Lawyers play so many important roles in our society, it is easy to forget that they are not supermen or superwomen. Their specialized skills set them apart — but marketing is a skill set all on its own, one that law school does not cover. 

Small practices, mid-sized firms, even huge legal enterprises often stumble in their marketing efforts, throwing large sums of money at outdated or half-baked marketing schemes that produce lackluster results. 

The digital revolution has changed everything about marketing. Attorneys stand to benefit from that revolution just as much as, if not more so than, any other business. Today’s law firm deserves the benefit of today’s marketing techniques—the things that are working right now to build brand awareness for law firms of all sizes.

Here are fifteen lawyer marketing ideas that will make the difference in 2021.

Lawyer Marketing Idea 1: Create local landing pages for your core services

Most law firms, like most companies, use an outdated approach to the “services” pages on their website. They are cursory inclusions to the site index that provide bullet-point content, maybe a few links.

However, the specific services you offer are actually the things potential clients are looking for. They aren’t searching for “Smith, Smith, and Partners”—they are searching for “Best Real Estate Contract Lawyer in Albuquerque.” 

To treat your “core service” pages as throwaway pages is to miss out on a huge opportunity. The service page may be the first page within your site a potential client finds. It may be the only page in your site index the potential client sees. It needs to make an impression, and it needs to convert in its own right.

What does it take to make a service page convert? Treat it like a landing page, with salesmanship, urgency, and a call-to-action.

“Call our office now.” “Fill out this form and an associate will contact you.” “Click here to book a consult.” Whatever works best for your firm—those are all great calls to action.

Don’t scrimp on the content either. Try to include everything your user might want to know about the core service on the page, in a logical and digestible fashion, without too much legalese, no big intimidating paragraphs.

These “service landing pages” also need to pitch you and your firm, in terms of expertise and experience with that core service. This may feel redundant—this information is on your “about us” page, after all. But remember that the client may not ever see your “about us” page! The point is to collect them as a lead while they are still on that page, since it may be the only chance you get.

Lengthy service pages also have the advantage of boosting your SEO, stocking your site index with voluminous, keyword-rich content.

Lawyer Marketing Idea 2: Configure a chatbot on your website

Chatbots may seem simple enough, but they are actually a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI). A chatbot resembles chat support, but instead of a human being sitting on your side of the chat, a computer algorithm attempts to interpret the user’s input and guide them based on its assessment of their needs.

At their best, chatbots can direct users to resources that answer their questions, without consuming expensive hours of customer service labor. If even a modest percentage of chat inputs can be answered by AI, it saves a law firm significantly on human resources.

Of course, a frustrating chatbot can turn a user off from a law firm altogether. This kind of brand damage is the opposite of what we want to achieve with marketing. Chatbots should not act as impenetrable gatekeepers of employee time. If your potential clients need to reach you, it pays to be reachable.