The world of law is a competitive one. The U.S. legal services industry is forecasted to grow steadily over the next few years and the population continues to increase as well.
This means more people are looking for legal help which also means that there is more competition among attorneys for clients and leads. Generating leads can be tough in this environment if you don’t know how to do it properly. This law firm lead generation guide will teach you 10 strategies you can begin using today.
1. Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one strategy that is especially useful for law firms looking to generate more leads. This strategy involves optimizing a website so it shows up on the first page of search results when potential clients conduct a Google or Bing search and enter certain keywords related to their legal issue(s). For example, if someone in Philadelphia has been injured, they may do a Google search like “Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer” or “Injured In Philly.” When this happens, your site should show up near the top of the list with information about your firm’s services. Watch our video on local SEO to learn more.
The first step is to research keywords. The best way to do this is through Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner (you can sign up for a free account here). This tool will allow you to find the most popular keywords related to your industry.
For example, if you run an injury law firm in Philadelphia and want more leads from people looking for “Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer” or “Injured In Philly,” then type these phrases into the planner’s search bar.
The results will show you how many searches there are every month combined together with their cost per click on ads that come up when someone conducts those types of searches.
The next step is optimizing your site for these keywords by using them throughout your website copy, blog posts, and articles about legal topics within your practice area. We suggest placing them in the following areas:
- The title tag.
- The meta description.
- The page URL.
- Alt text of images and file names of media.
- Within header tags.
- Within the body of the page.
Learn more about our law firm SEO training if you want advanced knowledge about search engine optimization.
2. Email marketing
Another great way to generate leads for law firms is through email marketing. With an email list, you can create and send out emails that will be helpful to existing clients as well as potential ones in the future. In fact, at least 3.9 billion people use email globally.
Email marketing is a cost-effective way of reaching your audience. It’s often cheaper than other forms of advertising like print ads or billboards because there are no printing costs involved with sending an email campaign out once everything has been set up correctly.
The first step is to choose an email marketing software. Some popular choices are Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ConstantContact, Aweber, and ActiveCampaign. We recommend that you try out demos and free trials of several to determine which one suits your firm’s needs. For example, you can get started with Sendfox for free here.
Create a list of contacts by clicking “Lists” from the top navigation and “Create List” on the next page.
You can then create a form or landing page via “Forms” and “Smart Pages.”
It will provide you with a code that can be placed on your website to embed the form. Ideally, forms will be placed in the sidebar or footer. Other tools make it easier to create popups, exit-intent forms, and other types that are worth testing as well.
3. Social media marketing
There are billions of people active on social media. In fact, there are 4.2 billion active social media users globally. This is why it’s one of the top law firms lead generation channels. The content that you share should be engaging and helpful as opposed to sales or promotional in nature. Similar to email marketing, however, you can promote your services every few posts.
People want more information about how they can solve their problems, whether it is a legal issue or not. This means that each post should provide valuable insight into the mind of an attorney so that potential clients know what expertise they will receive if they hire your firm over someone else’s.
One way to do this is by sharing experiences from cases where the outcome was particularly favorable for the client. Testimonials and reviews are also great because they act as social proof and make potential clients more comfortable working with your firm. For example, this law firm shares a variety of content on its pages, including Instagram.
Any content you publish, such as blog posts, videos, and interviews, should always be shared across your social accounts too. This drives traffic back to key pages, keeps clients updated, and keeps your practice on their minds.
4. Content marketing
As we’ve spoken about in this article, content is extremely important for generating leads as an attorney. Firstly, it attracts the right audience to your website and other assets. Ensure that your team has fleshed out an accurate buyer persona using a template like the one below. This increases the quality of prospects that find your business. Otherwise, you’ll attract random individuals. When creating content, always keep this persona in mind. What questions do they have? What problems are they experiencing? Use the answers to these questions to create hyper-targeted content.
You can use a tool like AnswerThePublic to find topic ideas. Enter a search term on the homepage and click “Search.”
This will display hundreds of results ranging from questions to prepositions and comparisons.
We also recommend researching competitors to reverse-engineer their content marketing strategy. With topic ideas in mind, SEO blog posts are one of the strongest forms of content a law firm can produce to generate leads. They compound over time, generating traffic and potential clients.
5. Speaking at events and conferences
One of the most effective lead generation strategies for attorneys and law firms is speaking at events. There are many benefits to participating in local or regional industry conferences, as well as large-scale national conventions like ABA TECHSHOW or Lawyernomics. These engagements provide opportunities that have a greater return on investment than other forms of content marketing, such as blogging:
With an event engagement, you can bring clients with you and grow your professional network by gaining exposure to new audiences. Furthermore, presentations help establish thought leadership within your area of practice while positioning yourself ahead of the competition – ensuring more visits from potential leads via organic search engine result pages (SERPs).
For example, use a website like EventBrite or Meetup to search for events that are occurring in your local area.
There will be a mix of online and in-person events. Then, locate the organizer and contact them. Use a template like the following:
Hi {First name},
My name is {Name} and I’m the {Position} at {Law firm}. We have spoken at {Events} and {Law firm} has won {Awards}.
If you’re looking for speakers for future events, I’d love to have a quick phone call to learn more about your organization and discuss further.
Warm regards,
{Name}
6. Ask for referrals
Referrals are the core of any good law firm. You provide high-quality service, and as a result, clients will tell others about you. In fact, referral leads have a 30% higher conversion rate than leads from any other channel. However, as a law firm, you can also take it one step further. The key to generating referrals isn’t waiting around for them. It’s being proactive and asking clients if they know anyone that could use your services. Provide a business card for them to pass on as well.
We recommend taking advantage of marketing automation to generate referrals on a consistent basis. For example, let’s use Sendfox to set up an automated sequence that asks clients for a referral. Click “Automations” from the top navigation to begin.
Select “Create Automation Series.”
You can then edit the trigger and each email along with its delay via the email button.
Once you’re finished, click the “Save” button to publish the automation. Ideally, the email flow will look like this:
- First email: Thank them for being a client and extend a free resource or piece of content.
- Second email: Provide a case study to build social proof and authority.
- Third email: Share a press release, update, or news about the law firm.
- Fourth email: Ask if they know any individuals that can benefit from your services as a referral.
7. Redesign and update your website
Just like with any business, your website is the keystone for success. Not only are you going to need a good domain name and hosting service, but also an aesthetically pleasing design and navigation which will make it easy on clients if they want to take the next step in making contact or learning more about your services. This doesn’t mean that it needs to be flashy as this can come off as cheesy instead of professional – think clean-cut rather than trying too hard. Here’s a website WiseMedia designed, for example.
Moreover, one way to improve the user experience on your site is by using social proof, such as reviews from other customers. If people know others have been satisfied with their work, then they’ll feel more confident handing over personal information when asked for their own case details.
It also requires excellent sales copy. After all, design is only one part of a high-converting website. You need to communicate the value your law firm offers to its clients. What are your practice areas? What problems do you solve for clients? How are you different than other legal practices? Answer these questions within the content of your web pages.
Learn more about WiseMedia’s law firm web design services if you need a high-converting law website.
8. Become a guest on podcasts
Did you know that 50% of all homes are podcast fans? Podcast and audio content has quickly become one of the most consumed forms of content on the internet. That’s why your firm should consider including podcasts within your law firm’s lead generation strategy.
There are two approaches to this as well. The first is to be a guest on other podcasts. This is the simplest because you simply land opportunities as a guest, do the interview, and move on to the next one. You can search platforms like Spotify and iTunes for law-related shows and reach out to the hosts.
Alternatively, you can start your own podcast. This requires your firm to first invest in basic audio equipment like microphones, mic stands, headphones, and an audio interface. Here’s a guide to podcast equipment to learn more. Nonetheless, you will also need software to record episodes. Audacity and OBS are both free, and easy to learn, and there are plenty of online resources to master them.
Once you begin recording podcast episodes, upload them to platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Music, and Soundcloud. You can take the RSS feed of your show on its original platform and syndicate it to others instantly for maximum awareness.
9. Run paid ad campaigns
Inbound marketing (content, SEO, social, etc.) is extremely effective and satisfying. At WiseMedia, we help law firms generate more traffic, leads, revenue and see the impact good digital marketing has on legal practices. Since inbound is a long-term approach, ideally, your firm will also use outbound channels, with paid ads being one of the best choices.
Paid advertising includes channels like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and others. These campaigns can be managed by a digital marketing agency for you. It’s an investment, but it gets results and will bring leads to your site quickly.
For instance, you can get quickly started with Facebook Ads by visiting this page and clicking “Create Ad.”
Choose an ad type on the next page. We suggest creating one fresh.
Then, follow the rest of the setup wizard to set the ad’s budget, creatives, and which page you’ll be using to promote the advertisement.
You can learn more about Facebook and Google advertising in our legal marketing courses.
10. Build a marketing funnel
Last but not least, let’s discuss the idea of a marketing funnel. What we see as legal marketing experts at WiseMedia is attorneys making the mistake of driving traffic to their website and thinking it will convert instantly. Rather, you must understand that legal clients go through a journey that begins with what we call the “awareness” stage.
Here they become aware of a problem they are having. It might be finances, a relationship, a career, or otherwise. People then begin conducting research into law firms and attorneys in the “consideration” stage. Finally, they make a decision in the, as you could presume, “decision” stage.
How does all of this play into your law firm lead generation? This brings us to the marketing funnel. At the top of the funnel, you want to focus on marketing efforts that attract the widest possible audience possible while still keeping it high-quality and relevant. This is primarily achieved through social media, blogging, video, organic, and audio.
Then, you segment the users that visit your website with free downloadable offers like guides, checklists, whitepapers, case studies, etc. As you learned earlier about email marketing, people will opt-in with their name and email to receive these free resources.
With their contact information, your team can then begin reaching out to these individuals pitching your services or a free consultation. Better yet, we recommend setting up email automation when someone subscribes. This will send out emails every couple of days that share more value, and information, and eventually pitch your legal services.
The bottomline on law firm lead generation
As a law firm, it’s critical that you continue to build a pipeline full of leads, so your practice always has consistent clients. Otherwise, revenue will be inconsistent, and you may experience cycles of feast and famine. That’s why we highly suggest you use the lead generation strategies for law firms outlined in today’s article. Here’s a recap:
- Use search engine optimization to increase organic visibility and get on the first page of Google for relevant search terms.
- Build an email list with email marketing software, forms, and lead magnets.
- Be active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks.
- Produce content such as blog posts, videos, and podcasts on a regular basis.
- Secure speaking gigs at virtual and in-person events.
- Ask clients for referrals and consider creating a referral program that provides an incentive for sending referrals to your law firm.
- Redesign and update your website to attract the right audience and convert more leads.
- Become a guest on legal podcasts to leverage a show’s audience.
- Run paid ad campaigns on networks like Facebook and Google.
- Understand how marketing funnels work and connect all of the pieces.
Take your legal marketing skills to the next level with our training programs.
