Legal marketing is a field unto itself, but when your practice is focused on one of the more popular sectors—personal injury law, medical malpractice, or bankruptcy, for example—it can be especially hard to distinguish yourself from the competition. So, what can you do to stand out from the crowd? Particularly when marketing your law firm online, taking a few key steps can help define your firm for potential clients and gain you high search engine rankings so that you can grab their attention.
Know Your Competition
The first step to successfully marketing your law firm’s services is to know who you’re competing against in your efforts to attract clients, but many firms approach this incorrectly. Instead of narrowly defining competition as those local firms who practice in the same area, too many groups mistakenly use a broader framing. Ultimately, all you really need to know is who in your area is practicing in that niche, as well as the outlook for your practice area in the coming months and years. Especially as a new firm, you don’t want to enter an oversaturated sector or one that’s beginning to decline.
Offer Added Value
Once you begin evaluating your local competition, you’ll likely notice that your potential clients have a lot of choices, and so it’s important that your offerings go above and beyond what other firms provide. That can take a number of forms depending on your niche, size, and other factors, but one simple and accessible way you can do this is by ensuring your firm’s website is packed with relevant information delivered in layman’s terms.
What does this look like in practice? One Connecticut DUI lawyer outlines the relevant laws, how DUI cases are investigated, and the firm’s strengths and background all in one place to simplify matters for their clients. Other firms offer free and flexible video consultations or boast supplemental services, like adding an annual review to estate planning services, which can attract clients since it also saves them money.
Solicit Reviews
Your online presence plays an important role in promoting your firm, but when it comes to high-stakes services like legal support, nothing is as important as word-of-mouth marketing and real clients’ experiences. That’s why it’s critical that you solicit reviews from satisfied clients and share them on your site. It’s important that these are authentic and written in your clients’ own distinctive language, because many sites are packed with generic positive reviews, and savvy clients can spot a fake a mile away. In fact, it’s better to have fewer real reviews than to take the risk of faking them.
It Takes Time
Perhaps the hardest thing about trying to boost your niche law firm’s profile, at least at first, is that it takes patience and persistence to be successful, along with the willingness to make adjustments to stay competitive. After all, SEO is a long game and your competitors are also likely tweaking their strategies to stay ahead. It will take a combination of top quality service, time, and strategic changes to boost your rankings and build your client profile, but however you choose to approach it, every firm has to start somewhere.
About the Author
Jenna Cyprus is a writer from Renton, WA who is particularly interested in business and legal matters. Follow her on Twitter @JennaCyprus.
