• Legal Marketing Education, Marketing

3 Proven Law Firm Marketing Ideas You Can Copy: A Step-by-Step Guide

13 minutes to read

Are you struggling for ideas to grow your law firm?

Are you strapped for time and resources, and don’t want to go back to school to get a master’s degree in marketing?

This resource makes it all simple, enabling you to grow your law firm without spending time you don’t have on strategies you’re not an expert on.

This guide gives you a complete, step-by-step walkthrough of the highest-impact law firm marketing ideas you can copy today.

• Strategy #1: Create a lead magnet to get contact information from high-quality prospects.
• Strategy #2: Run a highly-targeted Facebook Messenger ad campaign.
• Strategy #3: Create a powerful video that tells your story.

Law Firm Marketing Idea #1: Create A Lead Magnet to Get Contact Information From High-Quality Prospects

Your prospective clients may not be ready to commit to you immediately. More often than not, they’ll be “shopping around” for the right law firm for their needs.

They’re also going to be looking for information:

• Do I need a lawyer? Why?
• I’m scared I’ll lose my case. What can I do to prepare?
• What does a lawyer even do?
• Can I settle my case out of court?
• Etc.

Your prospective clients will go through what’s called the “consideration” stage — when they’re looking for information from which to make a more informed buying decision.

If your law firm can help them make that informed decision in the form of a guide, blog article, video, or phone call, that’s awesome.

But you may not want to give your time (or resources) away for free.

That’s where lead generation comes in.

You’re likely already familiar with lead generation (just not by that name) — you’re already doing it whenever you get the contact information of a prospective client:

But what if they’re not ready for a consultation? What if they’re in that consideration stage — looking to inform themselves before diving into signing anything?

Create a resource (a lead magnet) that is super valuable, but still gets their email address.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough to Creating a Lead Magnet and Using it to Get Contact Info from Prospects

Step 1: Brainstorm what information your target clients would be interested in.

For instance:

• 10 Things to Look For In A [Your Specialty] Lawyer
• Want to Win Your Case? Here’s How to Prepare
• How to Determine If You Should Seek Restitution
• Work Injury Law and Liability in Layman’s Terms
• Do I Need a Lawyer? A Questionnaire
• A Guide to Divorce Law in [Local Area/State/Country]
• Why Trusts are Preferred Over Wills

Step 2: Re-use existing content, blog articles, or resources, and turn them into a comprehensive PDF.

If you’re already writing a blog or producing content for social media, don’t start from scratch.

Instead, compile five or so pieces (so long as they’re focused on your lead magnet’s topic) into a complete guide.

If you create your lead magnet in Google Drive or Word, you can export/download as a PDF. Better yet, get the content designed into an attractive and educational ebook for download.

Step 3: Create a landing page that email-gates your PDF.

Once your lead magnet is created, you need to put it behind an email-gate (the website addition that requires your visitors to provide contact information to access your valuable content).

You can either bring in a web developer to do this or use one of the many excellent landing page providers (Unbounce, Instapage, Wishpond, etc.) and manage it yourself.

Here’s an example of a law firm’s lead magnet landing page:

Step 4: Create an automated welcome email sent to everyone who downloads.

This is a bit trickier, and may require you to use a landing page provider or email marketing tool that has simple trigger capabilities.

Either way, you want to respond as soon as someone downloads your lead magnet.

Top Tip: Don’t deliver your lead magnet on the thank-you page. Instead, create an automated email that delivers it via email. This basically guarantees your new lead will open your first email. That gives you an incredible opportunity to thank them, introduce yourself, and begin the relationship.

Step 5: Create a Facebook ad campaign which drives prospective clients to your lead magnet.

Here’s an example of a Facebook Ad promoting a law firm’s lead magnet (in this case, a seminar):

(Source)

Step 6: Turn leads into clients in whatever manner you’re currently doing it.

Once you have a new lead, you can either send them a series of automated emails (if you’re using a marketing tool that allows you to do so) or follow up with a phone call.

If they haven’t requested a sales call, though, be sure your first contact isn’t overly salesy. Approach them by talking about the resource they downloaded to get the ball rolling. This establishes you as a trusted and concerned resource, rather than the ambulance-chasing stereotype.

Law Firm Marketing Idea #2: Create a Highly-Targeted Facebook Messenger Ad Campaign

Facebook Messenger Ads are an ad tool that allows prospective clients who see your ads to start a conversation with your law firm without booking a consultation, providing contact information, or even going to your website.

This results in a faster, more immediate, and more positive experience: a first impression that communicates your personality, care, and commitment to their case.

Facebook Messenger ads also help you stand out from every other law firm advertising in your area. And they enable you to engage with your prospective clients immediately — addressing their questions and prompting them to book a consultation, right from their phone.

Why Facebook Messenger Ads?

With 2.35 billion active users and unparalleled targeting capabilities, Facebook ads offer your law firm an incredible opportunity to engage with your prospective clients.

And (here’s the real kicker): at 1.61%, law firms have the highest average click-through rate of any industry:

Okay, Facebook Ads sound great, but why Messenger?

A Harvard Business Review study conducted a few years ago found that businesses that failed to respond within the first five minutes of a prospective client reaching out decreased their odds of converting them by 400%.

In other words, being first off the line will result in more cases for your law firm.

A few more numbers:

• 73% of clients prefer talking to companies via live chat rather than email. And 56% of people would rather message you than call you when they have an issue.
• 1.3 billion people use Messenger every month.
• 20 billion messages are exchanged between people and businesses every month.
• 78% of people using smartphones message every month.

A Step-by-Step Walkthrough to Creating your Law Firm’s Facebook Messenger Ad Campaign

Step 1: Log into Facebook Ad Manager and choose the “Messages” objective:

Step 2: If you haven’t yet, set up your Facebook Ad account.

Step 3: Make sure “Clicks to Messenger” is selected, then select the demographic details of your Facebook ad’s target audience:

Step 4: Select the detailed targeting characteristics of your target audience. Our recommendation is to choose a specific target audience which results in roughly 25,000-50,000 people — just for this first campaign:

 

 

Step 5: Select “Automatic Placements” and set a daily budget of $5 (for now):

Step 6: Select “single image or video”:

Step 7: Import your media and use Facebook’s “Trim” tool to shorten it to roughly 15-40 seconds:

Step 8: Choose a thumbnail.

We recommend you import a custom thumbnail, and use standard Facebook ad image best practices:

Step 9: Write compelling ad copy that uses emotion and personal pronouns to get a click:

Step 10: Edit the automated response, which will appear as soon as someone clicks “Send Message” on your ad:

Step 11: Set up tracking (if you haven’t already), and launch!

For a guide to targeting your Facebook ad (specific to the legal industry), check out this “Facebook Ad Targeting Cheat Sheet.”

Law Firm Marketing Idea #3: Create a High-Quality Video for your Website and Social Media

A high-quality video can change the way your prospective clients see you and increase the rate at which website visitors become clients.

They turn your faceless law firm into one with a name, personality and proven track record.

Let’s look at a few numbers:

• Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads and a 54% increase in brand awareness than marketers who don’t use video.
• Prospective clients who view your message and call-to-action via video are 95% more likely to remember it than prospective clients who read that message in text.
• Using videos on landing pages (like the lead magnet landing page we showed above) can increase conversions by 86%.
• 51% of marketers say video results in the best ROI out of all content types.

(Source)

A Real-World Case Study

The McCraw Law Group is a personal injury firm based in McKinney, Texas.

To increase their caseload, owner Lin McCraw decided to invest in a high-quality video in December of 2018:

McCraw and his team published the brand video on their website and various social channels:

In 2018, the firm was converting approximately 10 new personal injury cases each month.

In January of 2019, McCraw Law Group generated 24 accepted cases.

“The only change we made was the introduction of the brand video. […] While internet traffic volume has bounced around some, it has not been appreciably higher than before. We are getting more conversions with the same internet volume.”

Since the addition of the brand video, Lin and his team estimate they’ve seen an increase of at least 22 additional new case conversions compared to their previous average.

“Stated another way, the brand video gave us more than a 100% increase in cases signed the first month it was on the website.”

At this rate, these new cases are estimated to bring in roughly $158,000 in profit, “just from the cases generated this year we would not have gotten but for the brand video.”

There’s no denying it — high-quality video is a powerful conversion medium for any law firm with a story to tell.

A Step-by-Step Walkthrough to Creating a High-Quality Video for your Website and Social Media

Step 1: Determine the story you’re going to tell

To truly stand out with your video, you need to tell a story. You can’t just give your law firm’s history and expect people to respond.

Find something that will resonate with your prospective clients. Determine your unique value proposition — the thing that helps you stand out from competitors (and no, this isn’t your years of experience).

If you have 25 years of experience, all your competitor needs to do is show that they have 26, and you’ll be out a case.

However, if you have a story — a compelling reason you practice — they can’t compete.

Storytelling best practices:

• Tell your personal story
• Put your story in a local context (if applicable)
• Show similarities to your target clients, and how you empathize with their pain points
• Give a reason why you practice
• Appeal to your viewer’s emotions

Step 2: Plan out your video

You might expect that writing your video’s script would be step #2, but you’d be mistaken.

Scripts often fail to represent you as compellingly as you might think. Instead, your message comes off as stilted. You’re not a professional actor, you’re an attorney (a bit of a talker, right?) Our recommendation is to avoid the script and just start filming.

What you do need to decide, though, is what you want to feature in your video.

Planning best practices:

• Invite your clients you’ve had a positive impact on to share their experience. As a biased source of information (when it comes to how great you are), testimonials take the burden of proof off you.
• Film in multiple locations. This creates a dynamic and moving video. Consider locations which will resonate with your local clients (sports stadiums, a nearby park, town hall, etc).
• Plan out if you need additional content for your video, such as family photos or recordings. These can help tell your story, and can be added under voiceover.

Step 3: Film

We recommend investing in a tripod (and a stabilizer for dynamic shots), good sound equipment, and a high-quality camera for this. Alternatively, avoid amateur video creation entirely and invest in a professional, top-quality legal video team who knows exactly what they’re doing.

Whatever you do, avoid low-quality filming. A bad, amateurish video will be more damaging to your reputation and law firm’s brand than no video at all.

Filming best practices:

• Get B-roll. You don’t want your video to focus on your face the entire time. Film yourself walking around, talking to colleagues, etc. Then edit yourself talking over this B-roll.
• Show, don’t tell. If you can get previous, satisfied clients to appear in your video (or even actors), your video will be far more compelling.
• Speak slowly. You’re not a professional actor, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enunciate clearly, speak slowly, and show emotion.
• 75% of your video should be voiceover. It’s easier to control the audio one time than with multiple takes.

Step 4: Add music

This is actually one of the most difficult elements, as music isn’t as publicly available as you might think.

But music sets the mood. Without it, your video will flop.

A quick search on Google for “music for my brand video” will provide a few companies that provide the music you’ll need.

Music best practices:

• Choose music that makes sense for your video’s desired tone.
• Start your video with music overlaying your B-roll, then (after 5 seconds or so), begin your voiceover and lower the volume of your music.
• Bring the music volume up between sections.

Step 5: Edit

Editing provides the most extreme learning curve.

When you passed the bar, there was no section on “video editing.”

Nonetheless, good editing is the difference between a high-quality, professional video and an amateur one.

Editing best practices:

• Layer music over the top of your whole video, increasing and decreasing volume where relevant.
• Cut your B-roll into your A-roll (which will likely be you sitting behind your desk or another location in your office or community).
• Use your A-roll to emphasize emotional moments or focus points. Show your face when you’re communicating something important.

If producing your own video sounds overwhelming, consider hiring a professional and award-winning team like Crisp to manage it all. Crisp will handle everything from the discovery and creative storyboarding processes, to administering interviews, developing the storytelling, capturing B-roll, editing, music, and (most importantly) promotion of your video to your target clients.

Final Thoughts

There you have it: a complete walkthrough for three of the most high-impact marketing campaigns for law firms.

• Strategy #1: Create a lead magnet to get contact information from high-quality prospects
• Strategy #2: Run a highly-targeted Facebook Messenger ad campaign
• Strategy #3: Create a powerful video that tells your story

We’ve recommended these three strategies particularly because they work perfectly together:

Your law firm’s video can be used on your lead magnet’s landing page, on your homepage, on YouTube, and in your Facebook Ads.

You can also use Facebook Ads to drive prospective clients to your lead magnet, to turn them into contacts without overwhelming them with an immediate “sign this” prompt.

Whatever you do, do it well. Don’t just slap a lead magnet together and post it on your website, hoping people will find it. Don’t just throw $20 toward Facebook advertising without optimizing your campaign carefully. Don’t just grab your iPhone and start filming a video.

If you’re going to invest in marketing your law firm online, do it right the first time. You won’t regret it.

To learn how to effectively market your law firm online, connect with a Crisp Legal Marketing Strategist for a one-on-one strategy session today.