How To Position Your Law Firm For Effective Marketing?

As a law firm, have you ever paid attention to your positioning? Probably quite a few of you must be thinking, “Positioning” what is that? You are trained to provide legal advice and represent your clients in court, and you do a damn good job of that. Isn’t that enough? Sadly that is not enough. Your law firm is competing with others for business, and if you don’t position yourself strategically, you will only get what others are not willing to take on. In short, you are left only with the pickings, and that is no way to run a successful business.

Positioning

Positioning is how the clients, current and prospective, perceive you. It is the place occupied by the brand or company in their minds – what they think when your name comes up and how they differentiate you from your competitors. This is what positioning is all about. It’s about gaining a competitive edge by building a positive brand image.

If you want to drill down to the very root, positioning defines where your product, in your case the service, stands in relation to what your competition or other law firms in the market offer. Good positioning is that which makes your service unique and compels the users to engage you when they are in need of similar help.

Importance Of Positioning

Positioning is crucial because it quickly conveys your marketing message to the recipients and why they should choose you over others. With correct positioning, your law firm will be able to draw in more business, which means more chances to become bigger and better.

How To position Your Law Firm For Effective Marketing

Market positioning is a strategic exercise achieved through tactical thinking and a lot of hard work. If you wish to position your law firm for effective marketing, here’s how you need to proceed:

1. Find Your Niche To Build Brand Image – If you think that being a divorce lawyer (for example) is your niche, think again. Your niche has to be more specific, like a divorce lawyer who helps clients get an amicable separation or one who makes quick separation possible, etc. The point is to identify your USP (Unique Selling Point) and use it to build a specific brand image. 

2. Build Credibility – If yours is a new law firm that people have not heard about, you will need to work hard to build credibility. As a lawyer, you are well aware that in your field, building credibility takes time. Nevertheless, the surest way to do that is by starting on the right foot. Know your area of jurisdiction and practice area. Don’t lead people on with false promises. Let them know upfront of your credentials, experiences, cases handled so far, etc.

3. Become An Authority – Thanks to the internet, becoming an authority in the field does not take years. It just takes strategic planning. Start by building your online presence. Become an active member of related online communities, comment as a professional, write professional blogs, take on pro bono cases, talk in seminars, become a member of all online legal directories. These are all things that will increase your law firm’s visibility and set you up as a respected authority in the field. 

4. Rise On The Search Result Pages – No matter the kind of law you practice, when somebody needs you, they will search online. Therefore, you need to rank high on all the search engines for the right set of keywords that relate directly to your line of business. You need to concentrate more on SEO (Search engine Optimization). If necessary, hire a professional to tackle that as they know all the tricks of the trade and then some. Their experience allows your firm to climb up the search engines faster, thereby helping you gain an outright edge over others.

5. Ad Campaigns – Talking about SEO, you must have seen the ads that show before the actual results for the keywords. If not, pay close attention next time when you search for something on Google. If the SEO is not getting the desired result, you can still reach the first page by using AdWord campaigns. The whole idea is to reach the first page one way or the other because 90% of your prospects are not going to look beyond that page. You can give a further boost to your AdWords campaign by leveraging social media advertising. If you are there where your audience is, your chances of bagging new business increase exponentially. If not, someone else gains at your expense.

6. Exploit All Mediums And Platforms – Mediums here refers to all the ways in which your prospective clients are accessing the internet. It means your website in all its entirety must be able to wow the visitors, and it must be both desktop and mobile-friendly. And by platforms, we mean all social media platforms and any other jaunts that your kind of clients visit regularly. Make your reach as extensive as possible so that wherever they see your presence is hard to ignore. 

7. Invest In Public Relations – Being online does not mean PR is no longer necessary. It is still vital and can bring about a positive sea change in building the reputation of your law firm. Keep in mind print media is also digital these days, and hence, your PR, too, has to be digital, keeping in the same vein.

Everything begins with the right positioning. It has a direct impact on your business and will govern the way it will define the future of your law firm. If, until now, you have not paid much heed to it, now is the best time to begin. It may force you to redefine yourself and change a few things in the office, but it will place you more favorably with the masses in the long run. The clients will come to you instead of you having to go out looking for them. With that end in mind, remember it’s not a weakness to ask for help. So if you need professional help in positioning your law firm just right, contact the experts at   Oamii.