February 16, 2021

5 Best Ways To Generate Leads For Your Law Firm

Law firms have adopted different online and offline strategies to acquire leads faster and more efficiently. A steady stream of law firm leads ensures consistent business. With a well-oiled lead generation machine, you no longer have to sit waiting for the phone to ring. You can focus more on the handling of cases instead of wasting time tracking down potential clients and cold calling.

When you have a robust lead generation plan, you get to experience stability in both finances and workload. The real question, however, is “How do you get leads for your business?”

Websites, referrals, and networking are among the best ways to generate law firm leads. It’s important to keep in mind, though, the necessary strategies that come into play with each of these activities. Launching a website doesn’t end by publishing a web page and calling it a day. You must optimize your website and landing pages for search engines in order to appear on top of the target keyword’s results page.

Having an excellent lead generation strategy helps you to capture potential clients’ interest and convert these leads into paying clients. No matter how large or small your company is, you’re sure to benefit from using these five proven and tested strategies.

1. Local SEO

When you launch your website, you need to optimize it to rank higher on search engine page results, matching target keywords such as “law firm in (location).” If you aren’t investing time and resources in local SEO, you’ve already lost half the lead generation battle.

With SEO, you can generate thousands of leads over time for free. Studies have shown that 75% of the people who perform a Google search won’t go beyond the first page. If you want to get more clicks on your website and increase your site visitors, you must aim to rank high, preferably on the first page.

Search engines favor White Hat SEO tactics that involve link building, using XML sitemaps, and creating new and high-quality content. While tempting, you must never employ Black Hat SEO tactics such as keyword stuffing, producing thin content, and other sneaky online strategies. Doing so might cause Google to rank you even lower, or worse, penalize your website.

2. Google Ad Campaigns

Unlike SEO, Google Ads is a paid digital marketing channel. You have to bid on your target keywords in order to show up on top of the results page. The beauty of Google Ads is that they list you on top of the organic results instantly. Use dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) to customize your ad to the search query.

When it comes to ads, the golden rule remains: The closer your headline is to your keyword’s search intent, the likelier that people will click on your ad. You can customize your Google Ad campaigns and sort them into groups. You can also group keywords according to the keywords on the specific cases you handle.

If you specialize in handling divorce, you want your ad to show up on keywords that specifically target this, such as “divorce attorney in (location).” You can also have a broader campaign that targets general keywords such as “law firm in (location)” or “law firm near me.” Using DKI, you can insert these keywords into your ads to boost the click-through rate (CTR) and generate more leads.

3. Webinars

Increase your law firm leads through hosting webinars. Because online marketing revolves around the users and what they need, you must choose unique industry-related topics that people are interested in and add value to them. In turn, you can capture the contact information of users who register for your webinars. When you have their contact information in hand, you can reach out to them and turn them into potential clients.

Think of webinars as virtual conferences and events that can help you tap into more clients. Ensure that you recruit expert moderators and panelists who can provide the information your users need. Not only do you get to build good relations with them, but you’re sure to create interest for your future webinars.

4. Collaboration and Networking

Practice networking and collaborate with other law firms as a supplement to other lead generation strategies. Joining law firm networks can work to your advantage.

Not only does joining a network help you build excellent connections and develop positive relationships, but you also get to share valuable legal knowledge and extend your market reach. With collaboration, you can share common goals and help each other get more leads through referrals and reviews.

Another advantage of joining a network of peers is the credibility these partnerships bring to your law firm. Aligning yourself with other trustworthy law firms helps clients see your business as credible. You can join lawyer networking groups in Los Angeles, such as the Los Angeles County Bar Association and L.A. Legal Innovators.

If your firm is located in New York, you might want to join these networking groups instead: Libra Network and New York State Bar Association.

5. Referrals

One of the most remarkable offline techniques you can employ to ensure that clients keep ringing the phone is referral marketing. While you can get excellent referrals from your law firm network, nothing beats word of mouth.

Clients earned through referrals have a higher retention rate, and every referring client makes an average of three invitations. If you tap into your referrals, your client list will blow up.

While you can’t force your clients into referring your business to others, you can most certainly inspire them to do so. Provide your clients with such a positive and exceptional experience with your services that they can’t help but share with their friends and family.

Take it a step further and make it easy for your clients to refer others. Gently ask for a social share or do something simple like adding a link to your website in your final email. You can even hand out professional business cards during your last meeting. Small acts can go a long way.

The Bottom Line

Clients can sometimes be hard to come by. With so many other law firms out there, it can be challenging to generate leads for your law firm. However, you can practice utilizing digital marketing along with other traditional methods such as networking to create a reliable lead generation campaign for your law firm.

Modify and tweak these strategies to suit your business needs. The more you adapt to the internet and the legal industry’s ever-changing landscape, the better chance you have at succeeding in generating warm leads.