How to create a Legal marketing strategy for 2024

A successful marketing strategy can help you in aligning your team with defined objectives, assist you in connecting your efforts to corporate goals, enable you to determine what appeals to your target audience and test it, and let you earn profits from new trends. But what should be included in a legal marketing strategy? Well, this will be clear to you once you know its definition. It is simply, a thorough, organised plan of a business's marketing and branding initiatives across numerous platforms and channels. Objectives, target audience profiles, procedures for creating content, key performance indicators, and other elements are frequently included in marketing strategies.

Let’s explore the strategy you want to use in the legal marketing of your firm, the steps involved in it, and the components. Towards the end of this blog, we will provide our top 10 strategies for legal marketing that you should implement in 2024.

Steps you should follow to create a Legal Marketing Strategy

1. For law firms, set SMART business objectives: Clear, attainable goals are defined by effective law firm marketing techniques. Using SMART goals in legal marketing strategy increases the likelihood of success. A SMART objective is one that is clear, measurable, doable, applicable, and timely. (You should apply this to your personal life as well!) As you establish objectives for your lawyer marketing plan, ask yourself that - “Why is this objective crucial to my legal practise?”. “What would constitute success or failure?”, “When should this be completed?” and also “How will I measure this?”

2. Identify who is your target: It is a common fact that there is a huge variety of areas in law practise, and hence the audience to aim to target will also be different accordingly. A very example of this can be a commercial litigation firm and a law firm dealing with family matters. They will not cater to the same client base. Your clients or rather your target audience will have different demands in order to seek appropriate legal services. So you must create a marketing plan which is in alignment with your law firm’s target audience. If not, your plan would be futile and unsuccessful if you don't address the needs of the such identified target. Also, while figuring this out you should consider factors like age, gender, location, profession etc. (And their needs obviously!)

3. Your Value Proposition matters: Your value proposition outlines the services you can provide to clients to have them on your side. In simple language reasons why they should select your legal practise over other competing ones. Several essential components should be present in a strong value proposition like “what do you provide to customers?”, “Why should they take what you provide?” and “why must they take those services from YOU?”. Remember, your value proposition must deliver and effectively communicate all your message but CONCISELY.

4. Set Your Brand Apart: Setting yourself apart from your competition is the first step towards effective branding. Continuing our thought from point 2, we strongly suggest that your value proposition should definitely include a goal of setting your company apart from the competition, as this is crucial for successful marketing. Building your company's reputation starts with branding and marketing. Planning, time, and a distinct vision are required. You are familiar with the clients and your own personal brand but you must concentrate on the services or personal traits that are exclusive to you and your company. Adding to it, your firm's website, logo, business card, and even social media must consistently reflect your brand identity.

5. Competitive Analysis: To set your brand apart from the competition, you must comprehend your rivals and their marketing tactics. Consider who your rivals are, what they are doing to get customers, and their SWOT analysis. Even if you already know who your competitors are, it's still important to sit down and make a list of them. Who knows you may discover a surprise rival battling for the involvement and attention of your target customer. Finding out who your primary competitors are is the first step in evaluating your competition. After doing this, you can learn more about them from sources like their online presence and customer testimonials. Utilize this knowledge to assess the advantages and disadvantages of your rivals. Choose what to focus on in your value proposition and marketing efforts and where you might get a competitive advantage.

6. Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning: Using segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP), target audiences are given "more relevant, tailored messaging." In other words, you'll follow a disciplined strategy for producing content that connects with your target customer rather than releasing posts and adverts at random. Firstly, you will decide who your target market is, whilst also interacting with present clients and conducting market research. Secondly, you will talk to a small, carefully targeted audience of customers rather than broadcast your message to everyone. And finally, place your brand in relation to competing brands and assess your competitors.

7. Creating a marketing budget: A solid marketing budget is a crucial part of any business plan for a law company. You must set your objectives and calculate the amount of income required to make them a reality in order to calculate the amount you will need to spend (no, invest) in your law firm marketing campaigns. You must next consider how many cases you must bill annually in order to reach that income target. Depending on your field of practice, this will change. You'll be able to determine your overall law business marketing budget once you've done the research. Keep in mind the stage at which your legal firm is—has it just begun or is it already well-established? Also, take into account how cutthroat your industry is.

8. Build your first Impression - Your Website: Your website gives you the opportunity to leave a lasting impression on website visitors who are considering hiring a lawyer. Let’s cut to the chase. Use reputable images and a standout law firm logo to start your website. Next, briefly describe the services you offer and the practise areas you cover. Make sure your contact information is noticeable and well displayed and draw attention to any honours, accolades, or noteworthy experiences you have.

9. Social Media? Non-negotiable: By using digital marketing, you may reach new customers by going to where they are. This refers to social media in the digital era. You'll need to determine which social media sites are suitable for your legal business and practise area since there are several to select from. Social media marketing can have a huge positive impact on the expansion of your legal practise with some careful planning. Now, what small things you can do? You may engage in productive discussions over platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn. Follow leaders in marketing, professionals from your own practise area or law in general. By Facebook advertising campaigns you can attract new clients and expand your clientele base.

10. Assess Your Performance and Modify Your Goals: Marketing plans for law firms are constantly changing. As you monitor the effectiveness of the marketing activities for your law practise, you must constantly optimise them. You should choose a metric to utilise to assess the performance of each marketing action as your strategy develops into a law firm marketing strategy. For instance, if you choose to spend money on search ads, you can track how many people visit the landing pages for the legal services you provide, for each phrase you bid on. If your goals aren't being met, you might need to revisit your firm's growth strategy or modify your marketing strategy.

Top 10 strategies for legal marketing in 2024

1. A brand story helps you stand out: You must know and you must create a distinctive brand story around your law firm's USP, to stand out from the competition. Your law firm should have a distinct, defendable quality that sets it apart from rivals. Most importantly, it should be something that matters to your customers. Once you've determined what makes your business special, include it in every aspect of your value offer so that it appeals to your target market. Additionally, you can use that data to strengthen your brand, which includes your law firm's logo and website. Who says law firms interact with clients in an overly professional manner? Do not listen to them. Your brand will mirror the tone of your content, therefore there is no requirement to write very formal content.

2. Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs: One effective marketing strategy is to dedicate a portion of your website to legal FAQs relevant to your field of practise. In addition to supporting your content marketing plan, it benefits potential customers who might require immediate assistance. In particular, if they are feeling uncertain, knowing that your firm has the expertise and experience to address a particular concern rather than just a generic area of practise might mean the difference between winning and losing a client.

3. Aim for 5-star reviews: Positive customer feedback and recommendations are a great method to immediately win over clients looking for representation. Think about using it as part of your email marketing plan by putting up an automatic procedure that motivates satisfied customers to post good, public feedback. Your success in local search and your conversion rate when customers find you can both be enhanced by social proof and trustworthiness in the form of five-star reviews.

4. Again! Customer Experience is a High priority area: Marketing now involves more than just persuading consumers to hire your law firm for their legal battles. Delivering a top-notch customer experience that promotes retention has taken precedence. The best (and safest) customers are those who keep coming back and recommend you to others. Marketing practically takes care of itself if you concentrate on creating an internally healthy, happy culture that permeates your customer interactions. That being said, both passive and active marketing strategies should be included in a sound marketing strategy for law business. For instance, expert website copy and design can be used as passive marketing to establish your company's credibility and authority. Showing off your knowledge inspires confidence in your talents among potential customers.

5. Build SEO and Local SEO: "Search engine optimization" is known as SEO. It simply refers to the practise of enhancing your website to raise its visibility when users search for goods or services associated with your company. Although SEO is crucial for making sure your legal business appears in online searches, generic searches won't always lead to new clients, especially if your practise is small. As part of your marketing plan, you should also focus on optimising your company's placement in local search results, often known as local SEO, to make sure local clients can discover you online.

6. Interactive Webinars: Law firms are increasingly getting familiar with webinars and are simultaneously realising the value of webinars. Among many advantages are - contacting prospective new clients, educating of the target audience, answering inquiries, indulging in discussions, producing interest and leads, presenting the law firm to the community as a whole, and strengthening current client relationships. Etc. It is only natural for law firms to be inclined towards webinars as a part of their growing journey since it is rapidly becoming a crucial part of digital marketing.

7. Create Content in your practise area: You know content is king, right? On the Internet, it has long been the norm. The main focus of website branding for law firms will be on providing clients with information about who you are and the services you offer. You can ensure that potential customers find the information they need by creating pages that detail each service you offer. Writing for your own blog, guest blogging for other websites, and presenting legal information articles to publications—have numerous advantages. Your reputation will advance the more frequently you write blogs, articles or newsletters, You'll establish yourself as a thought leader in your field and receive requests to talk about topics that are dear to your heart.

8. Go for Email Marketing Campaigns: Although it may not be your only kind of outbound marketing, email marketing is one of the most crucial. Email is still one of the best ways to connect with both current and future consumers, despite the advancement of social media and other channels of communication. You may create your brand, establish your trust, attract repeat business, and convert new leads by sending targeted emails to your network. And with little effort.

9. Win your way to marketing: By this, we simply mean, gaining recognition and becoming a leader in your field might be facilitated through awards and accolades. They can improve your PR and even your SEO. Naturally, there is prestige attached to law firms and lawyers who win such honours, so it will assist your business in attracting and keeping talent and increasing your client base.

10. Get listed and stay active in the legal directories: Legal directories are an excellent tool for legal firms looking to market themselves online. Millions of people visit these directories like Avvo, Legal500, or Reviewyourattorney, which also perform well in google searches. Getting listed on these sites will allow you to take advantage of their traffic. Citations are a crucial component of your placement on Google and other SERPs, and having citations from highly-ranked sites increases the authority of your website.

Legal directories are an easy, low-cost technique of internet marketing for lawyers that can have a big impact. Some of them additionally provide marketing methods that let you strengthen your brand and exhibit your expertise.

These strategies are indispensable for your law firm's marketing. Now you must not limit yourself to these tips and tricks, rather go for further research specifically for your requirements.