It’s no secret that the legal field is crowded, therefore standing out among a sea of law firms is challenging. Marketing is one of the top avenues a law firm has to bring in new clients and creating a strategy behind it should not be taken lightly. Think about it this way – you always make a plan before you go in a courtroom to fight for a client, right? So why wouldn’t you make a thorough plan for your marketing strategy too?
Here are five key factors to consider when creating your 2021 marketing plans:
Clear Business Goals
Clear business goals give your marketing team benchmarks to strive for. When asked, the obvious answer to what is your firm’s goal is typically to get more clients and make more revenue. But this should be broken down a step further to apply quantifiable numbers to it. Additionally, if your firm has a variety of practice areas, you may have specific goals related to certain sectors of your practice. For example, instead of saying “we want to make more money”, try “we want to increase revenue by $100,000 in 2021” or “we want 112 new estate law clients in 2021.”
Messaging
Lawyers and their firms come in all different shapes and sizes, so messaging and brand voice must be aligned with your particular niche. It should be based around some fundamentals of the image that you want your law firm to project. Consider what makes your firm unique, what your value proposition is and why your audience should listen to you. By strategically using your brand voice across all platforms, you can build credibility and visibility that can attract loyal clientele.
Audience
In order to develop the right media strategy for your audience, you must first KNOW your audience. Rather than spending resources trying to appeal to everyone, you’re better off focusing on a target audience and building trust with them. Understanding who they are, including demographic, socio-economic and psychographic indicators, in addition to developing a keen understanding of income levels, decision-making drivers and motivations is important to creating a holistic target audience profile.
If your market is a large demographic, consider drilling down to identify unique segments of that market – niche groups that are more likely inclined to use your specific services. By hyper-targeting several smaller, swayable groups, you’ll optimize your advertising budget for a better ROI along with appealing to the people who will value your skills and experience the most.
In addition to outlining who your audience is, you must understand how they spend their time and receive their news:
- Is your target audience searching the internet using a mobile device or a laptop?
- Are they using search engines like Google to find legal counsel?
- How much time do they spend on social media?
- Are they streaming video on their devices to watch TV content?
Understanding this data shows marketers how and where your target audiences consume information, therefore points to where your brand should be present. For example, if you practice law where you serve consumers directly, like criminal defense, personal injury, estate law and others, data shows that your target clientele turns to online search engines to look for answers to their questions and to choose an attorney to work with. Therefore, Google and YouTube should be considered on your list of marketing channels.
ANALYZING CONTENT
A high percentage of those seeking legal advice turn to online resources to help find a law firm that suits their needs. Time to a deep dive in your digital presence to ensure your law firm gets noticed. Consider if your imagery, design and tone are speaking to your target audience. Next, are you extending your digital footprint beyond your website into video, social media and SEO, making your online presence a recruitment tool and a hub for information? Lastly, with more than 63% of searches in the U.S. now happen on smartphones or tablets over desktop computers, is your website mobile-friendly?
COST PER CASE
Primarily, a law firm’s goal for using media is to drive more cases and contribute to the bottom line. Secondarily, law firms should strive to lower their cost per case (CPC), which is how much it costs to sign a new case.
Knowing your cost per case is the first step to increasing the efficiency of your advertising spend. At Morgan & Co., we believe that a media agency is a law firm’s smartest partner, and your media agency should provide CPC metrics and data associated with your campaigns. For example, our team works with intake software vendors, phone systems, web development teams and others to get the pieces aligned for an accurate system that attributes cases back to the correct media, delivering CPC clarity in a timely manner.
MEASURE AND TRACK EFFECTIVENESS
How do you know if your marketing strategy worked? By measuring and tracking the success and measuring it against your goals. Advertising effectiveness can fluctuate based on a number of factors. In some cases, it’s a poorly worded call-to-action. In others, it’s something entirely out of your hands, like a local recession. By actively and continuously tracking your advertising efforts and measuring their effectiveness, the marketing arm of your law office is empowered to take swift action to correct or to counter dips in effectiveness while celebrating and capitalizing on peaks.
It is important to remember that tactics are not strategy. Tactics serve strategy. With a data-driven, thoughtful plan in place to reach your goals and create a strong ROI, you’re setting yourself up for success.
Morgan & Co. is a media agency that helps brands understand their ideal customers, acquire more, and reduce the cost of acquisition. We use in-depth analytics to design and manage strategies and media buys across digital, traditional, and experiential channels. We use data to drive insightful audience segmentation, our media buys and optimization, and to increase the return on media spend. Our expertise is in the tourism, healthcare, food & beverage, consumer, and legal categories. For more information, visit www.morganandco.com
