Are you struggling to charge what you deserve? Raising your rates can be tricky, and right now, it might seem particularly tough or even insensitive to consider given the constant complaints about inflation and rising costs. However, not only do you deserve to be paid well for your work, but ensuring you can charge a reasonable amount could also make the difference in keeping your own family and firm safe in the long run.

So how can you raise your rates the right way? Through your marketing! But how? You’re certainly not going to announce that you’ve increased your rates or anything like that. Instead, it’s all in how you position yourself and your firm.

Content is a powerful tool. It can touch pretty much every aspect of your firm, and that includes your rates. If that seems impossible, consider this: Great content will build your reputation, positioning you as the expert and the go-to thought leader in your practice area. And when you’re seen as an expert, you can charge like an expert. It’s actually that simple.

However, this outcome hinges on having a steady stream of the right kind of content. Most importantly, it has to be educational and relevant. You need to appear to be the foremost expert on your topic, offering wisdom and advice to readers that answer the questions they’ve already been asking in their heads. Nothing is more compelling for a reader than finding all of the answers they need in one place—whether that’s your blog, your website, your podcast, or your social media platforms. Ideally, all of these spaces should be full of educational content.

That said, you don’t need to do an insanely deep dive into every topic you discuss to prove you’re educated. Remember, your average reader likely doesn’t know a lot about your practice area — you aren’t writing for other lawyers in your field. As long as you focus on the things you do, stay on topic, and offer some useful information, you’ll effectively build your reputation and give yourself the brand boost you need to raise your rates. 

When you’re ready to actually raise your rates, the smartest way to go is implementing an annual or semiannual rate increase. Whatever timeline you choose, scheduling these increases will motivate you to keep putting out great content and doing your best work. You’ll feel like you deserve the increase, and the more targeted, top-quality content you put out, the less resistant your clients and prospects will be to work with you or balk at the price.

In fact, raising your rates will soon start working with your content to improve your reputation—people expect the best lawyers to charge a bit more and could get suspicious if your services and price seem too good to be true. 

Don’t undersell yourself or listen to the people who say you need to be in a huge firm to charge what you deserve. With the right content strategy, you can make it happen.

There’s a stigma out there that says attorneys only care about getting every last cent they can out of people. The truth is that the more you give, the more you’ll receive in the long run. Gatekeeping all of your expertise won’t convince people that you’re the right person for the job. Many consumers will be surprised to find you giving away free information, and it will help you get ahead of your competitors.

So how do you eliminate that stigma? By offering free information on your website. What does that look like? Well first, it’s easier to tell you what it doesn’t look like. 

If your website is no more than a couple of pages that has your contact info, lists the areas of law you practice, and simply says “We can help,” then your website isn’t actually very helpful. It’s not highlighting your expertise and it isn’t addressing your visitors’ concerns. Instead, your website should have the following:

1. A Regularly Updated Blog

Having a regularly maintained blog with evergreen topics that cover your practice area(s) is a great way to provide information on your website. You don’t have to recreate chapters from your law school textbooks, but you can provide basic, surface-level overviews of a given issue and show that you’re the expert they can trust.

Just make sure that you’re writing for the people who will hire you, not other attorneys you want to impress.

2. A Robust Video Library

For people who prefer watching videos to reading text, a video library is another great way to provide free information. Even more, video has a couple of psychological benefits that blogs can’t provide.

  • First, they break down any sort of barrier that exists between you and the client where they lose any intimidation they felt by you. They can now feel more comfortable around you knowing they can put a face and a sound to your name.
  • Second, the videos mentally prepare viewers for when they take the next step and come into your office for the consultation. Even if it’s just slightly, that extra preparedness will make your job easier.

3. A Newsletter Signup

Whether you have an email or print newsletter campaign, make sure there’s a way people can opt into it on your website. Then, if you’re doing your marketing right, they’ll receive your latest blog or video (or both!) in your next newsletter without them ever having to regularly check your website.

4. A Complimentary Download

This is a great way to capture leads on your website. Having a free download, such as a white paper or ebook, is arguably the biggest credibility booster you can have on your website. And here’s the thing: You don’t need to actually write a full-length book or legal brief. You can take one of your most evergreen blogs, expand it a little bit, and turn it into a free download. Anything more than 1,500 words becomes laborious for the reader.

Oftentimes the trickiest thing about writing blog posts isn’t actually writing them — it’s thinking of something to write about. Topic choice trips up a lot of lawyers. With so much legal knowledge rattling around in your head, it can be tough to know what would appeal to the average reader. But it’s not impossible. If you’re struggling to pin down blog topics, try the approaches below.

1. Reverse engineer a common scenario.

Think of a situation that your average client might find themselves in. If you’re a tax attorney, this could be receiving a letter from the IRS. When that letter comes in, what’s the first question your client would have? Maybe it’s, “Is this letter really from the IRS?” Write that question down and BAM!, you have a blog topic: “3 Ways to Tell if Your IRS Letter Is Legitimate.”

Admittedly, that topic sounds extremely elementary…and it should to YOU, the lawyer who can spot an IRS letter in their sleep. But to your audience who knows next to NOTHING about the legal world, this is a legitimate question.

This topic generation strategy also works in every practice area of law, from business to family to estate planning and so on. Simply imagine yourself in your clients’ shoes and answer their burning questions. This will reassure your readers you’re the right lawyer to clear up their confusion and allay their fears.

2. Rely on the multiplier effect.

Once you have a single question or scenario in mind, you can easily spin it into more! Take the IRS letter example — surely, your client won’t only be asking themselves if their letter is legitimate. Once they open the letter, they might have other questions, like, “What type of IRS letter is this? How many kinds of letters does the IRS send? Why does the IRS use this particular language? What does this term mean?” Any of those queries could become a relevant blog post. Don’t worry about your topics overlapping, either — repetition just reinforces your expertise.

These topics might seem basic, but ultimately, the basics are what people care about most. They want to know that you’ve mastered your field and can help people in common situations like the one they’re in. Hopefully, these strategies help you puzzle out interesting blog topics.

Sending out an email newsletter is one of the best ways to stay in touch with your network, build your brand, bring in leads, and generate referrals. This is common knowledge among owners of solo and small law firms, but many of them still don’t hit the send button — why? 

If you’ve never put together a newsletter, the prospect of spending time and effort to create one might be intimidating. However, the process is much easier than you think. In less than an hour, you can create a DIY email newsletter that will take you only minutes to maintain each month. 

1. SIGN UP FOR A PLATFORM

There are plenty of email newsletter platforms to choose from, and you can create an account for little to no cost. I prefer Mailchimp, but Constant Contact and Zoho Campaigns are great options, too. 

2. CHOOSE A TEMPLATE

Don’t waste your time building a newsletter from scratch each time. Just about every platform offers newsletter templates, complete with visual editors. All you have to do is customize the colors, add your logo, and fill in the content the first time. Every time after that is just copying/pasting the new content.

3. DRAG AND DROP YOUR EXISTING CONTENT

You also don’t have to have exclusive content for your newsletter: Simply pop in the blog posts and videos you’ve already made and rotate them each month. You can even add a section for firm announcements and specials.

4. CREATE AND MAINTAIN AN EMAIL LIST

You need to add the email addresses of your past and current clients, referral partners, and other contacts to your chosen platform. If you’re lucky, your office CRM like Clio will give you the option to export your contacts and integrate them automatically. After the initial input, make a note to add new addresses each month from leads you’ve generated, people you’ve met networking, and more. 

5. SEND THE NEWSLETTER MONTHLY! 

As you’re going through this process, remember that your newsletter doesn’t have to be perfect. Something is better than nothing, and you can improve it over time. Sending it monthly is also a good cadence—that’s only 12 times per year! And yet each time you send it out, you will likely receive referrals and requests for repeat business. That means the few dollars per month you spend on the software could yield a MASSIVE ROI.

I was talking to a lawyer who wanted to send out an email newsletter to all of his firm’s existing contacts, but he wasn’t sure whether or not he should give them the opportunity to first opt into the emails before he sent the newsletter. In other words, he wanted to send his list an email asking permission to email them. He was leaning toward taking this extra step, but I discouraged it.

Here was my thought process: Your contact list is full of connections you’ve already made. By giving you their email addresses and/or phone numbers, these people have agreed to a blanket opt-in. You can reach out to them without asking first because they’ve in effect already given you permission. All you need to do is provide a clear way for people to unsubscribe. There’s no need for a double opt-in.

BuT wHaT aBoUt ThE cAn–SpAm Act?

YEAH – that’s kind of the point of CAN–SPAM. If you provide a clear and easy way for people to unsubscribe, you’re in the clear.

Your contact list is one of your firm’s biggest assets. Buried in it are all kinds of hidden gems like repeat business, referrals, strategic relationships, and future introductions to important clients and partners. By tapping into the goldmine of your contact list, you can make your firm a lot of money; but all too often, law firm owners let this opportunity pass them by.

Another thing I hear from lawyers is that they aren’t leveraging their list because they don’t have one. This also isn’t true! If you have an email address, a CRM system, or even a drawer full of business cards, you have a contact list. Heck, if you have friends and family, then you have a contact list! Just start where you’re at.

Most CRMs and email platforms like Outlook and Gmail have the option to export your contact list, and often they can even sync with email marketing services like Mailchimp. With just a few clicks, BAM — you have a contact list ready for mass emails!

If you collect all of these names and addresses but never reach out to them, you might as well be throwing the business cards from your networking events directly into the trash can. Believe us, your contact list is a bigger asset than you realize. That doesn’t mean you should treat your friends, family, clients, and referral partners as dollar signs, but you should definitely keep them in the loop of what’s happening in your firm and take advantage of their interest and support.

One of the best ways to stay in touch with your list is by sending a weekly or monthly email newsletter. You can pack this email with firm updates; links to new blog posts, podcasts, and video content; and other reminders of what you do. This will keep your firm top of mind, and ensure that when the time comes where your skills would be handy, your contacts will think of you first.

If you’re not already sending out a monthly email newsletter, right now is the perfect time to start. The holidays are just around the corner, so reach out to your contacts to check in and wish them well. From there, you can build a monthly ritual and watch your income climb.

Business owners must understand the difference between lead nurturing and lead generation, yet few do. Lead generation focuses on attracting new potential clients to your business, often through ads and SEO. Lead nurturing involves building relationships with people already in your network—like past clients, referral sources, or leads who’ve shown interest—by staying top of mind and providing ongoing value. While lead gen aims to create new connections, lead nurturing strengthens existing ones to drive more referrals and repeat business.

Too many lawyers focus on lead generation and lose two-thirds of their possible referrals because they are constantly out hunting for cold leads. You’ve helped thousands of people and spent years doing it. It’s not selfish to expect that this work can pay you back. It’s evolved and efficient. 

Don’t Let the Conversation End

Lawyers overlook lead nurturing because they mistakenly view a past client as a past client. Past clients are your future salespeople—and they work for free. As an attorney, you guide people through very difficult situations, and the majority of these people will be forever grateful for what you did. When your past clients have a friend or colleague who needs an attorney, they will refer you because they want to pay you back. It also makes your friends and colleagues trust the referral source, e.g., you, more.

However, even if your past clients love you, they will likely forget your name. The only thing you have to do is to ensure you don’t miss out on referrals and stay in touch with them. Send them a monthly newsletter, ask them to follow you on social media, or subscribe to your podcast. Even if they don’t engage with you often, they will still see your name when your newsletter appears in their inbox. This is top-of-mind awareness. It’s why soda companies are plastered all over the insides of arenas. People will not see a Pepsi sign and run to a store, but they will be aware of Pepsi the next time they are thirsty. Stay in touch with your past clients and get more business from your strongest advocates. 

The Type of Content Matters

If you bombard people with messages about wanting more clients, they will tune you out or unsubscribe. This is the premise of Permissive Marketing vs. Interruption Marketing. Permissive marketing is a strategy where potential clients choose to engage with your content, like subscribing to a newsletter or following you on social media, allowing you to build a relationship on their terms. Interruption marketing, in contrast, involves pushing your message out to people who haven’t explicitly opted in, such as through ads, cold calls, or pop-ups. Permissive marketing fosters trust and long-term engagement, and interruption marketing aims for immediate attention at the risk of being intrusive.

As a lawyer, you are uniquely positioned to give people valuable information. Give it away. If your network feels they are getting tips and messages from a legal insider, they’ll stay connected to you. Furthermore, this information reinforces your credibility and expertise and strengthens your relationship. You get what you want by giving your audience what they want. 

We’ll Keep You Top of Mind 

Spotlight Branding’s strategy is built on what we have discussed. Lead nurturing capitalizes on your previous successes and increases your momentum. We create content that lends itself to permissive marketing. When you work with us, you’ll see how we generate three months’ content in your voice and brand with a thirty-minute phone call. To learn more, set up a meeting with our Business Development Manager. 

One of the biggest frustrations around marketing is that it is often difficult to truly diagnose why something didn’t work. After all, you may think you have a great strategy in place, but when it doesn’t produce the ROI you were expecting, it can be doubly frustrating to also not truly understand why.

Maybe your vendor didn’t deliver on their promises. Maybe you didn’t spend enough money. Maybe the message just didn’t resonate with your audience. Maybe there’s something broken internally.

Oftentimes we’ve seen issues within a firm completely derail an otherwise great marketing effort. You could be bringing in a ton of leads, but if they aren’t converting, the problem might lie within your own firm. In this article, we’ll look at three of the biggest potential issues.

1. Bad Systems

If you don’t have systems and processes documented in your firm (or you do it inconsistently), people won’t ever do things the same way twice, which leads to frustration and inconsistency.

Furthermore, a lack of documented systems and processes makes training more difficult. It makes for an inconsistent customer experience. And it makes everyone at the office a little frustrated (even though they may not know why), which carries over into how they interact with your potential clients.

2. Bad Reception

While most people will look up your website first when learning about your firm, the first actual interaction many people will have is with your front desk staff. Whether you have an in-office receptionist or you work with an answering service, these people will set the tone for what it will be like working with your firm. If they sound bored and lifeless or don’t really know what they’re doing, those valuable leads might go elsewhere.

3. Poor Follow-up

One of the biggest knocks against lawyers is their lack of timely follow-up on people who reach out. While most people may not expect their calls or emails to be returned immediately, they do expect to hear back within one business day.

Even if it’s an automated response confirming receipt of a message, just have something to let people know that you’re aware of their request and that they’ll be hearing from you soon. Otherwise, those people will go somewhere else.

You’re investing a lot of hard-earned revenue into your marketing. Make sure you have these three areas of your business shored up to ensure that you get the maximum ROI from your marketing.

The reason why law firms and other businesses choose to invest vast sums of money in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is apparent. The logic fits. You get on the first page of Google, large numbers of people see you, and you’ll bring in clients. It’s why it’s more than a $20 billion industry in the U.S. alone. 

But behind the curtain lies the secret of how it fails more than succeeds. If there are 12 spots on the first page of Google, the first four will be paid sponsorships. These will get ~10% of the clicks. The first three organic results (unpaid) get ~60% of the clicks. Even if you are on the first page of Google and are the last organic result, you’re getting less than 1% of the traffic. You and ALL of your competitors are fighting for those coveted three spots.

How SEO Works 

SEO is a method for improving your website’s visibility on search engines such as Google. When people need legal services and have no one to ask, they’ll likely turn to a search engine. When one of these people searches for a term related to your firm (e.g., “Best Estate Planning Attorney in Boston”), SEO will determine whether your website appears in the search results. 

The vast majority of people associate SEO with keywords. They assume that if they use phrases like “best estate planning attorney in Boston” in their content, then they will rise to the top of the first page. SEO uses several different techniques in addition to keyword optimization. There’s backlinking, on-page optimization, meta tags, UX experience, and internal linking. 

SEO is a guess that tries to play to Google’s complex algorithms that determine rank. Although Google has never made its algorithm public, people assume that Google analyzes your content’s quality, keywords, and the number of websites that link back to yours. The most important thing to remember is that Google updates its algorithms reguarly, which could disrupt your previous SEO results. 

Why SEO Likely Won’t Work For You 

The main reason that SEO won’t work for you is that it is highly competitive. 15 years ago, ranking higher in a few key areas was easier. However, the amount of people using SEO has increased significantly. The obvious conclusion is that standing out has become much more complicated, especially for small businesses (and firms) that don’t have the budget or resources to outspend larger ones. 

Now with the rise of AI, SEO is getting even trickier. Search engines are now using it to determine results and rankings. Google uses AI in what they have dubbed the “search generative experience.” You may have seen it. It answers your questions without the need to click on websites. This increases the challenge for SEO marketers because their content will create answers. The searcher may not need to view the website regardless of its rankings. 

ChatGPT and other AI systems give people the option to bypass search engines. People want answers, not a list of websites that could provide them answers if they look hard enough. Backlinking, also a key component of SEO, is much more challenging now. Years ago, you could get another website to write a blog and include links to your website. Like keywords, there are simply too many people doing it to be an effective solution. 

Choose Content Over SEO

Content marketing is designed to nurture your relationships with your past clients. It keeps you top of mind and generates referrals. Because no one has your network, you have an opportunity to use marketing that actually works. Want to learn more? Contact our friends at Spotlight Branding to see how content marketing can be a more effective strategy for your firm. 

Before you read anything else, visit our friends over at Spotlight Branding, schedule a consultation, and pay them for marketing service. Did you do it? Probably not. You haven’t gotten anything out of this article yet.

So then why do so many lawyers use social media as nothing more than a digital billboard that constantly tells people to call their office? And so many of you wonder why social media doesn’t work for you.

The impetus behind content marketing is to provide value to your audience before asking for anything in return. (Sometimes you won’t have to ask at all.) When you do this, you build trust and nurture relationships, which are components of long-term success. By sharing educational and useful information, you attract and engage people, making them more likely to choose your firm when the time is right. 

The Power of Giving 

Giving is a central piece of content marketing. Your content should share valuable information so future clients can solve problems and make informed decisions. This could be through blog posts, videos, newsletters, or social media content. You position your business as a helpful resource by consistently providing valuable content.

Continuing to give valuable content keeps your audience engaged and builds loyalty. When people see that you consistently provide helpful information, they are more likely to return to your website, follow your social media channels, and open your emails. This ongoing engagement strengthens their relationship with your firm.

Consistently putting out blogs, resources, videos, and other content helps prospective clients understand how your firm is uniquely positioned to resolve their legal issues. It also enables you to build loyalty and retention with clients you have previously worked with—who can also refer you to their friends, family, and colleagues. 

The internet completely disrupted the way customers research products and make purchasing decisions. Historically, companies relied on traditional sales and advertising tactics such as TV and print ads or face-to-face relationship building to drive sales. Seth Godin referred to this as interruption marketing. But the internet has made information broadly available so people can do their own research without needing to engage directly with an organization unless they want to.

The Right Time to Ask 

After consistently giving value, asking people to book a consultation is appropriate. When you read blogs, you will notice that the last paragraph is when someone is trying to sell you something. By the end, your audience trusts you and is more likely to respond positively to your request.

Content marketing is important today because it reaches clients who do their own research. Compelling content motivates prospects to learn more and ultimately convert. Create a content strategy that supports your firm’s overall marketing plan. A content strategy typically includes audience personas, topics, channels for distribution, and a publishing schedule. 

How About Now?
Now is the right time to ask. If you got any value out of this article about content marketing and would like to continue this conversation with us, we would be happy to do so. We’ll discuss how we can write blogs, create social media posts, make videos, and create educational and value-based content for your firm.

In the marketing world, you’ll often hear two terms floating around that may seem like nothing more than two ways to say the same thing: A marketing “plan” and a marketing “strategy.” However, there is a very distinct difference.

  • A marketing strategy is your overall philosophy towards marketing. It encompasses the various tactics, avenues, etc. that you intend to use and the overall result you want to achieve. It is your “Why” when it comes to your marketing.
  • A marketing plan is a roadmap of the details, actions, and steps you will take to execute the marketing strategy. It is your “How” when it comes to your marketing.

Think of it like this: One marketing company (say Spotlight Branding for example) helps law firms increase referrals and attract the right clients. Other marketing companies might focus on getting law firms to page 1 of a Google search, generate a certain number of leads for the firm, or book a certain number of speaking engagements. These are all different philosophies—none more “right” or “wrong” than the other—that guide the way we go about our business.

In your firm, your marketing strategy can be whatever you believe is important and can be a mix of referrals, lead generation, PR, and more. Your marketing plan is how you are going to go about executing it. Will you hire a vendor(s) to accomplish your goals? Do you have an in-house marketing team to go to work for you?

Regardless, you need BOTH a strategy and a plan, otherwise nothing may ever get done.