The last thing a lawyer expects to need experience in is marketing. However, running a law firm is much like running any other business. You need to appeal to potential clients and get their attention.
One way to do so is with a direct marketing campaign. More specifically, you can generate traffic to your website through legal direct mail marketing.
Here’s how to plan and launch a law firm marketing campaign on your own and when to call in for support.
What Is a Direct Marketing Campaign?
As the name implies, a direct marketing campaign involves getting your message directly to your intended audience. It’s one of the most active ways to advertise your practice and is often one of the most successful.
Some examples of direct marketing include messaging potential clients on social media pages or sending mail directly to their real-life addresses.
What doesn’t count as direct marketing is television commercials and highway billboard advertisements. While these can help you reach your audience, it doesn’t give them a direct way to interact with your law firm. They’re also a more passive and hands-off type of marketing.
Types of Direct Law Firm Marketing
There are two main types of direct marketing that lawyers can utilize for lead generation. These include legal direct mail marketing and social media marketing.
The common factor with these two types is that your firm gets into direct contact with legal clients to offer your services. It also provides an opportunity to answer any questions they may have.
Legal Direct Mail Marketing
Direct mail marketing is a great way to expand your reach and bring new traffic to your law office. Mailing lists can help you target specific persons of interest and get your messages to the people who are most likely to respond.
In addition, you can personalize your messages for better results. Address potential clients by name and discuss their specific needs. Appeal to their sensibilities and show that you understand their position.
Social Media Marketing
Social media websites and apps serve as some of the best areas for direct marketing opportunities. People can easily spend hours a day scrolling through these pages and get exposed to a lot of different advertisements. However, it’s the targeted ads that end up standing out the most.
Targeted ads can reach people in two ways. First, they can see ads for your law firm among all the other standard ads that get sent their way. Second, they may follow your firm’s social media page if they’re interested in learning more about it.
Some of the top social media sites to prioritize include Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. TikTok is another place to gain a lot of attention, especially now that they allow for longer videos.
Developing Your Law Firm Marketing Strategies
Marketing for law firms isn’t as simple as sending out messages to a list of random potential clients. You need to create a marketing plan, first.
What kind of promotion is this, and who is your target audience? Do you know the best ways to reach them and what you’ll say? And what days and times will bring the results you desire?
Decide on the Type of Promotion
First of all, you need to decide what you’re promoting. If you’re a law firm that specializes in family law, that’s easy enough to decide on. Firms that provide more general services will need to pick one specialty to promote, though.
Choose Your Target Audience
Next, clearly define your target audience. This may be done based on age demographics, geographic segmentation, or through social media. What matters is that you figure out who you’ll get the most responses from.
For example, your main target should be people who are in need of immediate legal services. They may have been arrested or sued recently. These are the individuals who are most likely to respond positively to something like direct mail marketing.
Find the Right Channels
Decide how you want to perform your direct marketing campaign.
The problem with telemarketing is that you need a dedicated team to make phone calls. That’s not always a possibility if you’re a smaller law firm.
However, email marketing allows you to automate the entire process. Take a day to set things up and it’ll work on its own.
Tailor Your Message
The main benefit of a direct marketing campaign is that you can speak directly to potential legal clients. You’re not throwing advertising out there and hoping to reel someone in. Instead, you’re targeting specific individuals who may need your assistance.
As such, tailor your message to highlight what the customer should do to reach you. You can even incentivize them with discounts and the like.
Set a Schedule
Send your messages and calls out at the right time for the best results. One of the best times to make cold calls is right before lunch and in the late afternoon. However, email marketing may work better early in the morning when people first check their inboxes.
Check the Data
Finally, pay attention to the metrics behind your campaign. They’ll show you how successful it was, what areas it lacked, and what kind of changes you can make in the future. All of this will help you save money on your next campaign and generate more leads.
Marketing for Law Firms Made Easy
Managing a direct marketing campaign is difficult enough, especially when you’re going up against other law firms in the area. However, it’s made much more difficult when you lack the manpower or marketing department to perform one. That’s when you hire outside help.
CaseHunter is your personal client referral service that can get your law firm in front of people who need your assistance. We cover areas such as Virginia, Maryland, Florida, and much more.
Contact us to learn more, and tell us about the types of cases you’re interested in.