When it comes to starting a business, few can be as challenging as a law firm. In any case, you will have to deal with the turmoil of managing a team and sorting out your finances, but when it is a law firm you are managing, you have to deal with a few more hiccups on top of that. For starters, most people don’t even like attorneys, because they think they are greedy and cold, which is not often the case. More importantly, it is a cutthroat field with fierce competition.
This is why you need to make your law firm stand out. These awesome tips will help you do just that.
Invest in a marketing strategy
If there is one thing that separates law firms from one another, it is their marketing strategies. Referrals aside, most people hire attorneys based on how they found them, which is basically your marketing strategy. Back in the day, this used to mean newspaper ads and TV spots. But now, it is all about online presence. If a person wants to hire a lawyer, they would simply open Google, and type ‘divorce attorney’ or whatever it is they are looking for. This is why investing in a decent marketing strategy is a must for law firms, not exactly a luxury.
When you put money into search engine optimization, for starters, this will help you rank higher on search engine results, which is how people can find your website and in turn, hire your services. Strategies like keyword placement and content optimization will improve your ranking, and more people will be able to find you. When you upgrade your website’s loading speed and navigation, your conversion rates will increase because visitors will be encouraged by the impeccable design and easy navigation. It is strategies like these that can make your law firm stand out among the competition.
Hire the right people
While marketing is how you show leads to your doorstep, the quality of your staff is how you keep them. Perhaps the most important thing you need to do for your law firm to stand out is hiring the right attorneys to do the job. If you take the lawyers at Sevey Law, who specialize in personal injury cases, they emphasize and clarify how important it is that you hire the correct lawyers for your specific case. This matter because when a lawyer specializes in an area, they are more likely to be able to get through the details of your case in a more thorough and reliable way.
Legal proceedings can be quite the nuisance for most, and this is why they put a lot of stock into hiring the right attorneys in the first place, so they could ensure minimal trouble until the case is over with. If someone suffers a personal injury, for example, they need to hire experienced personal injury attorneys who specialize in this type of case, because they would know how to deal with insurance companies and get their clients maximum compensation.
Work on your billing system
One of the biggest problems most people have with law firms is their costs. While some would charge reasonable fees for their services, others would charge a fortune. This is why you need to provide a fair, transparent billing system for your client so you could stand out among the competition. Ask your clients what works best for their circumstances and offer them a variety of payment options so they could feel at ease dealing with you. For instance, personal injury attorneys almost always charge contingency fees, meaning they don’t get paid until they win the case; if they don’t win it, they don’t get paid. Flat fees also work pretty well for some people. So, depending on what branch of law you specialize in, offer people payment options they would be comfortable with.
Focus on more than money
One of the best ways to stand out among the competition is by offering your clients more than just legal services in exchange for the fees they pay. Offer them a certain value in dealing with you; make them believe that by hiring your law firm, they are doing themselves a favor. You can do that by improving your billing system, as explained above, but you need to understand that it is not just about money. Show your clients that you actually care about them, and ask them what their goals are so you could work on achieving them. Be honest and transparent with them from day one, and they will love you for it.
Making your law firm stand out certainly isn’t easy, but it is worth the trouble because once you find the right formula, you will be getting a steady flow of clients. If and when you show your leads that you are different from the other firms, they will start singing your praises and referrals will be frequent, as well as people who read those clients’ reviews on your website and social media pages.
