First and perhaps foremost, congratulations on opening your law firm. You took a big step and now it is time to propel it forward. In order to succeed you must get clients through your door. Thus you will NEED to market your firm. Before you can market you must have a brand. Don’t get stuck looking like everyone else.

Choose a brand that visually represents you and that will be easily recognizable. Unless you are a designer, you’ll need to hire someone to create your look. It is important for the logo to be professionally done otherwise potential clients will not take you seriously. The image you portray will have a big impact on your brand and the way it is ultimately perceived by others. Once you have your look established you are ready to market your firm.

DO YOU HAVE A WEB DEVELOPER?

You must have a website, it isn’t a choice. If you don’t have a website you may as well be invisible. The only people who don’t have websites are people who don’t want to be found, or those who aren’t sure they will be in business the next month. Unless you want to be equated with either of those two, start planning your website. Before you begin to create your website understand its purpose.

WHO AND WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO DO WHEN THEY GET TO YOUR SITE?

It is likely that you will want to provide information on your law firm, but you’ll also want to provide resources for your audience. Assuming you’ve launched your website, you can start with the low hanging marketing fruit. Make sure your law firm is listed everywhere. Any associations you belong to, online directories, etc. Make a list of all the places your site should be on and go down the list. This is going to take time but it will put you on the map, literally.

Before your get into the more advanced marketing you’ll want to to consult the Handbook on Lawyer Advertising. There you will find what you can and cannot do and which advertisements require approvals. Our recommendation is that you save a copy on your computer and print a hard-copy that is easily accessible.

After reading it thoroughly you’ll want to continue to consult it as you engage in new initiatives. Now that you’ve covered the basics you’ll want to start blogging, engaging on social media, creating videos, and putting out some press releases on your law firm. If you’re feeling really confident you might want to add digital advertising to your marketing to-do list. It is likely that you are already using social media to communicate on a more personal level, that’s good news because it means that you’re somewhat familiar with the actions and the overall usage of the social media platforms.

While it helps in maneuvering the social media sites, the tactics used on the personal page should not be used on your business page. You’ll want to create a business page for your law firm to use, next you’ll want to engage with the local community similarly as though you were at a party.

Things you can share on Facebook: curated content that is of interest to your audience, blogs you’ve written, interesting news, and other tips.

Be sure to set aside a minimum of three hours a week to dedicate to your Facebook page or it won’t yield any results. Because you worked with a skilled web developer, they’ll naturally have built a blog on your website. The blog will help get lots of traffic to your site and will help you have information to share with your social audience and through your newsletter. Set aside the time to write a minimum of one blog post per week containing a minimum of 500 words.

There is plenty of interesting stuff out there on your area of law, write about it! Don’t like something you read it the news? Write about that also! A blog is a more casual setting for you to share your thoughts. It is okay to share local events, or things that aren’t directly related to your law practice. The blog isn’t only a resource for your audience, it is a major component and contributor to SEO. If you want to rank above the competition, out write them.

All this wonderful content will be indexed and you’ll enjoy a greater presence on search engines. From blogs we can move on to newsletters. If your target audience forgets you exist they’ll take their business elsewhere. One way to keep you at the forefront of your audiences memory is to connect with them monthly. Sending out a monthly email newsletter is a great way to provide your audience with interesting information, and to keep your audience connected.

Yes, there are plenty of other marketing suggestions that I could give you, but as a new law firm these are the priority. You don’t want to spread yourself so thin that your messaging will lack consistency.

Keenability is a concierge-style full-service marketing agency in Boca Raton. Keen’s capabilities include branding, logo design, brand identity, advertising, online marketing, email marketing, media planning, website design and development, content strategy, social media, and search engine optimization. The best part we do it with a smile.

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