Can a Law Firm Multiply Its Case Load By a Factor of 17?

I’ve been consulting law firm owners for 10 years now, so I feel like I’ve heard it all.

But, as is almost always the case when I’m 100% sure of something, I was wrong.

A firm owner that had heard about me in a FB group wanted to know if I could do for him what I had done for others. I asked him what his goals are, he said that he wants more cases than he can handle.

I get cases through digital marketing, so the first thing I did was go online and take a look at his digital presence.

His website, according to SEMrush, was bringing in $800 worth of business each month. He had a good standing in the legal community. His past clients had left good reviews about him online. He seemed like a good guy who really cares about his clients.

We decided to work together. 

Now, nine months later, SEMrush values his site at $13,900 a month, 17 times what it was when we began.

How I Did It

Digital marketing is not easy. Most business owners think it is. In fact, this very same law firm owner that had been struggling to make ends meet and had come to me for help explicitly stated that he thought “this marketing stuff isn’t rocketscience” and was sure he could do it himself if he had the time.

The first thing I did was make sure he knew that marketing may not be rocket science, but it IS a science. Why? Because we’re dealing with algorithms, functions, calculations, hypotheses, formulas, and conclusions.

The entire world is trying to make money online, do you really think the idiots are winning?

No….the best of the best are rising to the top.

Step #1: Get your mindset right

The first step is to take the competition seriously and make sure the firm owner does as well. If you don’t treat your competition like champs, you won’t put enough into your marketing to beat them permanently.

Step #2: Unique Selling Proposition

People are going to hire your firm because you offer something unique. What is it? I found the unique selling proposition and made sure to place it front and center. This sets you apart, makes you memorable, trustworthy, and more. You cannot skip this. If you do, your clients are going to choose someone else when they get down to making a final decision as to who to retain.

Step #3: Site Design

Making a website look pretty is not the end goal, it needs to convert website visitors into retained clients. I put together a site design based upon my experience that I knew would have a high likelihood of converting right away. 

However, this is only the beginning.

What are people doing when they reach the site? I had to find out. User testing, screen recording, surveys. All of these were vital to make sure that the people reaching the site had what they needed to feel comfortable retaining the firm.

Get a great site up and work on making it convert better every day through user testing, site modification, and implementation.

Step #4: Getting Google To Send Traffic

Here’s where most attorney’s pockets catch on fire and they decide to give up.

Getting Google to send traffic can be very easy or very difficult, a lot of different factors are at play.

For instance, if you are a personal injury lawyer that just won the biggest case ever, you’re going to get a ton of free traffic from Google and, likely, a ton of free cases.

Why? Because people are interested in the case you won. They’re interesting in finding the best personal injury lawyer. They’re interested in huge sums of money. Basically, you just stumbled onto the marketing jackpot.

If you are like most lawyers, this is not going to happen for you.

To get Google traffic you have to convince Google that people are looking for you…or you can just pay Google to skip the line and be at the top. Those who are “paying to play” are the ones at the top of Google search with “ad” next to their listing.

I convinced Google to send traffic AND I paid Google to send traffic. A winning combo. You can learn to do either, but you MUST be an expert before diving in. If you don’t learn EVERYTHING and TEST, you’re going to dig a hole you’ll never be able to get out of. However, if you do spend 5,000 hours you can get unlimited Google traffic to your site that will turn into traffic if your site design and messaging are right.

I’ve spent more than 10,000 hours learning and testing, that’s how I sent the traffic. Here is a great resource to learn SEO, here is a great resource to learn PPC (paid Google traffic).

Side Note on Google Traffic

Google traffic is the best traffic for attorneys. I'm not going to break that down with a thousand case study images right here; the experts know, if you don't, let's talk in the comments.

It's highly sought after. There are two ways to get it; you can buy it straight from Google, or you use SEO to convince Google to give it to you.

Unless you're an SEO amateur, you have an opinion about what SEO is, and it would likely differ from the next expert.

Some SEOs feel that they are simply marketers: creating the best sites, naturally attracting the most attention and being rewarded with mass amounts of Google traffic.

Some SEOs feel they are fighting against the biggest opponents the world: Google. They wake up ready for battle. They see SEO as a manipulation of the system and they want to be the best manipulators possible and make the most money.

There are no laws regarding this. Google just spends and obscene amounts of money to lessen its effectiveness and is actively fighting against those doing this.

In my opinion, nothing is wrong with either, I just think the warriors are fighting a losing battle.

The reason SEOs get such a bad rap is because they make insane amounts of money being warriors, fighting Google for the money. Then, one day, Google finds a way to make their tactics worthless, putting those people in a very precarious position. What would you do?

The reason I advocate "white hat" is because I firnly belive Google is going to crack down on all of the manipulations. For me, it's all about giving Google what they want, so I don't need to worry about them cracking down on me. Why would Google shoot themselves in their own foot?

Step #5: Creepily Follow Your Clients on FB (without looking creepy)

Ever notice those ads that follow you around after you look at a certain product online?

That’s no accident, plus, it doesn’t cost the advertiser much.

The platforms that host those advertisements are more willing to show your ads to people that have been to your website. The platforms figure, rightly so, that your ads are relevant to their market and that their users may be happy to see them, so they cost less.

For you, it means your clients keep seeing your mug. When they are ready to pull the trigger instead of just research, you’re right there.

This is a pay to play system through Facebook. Quite affordable. You can learn more about it here. I use this for every firm.

Step #6: Engage in outreach to promote your firm

Google takes a lot of things into consideration when they decide to rank a website. One of those is what websites are linking to that website.

The reason Google does this is because trustworthy, authoritative websites rarely link to websites that are not trustworthy or authoritative. Forbes isn’t going to link to “payday loans”. Google knows it and takes this signal into account when ranking sites.

If your website is one people are looking for and is trustworthy and authoritative, Google wants to send people to it. So, you want to let those trustworthy and authoritative websites know you exist and give them any opportunity possible to link to you.

If they do, people will trust you more AND Google will trust you more. Google will send you free traffic.

Keep in mind that the goal is to get those sites to mention you, NOT to link. If you focus on the link value alone, you're putting your site at risk. Google DOES NOT allow link manipulation for the purpose of search engine ranking manipulation and will come after you if they believe you are actively engaging in such.

For the target site, I spent more than $1,000 each month on outreach to let people know how great the site is. This resulted in natural links and traffic from trusted and authoritative sites. You can do this too. Here are some tips from industry experts about this process.

Step #7: Be Popular on Social Media

It’s not easy to gain a following on social media for attorneys, but that does not mean it is hard to gain attention!

You want social media shares and visits from REAL people. These are signals that you and your site are popular.

I create blogs with unique legal commentary on subjects people are interested in. I also create pieces that create outrage, but speak to my target market. This way you get a lot of shares, views, and engagement at a low cost.

Don’t know of any great guides for this, if you do, please leave them in the comments!

The Results

The results speak for themselves. What you're seeing above is site progress over the last 30 days for a handful of sites I work on.

In the case of the example highlighted at the top of this article: the site’s monthly traffic was valued at $800 and now it is valued at $13,900. It was a 9 month process. Any firm can do this, it just takes a coordinated plan, a team, hard work, and no shortcuts. 

SEO changed A LOT over the last 12 months. If any law firm owners are watching their profits plummet, pm me. I’m too busy and have too many obligations to take on any more firms, but I’d be happy to go over your situation in my own time and let you know what you’re doing wrong for free.

I have consulted law firm owners for 10 years. There are a lot of firm owners freaking out over diminishing results at the moment.

Don't be afraid to reach out. Myself or a team member would be happy to see if we can identify your marketing roadblock for free.