Law Firm Marketing: Outbound vs Inbound

Law Firm Marketing At-a-Glance

Chances are your law firm is utilizing some form of traditional marketing. Whether it’s the occasional TV spot or Yellow Pages ad, you’re probably wondering how many more dollars you’re going to throw at advertising. You simply need to see the ROI to justify the spending.

Take it from us, traditional marketing is not dead and can still get you quality cases. In fact, the new age of marketing, known as “Inbound Marketing”, can help your overall law firm marketing.

Inbound Marketing 101

Inbound Marketing is a way of marketing through multiple digital platforms such as social networks, email, testimonials, case studies, white papers, e-newsletters, eBooks, blogs, videos, and other types of?Content.

Incorporating this type of marketing is imperative to law firm marketing as it draws clients to you in a natural way. It also happens to be relatively low-cost.

For example, if an individual suffers an injury, a blog with descriptive content on personal injuries in your area could possibly lead that injured person directly to your law firm.

This means that your law firm or law practice can attract clients by creating and distributing Content in the marketplace that remains available to your target audience whenever they need it.

The Familiar: Outbound…

Traditional outbound tactics used to rely on shouting “buy this, buy now, buy buy buy!”. After the birth of Inbound Marketing, many consumers started to realize how ‘irritating’ this older form of marketing was and started fast-forwarding through commercials and jumping on the do-not-call list.

However, Outbound Marketing hasn’t died, in fact it is making a huge comeback thanks to Inbound Marketing. Marrying the two is usually the most effective tactic (we have attorney clients who are successful at leveraging TV advertising with Inbound Marketing).

Smart law firms are now using Content and highly targeted Inbound tactics to learn more about their Prospects. They are leveraging the data gleaned from analytics to learn what exactly is attracting, nurturing and ultimately converting prospects into quality cases.

For example, setting up a Twitter account isn’t just done to prove you’re socially savvy. It’s a tool to listen to your Prospects and to gain valuable insight. A blog about car accident injuries isn’t just to show you know how to handle car accident victims, it’s to inform your Prospects and give them a reason to contact you (not the other guy). This insight is then amplified through traditional marketing forms (TV, radio and calls). Essentially, Inbound Marketing helps narrow targeted Prospects and then allows you to amplify targeted messages through more traditional forms.

More About Law Firms and Inbound

Inbound Marketing is crucial for law firms, lawyers, and attorneys for the identical reason it is essential for other businesses around the world. You only have so much time in a day. Trying to contact and speak with each potential and existing client everyday is nearly impossible!

With Inbound Marketing, your content will do the talking for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. As a result, even when you are ?off? your Inbound Marketing is ?on,? continuing your work for you.

A?recent survey,?of over 1300 attorneys, carried out by the Internet?s biggest professionally geared legal Q&A round-table and expert directory and the world?s largest blogging network cited that:

• 81% planned to spend the equivalent or more on marketing in 2012
• 24% spent over 75% of their marketing budgets online
• 54% use social networks to increase their presence
• 56% read and track blogs for professional expansion

These figures will consistently rise annually, and luckily for law firms, they are beginning to catch-on to the true power of the Internet and how it can affect their business.

Creating an Inbound Marketing Campaign:

• Create your target audience (Personal Development)
• Decide how you should portray your law firm in a way that clients will understand
• Include the various ways you can create Content that backs up what your client needs and the services you offer
• Know where your type of client spends time online so that you can place your Content in the right places
• Develop an Inbound Marketing plan that centers on the continuous, fervent delivery of important, up-to-date content
• Think of ways to attract clients into your email list once they visit your site

Be Sensible and Use both

Be realistic in your expectations of your law firm marketing strategies and efforts. Keep in mind the costs of both forms of marketing. Invest in more content creation if you aren’t seeing much success from your Yellow Pages or TV spots. Find ways to learn about your Prospects, it’s the best way to attract them – via entertainment, information and ongoing engagement.

You may know your way around Traditional, but perhaps you’re new to Inbound. Here’s a complimentary eBook for more information on how to utilize Inbound Marketing in your law firm marketing:






Click on the book for your free download.

Marketing Matters Inbound?is an inbound marketing firm specializing in online conversions, content?strategy, call-to-action mapping and traditional media placement. Our experience in?B2B digital?marketing?and traditional media allows us to deliver results through a strategic media mix. We believe in?aligning and merging marketing and sales/operations for optimal return on your marketing investment.