How To Make Your Solo Law Firm A Media Center

Last month, social media in  legal community was buzzing about the Clio Cloud Conference 2016. Though I didn’t get to attend, I’ve enjoyed reviews of the event like this one by Victor Li for the ABA Journal.

I found the highlights of the keynote speech by Gary Vaynerchuk particularly insightful. Especially his advice to think of yourself as a media company first and law firms second.

This insight was a lightbulb moment for me. It was definitely the way I viewed legal marketing for solo law firms, but he put it in the right words. Well almost right because I think of my firm as more of a media center than a media company.

Statistics vary on the number of times a prospect must see your brand before they make a purchase (anywhere from 3 to 20), but all experts agree that there have to be multiple touch points. Being a media center means strategic legal marketing via all of the channels used by your target market.

Hubs Of Your Solo Law Firm Marketing Media Center

Content

Your content should be the center of your media center. Content is information. It’s the highly relevant and useful information you create or curate to share on your blog, social media, webinars or other marketing channels.

The greatest content in the world is irrelevant if you don’t have a strategy that lays out your reason for sharing the content, who you want to reach, what you are going to publish, and where it will have the most impact.

Social Media

Social media is a very important part of your media center. It’s the primary way you will share your content.

Unfortunately,  most lawyers don’t understand social media enough to do it well or don’t understand it’s importance. This lack of knowledge is costly.

Internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts and Facebook alone is used by 72% of all adult internet users at least once a month.

Failing to tap into social media means you are missing out on this large pool of prospective clients.

Social media is especially useful for solo law firm marketing because it costs nothing to start. While you can use paid advertising to grow your audience, it’s certainly not required.

Need examples? You can follow Joleena Louis Law on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Video

Video is becoming increasingly important in law firm marketing. Adults in the US spend an average of 1 hour and 16 minutes each day watching video content on mobile devices. According to Hubspot, enjoyment of video ads increase purchase intent by 97% and brand awareness by 139%.

Many solos hesitate to produce video because of costs, but you don’t have to break the bank to take advantage of video marketing. Live streaming is very popular and all you need is a smartphone. Or you can DIY a video ad using a site like Animoto or hiring someone on Upwork or Fiverr.

Need more ideas? Check out this post on how to use video to market your solo law firm.

 

Paid Advertisement

When it comes to paid advertising, Facebook is where it is at for solos. It’s a lot more affordable than AdWords and, if done correctly, yields a great return on investment.

You can use to get people to join your email list, attend webinars and events, or to like your social media pages.

The best part of Facebook Ads is the ability to really target a specific audience. You can get reach a specific age, location, interests, profession, income level, relationship status and more. 

Email Marketing

Some think that email is dead, but that can’t be farther from the truth.

According to campaignmonitor.com:

Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.

Email subscribers are 3 times more likely to share your content via social media than visitors from other sources.

72% people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media.

If you get people to voluntarily sign up for your list, provide value, and refrain from sending too often, email marketing can be a valuable tool.

The key to successful email marketing is segmentation. Every email should not be sent to every subscriber. I segment my list into several categories such as past client, current client, prospective client, referral source, child support, child custody, divorce, etc.  

A person interested in a prenuptial agreement won’t be interested in an email about child support. By segmenting you ensure that you are providing interesting and valuable information and the subscriber will look forward to seeing you in their inbox.

A shift in the legal field is coming, and law firms not willing to adapt are going to be left behind.

Do you think treating your solo firm like a media center is a good idea? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.