Law firms and advocacy groups at the national, state, and local levels are always looking to expand their caseload. With a number of different attorney marketing solutions to choose from, it is important to note that each marketing option comes with its own set of pros and cons. While some form of marketing is critical for any law firm to be successful, not every marketing option is the best fit for all law firms and advocacy groups.
Traditional Marketing Campaigns
Targeted TV, radio, and print campaigns will without a doubt reach a wider range of audiences than other types of attorney marketing campaigns available. Since new leads call law firms directly after seeing or hearing the commercial, attorneys and advocates can save on the labor cost involved in calling leads associated with other types of attorney marketing campaigns.
Additionally, TV ads remain one of the most effective form of advertisement. According to AdWeek, TV was the only medium to maintain key performance indicators (new sales, new clients signed, etc.) from 2009 to 2014. All other forms of advertisement, both online and offline, dropped by 10%.
With that said, TV, billboard, radio, and other marketing campaigns require large upfront costs. This is not feasible for most law firms and advocacy groups. As the average cost-per-case (total cost/total acquired cases) tends to exceed the expected return, not all firms are set up to be successful with traditional attorney marketing campaigns.
Word of Mouth
Word-of-mouth advertising is where satisfied customers tell others how much they like a product or business. This is an attorney marketing method that many attorneys nationwide have found successful. As word-of-mouth campaigns require no financial investments, they are always the first choice of any law firm or advocacy group.
Word-of-mouth advertisement is often the most successful form of marketing for attorneys because recommendations come from friends, family members, coworkers, and other trusted sources. These recommendations resonate with your potential clients far more than a TV or print ad could.
Although new clients generated this way is incredibly profitable for any firm, it is unrealistic and unfeasible to run a practice solely on word of mouth. In the event a firm loses a case and ends up with an unhappy client, all the work the firm put into building their reputation can be tarnished if the unhappy client is vocal enough. Therefore, it is best to have a word-of-mouth campaign that compliments other attorney marketing efforts.
Attorney Internet Marketing
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are two forms of attorney internet marketing. PPC is where a firm will pay for clicks on an advertisement that directs online visitors to their website. SEO is where a firm tries to show up high on search engine result pages and visitors will naturally find their way to a firm's website.
Both PPC and SEO are very popular and successful ways of signing new clients through attorney internet marketing. Google's search result pages show up to four advertisements before any organic results, which mean that users browsing the web could see a firm's ad before anything else. Visitors who find a firm's website organically will not cost a firm anything, lowering their overall cost per case.
A major challenge with PPC is similar to traditional forms of marketing for attorneys: PPC is expensive. Depending on what area of law a firm practices, a single click may cost upwards of $25 just to show up first on a Google search result page. The more competitive the field, the more expensive PPC ads will become. The worst part is that these visitors are not guaranteed to contact your firm, they are simply landing on your website. At that point, it is up to you to convince them to reach out to your law firm.
SEO may not be as expensive as PPC, but it takes a long time for SEO efforts to pay off. When working on SEO, it’s important to focus on your firm’s website. You will need to make technical optimizations, such as meta descriptions, alt text, and title tags. Content should also become a top priority, with adding new high-quality content and updating older content. Work with your webmaster to increase the site speed on your site.
Outside a website, social media can influence SEO. Having active social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can help increase a firm’s online presence and help with SEO. Once optimizations are made, it can take time for search engines to index pages and for your pages to appear on the search results. A firm may hire a third-party SEO company or someone to work on SEO in-house for over a year without seeing any kind of change in organic traffic.
Firms may also utilize online legal directories to help increase traffic to your site. While some may be free, others are paid. Completing a Google My Business listing can also help with your online marketing and search presence.
Third Party Marketing Services
There are many types of third-party marketing services available to attorneys. Media-buying agencies help law firms with TV, radio, and print advertisements. Internet lead generation companies generate and sell Internet leads to firms in need of new cases. The end goal for third-party services is to facilitate expansion of attorney and advocates' caseloads. For attorneys, third-party organizations help firms of any size find new clients with a lower upfront cost than handling marketing in-house.
Pricing for third-party lead generation or media buying companies differs on the type of campaign and company. As there are many types of attorney marketing options out there for law firms and advocacy groups to utilize, it’s important to evaluate the different marketing campaigns a law firm uses through by tracking cost-per-case to establish return on investment. Depending on your firm's ability and resources available to reach out to leads, third-party lead generation may become too expensive.
eGenerationMarketing offers law firms and advocacy groups the ability to outsource their lead generation by using a diverse marketing approach that drives traffic to our lead generation websites. We use a combination of pay-per-click advertising and SEO to increase qualified traffic to our sites while maintaining costs for clients. With a team monitoring costs, traffic and lead quality, those receiving our leads can rest assured they are receiving quality legal leads as at reasonable cost.
Working with a lead generation service can help supplement your marketing efforts. We closely monitor the marketing campaigns so you do not have to. Instead, leads are sent in real-time directly to your firm. This allows your firm to focus on its leads and cases without worrying about your marketing.
Once signed up, a firm can begin receiving exclusive leads right away, rather than waiting for a law firm marketing campaign to take off. We currently generate employment law, Social Security disability, personal injury, and workers’ compensation leads. Feel free to contact us today if you have any questions or would like to learn more about how using a third-party lead generation company can boost your firm's profitability.