August 28, 2019

Setting Your New Law Firm Apart From the Competition

In the third blog of our exclusive Attorney Marketing Network series dedicated to new lawyers and their quest for success, we are examining proven ways to set your new law firm apart from the competition.  In this blog post, you will learn:

• How to evaluate the highly competitive local attorney market
• How to become — and remain — competitive in your local market
• The importance of providing personalized client services and support

At the Attorney Marketing Network, we are here to help develop your success by providing tips, guidance, and proven practices for increasing your online exposure to help your law firm stand apart from others in your market. Let’s get started!

How To Evaluate The Highly Competitive Local Attorney Market

Depending on where your offices are located, taking a piece of the competitive market share will require different approaches in obtaining online success through improved rankings. Start with a competitive analysis that will effectively help you determine how your law firm stands apart:

• Outline your main competitors that have similar practice areas, target audiences, and who share a similar size with your firm
• What is each competitor's current market share?
• What are their current marketing strategies?
• What type of media is used to promote their services?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Where do they rank in an online search?

This analysis will outline the potential opportunities they make available to your firm. Separately, list the attributes that set your firm apart to focus on your law firm’s content strategy and online persona development, so you can build a direct strategy to compete on a level playing field. At the Attorney Marketing Network, we understand that this is not exactly what you signed up for. After all, you are an attorney. You create solutions for clients in need. You belong in a courtroom. That’s where we come in. We work with lawyers who want to become — and remain — competitive, but do not have the time to focus on the online marketing strategies that will get them there. We can help you get there, faster.

How To Become — And Remain — Competitive In Your Local Market

There is a lot that goes into becoming a competitive player in your local attorney market, and the first step begins with analyzing and comparing your competitors’ online content. The different types of content they have on their website, practice area and resource pages can include:

• Blog Posts
• Case Studies
• eBooks
• FAQs
• Featured Articles
• News
• Press releases
• Slides and PowerPoints
• Videos
• Visual content
• Whitepapers

Analyzing your competitors’ content can help you determine what opportunities you have to help outperform them. At AMN, we provide quality content that is unique to each attorney we market, and this means something different for each of our clients. Your firm, practice areas, location, and brand identity play a meaningful role in how we write your content and market your law firm. Moreover, we analyze your competitors’ design and local SEO structure, so we know which keywords and online strategies will allow us to boost your ranking on the search engine results page.

The Importance Of Providing Personalized Client Services And Support

There are many things we can do to help boost your online ranking, including intelligent website design and development, SEO for lawyers, PPC and targeted online advertising, and review management, but boosting your rankings, driving traffic to your website, and increasing your leads will not convert clients without your firm implementing a personalized client services strategy. When individuals are searching for an attorney is it because they have an urgent need, and time is of the essence to capture their case. They may be hurt, in financial trouble, or ready to address a major change in their family dynamic, and no matter what type of practice you are in, they have made the concerted effort to seek legal help. We can get them to your website. We can even get them to contact your office. But it is up to you to convert the client by providing a compassionate approach to understanding their overall needs. For instance, we have a client who was receiving hundreds — literally — of phone calls each month directly from their website’s tap to dial feature that we implemented. This feature allows attorneys to track the calls made directly from their mobile website to their office, so they know when and where the leads are coming from. The data alone was impressive, and while we and the client were pleased with the uptick in leads, we learned that they did not have a committed in-house source to handle the increased call volume. This meant prospective clients were being placed on hold or were unable to get the answers they needed right away, so often the conversion opportunity was abandoned before it had a chance to be successful. The solution was two-fold. First, the client needed to hire an employee whose sole responsibility was to screen the incoming leads with a compassionate approach to solving the prospective client’s problem. Clients need to feel heard. That their potential case matters to your law firm. They need confirmation that a dialog is in place and that they will be able to speak with an actual attorney. As partners in all our clients’ ongoing attorney marketing efforts, we took it upon ourselves to supply the second part of the solution — at no additional charge to our client. We created a process that would allow our office to train the new employee in developing these calls into qualified leads while tracking the information in an online system we built specifically for this need. We created a script to guide the new employee through the question and answer process, so the client’s needs were appreciated throughout the screening process. All prospective clients believe their case is the best case, and it is up to your law firm to make them feel as though it is the ONLY case in your office. When they become a client, you will obtain more than financial compensation, but a client advocate who will sing your praises online through reviews and testimonials that are imperative to your overall success. Other touchpoints that can be beneficial to your brand can include, but are not limited to:

• Meeting clients in their homes, offices, or neutral places to discuss their legal needs
• Providing free consultations to evaluate the merit of their case over the phone or in person
• Developing empathy for the type of clients you represent based on your practice areas and their demographics
• Implementing customer relationship management tools that provide a cloud-based information retention center, so you, or anyone in your firm, has the client’s complete case in front of them in seconds

Personal attention makes everyone feel special, and when they have a legal need, concentrating on only their case while you are speaking or meeting with that person is the most important part of your client conversion process. Ready to learn how we can help develop your law firm’s complete online marketing solutions to help you stand apart from the competition? Contact us today for more information about our services. Have you read parts one and two of our exclusive Attorney Marketing Network blog series dedicated to new lawyers? Catch up now on:

• Part One: Should New Attorneys Join An Existing Law Firm or Start Their Own Legal Practice?
• Part Two: The Best Practices for Marketing Your Law Firm Startup
• How to Introduce Your New Law Firm