The average small business spends at least 20 hours of staff time every week on marketing tasks. That's extremely time-consuming and overwhelming, especially for a lawyer. You can refocus that lost time to serve clients using a range of tools that speed up marketing execution.
Marketing automation tools can relieve lawyers’ workloads by handling things like administrative tasks. They can help you keep track of leads and clients. They can also help you get a better look at your marketing performance.
Marketing automation uses software, workflows, and tools to streamline your marketing tasks. These automations can save time and ensure greater consistency in your marketing efforts.
Many of these tools can handle important tasks like social media scheduling, email marketing, follow-ups, live chat, analytics, and more. Some tools only do one of these things, whereas others will handle many at once. Here are some of the best tools for attorneys.
1. HubSpot
HubSpot is the industry leader in marketing automation. It's relatively user-friendly and can manage a lot of tasks for you. This is why it's a very popular choice for law firm owners.
At its core, HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. It also has the capability to handle email automation and social media scheduling. It's a holistic tool that supports many functions of the business side of your law firm.
For example, you can tie Hubspot to your contact form on your website. Clients and potential clients can book time with you based on the parameters you set in the app.
You don't need the highest tier plan with HubSpot to enjoy the most important features. But you may want to upgrade your subscription depending on your needs.
Automations on the free plan are limited. The HubSpot Starter plan is usually sufficient for most of your needs as a law firm owner.
2. Marketo
Marketo is similar to HubSpot in that it offers a lot of features bigger law firms might enjoy. If you have a substantial database, Marketo may be valuable to you. But the most common complaints about it are that the user interface is hard to use and may appear dated.
Marketo is driven more by marketing intelligence than other tools. It may not be a good for smaller or solo law firm marketing that just don't have enough data to leverage the tool's analytics.
Other features you might want to check out here include:
- Budgeting
- Marketing calendar
- Personalized messages
3. LawRuler
If you're looking for something with the power of HubSpot but aligned with the legal industry, check out LawRuler.
LawRuler makes it easy to capture and use data points from your contacts. LawRuler's features include automated calling, texting, and email drip campaigns. You can also create your own custom workflows to remove steps from your typical marketing process.
With your workflows in place, you'll be able to quickly see where any given contact sits in your prospecting pipeline.
Other features available through this tool include:
- Revenue tracking
- Client intake
- Document management
- Scheduling/follow up
If you're already using law practice management software for things like client intake or document management, LawRuler may not have enough benefits to justify adding it to your suite of tools.
4. Constant Contact
If you use a law firm email newsletter to keep in touch with any clients or referral partners, Constant Contact is a great tool to use.
You can add your graphics and branding to an email template and simply send out these newsletters each time. You can set up automations to capture new subscribers from your website or import subscribers from another tool or spreadsheet.
Constant Contact isn't the only email marketing automation software out there. You can also look into others like MailChimp or ConvertKit. If you're using something like HubSpot, your email marketing may be included in that suite, so you don't need to pay separately for it.
5. Automizy
Using law firm email marketing to connect with your followers, colleagues, and partners? Automizey helps you boost your open rates so more people see these important messages from you.
The platform is priced based on the number of active subscribers you've got, and it starts at an affordable rate. You can use segmented A/B testing to see what resonates best in your email marketing. A subject line tester ensures that each message you send has the best chance of performing well.
6. HootSuite
This marketing automation software focuses entirely on social media. It's straightforward to add your social media channels and schedule content across multiple platforms at once.
You can also view analytics on your highest-performing posts and the best times of day for engagement on your shares.
If you batch work and create a lot of social media content at once or work with an outsourced social media manager, HootSuite keeps things simple and provides one place for you to see and manage everything with your law firm’s social media marketing.
7. CoSchedule
Another option for social media planning is Coschedule. You can also connect Coschedule to your WordPress website to make uploading blog posts a breeze.
You'll also get analytics for how well things are performing and a one-stop calendar that shows all your social and blog posts coming up.
There are some additional project management-type tools inside Coschedule's planner, too. You can assign marketing tasks to people so everyone's on the same page. That doesn’t make this tool a complete law firm project management tool replacement, but it can be helpful.
8. Keap
If you don't need all the bells and whistles of Marketo or HubSpot but want to nurture leads through a process for your small law firm, check out Keap.
Prebuilt templates make it simple to use landing pages and emails to track your customer journey to know when to reach out with a personalized message to move someone to the next level of the law firm marketing funnel.
9. AdRoll
If you actively run multiple ads on display, social, and elsewhere, AdRoll combines all that into one location. You can even retarget people who have engaged with your content before. This can help you increase name recognition and connect again with people who need a nudge down your PPC funnel.
10. ManyChat
ManyChat is an excellent marketing automation tool if you use Facebook ads or quizzes to engage potential clients.
ManyChat enables you to write custom messages that are delivered directly to Facebook Messenger. This can be as simple as a series of follow-up messages prompting someone to book a call or as advanced as delivering specific information depending on the quiz result someone receives.
With ManyChat, set up your own messages to be delivered to a prospect any time of day, including custom follow-up based on their answers.
Choosing the Right Marketing Automation Tool
With so many tools available, it’s hard to nail down the right one for your firm. Here’s a framework for picking one:
- How much time do you expect the tool will save you each day, week, or month?
- Who else on your team needs access to the tool?
- Which features are essential, and which ones are just nice to have?
- What fits into your budget?
- Does the software integrate with any of your existing tools?
- What customer support is available if you encounter problems?
Once you know what you really need, you can select a tool that maximizes your investment. Choose something you like to use and that any other staff members who will need it can learn quickly.
Is Marketing Automation Software Worth it for Lawyers?
Some marketing automation features are beneficial for lawyers. Almost all lawyers can benefit from a basic CRM and the data it provides. Unless you use specific marketing tactics, like email marketing, a free tool may be your best bet.
You can save time with these tools, but they don't cover all your marketing needs. Sometimes, these tools only start to pay off after you've invested significant time learning how to use them.
Most busy lawyers don't have time to take care of end-to-end law firm marketing. A law firm marketing expert can help you choose, set up, and use marketing automation tools. This can ensure you start saving time and seeing results as quickly as possible.
If you want to scale up your marketing efforts, contact Rankings.io. We can help you decide where and how these tools fit into your attorney marketing plan.
