think of someone you know. If you didn’t know anyone who could help you probably reached out to colleagues, friends or family. If and when you finally exhaust all of those avenues, you get online and search. Do you see how important your raving fans are? Are you doing everything in your power to stay connected to your network of referral partners, friends, family and past clients? I talked about exactly how to do this here. Tap into your fan base and ensure that you have their testimonials all over the internet and on your website. Testimonials are one of THE most important things you should have on you website.
Become Your Avatar Client
Have you ever done this? It’s life-changing for you as an attorney. Your homework tonight is to pretend that you are your avatar client. Get online and start trying to find an attorney you can trust your life with. How do the websites make you feel? What differentiates one attorney from the next? What things are you using as “proof” that an attorney is good at their job, trustworthy, etc. Add all the things that stood out to you as positive to your website and remove anything that was off-putting. When you do this exercise you will see how overwhelming it is for potential clients to find you. Do yourself, and them, a favor and make it easy to know that you are the right choice when they land on your page.
Focus on Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Sound old school? It is. And it works. Our law firm is about 99% word-of-mouth referrals. Yes, you read that right. In the past we have done essentially no marketing at all because we were too busy to take on more cases and didn’t want to scale up. It’s not that we never get calls from our website, it’s just that we rarely take those cases. We have learned that the best clients are always the ones referred to us? Why? Because the person referring the case knows and likes us and they know the type of client we want to work with. It’s like match-making for lawyers and it’s fabulous. Think about ways to network within your already existing network. Do you do charity work, go to church, belong to professional organizations? Do you coach your kid’s sports teams, volunteer as a room mom, workout at a popular gym? Do you do speaking engagements in your community? If you aren’t doing any of these things it’s time to start. Publish all of the great things you’re doing on your website and watch as potential clients instantly relate to you and feel a bond with you. It sounds like a lot of work to figure out how to become a leader in your network and, it is…. at first. Once you establish yourself as an expert in all things legal and have a group of people who love you, the cases start coming in and you can turn it down a bit. You should never stop giving back to your community but chances are you will get so busy you may have to do less of this type of marketing. The momentum will continue and you’ll no longer have to worry about getting new cases. We talk all about connecting with other lawyers here because that’s an area you CAN’T ignore.
Build Your Brand on the Gram
I don’t care if you hate social media and the internet. Your clients are online and it’s your duty to make it easy for them to find you. Most lawyers won’t land their dream client through social media. However, your friends, family and other lawyers need to see what you’re up to. You need to stay in front of them so that they think of you when they need to refer a case out. This is so important and I see so many lawyers who aren’t taking advantage of this free marketing tool. Showcase your Instagram account on your firm’s website. Clients will see a much more human side of you this way and they will feel connected to you, making it easier for them to trust and hire you.
Utilize a Blog on Your Website
Blog posts (especially case result write-ups) are a great way to drive ORGANIC traffic to your website. It can be really time consuming so we recommend jumping on a site like Upwork.com to find someone to help you out. A writer can help you craft blog posts about your niche and good ones even know how to optimize the blog for search engines.
Your Ad Here
Our firm has never done large scale ads but I know many lawyers who love them. Consider a billboard, the side of a bus, or a bus stop. If you decide to go down this path make sure you re in a space that your avatar client is. There’s nothing worse than spending a bunch of money to attract the wrong client to your firm. Other options are sponsoring a sports team and getting a big banner up with your name on it. This doesn’t have to be for the Lakers, it could be a local high school or your kid’s sports team. For this to work though you need to also be out and about in your community. A banner with no real connection to your people won’t serve you well. Buy a custom domain that’s easy to remember and targets your avatar client and then direct it to your homepage.
Make the Most of Your Law Firm’s Homepage
Client’s will make up their mind about you in a matter of seconds. Your homepage needs to sell that you’re an expert in your practice area and that you’re a good human. Go back and remember the journey you avatar client is on. What do they want to feel when they find their attorney? Make them feel that immediately on you homepage. Make it easy to understand what you do and how to contact you. If you’re website is confusing and hard to navigate you’re going to lose the client.
Turn Your Website Into an Educational Experience for Your Avatar Client
Make sure you aren’t giving “legal advice” to non-clients but feel free to give away free information. You will not lose clients by doing this. They will feel gratitude toward you for actually helping them out instead of just stuffing a bunch of keywords into your landing pages to try to drive traffic. There’s nothing worse than a website that provides no help to a potential client. I don’t believe that listing out all of your practice areas is helpful for anyone. Go deeper. Give them the answers they’re looking for and they will call you for more.
Create a Way to Capture Potential Clients Contact Information
Not all clients are ready to hire you today. You need to make sure that you’re getting their contact info. anyway. If there’s one thing you do on this list it’s this. Don’t just have a contact form and phone number. Give something to them for free (called an offer or lead magnet) in exchange for their email address. Then follow up with them until they’re ready to hire you. You can create a free report, a guide of FAQs, a webinar…the options are endless.
Closing Thoughts
I know that this can feel overwhelming but I promise that these tips and tricks will work. Try to work on one of these items each month. If you do this, a year from today your law firm will be completely transformed.
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