When it comes to choosing the best marketing tools for your law firm, you have many options. It can be bewildering to decide which ones to use and which to put on the back burner.
Some of these tools are table stakes. These include things like your law firm website or listings in legal directories, or other online business listings for law firms. Others are optional but could fit into the right attorney marketing plan. This includes tools like a podcast or YouTube channel.
If you're looking for the right tools to further your law firm marketing strategy, this list is for you. Here are the eight most valuable law firm marketing tools to consider as you ramp up your efforts.
1. A CRM
Your customer relationship management tool keeps track of all your inbound leads and marketing efforts for new and existing clients. This is a powerful software tool that can help keep your firm organized and on track.
There are three big benefits of a CRM outside of the general advantage of being organized:
- Tracking your leads and following up
- Breaking your contact lists into smaller segments
- Keeping in touch with referral partners regularly
Tracking your leads and following up with them in a timely and personalized manner is key. You can ensure that potential clients don't slip through the cracks by looking at analytics in your CRM and setting up automations or reminders.
One of the best things about a CRM for a law firm is the ability to break up your contact lists into smaller segments.
With a CRM, you can tell the difference between someone who signed up for a newsletter and people who completed a form on your website. You can use info from your CRM for more targeted outreach to prospective clients.
Finally, you can keep your current and possible referral partners in one place with a CRM. You can look at metrics for the last time you reached out, headlines that worked well to get them to open emails, and how much business they drove your way.
There are several CRM options, such as LawMatics and LawRuler, but HubSpot is an excellent choice for most lawyers. HubSpot is relatively easy to use but holds an edge over other tools.
That’s because it can also support marketing automation needs for a law firm. This makes it easier to send emails and monitor those communications' performance in one place.
2. Your Website
You have three options to get your brand in front of potential clients: owned, earned, and paid media. Owned media refers to things you create and control. Earned media is things like organic page rankings on Google. Paid media comes from placements like ads.
Your website is your most important piece of owned media. But it’s more than that. It’s also a platform that can get you plenty of earned media attention. That’s because the content you put on your website can compete and rank on the world’s largest search engine.
People use websites every day to conduct research and inform their decisions. The majority of these people use Google search to find these sites. When they land on your site, you have only 50 milliseconds before they form an opinion about your company.
That means a standout law firm website is one you've optimized for both search engines and people. This ensures that people can find your site, and when they do, they form a positive impression of your brand.
Search engine optimization and building your website for people are two important tactics to get the most from this tool.
SEO for lawyers involves a few important disciplines. Technical and on-page optimizations make sure Google indexes your site and presents it to searchers. Practices like keyword research help you find the things your clients search for. Blogging lets lawyers create content that answers their clients' most important questions.
Optimizing a law firm website for people involves putting yourself in your target audience's shoes. This requires thinking about things like client-first copy and great web design.
The best attorney websites are easy to use, load quickly, and share helpful information. They also leverage compelling offers and social proof like testimonials.
3. Social Media Accounts
Social media is a valuable tool for attorneys who know how to use it correctly. This means targeting your audience on the right platforms and creating consistent content.
Lawyers might consider social media channels like:
Choosing which platform to focus on depends on where your clients spend time online. If your ideal client doesn’t spend time on Twitter, that may not be the best place for you.
Succeeding on social depends on creating interesting content that is a value add for potential clients. The demographics of your typical client may point you in a certain direction here. You can match what they engage with to your personal style.
TikTok and Instagram may be the way to go if you're targeting a younger demographic. For more professional audiences, you might use LinkedIn instead.
Marketing automation tools like Agorapulse, MeetEdgar, Content Studio, and Hootsuite make it easy to schedule social media ahead of time. They also deliver analytics so you can tell which posts performed the best.
4. Legal Directories
It's a no-brainer to list your law firm and its practice areas on legal directories. It's simple, helpful for SEO, and ensures that correct information like your location and phone number are readily available across the web.
These directories build citations for Google and market directly to people who come to legal directories looking to hire a lawyer. Set aside some initial time to get set up on these directories and reminders to check in twice a year to update any out-of-date material.
5. Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business)
Your Google Business Profile may be one of the first things potential clients see when you have good local SEO for your firm.
With a Google Business profile, your firm listing could appear on Google Maps. Google triggers this when people search for local service terms like lawyer near me or car accident lawyer houston.
Your GBP shows your location, hours, contact information, and average review from previous clients. As a result, your Google Business Profile is critical for attorneys hyper-targeting potential clients in a local area.
Keeping firm info up to date, adding new photos to your profile, and garnering more client reviews regularly will all help boost your online presence.
6. Podcasts
In certain cases, podcasts can help you market your legal services to new clients, potential referral partners, or even future staff members. A podcast adds a human element to your marketing by allowing your listeners to get to know you at a deeper level than what's possible in a short ad or social media post.
A podcast is also a solid foundation for other marketing in your firm. By putting your efforts into creating one excellent 20-30 minute podcast episode that you can repurpose into audio clips, social media posts, and even ideas for a law firm email newsletter.
Starting a legal podcast is not right for everyone and can be very time-consuming. Verify you know what to expect upfront and have a good reason to believe this can reach your target audience.
7. Video Platforms
If you love creating videos and connecting with others through forums like public speaking, video platforms are another channel to explore for marketing your law firm. YouTube is part of Google, which means that the video platform is also a search engine in and of itself. By creating content for YouTube, you can get in front of your audience with content that introduces who you are and how you practice law to an audience.
The best content for YouTube lawyers to create breaks down complex legal topics, discusses current events with a legal spin, or helps people get an answer to a question.
8. Paid Advertising
As a law firm taking your time to build up your SEO, paid ads are one way to generate some interest in your legal services quickly. There are three main kinds of paid ads: pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, and display ads.
Each has pros and cons in terms of its relevance and outcome for lawyers.
Pay-per-click ads on Google require you to place a bid for your law firm's ad to appear for keyword phrases. These results appear above organic search engine rankings. While they can put you in front of your ideal client, they can also get expensive and require a lot of time to set up and manage.
Social media PPC ads function similarly by putting your ad in front of a defined audience on places like Facebook or Instagram.
A pay-per-lead ad is exactly what you'd expect. You commit to paying for every lead your law firm receives from the chosen service. On Google, pay-per-lead ads are known as local services ads.
Display ads track when someone visits your website and then show ads to that person as they move around the web. Display ads are usually the least effective option for lawyers.
If you place a display ad in the right place, like a local website, you may get top of funnel attention that makes your firm name more memorable in the viewer's mind.
Other Sales and Marketing Tools
You're not limited to the tools listed above in marketing your law firm. Many options exist that don't quite make the list of best tools because they depend on your situation and use case.
For example, some marketing tools depend on the legal services you offer, how you want to market your firm, and the visibility of the tool itself. A tool should be something that makes your job easier or faster and is also accessible for any staff member who needs to interact with it.
Some other examples of marketing tools to explore include:
Getting the Most Out of Your Marketing Tools
Some of the tools mentioned above are must-haves, like a good website and Google Business Profile. Others are optional and depend on your marketing plan or audience, such as a podcast or various social media channels.
When you pick the right suite of tools, you're on your way to marketing your law firm successfully. But they won’t solve scaling your marketing efforts on their own.
Many lawyers already wear too many hats and find themselves overwhelmed with marketing tasks. You can focus more on winning cases and less on optimizing your marketing by hiring a team of experts in law firm marketing.
A legal marketing expert knows how to get the most out of these tools for you and will understand the nuances in the legal industry that a generalist glosses over.
If you need help picking which channels are most likely to yield new leads for your law firm, partner with a team like Rankings.io. Our years of experience in the legal field mean we know what works. We understand how hard it can be to implement a consistent marketing strategy, but you will feel confident with our guidance and suggestions.
Contact us today for a consultation to see how we can help grow your firm with the right marketing tools.
