The Legal Marketing Center Blog

Lawyer Marketing - isn’t that an oxymoron? What does that mean, anyway? Lawyer marketing is nothing more than finding ways to tell other people, either potential clients or potential referral sources, about you and your law practice so that someday either they, or someone they know, will need your legal expertise.

Here are five simple things that you can do NOW to help in your legal marketing efforts:

1. Search Engine Optimization - As a small firm practitioner, if you are looking to compete with the big boys, you MUST have an efffective Search Engine Optimization strategy in place to help move your professional looking website to the top of the free listings for search terms related to your practice.  Otherwise, all you have is a (presumably) nice looking website that no one can find.

2. Build a Referral Marketing Strategy - The second thing that attorneys must do when marketing law firms is to develop and implement a successful referral marketing starategy.  This doesn’t just mean to sit down and think about what referral sources are better then  others and then ask them for referrals, but rather it means that you must develop a systematized approach to developing referrals from others, and work on cultivating your own referral sources.

3. Get to know your clients - My law firms motto is, “Building Relationships, one client at a time.”  My goal with each and every client is to build a lasting and memorable experience for all of my clients.  When the clients understand and truly believe that you care about them, they will be easier to work with and will refer you additional business.

4. Become an Expert in Your Niche Practice Area - I’ve said this before, and I will say it again - one of the best ways to build credibility for yourself and start marketing a law firm is to become an expert in your niche practice area.  Write a book, write articles, speak on your subject area, start a blog - basically do whatever it takes to let other people know that you are the only choice when they need someone who does what you do.

5. Look at your law firm from your client’s eyes - Take a day and look at your operations from the perspective of your client.  Sit in the waiting room.  Call into the office and see how the receptionist answers the phone.  Look at what your office looks like, and ask yourself if there are ways you can make your client’s experience even better.  Think about this when you go to other offices also - see if there are things that you see other professionals doing that you could borrow for your own practice.

These are just some quick ideas of different ways that you can work on your lawyer marketing.  Legal Marketing is a process that takes time, and as long as you are doing something each and everyday to further your practice, you are on the right path towards effectively marketing your law practice.