Marketing your Law Firm in a Weak Economy

Money is getting tighter, and your retainers may be getting smaller, but that doesn't mean that lawyers should ease up on their online marketing efforts. If anything, now is the time to increase your exposure online.

Adapting your Online Content for the Economy

Normally, you would focus the content on your website or profile around the types of cases that you focus on. Nowadays though, it may be worthwhile to modify your approach a bit. One of the core shifts is to start publishing useful, informative content that actually allows potential clients to solve their situatiuation without hiring an attorney...

Why would a lawyer want to waste time publishing free advice?

The bottom line is, if someone can't afford to hire you right now, they're not going to. What they are going to do is spend some time researching online to find out what they need to do to solve their problem on their own. Whether it's immigration applications, bankruptcy forms, employment filings, etc, they're going to find out how to do it themselves. So why not help them by making some common problems easier for them to handle on their own?
Now I'm not talking about going on Q/A forums and posting answers to legal questions. I'm talking about publishing helpful, comprehensive how-to's, forms, process overviews, etc for searchers to find on your site, blog or profile page(s).

The Benefit for You: Branding

The economy will come back, and so will your retainer fees. If you've built up some trust/authority/likeability with consumers during the down economy, you will be rewarded when dispoable incomes return.
Whether they like it or not, branding works, and people want to work with a lawyer they like. If they've stumbled accross your site before, and stuck around long enough to research, your name will register. They may have even bookmarked the content they found so they don't lose it.
Sooner or later some of these visitors are going to have another legal problem, or a friend will. Since you've made that impression however many months ago, you'll have a leg up on everyone else.
Finding and choosing a lawyer is not easy, and if someone's already made a positive connection with your firm, it makes it much easier for them to choose yours over all the other available practices.

Just a little free advice, in case you ever have some extra income lying around for legal marketing services.

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