How to Get More Clients for Your Law Firm

The career success for every lawyer largely rides on one thing: Clients. But if there’s anything tougher than running a law firm, it’s getting more clients for your law firm.

Nearly every law firm wants more (and better!) cases. So you have to be prepared for some seriously stiff competition. Precisely why you need to figure out three things to make sure they choose you:

• What should you do so they can find you easily?
• What tactics can you come up with to attract more business?
• Why should they retain you instead of your competitors?

In this guide, I’ll show you how to get more clients for your law firm by incorporating a few excellent lead generation and marketing strategies into your 2021 game plan ASAP.

Disclaimer: I’m going to go ahead and assume you already have a website for your law firm. It’s really the best way to attract prospects. Don’t have one? You can check out our How to Launch Your Law Firm Using WordPress to get started right away!

Prioritize the Person Reading Your Website

Here’s a fun exercise: Go through the websites of about 6-7 law firms. Read the web copy and try to analyze their tone of voice.

You’ll find most of them have a similar copy: We’re great because we have XYZ. We did this and this and won the XYZ award. We’re amazing so hire us!

It’s all ‘We’ and ‘Our,’ with paragraphs (and paragraphs!) about their achievements and glory.

This isn’t something that appeals to prospective clients.

Instead, the best way to get more clients for your law firm is to make it about the person reading it. You should also try to talk to the reader in the language they speak and understand.

Here are a few tips:

• Use ‘You’ Instead of ‘Clients’: A client is an individual who needs legal help, and preferably from your firm. So it’s best to draft your web copy in a way that speaks to them. When you use ‘Clients,‘ it sounds vague and just, generalized. It doesn’t have the same effect as ‘you,’ and doesn’t make the reader feel you’re speaking to them directly.

• Simplicity Over Law Lingo: There’s a reason why your client wants a lawyer. They can’t comprehend complex legal terms and the legal system, which is why they want your expertise. Exactly why using legal jargon is a no-no. This will only make the reader feel inferior and perhaps, even confuse them. Stick to simple language that explains your service clearly. The reader may not be a lawyer, but they’re also not stupid.

Create Enticing Packages and Quote Well

The way you present your packages and quote your fees is critical to get more clients for your law firm.

Your legal service packages should be easy to understand. The prospect needs to know all the services they are getting for the specific price. It should be competitive, yes. But you can price based on your expertise, experience, and goodwill.

As for your fee schedule, ditch early billing, retainers, and open-ended fees. Your service packages should be laid out in a well-designed schedule that you can present to prospects after giving them the option to choose their package.

Believe me, no one will negotiate your fees down again.

Automate and Streamline Repetitive Tasks

Having a strong work ethic is an admirable quality, but it isn’t always in your firm‘s best interest, especially when it comes to growth. 

Think about it: If you’re too busy to respond to potential clients or market your legal services, how are you supposed to grow your law firm and get more clients?

Typically, delegating your responsibilities could free up significant time, but not all the delegation means hiring people. Instead, you can use technology to automate repetitive tasks, which is, fortunately, cheaper and more efficient.

For instance, you can use virtual receptionists like Ruby, who can answer client calls. You can also hire a virtual receptionist from freelance marketplaces like Freelancer.com or Upwork. The goal is to ensure nothing gets missed.

If you plan on getting your clients by your website, make sure you have an appointment installed and activated on your website. 

Simply Schedule Appointments, for one, is an excellent plugin that lets visitors schedule appointments directly from your website without any extra hassle, increasing your chances of booking a discovery call to make them your client. Moreover, you can also accept payment via its Stripe and PayPal integration.

You can use QuickMail to set up automated follow-ups with “almost” clients. These are people who showed interest but chose not to retain you for your legal services. You never know when they might be an opening, though, so it’s best to remain in touch by sending a friendly follow-up.

In addition to this, you’ll find a plethora of online tools that can help you get noticed. Just make sure your efforts are measurable to see what works and what doesn’t.

Leverage Social Media

Not many lawyers take advantage of social media. Don’t be one of them.

According to a Pew Research Center study, about 7 out of 10 Americans engage in social media. Every single one of them can be your potential clients.

Admittedly, attracting clients via social media isn’t as easy as setting up an account and posting every once in a while. You have to set yourself up for success by making the right decisions.

Pick the Right Social Media Platform

There are several social media channels. Your job is to choose one where your potential clients spend the most of their time to get more clients for your law firm.

For instance, Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites. It lets users make business pages with many informative features for potential clients, like customer reviews. 

On the other hand, you can build your firm’s voice on Twitter. You can post short commentary on critical issues being discussed by people. LinkedIn is another great platform if your firm specializes in business law.

Irrespective of your platform of choice, make sure your account is easy to find. Select your law firm’s name as the username, and add a link to your website and other contact information. You can also use the biography section to include other important information.

Post Quality and Regularly

Be intentional about every post you share on your law firm’s account. Each of them should be centered around the goal of attracting more clients. You should also engage with your followers regularly by asking questions and responding to them when they leave comments.

I recommend coming up with curated content that includes owned content and re-shares from other accounts. You can also share promotional content and posts where you talk about your services.

Another piece of advice would be to plan a content calendar where you map what to do on a given day. This will let you create content ahead of time that you can publish using a post scheduling tool.

And yes, the law isn’t too serious for hashtags! You can use hashtags like #immigrationlaw, #corporatelaw, and so on.

Establish Your Brand to Get More Clients for Your Law Firm

Social media can give you some serious leverage. You can establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche by posting quality and educational content. The idea here is to post thought-provoking content in a digestible method, where your readers understand how you, as a lawyer, can help them.

You can also connect with your social media network, asking for referrals.

Develop Gated Content

Ever heard of inbound marketing? It’s a marketing tactic where you find potential customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them via methods, like social media marketing, content marketing, and other branding efforts.

You can build brand awareness, as well as demonstrate expertise and value through your content. In turn, you end up drawing lots of people to your website.

Enter gated content.

For those who aren’t aware, gated content involves downloadable content like e-books, PDFs, and white papers. But to gain access to them, a user has to either complete a form or purchase a subscription. It’s also an incredible lead generation tool where you can get helpful information about your prospects.

Colorado Legal Group has effectively utilized this inbound marketing strategy.

As you can see, they simply ask for your first name and email in exchange for a video that shows how you can divorce your husband. You can use this information to contact prospects later or add them to an email list.

Speaking of providing valuable free content, you can also experiment with other content forms, such as FAQs, how-to videos, case studies, educational law articles that provide legal assistance, and newsletter articles that provide legal updates. These can help build awareness, as well as gaining a higher rank in the SERPs.

That said, it’s best to reserve your most valuable work for gated content as it’s more likely for potential clients to give you their contact information then.

Invest in Optimizing Your Content

Search engines are like the modern-day yellow pages or directories. It’s where your prospective client will look if they want to hire a lawyer.

But ranking on the top pages of Google is a task easier said than done.

There are only 10 organic (unpaid) positions on the first page of Google, and to secure a place here, you’ll have to apply SEO best practices, where you add targeted keywords in your firm’s website, along with several other things. For example, if you Google ‘how much does a North Carolina child custody lawyer costs,’ you‘ll see a post by Culbertson & Associates. 

People who are actually looking to hire a child custody lawyer may even hire the attorneys at Culbertson & Associates when they go through this post.

Honesty, if you’re only pursuing SEO now, it’ll take a while for you to get more clients for your law firm—or for you tto see the benefits and ROI from your investments. But trust me, it’s an expense worth every penny. 

Also, while Google should definitely be your priority, don’t forget other search engines like Bing and Yahoo. There’s a lot of valuable untapped potential to score clients here.

Utilize Geo-Targeted Digital Ad Campaigns

Law firms and attorneys practice in specific jurisdictions, which is why they should consider restricting their ads and marketing efforts to a specific city, state, or a particular region. 

Most ad platforms let you limit who sees your ads based on their physical location details, where you can target your ad viewers based on different details of your target areas. This includes Facebook, Google, and Bing. 

Facebook, for example, lets you target cities within a specific radius, where you have the option to select who can see your law firm’s ad. Namely, people who live in a particular location, people who were recently in that location, people traveling in that location, or everyone in the location.

Network and Ask for Referrals

Yes, legal networking can be exhausting. But if you want to get more clients for your law firm, it’s inevitable.

Instead of networking with a select few attorneys, try to build your network outside the legal profession. In fact, the real key to networking is to build a network outside of the law but within your targeted industry. Read that again.

Let me explain this with the help of an example.

If you want more corporate clients, attend events, conferences, and webinars attended by CEOs and other business owners. Try to make an acquaintance with them, and talk to them about what you do. If you manage to make a good first impression and do good work, you‘ll soon become their go-to lawyer whenever they want legal advice.

Wondering how to start networking? I got you.

Look for events related to your targeted industry on social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, along with dedicated networking sites like Meetup.com. Then all that is left is to turn up for the event and work your magic!

Remember, networking is a long-term approach when it comes to getting more clients. Don’t try to sell yourself or your services too hard, and just focus on being friendly to build a long-term relationship. Business will follow.

Referrals, on the other hand, are the faster solution, but you need experience for this. You have to focus on cultivating quality relationships with your clients and lawyers, who can refer other people (their friends, family, acquaintance, etc.) to you.

One of the best ways to gain more referrals is to be a friend of your clients rather than an attorney. Sending a handwritten thank-you note, giving them free advice once in a while, and other little favors can go a long way. 

Knock their socks off with your exceptional experience and knowledge, and show people you care and truly value their business, and they will become your best PR.

Get More Clients for Your Law Firm ASAP

Expanding your client list should definitely be your top priority, and the best way to do this is to take full advantage of the available opportunities—online and offline. 

Make a website, create a blog, network, build long-term relationships, advertise and market… there’s so much you can to have clients come knocking at your door! 

Start by picking a strategy, and run with it. Good things take time to happen, so don’t expect anything overnight. Focus on your law firm’s goals, and stay true to your duties and services. Success will follow.