Attorney Tips: 5 Ways to Attract and Retain Client Interest

It’s not enough for a law firm or attorney to understand the importance of having a marketing strategy, or even implementing one. It’s important to assess and optimize a marketing strategy to ensure that it contains all of the necessary elements to attract and retain interest from potential clients. The good news is that incorporating attractive elements into an existing marketing campaign does not have to be difficult. 

Capturing client interest relies strongly on two ideas; credibility and relatability. Clients want to know that an attorney knows what they’re doing, but also wants to feel like the attorney cares about their clients on a personal level. These ideas can be easily communicated by making intentional choices in regard to marketing content, including landing pages, articles, videos, and more.

5 tips for capturing interest from potential clients include:

1. Be professional. First and foremost it’s important to maintain a high degree of professionalism at all times. While the need for a “professional” impression varies by industry, potential clients expect lawyers and those who work from them to exercise consistent, top-notch professionalism at all times. Putting an emphasis on professionalism can help build a law firm’s credibility, and can give potential clients the reassurance they need about an attorney’s professional authority to become actual clients. Using concise, authoritative language free from typos and slang is a great way to express professionalism.
2. Be personal. It can be easy for law firms to focus entirely on professionalism while forgetting to be personable. People seeking legal help want to know that a real human being with feelings, passion, and life experience will be helping them with their case. A great way to express the personal side of an attorney or law firm is to make the attorney’s background accessible. For example, introductory videos and articles that discuss an attorney’s personal life, background, and reason for practicing law can help a potential client relate, and trust in the human goodness of a potential representative.
3. Be specific. It’s important to be specific about the type of content you or your firm choose to share. For example, if your firm represents car accident victims, does your available content delve in detail into the process car accident victims need to follow, or is only a brief overview of the process provided? If there is a specific mistake you have seen car accident victims make regarding their case, or a specific question your firm often receives, have you provided content specifically targeting that issue in detail? Providing specific content for marketing purposes not only shows that you know what you’re doing, but it also shows potential clients that you understand what they’re going through.
4. Be compassionate. One of the most effective ways to attract and retain interest from potential clients is to express compassion for the stress the individual in question and their family are experiencing. A law firm may come across as thoroughly professional and well-versed in their industry, but if the attorneys do not come across as compassionate, the firm is likely to miss out on clients to firms that are both professional and compassionate toward their target market. Finding little ways to express compassion be it expressions of sympathy, community outreach, or by providing personal stories of relatability can help convince potential clients that a law firm is not only equipped to take a case, but that the attorneys truly care about the outcome for their client as well. 
5. Be accessible. Accessibility is extremely important to the effectiveness of a law firm’s marketing strategy; even if a firm has all of the above elements, if it is not easy to locate or engage with, potential clients may quickly lose interest and look elsewhere. There are many facets to accessibility, including an active social media presence, providing quick and thorough responses to client inquiries, and making sure that a law firm’s website and marketing materials are easy to find, absorb, and otherwise interact with. If there are any barriers to the ease of engagement with a law firm or their content, a potential client may consider the firm inaccessible and seek representation elsewhere.

For more ideas on attracting and retaining client interest for attorneys and law firms, reach out to a legal marketing expert.