Here’s Our Law Firm Marketing Plan Template

In this article, we’ll cover how to create a law firm marketing plan that is effective. Creating a marketing plan is much easier when you break it down into sections. Start with defining the purpose, strategy, and tactical execution of tasks. You’ll want to treat your law firm marketing strategy as a living document filled with initiatives, timelines, and project ownership.

Why: Purpose & Goals

When deciding on the ‘Why’ of your law firm marketing plan, define what outcomes you’d like to see as a result. For example:

• Establishing your law firm as an authority on the practice of your specialty (criminal defense, family law.)
• Establish your law firm as the clear go-to for your niche area.
• Generate sales leads or new prospective clients.

Each goal will tie into actionable projects as you build your law firm marketing plan. Some of these goals are quantifiable while others remain strategic. Once you’ve defined quantifiable goals, dive deeper into how each one can be measured and reached. If your goal is to ‘generate X new clients/month,’ ask questions such as:

• How many leads/prospective clients do you want?
• What quantity of leads would you consider a success?
• How many leads would you define as not good enough?

Once you’ve defined what success looks like to you, you’ll be able to measure the results of your marketing efforts. Refining your marketing goals over your first few quarters is recommended. Consider using “stoplight” metrics to help define what you consider ‘bad,’ ‘good’ and ‘great.’

A key to assigning stoplight metrics is setting reasonable expectations. A good law firm marketing company can help set your benchmarks. Within the first six months of your marketing plan, your metrics may have to be adjusted based on the results of your campaigns.

What: Ingredients of a Law Firm Marketing Plan

The ‘What’ of your law firm marketing plan includes the projects, initiatives, and campaigns you’ll commit to. Each of the strategies you choose to implement should drive results for your ‘Why.’

Choosing an Effective Approach

1. Networking

Referrals are one of the primary marketing activities for law firms and an excellent source of new business. People who trust you are more likely to refer others your way. You can expand your professional network by remaining active in professional associations, going to networking events, presenting at CLEs.

Another way to build upon your existing relationships is to stay in touch with people you’ve connected with to remain top-of-mind. You may consider taking them to lunch, sharing helpful information through email content, social media, and blog posts.

2. Optimizing Your Website (Your Law Firm’s Digital Image)

Many times a potential client might come across your website before engaging with your firm. You may want to optimize the website look and feel to convey the right messages to your preferred audience. A few tips would be:

• User Experience – is your website easy to navigate and find resources?
• Mobile Friendly – can your website be accessed by a tablet, phone, or any device?
• Contact Form – Are there direct and obvious ways for prospects to contact your firm?
• Testimonials or Case Studies – do you have client testimonials or case studies ready and available.
• Adding Personal Touches – Consider using photos of your office and team rather than standard stock images.
• Search Engine Optimization – Getting found starts with a website that is configured to be found by Google

3. Social Media & Web Content

Blogs are easy to write and publish and instantly available to the world on the Internet. Get into the habit of posting on a schedule as often as possible (whether weekly or a few times monthly.) Keep track of the questions your clients ask and create blog content or social media posts that address their interests. Content marketing through social media and blog content is useful for a variety of marketing goals:

• It establishes your law firm and lawyers are experts in your area of practice.
• Coupled with SEO blog writing, the content you write may show up higher in an organic search.
• Generating more website traffic by leveraging search engine optimization
• Building and engaging with your social media audience
• Building relationships with referrals via email newsletters and social sharing of content

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The goal of SEO is for your blog posts, and your website, to show up on the first page of a search. It requires dedication to ongoing tasks of:

• Content Creation – creating content that ties into the search terms you’d like to rank highest for.
• Website Optimization – making sure every page on your website is optimized to be found and ranked by Google
• Link-Building – linking to reputable sites and having reputable sites link to your law firm

Keep in mind, results from a new SEO campaign can take six months to affect traffic and increase new leads.

5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click advertising is advertising on a search engine (Google). Your law firm can create a Google AdWords campaign and begin advertising for specific keywords. An effective campaign is more than just ads. You must define search terms, create ads and create landing pages that people who click on your ads will reach. Implement A/B testing by improving upon each ad and landing page over time.

6. Email Marketing Campaigns

Creating a monthly newsletter for your law firm and building an initial database of email addresses. By collecting these contacts in your email database, you can nurture these leads by sharing relevant content until they are prepared to talk to your firm. Examples of content to include in a monthly newsletter may be:

• Articles you wrote on your firm’s blog from the month.
• Share news about new attorneys, employees, or big wins at your firm.
• Your perspective on recent news, case law in your practice area.
• Create a ‘Call-To-Action’ that encourages your audience to reach out to your firm if they have questions or need assistance.

7. Social Media Marketing

• Consider creating a law firm company page on the major social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.)
• Your plan may include an effort to build followers and nurture your audience in the same way email marketing does.
• Each time you write a new blog or a new whitepaper this content can be shared through social media to increase your content’s exposure.

How: Executing Your Law Firm Marketing Plan

You’ll want to take into consideration your marketing budget, your practice area, your location and the competitiveness where you are when determining which strategies to implement.

• In your written marketing plan, you should have a place or a checkbox for action items and tasks.
• Create a recurring calendar appointment to write and publish a blog every week.
• Schedule each project and task of your marketing plan within a calendar or project management system.

If your law firm marketing plan is made up of multiple campaign types, you may want to consider hiring a law firm marketing company to help set goals and track progress.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Lawyers Writing for Lawyers provides freelance content writing for law practices all over the country. Choose one of our content writing services. Choose your content subject. Sit back, and let us do all the work. Contact us today to get started.