Legal marketing is competitive. It’s why most law firms publish a handful of blogs, see what’s biting, and then close up shop, returning to the referral game until they become marketing-curious again. This on-again, off-again approach to digital marketing leaves a ton of opportunity on the table.
Although it can be hard to know where to spend for your legal marketing, you can’t just opt out. Word of mouth still matters for lawyers more than it does most businesses, but when a legal issue presents itself, potential new clients are flocking to the internet more and more. According to the National Law Review, a staggering 96% of people seeking legal advice start with a search engine, and 74% of those who visit a law firm's website end up making contact.
You can see why having a comprehensive digital marketing strategy is a necessity. The firms that commit to consistent, strategic marketing efforts aren't just fishing with better bait — they're casting wider nets in waters that referrals alone will never reach.
Okay, we’ve told you how to do it wrong, now we’re going to tell you how to deploy legal marketing strategies that work. We’re not just going to tell you to invest in SEO, we’re going to tell you:
- The legal marketing strategies you can’t neglect if you want to compete.
- How your competition gets them wrong.
- How to do them the right way.
What does legal marketing do?
Legal marketing is far more than just advertising your services. It's a broad approach to building your firm's visibility, credibility, and client base. Your legal marketing plan should consist of targeted strategies that help you stand out across channels in one of the world's most competitive markets.
Effective legal marketing:
- Increases your firm's visibility in search engines
- Builds trust and credibility with potential clients
- Establishes your attorneys as thought leaders in their practice areas
- Creates meaningful connections with your target audience
- Drives qualified leads to your website and converts them into consultations
- Nurtures relationships with existing clients for referrals and repeat business
But with so many marketing channels and strategies available, where should you focus your efforts? Let's dive into six proven legal marketing strategies that can transform your firm's online presence and level up your client acquisition.
Six law firm marketing strategies that work
1. Don’t neglect your branding
How the competition does it: Most law firms neglect their branding entirely. The ones that don’t tend to approach branding in a way that makes them impersonal and forgettable. They stick to conventional color schemes, stock photography of courthouses or gavels, and generic messaging that fails to differentiate them from competitors. The result? A sea of indistinguishable firms that potential clients struggle to tell apart.
How to do it the right way: Effective branding for law firms is about highlighting what makes your practice unique. Start by identifying your firm's core values and personality. Are you compassionate advocates for families? Aggressive defenders? Tech-savvy business advisors? Your brand should communicate these qualities across all touchpoints.
From creating messaging systems and visuals to developing your firm's personality and strategy, your brand is the foundation upon which all your marketing efforts will build. It's worth investing in getting it right.
Baal & Spots develops rebranding strategies from the ground up, and uses them as the foundation for holistic digital marketing strategies, so that every single person interacting with your brand knows exactly what you’re about.
2. Design a website that converts
How the competition does it: In terms of web design, the legal industry is notorious for outdated, cluttered websites that prioritize everything over user experience. Most competitors create sites that are essentially digital brochures — packed with information but lacking clear navigation paths or calls to action.
Additionally, you’ve likely noticed that a lot of your competitors use different versions of the same template. This is because a lot of legal marketing companies offer cheap, pre-built sites that can make it impossible to distinguish one firm from another. But not with Baal & Spots, where every website is built with your firm’s unique qualities in mind.
How to do it the right way: Your website should function as a lead-generation machine, not just an online business card. Design it with conversion in mind:
- Ensure it's fully responsive and mobile-optimized (the majority of legal searches happen on mobile devices)
- Create intuitive navigation that guides visitors toward taking action
- Incorporate compelling calls-to-action throughout the site
- Include testimonials and case results
- Ensure points of contact are never far away
- Prioritize fast loading speeds and clean design, and employ website management services to keep down digital clutter and keep it lighting fast
Your website should be scalable, accessible, and optimized to grow with your practice. Each practice area should have its own dedicated page with relevant information and tailored messaging that speaks directly to potential clients' needs in that area — and each of those service pages can serve as a pillar of your overall SEO strategy.
Continue reading: Top 5 signs you need a new website
3. Practice good legal SEO (search engine optimization)
How the competition does it: The SERPs are crowded. It’s one of the main reasons bad SEO is so common in legal marketing — you optimize a page for “DWI lawyer” or “personal injury lawyer” and then watch as… nothing ever happens. Sprinkling keywords across pages without a broader strategy is doomed to fail in markets that are so deeply competitive.
How to do it the right way: Good law firm SEO is created with a wide view of your firm’s goals and current positioning in the marketplace. If you’re trying to do legal SEO the right way, you should:
- Conduct thorough keyword research to identify terms that potential clients actually use when searching for your services
- Identify in-roads that your competitors are neglecting (they always exist)
- Incorporate local keywords into every service area, and optimize your Google Business Profile to appear in local map packs
- Create in-depth, informative content that demonstrates your expertise
- Build quality backlinks from reputable sources and monitor and disavow toxic backlinks regularly
- Ensure your site is technical SEO and search-engine friendly
- Regularly update older content to maintain relevance
Remember that SEO is a long-term investment. While it may take time to see results, organic search traffic is often high ROI because it delivers high quality leads.
4. Email marketing (it isn’t dead)
How the competition does it: Many law firms think email marketing is outdated, and therefore either ignore it entirely or implement it poorly. They send generic, infrequent newsletters filled with firm achievements and legal jargon, or worse, they purchase email lists and send unsolicited messages to people who have no connection to their firm. It’s no wonder these approaches lead to low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, and wasted marketing dollars.
How to do it the right way: Email marketing is still one of the most effective channels for nurturing relationships with potential and existing clients, delivering an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. To maximize its effectiveness:
- Build your email list organically through website sign-ups, consultations, and events
- Segment your audience based on practice areas, case status, or client type
- Create valuable, educational content that helps solve readers' problems
- Personalize your emails with the recipient's name and relevant information
- Craft compelling subject lines to improve open rates
Include clear calls-to-action - Monitor metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to refine your approach
Email marketing allows you to stay top-of-mind with potential clients who may not need your services immediately but will remember you when they do. It also helps nurture relationships with past clients who can become valuable sources of referrals.
Continue reading: Is email marketing worth it?
5. Deploy PPC (pay per click) to land the big fish
How the competition does it: Law firms throw money at PCC without well-defined goals or any strategy to speak of. They target overly competitive, expensive keywords, use generic ad copy, and direct all traffic to their homepage rather than specialized landing pages. Without proper conversion tracking, they have no way to measure which campaigns are actually generating quality leads versus wasting their budget.
How to do it the right way: If you can’t tell, wasting money on bad PPC makes us angry. That’s because PPC is a powerful tool for generating immediate leads — especially for legal services, that help clients in need of immediate assistance. To maximize your return on PCC for lawyers:
- Develop campaigns targeting specific practice areas and client needs
- Use long-tail keywords that indicate high intent but have lower competition
- Create compelling ad copy that emphasizes your unique value proposition
- Direct traffic to dedicated landing pages optimized for conversion
- Implement proper conversion tracking to measure ROI
- Continuously test and refine your campaigns based on performance data
- Consider retargeting campaigns to stay in front of visitors who didn't convert initially
While PPC requires ongoing investment, it can provide an immediate source of leads while your organic SEO efforts build momentum. The key is working with specialists who understand legal marketing and can optimize your campaigns for maximum efficiency. Baal & Spots creates fit-for-purpose campaigns and conversion-optimized landing pages to get you on the ground running.
6. Regularly post on social media (it doesn’t have to be boring)
How the competition does it: Law firm social media is a particularly dire space. Most firms have minimal presence, posting only when they remember or sharing the same content across all platforms regardless of audience. Their content tends to be self-promotional and corporate, lacking the human element that makes social media effective. Others avoid social media entirely, missing valuable opportunities to connect with potential clients.
How to do it the right way: Social media offers law firms a unique opportunity to humanize their practice and demonstrate expertise in a more accessible format:
- Utilize video content, which is absolutely essential for any social strategy
- Choose platforms based on where your ideal clients spend time
- Balance educational content that builds credibility with engagement-driven content that builds your audience
- Highlight client success stories, firm wins, and awards
- Offer glimpses into your firm culture and the personalities of your attorneys — it’s essential to humanizing your brand
- Use social media both to drive traffic to your website's resources and as proof of engagement with the community, something that matters more and more for your clientele
Remember that social media is becoming a search engine in itself, with many users turning to platforms like TikTok to find legal information and services. A thoughtful social media strategy and proactive social media management can seriously boost your firm's visibility and approachability.
What other legal marketing companies won’t tell you
Many legal marketing companies are trying to sell you services. Any of the above can itself fill a retainer that keeps you under contract for your content — but these legal marketing strategies shouldn’t be deployed in a silo.
The secret to successful legal marketing is about creating an integrated approach in which each element complements and enhances the others. Your branding informs your website design, which supports your SEO efforts, which drives traffic that your email marketing nurtures, and so on.
If a legal marketing company wants to á la carte you a blog a month or sell you a few squares for social media posts, it may eventually help you, but it isn’t the best way to steer your firm towards success online.
Establish (and stick to) digital marketing best practices
Whatever marketing strategies you and your digital marketing partner decide to employ, make sure you’re sticking to a few best practices.
- Know your audience. Who you’re speaking to matters. Understanding who your ideal clients are, what legal challenges they face, how they search for solutions, and what factors influence their decision to hire an attorney can make all the difference.
- Focus on quality content. High-quality, informative content is the cornerstone of effective legal marketing. It not only makes sure you’re adding value for potential clients, but it helps you get boosted by search algorithms.
- Measure, measure, and re-measure. What gets measured gets managed. Implement thorough tracking and analytics to understand which of your marketing efforts are driving consultations and clients. Despite what some agencies might tell you, regular review of your marketing data analytics is the only way to tell you if your marketing strategies are really working.
Looking for a legal marketing agency? That’s Baal & Spots’ bread & butter.
Legal marketing is a niche field, and succeeding in it requires both knowledge of the industry and experience providing digital marketing solutions. Baal & Spots has both. We’ve helped countless clients create comprehensive legal marketing strategies that drive quality leads and scale with your practice.
We offer time-tested marketing tactics with future-forward finesse, and combine them with deep insights into how your potential clients make decisions. We can help your firm establish a strong online presence, develop a brand unique to you, and climb search rankings through strategic, ethical marketing practices.
Ready to transform your firm's marketing approach? Get in touch with us today to get started.
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