How to Find a Good Law Firm Marketing Company

Legal marketing is something of a niche, in that not everyone needs it — and not everyone knows how to do it.

For effective marketing in any niche, a shotgun approach doesn’t really cut it. It’s much more effective (not to mention easier on your budget) to appeal directly to your audience.

Hiring a law firm isn’t always the most stress-free experience. How marketing is handled and whether it appeals to an audience can ultimately make or break a firm’s offerings.

With so much weight and responsibility in this task, how can you find the right legal marketing team to help your firm to grow?

Here are some key areas to look for.

Know Your Audience

Depending on the type of legal proceedings your firm handles, your audience may vary widely. A firm that specializes in drawing up wills and trusts will market to a different audience than one that primarily handles criminal law.

Before you can expect your marketing team to market effectively, it’s important to have your target audience clearly outlined. Know who you are marketing to and communicate that to your potential marketing hires.

This isn’t always the case, but if you’re a locally based law firm, consider hiring within your area. Local marketers may have a more realistic view of your audience than marketing teams from out of the area, and the local touch can give them insight into the right approach to take.

Assess Experience

Before you hire a legal marketing team, it’s vital to make sure that you’re on the same page. Not only does your team need to know the specifics of your brand and the area your firm specializes in, they also need to understand what motivates you and what values your firm is built on.

When you and your firm look at the horizon, you should see the same one.

To give your company more chances of success, take time to analyze and assess the experience of the marketing team. Look at their past projects. Assess individual areas such as the creation of marketing funnels and public relations. Have they worked with law firms that are similar to yours? Do they display understanding of your niche and focus?

Just like you would expect a resume from any other potential hire, marketing teams should provide portfolios and proof of what they’ve done in the past. Make sure to only pursue a relationship with a team whose work harmonizes with the goals and values of your firm. Going too far off-track can result in wasted time — and a wasted budget.

Branding

Branding and marketing go hand in hand. Good branding is, in effect, good marketing: it makes a lasting impression and can inspire the consumer to seek out your services.

Branding covers everything from your visuals to your customer service. You may have some branding visuals already in place before you hire a marketing team. On the other hand, an excellent team should have valuable insights to create the most effective law firm logo, website design, and other branded materials that can be leveraged through all marketing.

Good branding is harmonious and balanced, presenting a cohesive personality to the onlooker. This is part of why it’s a smart choice to vet your marketing team carefully so you can stick with them for the duration — using the same team on a regular basis will cut down on the “off-brand” or “off-message” marketing that might ensue if you switch teams up frequently.

Website Design, SEO, And Analytics

Now more than ever before, an effective and well-branded website is vital for a business. And the statistics for law firms bear that out — almost 100% of individuals looking for legal advice start their search online.

That may not translate immediately to hiring your firm, but it certainly should encourage your firm to establish their position, create content that answers common questions, and become known as an expert in the field.

But no busy lawyer has the time to handle all of that on their own! Any good legal marketing team should have a thorough understanding of how to leverage the need vs. supply in online content, as well as an effective content management system to keep your site at the top of the search page. SEO, Google Analytics, the overall UX — it can get complicated, which is why it’s so important that you choose your team carefully.

Site design, content, and analytics may not be directly assigned to your marketing team. If that is the case, it’s wise to ask your site management and your marketing team to work together to leverage all the information that is gathered from the site.

Blogging

Running a company blog is an excellent way to make the most of your space. Not only does it allow for more SEO opportunities, but it also helps you to stay on top of trends by addressing popular searches, answering common questions, and reacting to current events.

One of the main reasons why a law firm should add blogging to its legal marketing checklist is the all-important goal of becoming established as an authority in the field. If you can provide useful content to potential clients, they’re more likely to seek you out when it comes time to hire a professional.

Posts with a pithy quote or two also lend themselves to more shares, further boosting your marketing efforts by letting your followers participate in spreading the word.

Of course, the average blogger takes about four hours to craft a successful post, which means that individual lawyers or even law firms as a whole must outsource their content, at least to some degree.

An excellent legal marketing team should be able to walk the line between content that is informed and professional, and content that is accessible to the layman. The team should also schedule content to be posted regularly in order to boost searchability, and craft longer form content to make the most of each post. Statistics show that 2000–3000-word posts get the most shares and are more likely to boost credibility; as a law firm building a good reputation, credibility is a must.

Social Media Management

Social media isn’t just for retail brands — it’s also taking off for other types of businesses as well, such as in the legal field.

And no, that doesn’t mean that you have to post selfies of yourself in the courtroom and risk the judge holding you in contempt.

The most commonly used social media networking for law firms is LinkedIn, which is known to be “social media for grownups.” If you’re concerned about losing dignity, LinkedIn should be your top choice for social media marketing.

Facebook, however, is a close second, so it’s certainly worth a shot.

The right legal marketing team for your firm should post content on social media, communicate effectively with other users, and create dialogue with potential and existing clients. Social media platforms are an excellent way to put a face to your firm, and to further establish your position as an authority. Make sure that “effective social media management” is on your checklist for hiring a marketing team.

Leveraging Marketing Opportunities

Good marketing teams understand that everything is a marketing opportunity. Great marketing teams know how to correctly leverage those opportunities.

As you interview your potential teams, address their knowledge and proficiency with items like Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, email marketing, and building a sales funnel that utilizes your website design in the most effective way. And remember that all of these platforms must be orchestrated with a marketing strategy in order to get the most benefit from them.

If the team you’re interviewing has a weakness in regard to a particular marketing avenue, it may be wiser to move on to the next.

Communication

We’ve already mentioned how important it is to communicate effectively with your audience, via marketing, your website, and social media.

However, a final and all-important key to hiring the right legal marketing team is how well they communicate with you.

Ultimately, if any employee that you hire doesn’t communicate well, it will be to the detriment of your company. Conversely, if a marketing team is proactive about communicating and responds quickly when you reach out, it will make everyone’s job easier and more pleasant.

And, let’s face it, a professional who simply doesn’t respond to communication isn’t very professional at all.

Checking the Boxes

Running a law firm isn’t easy. It isn’t just about the work — it’s also the business side of it. To have a successful firm, marketing is a must.

The more professionals you have working on behalf of your firm, the better. But finding a legal marketing team that works for your individual circumstances can be time consuming. You may have to weed through a lot of possibilities before you find a definite team.

But it’s worth the effort.

To ensure that your marketing is as effective as possible, take time in hiring your marketing team. Make sure that they check every box on your wish list. That’s how to find the legal marketing team that will do right by your law firm.

Need help on how to hire the right legal marketing company for your law firm? Call 617-249-3867.