When managing a law firm, one must balance service delivery with business development. As your law firm is starting up, frequently more time and resources are devoted to marketing your law firm versus actually performing legal work. Hiring a full-time marketing or business development director is usually cost prohibitive – so how can you effectively market your law firm and still get the legal work done for your clients?
Hiring an external marketing agency allows you to employ marketing specialists who can successfully generate and nurture leads while you deliver for your legal clients. A marketing agency essentially serves as an outsourced marketing department, but is much less expensive and a more effective option than hiring full-time internal marketing staff. You employ a virtual marketing staff that expands/contracts based on marketing initiatives.
As you search for the right marketing agency for your law firm, make sure the firm has legal industry marketing experience. Make sure they are asking questions about your unique value proposition and ideal customer profile. Ask for references to other law firms they have worked for in the past and request specific success stories/outcomes from their marketing efforts.
Typical marketing tactics for a law firm are SEO, email marketing, blogging, article distribution and social media marketing. A combination of these marketing tactics will help you differentiate your law firm and attract your ideal customer.
