Marketing for Law Firms: how to cut through the noise

With almost 10,000 registered solicitor firms in the UK, according to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and potential clients able to compare firms instantly with the click of a button or a few swipes, the legal market is becoming increasingly and fiercely competitive as firms battle for work.

So, how do you ensure your message cuts through the noise, speaks directly to your target audience, and converts leads? We take a look at some of the best, most efficient, and cost-effective tactics that law firms can deploy to ensure that they get the most from their marketing strategy.

Think omnichannel, not only channel

It pays to be where your clients are looking, and (trust us) they’re not just looking in one place. The general rule in marketing is that a potential client will need, on average, seven or eight touchpoints from a service provider before making a buying decision. These touchpoints are any interaction the client has with your firm – on and offline – and could include:

• Social media posts
• Google Ads or other pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
• A blog
• A piece of PR in their newsfeed, local paper, or business publication
• Industry awards events
• Legal directories – The Legal 500, Chambers & Partners
• Your landing page in a search results page (SERP)
• A testimonial or review eg Google reviews, Trustpilot, Feefo, ReviewSolicitors
• An email or call when the client fills out a contact form
• Meeting a colleague from your firm at a trade show, industry conference, expo or networking event
• Hearing a team member on a video, podcast or seeing them on a webinar

Whilst not an exhaustive list, it demonstrates the range of channels individual lawyers and the firm as a whole could employ to speak to your target audience. Your next step is to evaluate the channels available to you and decide:

• If they are relevant to your firm and service areas
• If your clients are already engaging with and indeed sharing those channels

Being everything, everywhere, all at once is only effective if that’s how your clients behave, which is unlikely. If you find that your prospective audience doesn’t listen to podcasts, open email campaigns, or engage with you on certain social media platforms, don’t put your time and energy into them. Instead, focus on a selection of relevant channels and build an integrated marketing strategy around them.

Understand your clients' problems and create content that addresses them

So, now that you've identified your integrated, omni-channel mix, how do you decide what messages to put out on those channels? In the same way that it is important to choose the right, relevant channels for your marketing strategy, it is also key to make sure that what you say via those channels is hyper-relevant and speaks directly to your target audience, demonstrating that you understand their legal problems and – more importantly – as ‘thought leaders’ that you're exactly the right firm to fix them, to such an extent that they don’t even need to look anywhere else for a solution.

Developing a content strategy doesn’t mean picking ideas out of thin air; use the tools you have at your disposal to create relevant, engaging content that is of practical value to your prospects’ situation. Some places to start could be:

• Using your CRM system to identify what sorts of cases you deal with most frequently and making sure that you have content that captures new clients as they search for them e.g. landing pages, blogs, social media posts etc.
• Collating and re-sharing reviews from Google and other third-party review sites that highlight your expertise in the service areas where you want to drive leads.
• Working with existing clients to pull together case studies for your website or asking them to film a short video to be shared on social media that demonstrates how you helped (or even better yet, continue to help) them solve their legal queries. 53% of marketers said case studies and customer stories delivered their best leads.
• Repurposing static, evergreen (but usually un-exciting) content such as PowerPoint presentations from events and webinars as engaging infographics or even animations.

There is no need to start from scratch when creating an effective content marketing plan; most of the time, you just need to re-invigorate the content goldmine you’re already sitting on. Then, ensure you distribute the right messages using the most appropriate channels.

Short-form video = long-form engagement

The thought of getting in front of a camera may strike fear into the heart of even the most tenacious and confident lawyer, but the impact of short-form video cannot be underestimated as part of a successful law firm marketing and content strategy. According to Hubspot, short-form videos (i.e. those under 60 seconds) have the highest return on investment (ROI) and average engagement, so if you’re looking for a quick, interesting way to grab attention, short-form video is definitely an avenue to try.

And don't be scared of platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. It's not all dances and pet videos; you can use these platforms to showcase the ‘humans’ behind what to many can often seem like an intimidating legal profession, deliver short, snappy industry updates, and help your audience learn something new that is of value to their situation.

When it comes to creating video, we’ve said this before, and we'll say it again: creating video doesn't always mean a large-scale videography project with multiple cameras, boom mics, and a full day out of the office; for engaging short-form videos, you probably already have many of the tools you need in your pocket.

Most smartphone 'selfie' cameras are high-quality enough for a 30-60-second video, and you can use your headphones or earbuds as a pretty solid microphone. This may go against what you think about video needing to be 'polished,' but it all adds to the authenticity of what you're saying. It also means that you can very quickly turn around highly relevant, up-to-date content about issues affecting your industry and your audience without waiting weeks for edits, keeping you and your firm front of mind.

Build your brand

You might be the best family law solicitor in your area, consistently winning significant cases for your clients, but if you're flying completely under the radar compared to your competitors, you’ll struggle to maintain momentum and keep winning work.

Building your brand isn’t just about making sure that your fonts and colours are consistent (that’s branding); it means making it clear to your potential clients and referrers who you are, what you do, and why they should instruct you over your competitors. Your content marketing strategy and integrated approach all fit into this, ensuring that your messaging is consistent, and your value proposition is clear, and not just to your prospective clients, but also to other professional referrers such as accountants, financial planners, barristers, expert witnesses, other lawyers, and of course satisfied clients – your best advocates.

And don’t forget about your employer brand, in an extremely competitive market you’re not just competing for clients, you’re competing for the best talent too. Your brand and messaging should also showcase why your firm is the one to work for compared to your rivals: showcase the calibre of work you do, and the clients you have, and you’ll have the pick of the talent to keep your firm growing.

Watch what you E-E-A-T

An appropriate mix of channels, high-quality content, consistent messaging, and a reputable brand are all elements that feed into the Google’s constantly evolving search algorithms.

Since 2023, Google has been focusing on its updated E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, trust) framework, which it uses to rank all content and choose what is shown in SERPs. The newest addition to the framework – experience - ranks online content based on whether the creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience of the topic in question. Hyper-relevant content that shows off your firm's expertise therefore all works towards boosting your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO).

Equally important to both search engines and humans alike is the element of trust (the T, in E-E-A-T). Building trust in your brand through testimonials, case studies, and appearances at relevant industry events proves to humans (i.e. your target audience) that you know what you're talking about and have the results to prove it and to robots (i.e. search engines) that the claims on your website are legitimate.

A firm that consistently dedicates time and effort embracing Google's framework and focuses on quality, relevant, authentic content will be rewarded with improved search rankings. With 70% of B2B research happening online, it makes sense to 'watch what you E-E-A-T.'

Convert clicks into clients

You’ve put in all the work to direct potential clients to your website with quality, relevant content, a focus on E-E-A-T and a solid brand, but you can't force them to get in touch…or can you? A solid conversion rate optimisation (CRO) plan can help you to ensure that your website visitors are incentivised to 'find out more', 'click here', or ‘get in touch’ and keeps them engaged with your website instead of frustrating them and seeing them move onto the next firm on their shortlist.

Well-executed CRO means that your website's user experience (UX) works for you, not against you and generates a higher return on investment (ROI) by capturing leads as they land on your website. A CRO strategy can include analysing your website through user journeys and employing innovative tools such as heat maps and A/B testing to help you understand why your clients are – or are not – converting and put a strategy in place to ensure higher conversion rates.

Get in touch

Keeping up with the best tactics for your firm and staying ahead of the competition is essential in developing and executing a successful marketing strategy. With such a rapid pace of change and so many different options, marketing can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re doing it alongside the day job. As your outsourced marketing partner, we can help you hit the ground running.

Given our legal industry experience and backgrounds, we understand our clients' target audiences. We can keep on top of the latest trends in legal marketing and use them to maximise your spend so that you can focus on the day job.

For more information or a free consultation, call 0333 050 6015 or email hello@calpartners.co.uk.