An astonishing 92 percent of law firms collapse.

As a lawyer who’s planning to start their own practice or already started one, it’s easy to be distracted by this high failure rate. Implementing an effective law firm marketing strategy is one of the steps you can take to enhance your firm’s chances of succeeding.

Although some lawyers take the DIY marketing approach, hiring legal marketing companies is the best move. After all, your time is best spent doing attorney duties, not marketing.

But how do you choose a marketing agency that’s worth your money? Read on to find out!

Define Your Law Firm’s Marketing Goals

The first step to hiring the best lawyer marketing service is to have a good understanding of your marketing goals. What do you want to achieve?

Of course, the primary marketing goal for any law firm owner is to get more clients. However, this is typically a result of many other smaller goals. For example, if one of your goals is to increase traffic to your law firm’s website, you want to convert most of those visitors into clients.

As such, your goals need to be specific and measurable. Examples of ideal goals include:

  • Identify your law firm’s target audience
  • Improve your law firm’s digital reputation
  • Increase your website’s domain authority
  • Establish yourself as a subject matter expert
  • Increase the firm’s social media presence
  • Increase brand awareness in the local community.

Once you’ve defined your marketing goals, you’ll be in a better position to identify a marketing agency that’s best suited to pursue those goals. For instance, from your marketing goals, it’ll be clear whether you need an agency that specializes in inbound marketing or outbound marketing.

Draw a Shortlist of Legal Marketing Companies

Now that you know your marketing goals, it’s time to create a shortlist of about five firms you’d potentially hire. The big question is: where do you find the agencies to put on your list?

Start your search online. A simple Google search with the phrase “law firm marketing agencies in X” (where X is your city or town) is enough to lead you to a page with some of the top-rated agencies in your region.

It’s essential to ensure that all the firms that make it to your list specialize in law firm marketing. If a firm caters to clients in diverse industries, it may not offer you the best service.

In fact, you can go further and find a niche marketing agency. There are law firm marketers that focus on specific niches in the legal industry, such as immigration or criminal law.

Another way to find marketing firms to add to your shortlist is to ask around. If you know fellow law firm owners, you can ask whether they’re using any marketing service.

Check Your Shortlisted Firm’s Websites

Browsing a marketing firm’s website will give you an idea of the quality of their work. Ideally, you want to see a well-designed website that loads quickly.

Look at the service pages. What marketing services do they offer?

Is there a contact page? What about an about us page that tells the story of the business?

Are there any published case studies? This will give you an indication of some of the campaigns that the firm has handled and the results it achieved.

The gist of this is if a law firm has a website that looks hastily put together, don’t expect them to offer you quality services.

Evaluate Online Reputation

These days almost every business has an online reputation. Look up the online reviews of your shortlisted marketing agencies and see what past clients are saying.

Plenty of positive reviews is an indication that an agency delivers the results it promises. Negative reviews mean client satisfaction is low, so you’re better off avoiding that firm.

Set Up an Initial Consultation

At this point, you’d have narrowed down your shortlist to a few firms. But if all the firms you started with are still contenders, an initial consultation will give you a clearer picture of who to hire.

Most reputable marketing agencies offer free consultations, so if you’re being asked to pay, that’s a red flag.

Start by sharing your marketing goals with the marketing specialist you’ll speak to. They should offer an initial assessment, which can help you determine how knowledgeable and experienced they are.

Ask about the range of services offered. If you’re hiring a digital marketing agency, you may want various digital services, including web design, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click advertising.

It’s even better if those services are tailored to your niche. If you’re an immigration firm, for example, the best agency should know a lot about immigration attorney PPC, immigration attorney SEO, and whatnot.

Choose a Firm with a Satisfaction Guarantee

Many marketing businesses are good at making big promises to hook in clients. Unfortunately, not all firms fulfill those promises. This is why you need to select a firm that offers an unconditional, 100 percent satisfaction guarantee.

But with a satisfaction guarantee, you’ll be within your rights to ask for a refund.

Market Your Law Firm the Right Way

Effective marketing is key to growing a thriving law firm. Hiring legal marketing companies enables you to get the best services while you focus on what you do best. Use these tips to find the best agency for your firm.