“Marketing!” If you want to stress out lawyers, talk to them about how marketing their services is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s now an absolute necessity. For some firms it’s a matter of reaching full profit potential – for others it’s a basic requirement for survival.
But the stressor is that there’s a conflict here – you know you should market your firm but how on earth do you find the time and resources to actually do it?
Unless you have someone with the know-how, the enthusiasm and the time to do it in-house, you’ll have to outsource a major part of it. And we’ve all heard of marketing firms charging well over R30k to create a basic website, or many thousands of Rand every month to run a basic suite of marketing services. That’s a hard ask for smaller firms with limited marketing budgets.
The 3 simple basics of a law firm marketing strategy
The good news is that you really needn’t get fancy here. When law firms ask us for advice (we offer a no-obligation “Brand Consultation” – contact us for more), we stay away from over-kill solutions. They’re expensive and entirely unnecessary for the vast majority of firms. Rather, we help you have a good look at your particular circumstances and needs and nine times out of ten we’ll recommend that, if you haven’t already got them, you start off with just these three basics –
1. A monthly newsletter: Regular, quality newsletters have been a core marketing tool for law firms for decades. Why? They combine professionalism and effectiveness to make sure you always remain top-of-mind with your target market. Ensure that they give value to your readers with useful and interesting information that they can actually use. For most firms it makes no commercial sense to try to do all that in-house, so think of outsourcing.
Choose a tried-and-tested specialist in law firm marketing that you can trust to provide both quality content (content creation will be your primary time sink!) and a transmission system that will maximise delivery. Look also for a range of options so you can choose the one that best meets both your needs and your budget – see for example our LawDotNews newsletter packages (with sample newsletters) here.
2. A website: As with newsletters, it makes sense to outsource this, but don’t be upsold here! Your website needn’t be fancy and it certainly needn’t be expensive. So long as it projects your professionalism, and so long as it tells visitors quickly and concisely what you do, why they can trust you, and how they can contact you, it’s doing the job. While we’re on the topic, avoid these three common mistakes –
a. Contact details hard to find – bad, bad idea. Have an obvious “Contact Us” link on every page of your website.
b. Hard to navigate or slow to load – often different facets of the same problem here, and a total put-off for anyone who takes the trouble to find you online.
c. No profile pics – your mugshot is as essential here as it is on your LinkedIn page. The online world is full of deception and hyperbole, so make yourself and your team “real” to that prospective new client.
3. A social media presence: In today’s Digital Age you must have a strong online presence. Why? Most prospective quality new clients, even those from direct referrals, will – before they do anything else – Google you. Your website should hopefully be optimised so that it’s the first result when this happens, but you also want as many of the other search results to be properties you own as well.
This is particularly true for LinkedIn – when someone searches for you as an individual, and not your firm, chances are your Linkedin profile will come up. This is the perfect place to show your credentials and add an authentic touch with a good profile picture.
If potential clients can’t find you or your firm online, what are they to think? Are you perhaps a new, untried practice? Perhaps they will wonder if you are Digital Dinosaurs or trying to hide something? Many firms may have tried before and been put off – Social Media can be a bit of a rabbit hole running expensive campaigns and dedicating many hours to finding content to share, but it needn’t be. Having a basic presence is all you need, although we do recommend keeping your social media channels fresh with the odd interesting article – something firms that subscribe to LawDotNews have no problem doing.
Integrate your marketing strategy
Getting this right is essential if you want the maximum ‘bang for your buck’, and with our excellent track record as law firm marketing specialists since 2005, we are ideally placed to help you.
Don’t worry about affordability – we have always priced our services to be accessible to even the smallest of firms with the most restricted marketing budgets. For example you could choose an entry-level Classic newsletter for R390 + vat p.m. or you could go for a fully integrated marketing solution – a ClassicPlus newsletter with a Connector Website and Blog Management for R890 + vat p.m. (both options come with a once off set up fee).
We’ll also tell you if we think you would benefit from any other marketing ideas (see our Marketing Services Page for the most popular ones) and if so how to tie them in with your overall marketing strategy.
Law firm marketing needn’t be stressful. It needn’t be expensive. It can be simple, low-effort and highly cost-effective. Have a look at our website and contact us for more.

Paddy Crook
Director at LawDotNews
Paddy completed his BSc at Rhodes University and has specialised in email marketing, social media, ppc, ad-serving and other online marketing mediums. Having returned from working with a UK-based multi-national company where he analysed the effectiveness of online campaigns, Paddy has a broad knowledge of the channels and techniques used within the digital space and how best to apply them to professional practices.