The legal field is always changing, and new technologies and changing consumer tastes mean you need to change quickly to stay relevant.
In this article, we’ll talk about some of the current trends in the field and how you can use better legal marketing to deal with them.
Increased Competition
As new players enter the market and established firms offer more services, the legal field is becoming more and more competitive. Because there is so much competition, it is hard for legal practices to stand out and get clients.
A better marketing plan can help your practice stand out by emphasizing your unique value proposition and showing how knowledgeable you are in certain areas of the law. Effective marketing can help you build your brand and reputation, making you the first choice for clients who need legal help.
Most Potential Clients will use their cell phones or tablets to find websites like yours- Image by cottonbro studio
This trend is caused by a number of things, such as the growth of legal technology, the way services are changing, and the rise of other companies that offer legal help. Because of this, it’s hard to stand out in a crowded market, which makes it difficult to get and keep clients.
Getting better with your marketing efforts emphasizes your unique value proposition, communicates your competitive advantage and positions you as the choice for clients who need legal help.
For you to effectively set yourself apart, invest some time to better understand what your target audience wants and needs. To do this, understand the user experience and the things that make clients decide what to do.
For example, clients may be looking for law firms that focus on a certain area of law, have a track record of success, or offer new ways to price their services. Law firms that can show they are experts in these areas and clearly explain what they can do for their clients are more likely to get clients and keep them.
Image by Dominika Roseclay
Content marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) are all ways you can utilize law firm marketing to beat the competition. Law firms can show their expertise and build trust with potential clients by making high-quality content that speaks directly to their target audience.
Social media platforms can help your firm build your brand and find new clients by interacting with your ideal target audience while giving them useful information and insights. Law firm SEO can make it easier for clients to find your site by making it more visible in search results.
The growing amount of competition in the legal field is a major trend that especially affects small law firms. By effectively communicating your unique value proposition and building your brand and reputation, you can use better marketing to fight this trend. In a crowded market, you can stand out to attract and keep clients by understanding the needs and preferences of your target audience and using effective lawyer marketing strategies.
Traditional Law Services are Becoming Less Popular
Traditional services are becoming less popular, which is a concerning trend in the industry. This trend is caused by a number of things, such as the rise of online resources and self-help tools and the way services are changing.
Old School Law is Dying – Image by Pixabay
Many people now choose to do simple legal tasks on their own, like making a will or filing for divorce, instead of hiring a lawyer. So, firms are having a hard time keeping their clients and making money from traditional legal services.
To stop this trend, your can work on improving your marketing to show people why they should hire an attorney. By putting yourself in the role of trusted advisor, you can show how valuable your services are and bring in clients who might have handled legal matters on their own otherwise.
One good way to market your business is to make high-quality content that directly addresses the needs and concerns of potential clients. This enhances your business development efforts because your content will be there when someone has a need.
For example, you can create blog posts, articles, and videos that explain the legal process, offer insights on legal topics, and give advice on common legal problems.
Another tool you can leverage is email marketing. By crafting helpful follow-up sequences that go out automatically to prospects who have registered to download a lead magnet, watch a special video, attend a webinar or something of the like, you can inch closer to becoming top of mind for potential clients.
You can also set yourself apart by having experts in certain areas of the law contribute with you or on your blog. By focusing on niche areas of the law, like intellectual property or environmental law, you can set yourself apart as an expert in your field and attract clients who need specialized knowledge and experience. This method lets you offer services that are hard or impossible for self-help tools or online legal resources to do.
Your firm can also fight the trend of fewer people wanting traditional services by offering new pricing models with more predictable prices and billing based on the value of the service.
By offering flat fees, contingency fees, or other alternative fee arrangements, you can be more clear and predictable with your clients, making your services more accessible and appealing. You can market these pricing models by emphasizing their commitment to providing value-based services and by teaching clients about the benefits of alternative fee arrangements.
The fact that traditional services are becoming less popular is a big problem for the legal industry. But you can fight this trend by getting better at marketing, focusing on specialized expertise, and coming up with new ways to price your services.
In a market that is getting more and more competitive, you can attract and keep clients by showing how valuable your services are and how knowledgeable you are in certain areas of the law.
Online Presence Getting More and More Important
In the digital age we live in now, it’s imperative to have a strong online presence if you want to stay competitive and bring in new clients. This is because more and more people are using the internet to research and compare services before making a choice.
Your Online Presence largely determines your lead flow success – Image by Pixabay
If you don’t have a strong online presence, potential clients might never notice you and go to another law firm with a stronger online presence. Having a weak online presence makes lead generation a gazillion times more difficult.
To fight this trend, put money into building a strong online presence that helps potential clients understand your brand and what you can do for them.
One good strategy is to offer a professional law firm website that is easy to use and has a lot of information about your firm, its lawyers and services. The website should be set up so that search engines can find it easily. Local SEO can help you get discovered easier through search engines in your immediate area. This will make it easier for people looking for legal help online to find you.
You should have a website and a presence on social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Social media gives you a place to talk to potential clients and show off your knowledge by sharing useful content. This can help build the your brand and make you known as an expert in your field without you needing to be salesy or pushy.
Video marketing for attorneys can pack a big punch and put you on the map quickly. Since Google owns YouTube, online video is one of those marketing trends that has stood the test of time as a mandatory staple of your law firm marketing plan.
While video creation and optimization is beyond the scope of this, creating consistent, high quality videos is easier today than ever before. Most current cell phones can record HD video that is clear to give your potential clients an idea how you communicate and a glimpse into what it might be like to work with you.
If you struggle to come up with interesting content ideas, artificial intelligence (AI) can lend a big hand. Tools such as ChatGPT can create appealing headlines, marketing calendar topics, article content, video scripts, YouTube short scripts, Google Business Profile text, and it can even suggest potential images to include on your profiles.
There are several AI image generators that can create royalty free images you can use in your marketing and on your online profiles. If you’re looking to update your website design or your Google profile, these types of images can serve as placeholders until you get real images to include on your site.
Online reviews and testimonials are also an important part of a strong online presence. Many potential clients use online reviews to figure out how good your services are and what your reputation is like. When someone has a good experience with you, you should actively request positive reviews and testimonials on popular review sites like Google My Business, Yelp, and Avvo. With software, you can automate a lot of this to happen in the background while you actively work current cases.
Lastly, think about spending money on online advertising as part of your law firm marketing to get more clients and raise your profile. This can be done through pay-per-click ads (such as Google Ads), ads on social media (Facebook or LinkedIn), or display ads. Online advertising is a great way to reach potential clients because it lets you target specific groups based on their demographics, interests, and search habits.
In the end, a strong online presence helps you stay competitive and bring in new business. To get more cases, simply spend money on a professional, easy-to-use website, interact with potential clients on social media, encourage online reviews and testimonials, and consider online advertising. By using these strategies, you can effectively communicate your brand and value proposition, build trust with potential clients, and stand out in an increasingly crowded market.
Need for Creative Pricing Models
Due to changing client expectations and the need to stay competitive in a crowded market, innovative pricing models are becoming more and more important in the legal field.
Traditional Legal Billing Leads to Unhappy Clients – Image by Maria Orlova
Traditional ways of billing, like hourly rates, are often seen as unclear and hard to predict, which makes clients suspicious and unhappy. Also, clients are becoming more and more interested in value-based billing options that fit their needs and budget.
To go against this trend, be willing to try out new pricing models that give clients more clarity, predictability, and value.
One good way to do this is to offer flat fees for certain services or packages. This way, clients know right away how much they will have to pay for your services. This makes things more clear and predictable, which can help clients trust you and build long-term relationships.
Contingency fees are another creative way to set prices. They are often used in personal injury and other types of litigation cases. In this model, the law firm doesn’t charge by the hour, but instead takes a share of what the client gets back. This method puts the law firm’s interests in line with those of the client, since the law firm only gets paid if the client wins. This can give the law firm more reason to work hard to win the case in an efficient and effective way.
Subscription-based pricing is another new way of pricing that is becoming more and more popular in the field. In this model, clients pay a monthly or yearly fee to get a wide range of services, instead of paying for each one as needed. This model gives clients predictable costs and more freedom, since they can get legal help whenever they need it without worrying about getting a big bill.
Lastly, value-based billing is a pricing model that takes into account the value of the services provided instead of the amount of time spent on a particular task. Instead of just billing for hours worked, this method focuses on getting specific results for the client, like a successful settlement or a win in court. Value-based billing requires you and the client to work together and talk a lot to make sure that everyone is on the same page about the expected results and the value of your services.
Innovative pricing models are becoming more and more important in the legal field as traditional services become less popular. If you are willing to try out new pricing models like flat fees, contingency fees, subscription-based pricing, and value-based billing, they can give your clients more clarity, predictability, and value. By giving clients pricing models that match their expectations and needs, you can build trust, create long-term relationships, and stay competitive in a world that is changing quickly.
Remote Law Services
The growing demand for services that can be done remotely or virtually is another trend that is affecting the legal field right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up this trend because many firms had to quickly change to remote work environments to keep their employees and clients safe.
Remote Communication Continues to Improve – Image by Diva Plavalaguna
Because of this, law practices are using more ways to work remotely or virtually, like online consultations, virtual court appearances, and e-discovery. This trend has big effects on the field because it means you need to invest in new technologies and change how you do business to support virtual and remote services.
To meet the demand for virtual or remote services, build strong online platforms clients can use from anywhere in the world to get legal help. This means spending money on video conferencing tools, online case management systems, and other technologies that allow you and clients to work together and communicate from far away.
You must also change your law firm’s marketing strategy to meet the growing demand for services that can be done online or over the phone. This includes letting people know they can get high-quality services online, creating targeted advertising campaigns that reach potential clients who may be looking for virtual legal help, and using social media and other digital marketing channels to raise awareness and bring people to your online platforms.
The trend toward virtual or remote services is a big one in the industry, and law firms need to change their business models and strategies to meet this demand.
You can deal with this trend and position yourself for long-term growth and success by investing in new technologies, building strong online platforms, and changing your digital marketing strategy to meet the changing needs of your clients.
Summary
In short, the legal field is going through a lot of changes that affect firms of all sizes. By utilizing improved legal marketing, you can set yourself apart, bring in new clients, and stay competitive in a market that is always evolving.
Lastly, a legal marketing agency can also help you deal with the problems facing the industry today. For example, they can help you highlight your unique value proposition, teach consumers about the benefits of hiring you, improve your online presence, adopt new pricing models, or add remote capabilities.