Generating leads and potential new clients for a law firm is a vital part of drumming up new business. As law firms have moved online along with almost every other industry, the need to generate leads has become more important.
When getting strong leads, it makes it much easier for a law firm to keep busy enough to service each client well without having to worry about where the next client is coming from after exhausting all potential past client referrals.
Here are seven lead generation tips that work for lawyers.
1. Use Their Own Blog
Useful, informative content that provides answers to searchers’ questions is a great entryway into finding new potential clients. For instance, when having an auto accident or getting into a dispute about land borders with a neighbor, it’s only natural to use Google to find relevant information. Whilst a law firm cannot, obviously, provide specific information for that visitor’s case, there are still many helpful guidelines or pointers that could be included in a blog post.
By providing information that demonstrates knowledge but also showing that the firm can drop the “lawyer-speak,” potential clients are likely to feel more comfortable about getting in touch. A little personality goes a long way.
2. Use a Lead Provider
A lead provider works to build the contacts to get new potential leads. Some will specialize in a particular industry whereas others are generalists that procure client leads across a number of industries.
When a law firm wants more cases, they can locate more here. Each firm has to weigh up the value of paying for leads vs what they will make from the case if they get hired. That’s an objective thing which depends on the resources they’ll need to deploy to take on and manage a successful case to its eventual conclusion.
3. Use Google for Organic Traffic
When working with a search engine optimization agency, it’s possible to develop a strategy to rank better in Google for relevant search terms.
While many search terms for lawyers are highly competitive, that’s not the case with every type of keyword. Ranking well on the first page of results for relevant terms that receive fewer monthly searches can still prove to be a goldmine. It takes perseverance and is not as fast as buying leads where a new client can be obtained within hours or days.
While it’s possible to pursue an SEO strategy in-house, most law firms are best advised to outsource the tasks to a specialist SEO agency. They have the staff and experience to know the right actions to take to elicit the appropriate response. Ranking takes time and bounces around – it’s not a fixed thing – but other than the cost of the agency’s bill, it’s free traffic some of which can be converted into paying clients.
4. Use Visibility to Get an Advantage
While there are restrictions about how much a law firm can be self-promotional in the US, it’s still possible to get the brand out there. What a law firm wants is for people to think of the name of their firm when a certain type of case arises.
Whether operating at a local or national level, each law firm must do what they can to get the brand into the local press. For instance, being a contact via Help a Reporter Out (HARO) where reporters rely on experts in different fields lets the firm provide useful legal commentary. This often leads to the law firm being quoted in a newspaper publication the next day and online the same day.
Getting on a podcast is another way to provide talking points on a particular issue. This might be a legal podcast or one with a discussion about car accidents that require legal representation. A lawyer’s perspective on these issues would certainly interest the audience.
5. Use Social Proof for Added Persuasion
Social proof is a powerful thing. People want to be convinced that the law firm can handle complicated cases or the type that the client believes they have. That might be a criminal case or some conveyancing or negotiating a divorce settlement.
The type of proof that’s appropriate takes different forms. Testimonials are powerful. They can still maintain the confidentiality for the client about the specifics of their case whilst still being convincing, nonetheless.
Also use the profile pages about the lawyers to delve into their expertise, training, and other relevant experience. If they have trial experience on certain types of cases, this is worth mentioning and can be persuasive. Their years of working on certain types of cases is also relevant too.
6. Use Call-to-Actions on Your Website
Call-to-Actions are attention-grabbing buttons and other things that get visitors to pay attention. Whilst the reader might be interested or just curious and read through parts of the law firm’s site, they may not pull the trigger unless prompted.
Potential clients need an added incentive to take the extra step to hire an attorney. Many have never hired one before and aren’t sure of their footing. By using powerful Call-to-Actions on the site, it makes it very simple for them to get in touch and begin the process of explaining why they need assistance from a qualified lawyer.
7. Use Email Marketing
While signing up a potential client to an email list is one way to go with email marketing, a different approach is to pay to access other email newsletters. Plenty of email newsletters exist with tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers who receive a weekly email that includes a few ads here and there.
Some emails newsletters will be legal in nature, but others are in related industries. Therefore, it’s possible to advertise on a truckers’ email list about representation for accidents that happen when driving a truck. Get creative!
A law firm can either directly pay to advertise in the email newsletter or they can pay based on how many times the email is opened. For the latter, the owner of the email newsletter will confirm a price based on how many ‘solo ads’ are opened. Software enables them to only include the advert on a specific percentage of their email list if it’s too large and only so many advert placements are required.
A law firm must use a multi-faceted approach to get leads. They will come through different avenues. But as long as they are received and enough convert into new clients, that’s all that really matters.
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