
HOW TO FIND CLIENTS FOR A LAWYER
Marketing for legal services is quite different from promoting specialists in other fields. A person looking for a lawyer has a real problem that needs to be resolved urgently and as beneficially as possible for them. Therefore, the process of searching and selecting such specialists is lengthy and thorough.
If you want to attract as many clients as possible for a law firm or a private lawyer, determine which online resources your target audience frequents most and how much you are willing to invest in attracting each lead. Given the level of competition in the current market, it’s not advisable to rely solely on word-of-mouth; mere recommendations from acquaintances won’t help you grow and maximize your income from your work.
What will we discuss?
- How can a lawyer find clients online?
- The ideal lawyer’s website and PPC advertising
- The E-A-T concept in promoting legal services
- Legal content marketing: videos and helpful articles
- How can a lawyer build a personal brand on social media?
- Conclusions
How can a lawyer find clients online?
According to research by the marketing agency COMRADE, about half of the clients find lawyers through Google.
“Digital marketing for lawyers can bring in more than 50% of all potential clients.” Marketing for Law Firms: How to Get Clients as a Lawyer
You are mistaken if you think that just having a good reputation and occasionally handing out your business cards to acquaintances is enough. Offline events and outdoor advertising can indeed be great ways to promote yourself, but they are just supplementary. More and more people are using Google to find lawyers, so every specialist who wants to grow needs to work on their organic visibility and make themselves known on various online platforms.
Where exactly do potential clients look for legal specialists?
- Top of Google search results (both ads and organic results).
- Directories of law firms, company ratings.
- YouTube and social networks.
- Authoritative resources, legal forums, and thematic events online and offline.
We will consider what a lawyer’s website should look like and analyze the characteristics of channels for promoting legal services.
The ideal lawyer’s website and PPC ads
No matter how flawless your business’s marketing strategy may be, even the most perfect sales funnel won’t attract the maximum number of clients if, at the final stage, they land on a website with outdated design that lacks useful information, does not contain convenient lead-capture forms, etc. A business card website is optimal for a lawyer or a law firm.
Landing page for legal firm
Landing page for a legal company includes a web resource with a brief description of services and the firm’s contact details, where the focus is on key specialists. In the legal field, as in psychotherapy, it is appropriate to focus on the staff. This is because potential clients are looking for someone they can trust with their life issues, and they want to see not just logos and slogans, but the people behind them.
Single-page sites are well-suited for setting up advertising because when someone follows a link, they see clear answers to their questions and their attention isn’t scattered by extraneous information.
📌 Read blog post: Company Page: Examples of “About Us” Pages and Company Descriptions
If we are talking about a company or a private lawyer that provides several completely different services, creating a multi-landing page—a landing page with adaptive content that changes depending on the interests, search queries, and location of the person who saw the ad and clicked on the link—would be appropriate.
For each specific service or area, a separate landing page can be created with a unique value proposition, descriptions of services, case studies, testimonials, and calls to action with lead-capture forms.
On each service page, you can place a section with blog text previews on specific topics. For example, in the “Family Law” section, you could feature useful articles about solving divorce issues. Overall, the website can describe the essence of each service, with the main goal in advertising and informational texts to thoroughly explore the topic.
Landing pages for the legal field have their unique features. The process of a site visitor deciding to engage services is more complex than in cases of ordering services or purchasing goods in most other niches (such as auto repair or marketing services).
What should be on a website for a Lawyer or a Law Firm?
Let’s consider the main components that need to be included on the site:
- A clear offer, a general description of the area of practice, and a photo of the specialist or the entire team.
- A list of services, a catalog of practices.
- For corporate lawyers—a list of well-known clients.
- A story about the company or private lawyer, ideally in a video format.
- Contact information and several lead forms with different calls to action (consultation, cost estimation, ordering free materials, for example, a checklist with an action plan).
- Experience, case studies, client testimonials.
“Considering the recent changes in the business world and the massive shift to remote work, 79% of clients are looking for a remote option to work with a lawyer, and 67% are looking for a lawyer who offers both remote and in-person services as needed”. How a Brand New Law Firm Can Attract Clients
The first three to four search results on Google are Google Ads advertisements. The cost per click from an advertisement depends on the conversion rate of the landing page. Therefore, specialists who develop legal websites are responsible for whether the investments in promotion will pay off.
The cost of PPC clicks in the legal sector is high, so the relevance of the site to the advertisement or banner is crucial. If a user follows a link but is disappointed with the landing page or decides against using the service after a consultation, the marketing expenses will also be wasted. The quality of the leads plays a significant role here; they must be financially capable and intent on resolving their legal issues.
The more accurate the information on the website, the faster a potential client can make a decision without being distracted by lyrical digressions or, conversely, fragments of legislation that are unclear to the average person. It is important to ensure that the offers on the site correspond with the calls to action in the advertisements.
The E-A-T concept in promoting legal services
Google evaluates the quality of web resources when ranking them and uses the E-A-T algorithm.
- Expertise—the authors of the texts, especially articles for the blog, should have a legal education or possess in-depth knowledge of the area they write about. This also applies to websites promoting medical services, insurance, security, and finances.
- Authoritativeness—this is confirmed by links to the site from other verified sources, positive reviews, and even the domain’s reputation.
- Trustworthiness—this indicator is influenced by factors that confirm the safety of working with you, including verified payment details. A convincing proof of a specialist’s integrity is a mention of their presence on a certain official list.
Websites that represent legal services have higher requirements compared to resources for selling various goods, cosmetic services, etc. This is described by the term YMYL, which stands for Your Money, Your Life. These are sites that advertise services on which the financial status or health of consumers depends. Assessors are more demanding when checking the E-A-T metrics for these resources.
Improving E-A-T is facilitated by mentions on other websites, links and citations in Wikipedia and the media, openly available data about the authors of the texts and their qualifications, and of course, the reliability and timeliness of the information published on the web resource’s pages.
📌 Read blog post: Guide to running campaigns in Google Local Services Ads
Content marketing for lawyers: videos and helpful articles
No matter how convincing the advertising, a significant portion of online users prefer to independently research a topic before seeking help from a specialist. The choice of a lawyer or a law firm largely depends on whether the content they create instills trust and whether the published materials help to understand the situation. For search engines, the SEO characteristics of texts, keywords, and meta tags like Title, H1, H2-H3, Description are important.
A blog on the site is a driver of organic promotion, i.e., visibility in Google, and also increases the loyalty of potential clients. Useful videos and expert texts that deeply explore a topic not only enhance the trust of site visitors but also improve its metrics, such as page view depth. If a reader lingers on a particular page, the search engine will “raise” the site in its results.
Content marketing is a long-term tool for attracting clients, so you will have to wait before articles in the blog and videos on YouTube start to increase a lawyer’s profits. However, from the first publications, more people will know about the brand, you will bring value to your target audience, and eventually, the investment in quality content will definitely pay off.
It’s excellent if a lawyer, besides promoting their own website, also contributes to a column in a popular online publication. Publications in the media are an effective method of attracting target leads, and for clients who are ready to choose you among other lawyers, a useful article published under your name on a well-known web resource can be the final push towards signing a cooperation agreement.
How can a lawyer build a personal brand on social media?
The notion that SMM is not for serious business deprives many of opportunities. People spend a lot of free time on social networks, and targeted Facebook and Instagram advertising helps to reach a large number of strictly target audiences. Moreover, it is on social networks that a lawyer can share more about themselves, their daily life and preferences, and by combining a personal blog with professional content, gain the trust of clients.
Combine posts about news in legislation and informational texts with publications about participation in various events for lawyers, your career path, and personal views and events. It’s advisable to place reviews, information about services, achievements, and media publications in saved stories (highlights).
Social networks are effective not only for private lawyers but also for law firms. In short video clips, you can answer common client questions in accessible language.
It is important to specify your specialization and strengths in the profile header. Publications should be regular, so if you decide to use social networks as a tool for attracting clients, allocate time to create a content plan based on an analysis of competitors and queries from your target audience. Pay attention to visuals—it is preferable for photos and videos to be professional, and the overall design should be executed in a unified style.
Social media allows you to always stay in touch with your potential clients, quickly share important information, invite them to webinars, and promote both your personal and corporate brand.
📌 Read blog post: Not Expensive, Mad: How To Make Marketing Cost
Conclusions
- Legal websites belong to the YMYL category, so search engines are more demanding of them. Such web resources need to be expert, authoritative, and trustworthy (E-A-T). The place in Google search results and the level of trust from visitors are positively influenced by information about the specialists’ education and practical activity, mentions on verified thematic sites, and references and citations in Wikipedia and the media.
- Of course, finding new clients at offline events, through networking, and via outdoor advertising has not been eliminated. More than half of the clients may come to a lawyer through recommendations from acquaintances. However, in the modern service market, this is not enough. PPC advertising, targeting on social networks, creating free useful materials, and conducting webinars—all these will help you create a unique personal brand or develop a strong company brand and significantly increase profits.