Potential clients are turning more and more to the internet to answer questions and solve problems. To take advantage of this, you should be using your website to answer prospective clients’ questions. This way, when that 70% turns to the internet to find an answer to their legal question, it’s you that they find.

The key here is to focus on what questions your prospective clients would be asking. This can be as simple as creating a list of the top 5 or 10 questions you get asked by new clients. Then create a blog post (or posts) featuring these questions and answers. You can further take advantage of this data by turning those questions and answers into short videos and posting them on YouTube.

What do potential clients do to find an attorney?

45% of people surveyed said they would ask a family member, another lawyer, an accountant, a business acquaintance,  or a friend first.

32% said they would start with an internet search

13% said they would start by searching social media platforms

Many lawyers in the past spent their entire professional career slowly building up a client base to support a successful law firm through word-of-mouth because that was the only way. Moreover,  even with a referral, they now turn to the internet to learn more about the law firm before making contact. Also, others are reluctant to refer a lawyer who has no online presence.

You can now leverage the internet to build your brand and reputation at lightning speed.

You can be there, right now, today, when they are looking. When clients have a legal problem, they need solutions NOW.

How do clients decide on which lawyer to hire?

82% of people said that specialization is the first or second most important thing to them.

77% of people said that experience is the first or second most important thing to them.

If you’re like many solo lawyers or small law firms (or even big law firms, for that matter), you likely practice in multiple areas of law.

So, how do you present yourself as a “specialist” in one specific area?

The cost of a website is so low that getting just one new client pays for itself. So, if you have multiple practice areas, there is no need to mention all of them on one single website. It just makes you look like a “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Set up a separate website for each major practice area instead. Why not?

And if your firm’s name is Jones & Smith, there is no need to use that name for your website. https://jones-smith-law-firm.com. It makes it harder for SEO and harder for search.

For example, if you’re marketing your criminal and DUI defense firm in Miami, consider branding your practice “Miami DUI Defense” with its own website (https_//www.Miami-dui-defense.com).

If you’re also marketing a personal injury law firm in Miami, consider something like “Miami Personal Injury Lawyers” (Miami-personal-injury-lawyers.com).

For marketing a family law legal practice in Miami, maybe something like “Miami Family Law Center” (https://miami-family-law-center.com).

Following this format can be beneficial in several ways. When a website is completely branded for a specific practice area and all of the content matches that practice area, it does two positive things.

First, it can give you an advantage in your search engine optimization efforts compared to other attorney websites with multiple practice areas. Second, it gives you an advantage in the mind of potential clients when compared to a competitor’s website with multiple practice areas because you look more like an “expert” or “specialist” without ever having to say so.

Also, as a bonus, by building an evergreen brand that doesn’t have your specific name on it, you’re building potential value in it for the future. If you decide to retire or practice in another area of law, you can potentially sell that URL and brand to another attorney or law firm.

What happens when you call an attorney and no one answers?

63% of people said that if they called an attorney during regular business hours and nobody answered, they would immediately call the next attorney on their list.

It’s amazing how few attorneys and law firms answer their phones. If a potential client calls and can’t reach you right away, most of them are moving on to the next attorney. Don’t spend time, money, and energy on marketing if you don’t have a good system in place to have a real person answer every phone call (at a minimum during regular business hours).

Also, minimize the use of automated call answering systems that require a person to press multiple buttons before being connected to a real person. People are impatient, and these systems can reduce conversion rates significantly.

See this article on using a Chatbot.