Building a sustainable legal practice begins with differentiating your law firm from the competition, which requires a strategy that allows you to focus on what makes your attorney(s) stand apart.
Before you can tout your strengths, and improve your weaknesses, you must build a strategy that allows your law firm to visualize future growth using a dedicated law firm business model.
Table of Contents
Develop A Dedicated Law Firm Business Model
Clients have expectations when partnering with a lawyer — no matter your legal concentration — and developing a business model for your law firm begins with successfully solving your clients’ legal issues. After all, you are an attorney first.
To align your legal business model with their expectations, you must:
- Determine your law firm’s mission, value, and goals by developing a business plan
- Research your target audience and the legal trends that affect their objectives by creating a client persona
- Perform a competitive analysis and adjust your marketing strategy around your findings
- Outline key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor your law firm’s overall health
The legal industry is fluid, which means it is constantly changing. Your target audience can expand or contract without notice, and evolving laws can open new practice area doors that create a legal niche that did not exist a year ago.
Developing a business plan will help create an identity and brand that keeps pace with your clients’ persona, allowing your law firm to stay in front of their needs, so you can consistently attract new business.
Develop A Business Plan For Your Law Firm
A recent legal trends report found that attorneys spend only 29% of each workday on billable time. The report lists another 33% of the average attorney’s time is spent on finding new business, with the balance of their day devoted to administrative tasks.
Developing a law firm business strategy can help attorneys devote more time to increasing revenue, beginning by outlining an actual business plan. Writing a law firm business plan forces attorneys to think about tough topics they may not have considered before opening their practice, and it serves as a management tool that becomes a roadmap for growth.
When developing your law firm’s business plan, document honest answers to the following questions:
- What are your core practice areas?
- Do you have, or can you develop, a legal niche that will allow you to stand apart from other law firms?
- What skills and experience do you bring to your practice?
- What is your current target market?
- What type of clients do you want to represent?
Next, your law firm business plan should include a complete outline of your:
- Legal practice overview
- The mission statement that defines your law firm’s purpose
- Short-term objectives and milestones over the next three to five years
- Long-term, major goals, outlining your complete vision
The more you know about your law firm’s mission and goals, the easier it will be to build on your strengths.
Create A Client Persona
Creating a client persona allows you to define your ideal clients, so you know exactly what your target market looks like.
Identifying your target market can begin by answering simple questions that include:
- Where do your prospective clients live?
- What do they do for a living?
- What is their financial status?
- What legal issues do they need help with?
- What kind of service do they expect from their attorney?
When law firms develop a client persona, they can tap into their prospect’s pain points and develop strategies that provide solutions, which converts contacts into signed cases.
Perform A Competitive Analysis
It is impossible to gain a clear view of your law firm’s objectives without understanding exactly where you stand among your legal competitors.
Performing a competitive analysis allows you to learn what practice areas you have in common, and how your firm’s strengths can gain an advantage over their practices.
Here’s how:
- Locate your competitors through an online search, and record the details from up to ten different law firms to compare and contrast your experience, focuses, and client bases
- Outline their practice areas, and develop a strategy to incorporate services where they fall short
- Analyze their strategies and pricing structure, which can include free consultations and/or no recovery/no fee arrangements
After you have researched your competitors, you should be able to discover what makes your law firm unique, so you can capitalize on your differences and overall strengths.
Outline & Monitor Your Law Firm’s Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators, or KPIs, are the measures you choose to gauge your law firm’s overall health and performance over time.
They can include:
- Website Traffic
- Phone calls, emails, and form submissions
- Referrals
- In-person or phone consultations
- Converted clients/new cases
- Client satisfaction rating
- Positive reviews and testimonials
Measuring your progress allows your law firm to identify how your strategy is working, how competitive you are, and whether you are reaching your financial goals.
What’s more, is that KPIs can motivate and inspire actions that allow your firm to shift metrics as your priorities, practice areas, and clients evolve.
Take Advantage of Law Firm Technology
Whether it is accounting software, or client intake software designed to improve your client satisfaction, cloud-based and attorney-focused software allows your law firm to backup files, update cases, and keep track of each of your client conversations in the office or from any mobile device.
Streamlining your law firm’s management practices will leave more time to develop your caseload, so you can focus on client victories and increased revenue.
At Attorney Marketing Network, find a consistent approach to high visibility through our solution-based services today, including:
- Local SEO for Lawyers
- Legal Content Marketing
- Personal Injury SEO
- Family Law SEO
- Criminal Defense SEO
- Top 10 Best Law Firm Website Designs
When you are ready to take the next step in developing more traffic, contacts, and converted clients, contact our experienced professionals at the Attorney Marketing Network to learn how we can further develop your law firm’s strategy for growth and success today.
Related link:
