12 Reliable Ways for Legal Startups and New Law Firms to Find Clients

If you’ve recently launched a legal startup and you’re looking for ways to attract new clients, you might be discouraged by the amount of competition out there and the patience required to get the ball rolling. When you don’t have much experience or feedback to lean on as a firm, it can be easy to feel like you’re the least appealing option on the market. However, getting over that initial hump isn’t as difficult as you might think, especially if you’re utilizing the right resources and putting the right people to work on your behalf.

1. Use a Legal Marketing Service

Every business that wants to facilitate fast expansion and simplify the process of earning their first clients should consider the benefits of working with a team of professional marketers. However, landing legal clients is not like soliciting leads in any other industry, so it will help to work with a company that specializes in provided marketing services geared towards the legal sector. One example of a popular legal marketing team is Just Legal Marketing.

2. Conduct Ongoing SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another essential tactic that every new business should be using to attract more website visitors. Remember that every visitor is a potential lead, so the more targeted traffic your site receives, the more likely you are to land more clients. While the field of SEO is broad and goes far beyond what we can cover today, here’s how to do it on your own in a nutshell: conduct keyword research, and post content that caters to those keywords so that people who are searching for your services will find them. That’s the gist of it, but before you get started, reading a book or taking a course on the subject is advisable.

3. Invest in a PPC Campaign

A pay-per-click campaign can be very effective at putting your ads directly in front of a large amount of viewers fast. If you’ve ever seen the “sponsored” result at the top of the Google search results, then you’ve seen the results of investing in PPC. You can bid on certain keywords or phrases, and when a person searches for that keyword, your ad will appear in the sponsored section of the search results – right at the top of the page. Google and many sites offer PPC advertising platforms that can be effective for attracting targeted leads.

4. Advertise on Local Television Stations

Paying to have a television ad produced and aired can be quite expensive, but it is easily one of the most effective ways to create widespread brand awareness fast. Your commercial should start by sympathizing with the viewer about their case type, often asking questions that will get them to consider the value of your proposition. For example, you’ll often see legal commercials asking questions like “Have you recently suffered an injury at work?” By asking questions like that early in the commercial transcript, you can catch the attention of the viewers who might genuinely need your services.

5. Put an Ad on the Radio

Radio ads are similar to television ads in their ability to make your company known to a large number of leads within a specific area. Radio ads are generally much cheaper than TV ads, and in some cases, they can be just as effective, so this is often an ideal starting point in a local advertising campaign. Your radio ad script can approach the value proposition in the same manner as your television commercial script in terms of leading into the ad with a question.

6. Post an Ad in the Newspaper

Newspaper ads are becoming less effective due to the declining number of people who read the local paper, but it can still work to get your legal startup a few clients. One upside of advertising in the newspaper is that readers are generally in the older demographic, many of whom are in need of legal services more than the younger generation, so you’ll have a more primed audience.

7. Hire a Social Media Manager

If your legal startup isn’t active on social media, then you’re definitely missing out on potential leads, because sites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are some of the most effective marketing platforms in existence. However, as the owner or a legal startup law firm, you might not have time to take care of a busy social media campaign while also running a business. Hiring a social media manager will give you a well-focused social media campaign without distracting you from your daily duties.

8. Sign Up for Online Business Directories

Listing your company in business directories like Google and Yelp is an absolute must for any startup. Having your legal office listed in Google Maps is also a good idea because it will be positioned at the top of the search results along with other Maps results. Be sure to write a detailed description about what your company does and how it can help potential clients. Also, make sure to keep all contact information updated and synced across all directories, as outdated or incorrect contact information could hurt your brand’s reputation.

9. Use Local Keyword Targeting

Targeting certain geographically oriented keywords can put your legal startup or law firm in front of the people who need your services the most. For example, if you have an entire section on your website devoted to “personal injury lawyers in Los Angeles County,” then those pages are likely to pop up when someone searches for that exact phrase. The more high-quality content you have that contains or addresses the targeted keyword, the more likely it is that your site will gain a higher search engine ranking for that query.

10. Specialize in a Low-Competition Niche

Specializing in a very specific legal topic or case type can help you establish your brand as an authority in that niche. When you combine geographical targeting with less popular niches, you can often find completely untapped markets in certain areas.

11. Use Video Marketing

Creating a YouTube channel and posting informative videos can help you showcase your skills and knowledge while also letting you build a local subscriber base. Plus, YouTube videos tend to show up at the top of Google search results, so posting videos with headlines that contain keywords will also be advantageous for your SEO efforts.

12. Encourage Referrals

While you don’t necessarily want to provide direct incentives in the form of commissions or kick-backs, you could ask for a recommendation to friends and family from your satisfied clients. You could even offer discounts on future legal services for clients who bring you successful referrals.

Your First 10 Clients Will be the Toughest

If you’re still not confident that the process is going to be easy or fast, try not to worry too much about your current situation, as things will gain speed after your first 5-10 clients due to word of mouth, positive reviews, and a more solidified reputation. If you heeded all 12 of the tips given above, then you should have also generated a fair amount of brand awareness, so prospective clients will have more trust in your firm when considering your services.