To Market, To Market to Buy a Fat . . . Law Practice

I work in an office with a number of different attorneys. I like my office-sharing arrangement for several reasons, but most especially because I get to bounce ideas off others and get suggestions for building my practice.

One of the regular discussions we have is about bringing in new clients. If you're already a "superman rainmaker," then "help" my bounce rate, and move onto this site. If you're like most of the lawyers in my office, then you're an average to less-than-average rainmaker, and you're questioning what needs to change.

For whatever the reason, most lawyers I talk with say that they don't have time to market their firm. This is shocking, because without marketing your firm dies. Remember, there's the practice of law, and more importantly, the business of law.

Honestly, I don't have a simple answer, and I can't claim any special SEO, rainmaking, or "superman marketing" skills in internet marketing. However, I will disclose that if I don't receive at least 1 new /potential client phone call per day, it's a bad day. So, in no particular order, here they are:

Get a web presence.

I use a combination of things (some discussed below), but most importantly are my blog and my website. I'd like to think that having a "sub-domain" makes my site stand out in Google, but the truth is, I screwed up when I designed it, and now I'm stuck because I like it. Note too, that for the month of October, the blog received 969 page visits (there's a screw-up there too, if you're interested, check the comments), and my website averaged 4 visitors per day (165 total). That's successful.

For both the blog and website, I use Wordpress as a base with a customized Headway Theme. I wrote this post about my experiences and satisfaction with Headway. Headway did in 2 months, what I couldn't do in 12.

Claim Your Google Business Listing

My listing is number 3 (sometimes 2) on each of my target search phrases. In the last 30 days, my Google listing had 50 "actions", with 12 of those resulting in direct clicks to my website, and 3 new clients (a 6% return on a $0 investment).

The Google business listing works for you, with about 5 minutes of actual labor time. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Social Media

Get involved in "social media." At a minimum, you should have a firm fan page (become our fan) on Facebook, a Twitter account (my account's here), and a LinkedIn page (here's my page).

While I don't believe these have a strong effect on your overall marketing success, they certainly don't hurt. I like the interactions I can get with people, and the ability to reconnect with friends.

If you're not sure about Twitter, just Google "using Twitter for marketing" and you'll get a number of hits. Again, if you're hoping to get clients from Twitter, you're on the wrong path. Use Twitter to connect with others and share experiences, build relationships, ask questions, and gather news.

Blog

The only proven way I've seen to get noticed by Google is to update your content regularly. This means having fresh information, targeted to those you're seeking to attract.

Therefore, in my opinion, the only true way to do that is through your blog. The blog will add fresh content to your website that Google's little web minions can hunt for, devour, and vomit to the Google search servers for the world to find.

Pick a topic that relevant to your practice area, and explore relevant issues and problems. Perhaps a new case or statute came out that's going effect your clients. Write about that. The world is open for you.

"Kiss the Babies"

There's something to be said about the importance of "kissing babies." You cannot be successful if you're not out there meeting people in person. You can't build relationships and form networking bases if other attorneys and professionals don't know who you are. You build trust by mingling with others.

Don't become a "hermit attorney" who locks himself into the office and forgets to chat with others.