A law firm’s marketing plan should be rooted in a deep understanding of how potential clients in their specific practice area make a decision about hiring an attorney. For family law attorneys, crafting an effective marketing strategy can be especially challenging.
You have to work harder to convince a potential family law client to call your firm.
They spend the most time researching before making a decision to hire a lawyer. They’ll get to know you and your competition.
As a family law attorney, you are an integral part of very personal, life-altering experiences for your clients, which is why they will research all available options. Your website and marketing needs to convince them why you’re the best fit for their needs. Yet, so many family law firm websites use a templated approach to design. You could easily swap out a few words and pass it as a criminal defense, business law or personal injury website.
Taking this approach means your website will get lost in a crowd of sameness. If your family law website fails to create a compelling story, then your marketing efforts will fall short. You may have best-in-class law firm SEO or PPC strategies driving traffic, but that alone won’t make your firm’s phone ring.
If you’re looking at other firms for website inspiration, it’s important to keep in mind that what works for them may not necessarily be as successful for you.
At Postali, we dive deep into user behavior across websites for all practice areas. Certain trends emerge when it comes to the mindset and research that your potential clients will perform before ultimately picking up the phone.
For family law attorneys who want a website that appeals to their clients’ needs, here are 3 important tips to consider:
Your clients likely are looking through at least 3 family law firm websites in your area before making a decision. Your website should stand out, but for the right reasons.
You will want to ensure your colors are complementary and evoke the image you’re trying to portray. It’s tempting to want to choose colors that you personally like when making website design decisions. However, you are not your target client.
It’s also important to consider your competition. You want to develop a distinct and strong brand image so that it stays top-of-mind when clients are researching different attorneys in the area. If they browse your website first and then view some of your competitors’, they should remember you.
One common misconception is that your branding cannot be bold. Family attorneys gravitate toward subtleness in fear of their branding looking too “harsh.” This results in the stock image-heavy, lackluster family law websites that crowd the industry today.
Your branding and logo should reflect your firm and send a message that you have something unique to offer. It shouldn’t blend in with your competitors. It can be bold without being harsh. When your brand voice, images and color scheme tell the story of your firm, your website will perform as a much more effective client acquisition vehicle.
With other practice areas, an attorney’s awards, industry recognition and case results may be all a potential client needs to know. With family law, clients are more interested in your character and what makes you stand out as an attorney. An effective attorney biography will help clients get to know you as an attorney and as a person, not just your awards and accolades.
On family law websites, we consistently see that the attorney biography or “About The Firm” is often one of the first pages users will navigate to after landing on the homepage. Our analyses of time-on-site suggests that clients read through biographies and will often make a decision to call your firm based on that alone.
If you have an attorney biography, read through it carefully. Does it tell clients more than just where you went to law school and how many years of experience you have? Does it explain why you’re passionate about what you do and what sets you apart from other in your field? Do you have photos or videos to help clients get to know you? If you answered no to any of these questions, it may be time for a refresh.
Clients dealing with divorce, custody or other domestic issues want every reassurance that you’re well-equipped to handle their case with professionalism and compassion. Having client reviews is especially important in this practice area.
You can try to convince potential clients of this yourself, but client reviews are more relatable and trusted. Aside from attorney biographies, a client reviews page is often one of the most-visited on websites that have them.
Let your clients help your marketing efforts. It’s important to know that sites like Google and Yelp have distinct rules when it comes to how businesses can go about attaining client reviews. However you decide to approach this, highlighting testimonials on your website in a prominent way will lead to more new clients for your firm.
For more insight on how your family law firm can attract more clients, let’s talk.
Not sure where to begin?
Get started with a marketing audit.