Legal industry professionals need to market the variety of services their firm offers including:
- contract negotiations
- workers’ compensation
- wrongful termination
- wrongful death
- estate planning
- criminal cases
- and a willingness to serve as the punchline for many jokes.
Okay, one of these isn’t something that a law firm needs to know how to market; most people understand the concept without marketing. In all seriousness, it’s important that lawyers consider more than just the representation of their clients. Lawyers also need to consider how they represent their services.
You might be thinking you’ve covered everything by running TV ads, newspaper ads, and hanging law degrees throughout the office.
Well, whoop dee legal doo, It’s 2017. Marketing in a 1990s style fails to build a viable client roster. It’s time to modernize office protocols so you can do more in court and at the negoiating table.
Ensure that your practice incorporates the following 2017 legal industry predictions to represent your firm’s strengths to full capacity.
Laws Change Slowly, Marketing Moves Quickly
Starting in 2008, the legal market began to become more of a buyer’s market.
Clients now command a significant amount of control in terms of what they want from lawyers. The internet provides them with a way to research laws and the services they require. They do this from the ease of their homes, Googling a multitude of lawyers.
Another massive change in the legal market is that consumers now expect lawyers to serve them with the easy efficiency that banking, retailers, and doctors do. They want better technology that brings faster, more personalized results. It may seem odd to think of serving clients this way, but they prefer it.
These expectations drive the market in a way that lawyers like Charlotte E. Ray, Clarence Darrow, or Thurgood Marshall would never imagine.
Since it’s a buyers market, law firms need to give potential clients something they want to buy, converting them to loyal clients.
That means digitizing, pronto.
Digitize to Prioritize
The 2016 Forbes article “Law Firms Risk Digital Extinction” by Falguni Desai says,
Ever since the credit crisis of 2008, law firms have struggled to regain their prestigious positioning… Now, digital business models, marketing technologies and data analytics are creating a new imperative to transform and adapt or be left behind.
Nine years later, many law firms still lack an ideal position. Factors such as
- outsourcing
- corporate counsel buying habits
- outdated billing methods and rates
continue to hinder progress.
Digital provides a way to regain prestige. Combined with effective management, digitizing reduces non-essential administrative activities that result in non-billable work. This increases billable hours.
Another legal industry negative: 2015 research reveals that at least seventy percent of law firms have a client relationship management (CRM) on-site, but most of them don’t use it to its full capacity, if at all. This puts them behind the times. It also puts them behind the law firms that know how to market in this new era.
A CRM puts all the info about clients into an easy to navigate and updated digital format. It permits the anticipation of existing client needs and enables the tracking of patterns that save clients money and heartache. It helps law firms stay relevant to clients, so to speak, by reaching out with helpful reminders, friendly emails, and industry updates. It even sends congratulations when a client achieves an accomplishment or enjoys something like a wedding. A CRM monitors all this and more. It functions like a highly personalized assistant who knows everything.
CRMs and other digitization also allow law firms to monitor lawyers who bring in the most clients, win the most cases, and achieve the most billable hours. Digital resources provide a guideline that improves the staff’s work ethic as well as increases profits. Their gains establish loyalty to the firm.
Intellibright knows CRMs, and you should, too.
Content Matters Matter
Content matters but for some law firms, it doesn’t even exist.
If your firm doesn’t publish relevant content then clients lack confidence in your capabilities when comparing your firm to an internet full of other firms that publish
- website blogs
- blogs on webzines and other legal sites
- social media posts.
Ask yourself why you aren’t keeping up with the competition.
A lot of law firms fear that they might appear unprofessional with a strong online presence. Some law firms feel that new marketing techniques might make their institution look too flashy. After all, the law takes a long time to change.
Remember, times have changed.
This means legal marketing must change, too. Years ago, social media might have seemed like a venue for lawyers just starting out. Now it looks like a firm’s just starting out if it lacks an impressive online presence.
In addition to a website, law firms need to regularly update
- Facebook.
All of these platforms allow legal professionals to post about the work they do, news pertaining to the law, current events, and to show a more human side to their practice. With a social media following, law firms gain potential clients that might one day convert to actual clients and keeps them in touch with existing currents.
The people that comment on or share your content also share their personal experiences with your work. Strong testimonials go a long way toward earning new clientele. This type of advertising is hard to gain from an organic perspective.
Look, you’re a legal professional, right?
Then take advantage of this “new” marketing style.
Don’t Fuddy Duddy Your Way into Bankruptcy
If you’re calling a CRM a new innovation, then you’re already behind the times.
Same thing with social media.
We don’t even need to link to anything to show you how wrong you are. All you need to do is a Google search. You’ll see what your competitors do to keep their law practice current.
Intellibright can do that search for you if you call us to set up a time to talk.
We’re happy to show you all the billable hours your firm’s losing. We’ll do it during a free consult, and once you hire us we won’t charge you until we provide the first conversion. Find out more by clicking here then call Intellibright at 888- 704-7677.
