There are over 17,000 immigration lawyers in the United States, which is expected to grow in the coming years. With more than 3 million pending immigration cases, the system faces a major backlog, and this is also a great opportunity for immigration attorneys to grow their brand awareness and firm's online presence to earn cases.
To earn new clients and a good reputation in the immigration law practice area, you need a robust and consistent marketing strategy. Your immigration law firm marketing plan encompasses multiple aspects of how you get the word out there about what you do and the ways in which you connect with potential clients.
Here are all of the elements to consider as you market an immigration law firm.
Immigration Lawyer Web Design
It's 2024, and it's no longer optional to have a website. In fact, you need a strong website that's built for ease of use by your target clients and one that goes beyond the basics. To excel with immigration law firm website design, you need to hire a designer who knows the best ways to help your site perform well and look great across all browsers and on mobile.
Your website should include mentions of multilingual services, highlight testimonials, case studies, and reviews from past clients, and use a clear design.
Explain Multilingual Services
Both on your website and elsewhere, capitalize on multilingual service offerings. This is a big deal in immigration law when your clients or their close family members may not speak English well or prefer to communicate in another language.
Not only does this make you an obvious choice if they have a case in the U.S. immigration system where they need someone to explain what's happening at each phase and to communicate their concerns clearly, but it also puts people at ease and shows that you have a significant commitment to helping your ideal clients. Display this information on your website in multiple places, such as the homepage, about page, and service pages.
Testimonials and Reviews
It's true that Google reviews and Facebook reviews also count, but it's valuable to capture feedback from clients and post it on your website, too. This strengthens the context of your overall site by leveraging social proof and the other positive experiences clients have had after hiring you.
Over 90% of people look at reviews before deciding whether to work with someone, so this is your chance to earn trust quickly and increase the chances that someone hires you right away. When someone's got a pending immigration case, they're putting their future in your hands. The more you can show the ways in which you've helped other people, the more likely they are to reach out for a free consultation.
Clean/Responsive Web Design
You have a limited window to make a connection with a viewer on your website. The last thing you want is someone confused, overwhelmed, or unable to navigate your page. They'll hit the "back" button and pick another firm right away, and you'll never be able to reclaim that opportunity.
Put your best foot forward with every aspect of your immigration lawyer website. Hire a professional to help you with web design. The target demographic for your immigration firm may not be extremely tech-savvy, so ease of navigation is critical.
Good website design should:
- Clearly portray your law firm's unique value proposition in your brand colors and fonts
- Load quickly and easily for a viewer
- Be easy to navigate around the page simply
- Make you look professional
- Appear easy to read
Marketing Channels for an Immigration Law Firm
Now that you know what belongs on your law firm website think of it as the central hub for all your digital marketing. It's where you'll drive traffic from search engines, social media, and any paid ads. With your law firm website launched, you now should look at other ways to capture potential client interest.
These places where you showcase your firm and connect with clients are known as marketing channels. It can be challenging to start your firm with multiple active channels, so you may need to scale up over time if you're not working with a marketing expert.
As an immigration attorney, you'll want to prioritize some marketing channels over others. Here are the options to consider as you do that.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about how you put that beautiful new website to use. By targeting keywords, phrases, and questions commonly asked by your clients, you establish your website as an authority in your practice area. A law firm SEO strategy is essential for making your mark on the web.
As you do this, Google and other search engines give more trust to your website, ranking it on the first pages of their search results. For example, you might conduct keyword research to determine what questions clients have about a range of immigration issues like visas.
Together, organic SEO and local SEO make up the majority of all website traffic. While you don't pay to have your website show up in the search results, you can invest in the long-term strategy of ranking for valuable keywords. When that happens, searchers click on your site and decide whether to reach out to you about working together.
Local SEO
Local SEO builds on your organic SEO work. It helps send further signals to search engines that highlight your firm's name, practice area, hours, and other critical details. This can include things like appearing in local business directories and earning legal citations for your firm. Additionally, you can really earn more new business in your firm by creating a solid presence on your Google Business Profile since this influences when and how your firm shows up in map results for certain keywords.
Ranking factors to show up well in local SEO through Google Business Profile include relevance (what your firm does), prominence (partly based on reviews), and distance.
Google PPC Ads
Organic and local SEO is a long game that can snowball into more new cases, but you might also lean heavily on Google pay-per-click ads whether you're just starting out or looking to bring in new clients right away. When done properly, these marketing campaigns can get big results.
Google ads target keywords in a manner similar to your organic SEO strategy but are more focused on conversion-ready keywords. PPC ads show up above organic search engine results page listings, so you can get the attention of new clients quickly. You pay every time someone clicks on one of those ads, which usually goes to a landing page on your website.
PPC ads for lawyers are extremely competitive, which is why most attorneys set a budget but then work with an outside ad expert to set up and manage the ads.
Social Media Marketing
Every law firm needs a presence on social media channels. Depending on who you serve and what you do, this may vary. For example, immigration lawyers may want to present more video-based content so they can highlight their multilingual abilities and personality in an approachable way. The demographics of your current law firm clients may lead you to show up more consistently on certain platforms like TikTok or Instagram.
To know what's going to work with your clients, do some market research first so you feel confident about the time and energy you put into learning a platform and its algorithms. Social media marketing includes both organic social media content posting and paid ads, should you choose to use them.
Traditional Marketing
To complement your online marketing strategies, continue to use or invest in traditional marketing options. These can be effective and increase the chances that a prospective client builds name recognition with your firm over time, too.
Traditional legal marketing options might include:
- Billboards
- Radio ads
- Community sponsorships
- Referral partnerships
- Live events/workshops
- Writing articles in trade publications
Marketing KPIs to Track
Marketing must be tracked in order to see what's working and to confirm you're getting new clients. The numbers don't lie, and this allows you to be realistic when determining what results you may see from your marketing efforts.
Common KPIs to monitor include:
- Website Traffic
- Number of new high-quality clients signed
- Conversion rates
- Paid ads cost vs. new income generated
- New leads brought in from marketing efforts
Should You Do It Yourself?
One of the hardest challenges for most busy immigration law firms is that a lawyer's time is best spent serving clients, not necessarily running all the marketing. To get the most out of your marketing, you might find a marketing agency or marketing specialist to handle the development and execution of your strategy. Especially when it comes to content marketing, you want someone who knows how to do this well.
The risk of losing money is much lower when you hire an expert to help, but you also get the peace of mind that some marketing professionals really know the legal landscape well. This means you can focus on serving clients.
Get Marketing Help Now
Ready to revamp your existing marketing plan or get advice on creating your very first one? Contact our marketing experts at Rankings.io to go to the next level with your marketing strategy. We have years of experience helping immigration lawyers create a comprehensive and effective marketing plan.