Marketing for Employment Lawyers
To build a sustainable employment law practice, you need a steady flow of quality leads and clients. Whether you just started your firm or have always relied on word of mouth and want to take the next step, you need a comprehensive and clear digital marketing strategy.
To kickstart your marketing efforts, you need to know who you’re marketing to and how you’ll reach them. You’ll then use that information to select your channels and set your budget. Since so much goes into developing and using these strategies, the best employment lawyers work with outside professionals for maximum leverage. Once you find a trusted marketing agency partner with expertise in marketing employment law firms, you’ll be able to focus on serving clients with confidence.
Figure out Who Your Target Audience Is
You can’t develop solid marketing strategies and tactics without knowing who you’re talking to or what is most important to them. This work—defining your target audience—is crucial for making the most of the time and resources you invest into marketing your law firm.
Who Will You Target?
As an employment attorney, you probably already know who makes up the bulk of your best cases. You can narrow it down by kind of legal issue; but you might also have good demographic data on age, location, gender, and more.
Narrowing down your target audiences positions you to deliver a strong message to your ideal new clients.
Employment lawyers may target one to three different personas: employees, employers, and executives.
Each of these groups will need different messaging. The closer you can tailor your messaging to the group(s) you’re focused on, the more likely prospective clients will be to reach out to you.
There are a few questions you should consider to determine how you’ll reach these audiences.
For employees, that includes:
- Are they in need of help because of discrimination, wrongful termination, or other employment law issues?
- What are their biggest fears about hiring a lawyer?
- Which aspects of their legal case are most confusing for them?
- What is most important to them in finding the right employment attorney?
- What details do they need to make a decision about their case?
- What phase of their case are they at right now? Do they need advice, or are they prepared to move forward with legal action?
For employers, that includes:
- What immediate concerns do they have over a pending or potential legal issue?
- How does an employment lawyer fit into the picture with proactive planning and other ways to prevent future suits?
- What is most at stake for them and their company with employment law issues?
- What questions might they have about working with a lawyer?
- What are their biggest challenges?
For executives, that includes:
- What are their concerns about hiring a lawyer?
- Where are they at in their career? Seeking a new position or planning to file a lawsuit against a current or recent employer?
- Do they need advice for the future or immediate help with a legal case?
Answering these questions will help you align what you bring to the table and what is most important for that target client.
When they land on your materials, such as your website or social media channels, those clients are more likely to feel as though you’re speaking directly to them because you put in the time to really understand their needs and questions.
Where Do They Go for Answers to Their Problems?
Learn as much as possible about your target audience when creating your employment law marketing plan.
If you have past clients, this is the perfect opportunity to review how and why they chose to work with you. Knowing where those clients came from is a great starting point, but you might also need to do some research on your own to determine where your potential clients spend time.
If your clients mostly spend time on social media, that requires different marketing efforts than if they mostly go to search engines looking for answers. Use what you find to select your target marketing channels for your employment law firm.
Remember, it’s best to start small and focus on one channel at a time. You can also save a lot of time by working with a team of marketing experts who can help you get maximum traction on each channel.
Employment lawyers might use organic, paid, and/or both kinds of channels.
Organic Channels
Organic channels include search engines, social media, and referral/word of mouth. Investing in organic channels typically costs more time than anything else. Like investing in a 401K, with consistency and time, you begin to gain traction and building up compounding momentum over time.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search engine optimization connects your website to relevant search terms your audience might use to seek help for your services.
This involves using your website to tell search engines what it’s about and building credibility with Google. There are a few key areas to focus on:
- Content Marketing: Create high-quality useful content
- On-page SEO: Optimizing your website’s content in such a way that Google can clearly understand what it’s about.
- Link Building (Off-page SEO): Getting other respected websites to link to your website from theirs. Each time they do, Google views this as a sort of endorsement and begins to trust your site a bit more.
On each page, you should include:
- Relevant, high-quality informative content that answers questions searchers look for
- Relevant primary keywords for that page, such as “Employment Lawyer Austin, TX“
- A meta description, which is a brief description of what content is on that page
- Links to other pages on your website
- Photos with alt tags describing what the pictures display and relevant keywords
Most employment lawyers hire marketing experts to help with strategy and implementation due to the time commitment and complexity of executing law firm SEO services properly.
Local SEO
Local SEO is how you get yourself ranking in the three-pack of map results you see at the top of a regular Google search.
For employment lawyers, this is very important since most of your clients will want a local attorney for their services.
A few different things fit into local SEO, including your law firm’s Google My Business (Google Business Profile) listing and law firm directories.
Where you rank in the map pack is depends on three core factors:
- Relevance: Does your business do or sell what the searcher is looking for?
- Proximity: How close do searcher’s expect your business to be geographically?
- Prominence: How popular and trustworthy is your business?
You should focus on learning how to optimize your law firm’s Google Business Profile and how Local SEO works for lawyers.
Paid Channels
Paid channels for employment attorneys include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google, local service ads, and review sites.
Google Display Ads
Some channels work better than others for employment lawyers. For example, Google Display ads perform poorly and are rarely worth the investment for employment attorneys.
These are the banner ads you see on websites that often ruin the reading experience and get in the way. People are getting better at tuning these out subconsciously (the banner-blindness phenomenon) or actively using ad-blockers to get rid of them altogether.
More importantly, display ads don’t tie very directly to intent. That is, when they show up on pages we have no idea of knowing whether or not that person is currently looking to hire an employment attorney. There are ways to optimize for this via retargeting, but if you’re going to run retargeting ads, you’re far better off doing so on a platform like Facebook and Instagram.
Google Search Ads
Google Search ads, however, allow to bid and show up for specific keywords that you know will capture demand when people are actively searching for a service you provide.
When someone searches for best employment lawyers los angeles, you can reasonably expect that they’re probably in market and interested in retaining one.
It should be noted that while Google Ads can generate a positive ROI, they’re not nearly as profitable in the long-term as more sustainable channels like SEO and content marketing.
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising can be hit or miss for lawyers based on their practice area. Certain lawyers can use Facebook’s demographic and interest categories to narrow down their target audience.
Employment lawyers should focus on pain points their target audience has if they’re going to succeed with advertising. For example, things related to discrimination, wage disputes, harassment, etc.
Google Local Service Ads (Pay-Per-Lead Advertising)
Google Local Service ads are another option to get your law firm’s name in front of your audience. This is known as pay-per-lead advertising, and it works by placing your law firm’s name above other search results, including pay-per-click ads.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising refers to any way of marketing your business in which you’re paying per outcome in terms of conversions, clicks, or views of your ad. PPC ads for lawyers are usually Google Ads or YouTube ads.
These can generate good ROI, but you have to be careful with your budget and keep an eye on your account to monitor spend and results.
There are a lot of factors at play with PPC ads like which keywords you target, how conversion tracking gets set up and attributed, what geographies you target, how your bid strategies are configured, etc. Because of this, most employment lawyers work with outside marketing agencies.
Email Marketing
Email marketing might be a more effective technique for staying in touch with referral partners, but most of your clients won’t want to sign up or stay on a lawyer’s email list.
To make email marketing work, you need an experienced brand marketer and content marketer who can consistently create content people will find valuable.
In most cases, creating great content and distributing it on social channels will be far more effective, so we highly recommend you evaluate other options first before investing in email marketing.
Determine Your Value Proposition, Messaging, and Positioning
Although you probably have plenty of experience as an employment lawyer, you must be prepared to stand out in a crowded marketplace. This comes down to developing your positioning, messaging, and value proposition.
If you’re struggling to figure out what this means, think about what your firm does better than your competitors. Ask past clients about their experiences to use their own words for your story.
For example, take a look at these reviews from our clients:
Our clients want transparency, to dominate the rankings on Google, and to compete against firms with much larger advertising budgets.
We use that sort of feedback from our ideal clients to form our own narrative throughout our marketing.
Transparency
We make it clear on how home page that we’re easy to reach. While we don’t explicitly talk about transparency here, we address the heart of the issue: our clients don’t want to be ghosted or ignored by vendors. We make it clear that won’t happen with us.
Dominating the Rankings on Google
Our clients want to rank on the first page of Google. We make it clear that’s what we deliver and emphasis it by using the same sort of words our own customers do: dominate.
Competitiveness
Our clients want to beat the competition. We make it clear that we are who law firms come to when they need results other firms can’t deliver. Our bold statement is our way of conveying confidence that we can help our clients take on larger firms in their market.
Set a Budget
It can seem overwhelming to read through all of the options for marketing your law firm. It’s also very tempting to take on more than you can reasonably sustain with current resources. To focus on the most important elements instead, set a budget.
Your law firm marketing budget should include payments for ads, costs for outsourcing this to a marketing agency team or freelancer, and any other expenses like graphic design or copywriting.
Build a Modern & Fast Website
Every employment lawyer needs a high-functioning and easy-to-use website. Before you can start marketing in any channel, you need a place you can direct potential clients to. Your website should be simple to navigate and search.
Avoid fonts, colors, or style elements that might seem unique but make it harder for clients to review your website and find what they need.
On your website, use different kinds of content such as text or video, demonstrate results wherever you can, and continue the consistent messaging about what makes your firm unique.
Website Design Basics for Employment Attorneys
Multiple components go into a good website for a law firm. It’s important that each element is considered and applied consistently to capitalize on traffic to the site.
Mobile-First
Many of your clients will seek out your firm from their mobile phones. Make sure that your website loads clearly and quickly on mobile phones. Check it regularly to make sure that errors aren’t hampering performance.
Optimized for Search
Each page on your website should have basic on-page SEO principles in place. Invest in tools that let you know when errors are limiting your SEO results. Examples include SEMRush and Ahrefs. Likewise, working with an SEO agency makes it easier to stay on top of these issues to get them corrected quickly.
Vendors like Rankings.io have an in-depth understanding of what lawyers must do to succeed with SEO.
Live Chat Features
If it makes sense, live chat can work well to indicate when a lead is interested in speaking to someone about a specific question. This allows you to connect with that reader as soon as possible at the moment the client is most in need of help.
The best law firms use tools like live chat to connect with their audience immediately and deliver value early on in the relationship.
Clear Calls to Action
Don’t put all your effort into building and maintaining a website if you don’t also make it clear what you want your reader to do on each page. From filling out a contact form, to clicking to another page, choose a call to action that matches the intention of the page and the reader’s logical next steps.
Trust Signals
Social proof is crucial for any law firm wanting to stand out. Look for ways to build trust on the site through things like media attention or awards however you can. Similarly, look for ways to repurpose reviews received on other platforms.
For example, this employment lawyer has reviews on their home page, which could be made more compelling by adding photos of the real people, since people respond to marketing better when they can see real faces. They might also place the reviews higher up on the page, rather than near the bottom of the home page.
Build Awareness & Generate Demand
Tactic #1 Google Ads
You can use Google Ads to get your brand in front of prospective clients at just the right time—when they have an issue or question and turn to Google for answers.
If they’re searching for answers to their questions or want more information about specific employment issues, you can capture their attention by ranking at the top of Google where they’re more likely to visit your site, learn about how you can help them solve their problem, and contact you for more information. Google Ads require careful strategy and ongoing maintenance to make the most of your budget.
Tactic #2 Content Marketing
A lot of work goes into a good content marketing plan for an employment lawyer. You need to identify the core topics people search for, collect exhaustive keyword research data, figure out how to hierarchy arrange all of that data, create it, publish it, and optimize it into what we call “content hubs.”
The types of content you’ll want to create include:
- Service pages
- Local service pages
- Case results
- Blog articles
Service Pages
Service pages describe the kinds of legal issues your clients face and how you help them address those concerns. Similar to the example above, you will want to create pages for specific topics like wage and hour issues, sexual harassment, retaliation, whistleblower claims, FMLA, wrongful termination, discrimination, etc.
Local Service Pages
Local service pages are used to explain the services you provide and the areas in which you help clients. This is especially important if you’re a multi-location firm and want to rank in different cities and zip codes.
Testimonials/Case Results
Testimonials and case results work well on websites because you’re allowing someone else’s story to talk about the power of the work you do. Repurpose testimonials from Google My Business or other platforms and make sure these can be found throughout your website.
Blog Posts
Your blog should be thought of as a resource center or library rather than a publication. A publication is based on a strategy of posting content in a timely fashion for news purposes, but a library helps you build out a resource hub over time. Of course, you’ll add content to your blog on a regular basis, but it’s less important to stick to a specific schedule than it is with a publication.
Tactic #3 Google My Business Reviews
One of the most important ways for potential employment law clients to learn about you and reach out is through the social proof from past clients. Your Google My Business profile is the most important review location to target because it can figure into your overall website ranking for local keywords.
Showcasing that past clients have had a positive experience is important for standing out from your competitors. Given the choice between a law firm with five reviews and one with dozens, most clients will look for someone who has a consistent track record from continuous feedback from happy clients.
Not every client of yours will want to leave a review, so use your discretion in making the ask. Make it simple for a client to provide you with honest feedback.
Using templated emails reduces your time spent reaching out to your client. Explain why it’s important in the context of helping others with difficult employment legal issues to make a decision about which lawyer to hire.
Focus on adding as many reviews every month as you can by building out a system that you can run like clockwork.
Be prepared to respond to all reviews, regardless of whether they’re positive or negative. Think of reviews as content. When you respond to reviews you show people that you’re a brand that’s in touch with the public.
Keep things professional when you respond to negative reviews. Never attack the reviewer. Show empathy and state how you intend on righting a wrong. Doing this may not win over the disgruntled client, but it will help build confidence and trust with anyone else who reads those reviews later when they’re looking for a firm to hire.
Tactic #4 Link Building
Study by AhrefsLink building is the process of getting other websites to add links from their website to yours. As more unique websites link to yours (we call these referring domains), Google will begin to trust you more and reward you with more traffic.
Lawyers should always have links pointing to their own site from legal directories and social media profiles for the firm.
Additionally, employment lawyers should also look for other ways to get more backlinks to their site after making those initial connections. Explore and use as many effective lawyer link building tactics as possible.
Tactic #5 Posting on Social Media
Posting on social media is good for showing that you’re still actively involved in your practice area. A lot of firms will post links to their blogs and other articles on social.
This is not best practice.
Social media platforms don’t want people to leave and go to your site, they want them to stay there and keep scrolling. When you post links to external content, their algorithms suppress your reach and make it a waste of time.
Instead, write up and post the information you want to share so it can be consumed directly through the feed.
Capture Leads Through the Channel You Selected
Once you know who you’re marketing to and how you’ll reach them, your focus shifts to capturing leads from the channel you selected. All the tactics discussed above are how you get traffic to your website, but you need to capture that traffic and turn it into leads for your law firm.
For example, if you have a local service page on a specific kind of case, track visits to the page and develop a way to follow up with someone who visits that page or submits a contact form.
For people who visit your site but don’t covert by retargeting them on social media to stay top of mind. If someone has submitted a contact form, you want to have a system in place to follow up with them via phone or email as fast as possible before they reach out to another firm seeking representation.
The goal is to build trust when they see your site, but also to lay the groundwork that your firm is the right one to hire based on their legal issue.
Measure Results and Make Adjustments
Use data and projections to make decisions about what marketing efforts to prioritize first. But know that your marketing tactics might change based on actual results.
Adjust your campaigns s you get more data about what’s performing well. If something is not working at all, consider redirecting that campaign entirely. If you’re working with external vendors, learn how to hold them accountable to results.
Finding a Partner for Employment Law Marketing Services
Your time is valuable. Your focus should be on running your business and growing your bottom line, not marketing and selling. Navigating the intricacies of Google isn’t something you want to trust to just anyone.
You need a partner who knows the legal landscape and can get you the results you need to hit your goals.
Rankings.io is the experienced, knowledgeable digital marketing partner you need with the track record and background to help you generate more high-quality cases for your law firm.
Contact us today to learn how we can help your firm grow faster and dominate your market.
