4 Ways Attorneys Can Connect With Today’ s Legal Consumers
By Stephen Fairley, CEO, Rainmaker Institute
Two-time international bestselling author, Stephen Fairley is CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, LLC, the nation’ s largest law firm marketing company specializing in marketing and lead conversion for small to medium law firms. Over 18,000 attorneys nationwide have benefited from learning and implementing the proven Rainmaker Marketing System. Over the last 16 years, he has become a nationally recognized legal marketing expert and been named,“ America’ s Top Marketing Coach.” He has spoken numerous times for over 35 of the nation’ s largest state and local bar associations and has a large virtual footprint with his highly successful Rainmaker legal marketing blog and has over 200,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. For more information, please visit www. TheRainmakerInstitute. com or call 888.588.5891.
Last year, an Avvo survey of 1,000 consumers who purchased legal services provided some important insights into what attorneys need to know about the modern legal consumer. The Avvo study offered a three-point description of today’ s legal consumers. They are:
Informed— access to legal information online has made consumers more savvy than ever about the options available to them. They read legal articles, research their particular legal issue, research an attorney and visit legal forums online.
Connected— people now have immediate access to other legal consumers online and they are reading reviews about others’ experiences with attorneys. An overwhelming 95 % said that online reviews were important when choosing a lawyer. Of those who received a referral, 45 % still researched attorneys online.
Picky— legal consumers know there are a number of different ways to purchase services, including online forms, fixed fee options, etc. They are increasingly attracted to unbundled services, an a la carte solution for their legal issues. In fact, 76 % said they prefer fixed fee billing arrangements.
To connect with legal consumers today, attorneys must:
Have a strong online presence. When it comes to online marketing, you should focus on two things:( 1) go where your potential clients are, and( 2) implement what you can measure. You have to be able to measure your success( or failure) to discover what works for your area of practice and to be able to build on those successes. When it comes to social media, Facebook is a must for consumer attorneys. One of the most powerful features of Facebook is ad targeting, the ability to layer targeting options on top of one another to create a highly specific audience. This enables you to target locally and get your ads in front of people who need your services now. Facebook ads are low-cost, so you can experiment to see what resonates with your potential clients and then repeat what works.
Encourage online reviews. Attorneys need to create a process for making reviews happen. Always look for those moments in your relationships with clients to create a review opportunity – when you have won a case for a client, when you have helped someone avoid litigation – all opportunities for you to generate a great review. Make it easy for clients to review you by emailing them a link to post a review on Google.
24 CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL Spring 2017 National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys