Hi, I’m Katie. I’m an employment attorney. I like what I do, and I’m good at it. Oh, you want to hire me? Great!
If only it was that easy. I’ve been a solo attorney for a little more than a year and a half. I’ve learned so much about attorney marketing, especially marketing online. I know I’ve probably only scratched the surface of everything that I should know, but I’ve made huge strides. I get calls from other attorneys telling me how much they like my blog. Clients find me online. Am I always on the first page of for the search terms I want? No. But I’m getting there.
I was lucky that I have a husband who understands all this stuff, but I still had to learn a lot of it myself, and I had to make a ton of mistakes along the way. If you’re reading this, you might be where I was when I first started. Let me help you by sharing a few of the lessons I’ve learned.
- It’s hard and it takes a lot of time. Sorry. I know you were looking for lessons that are going to make your life easier, but let’s start with the principle that’s going to carry you through all of your marketing endeavors. No one teaches you how to do this in law school. If you started your career at a firm, the firm paid someone else how to do this. So now not only are you starting a completely new business and lifestyle, but you have to learn another skill. But that’s okay, because you can do it and there are ways to make it easier, but let’s just all accept that as lawyers, marketing is a skill that does not come easily to most of us.
- Take time to figure out who you need to reach. When I first started out on my own, I felt like I needed to get in front of anyone and everyone. What if I missed out on an opportunity? I need blogs that reach every audience. I want to send my email updates out to everyone and their brother (and somehow find a way to be interesting to everyone on that list). Then I realized that I only have so many hours in the day, and that I need to be efficient, effective, and focused. Who are your best referral sources? For me, it’s HR professionals and other attorneys who don’t do employment law, so my marketing efforts need to be specific to those groups.
- Figure out the best way to reach them. The people you want to reach may not always keep you top of mind, but your online presence can help with that. I try to write blog posts and email newsletters that attract HR professionals (day-to-day information that helps them do their job) and other attorneys (legal changes/important cases). I also only send my email newsletters to people who have expressed interest. And it works. I’ve actually gotten emails back from readers thanking me for putting the email together. How often do you get a mass email and decide that want to thank the author?
- Find the right tools to help you. Everytime I write a blog post (shameless plug – it is so easy to do this through AmazeLaw), I make sure to put it out on social media. I use Hootsuite and autoschedule. I don’t have to think about the best times to post, and I only have to post once for it to go to Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Facebook. I also use Mailchimp to manage my email lists (more shameless plugging – AmazeLaw integrates with Mailchimp). Yes, it took a little for me to learn how to use these early on, but now I cannot imagine marketing without them.
I know that I’m not an expert on marketing, but I’m learning and finding a way to make it work for me. As a solo attorney, I can’t justify spending money on marketing consultants when I know I’m smart enough to figure it out for myself. I became a solo attorney in part for the flexibility, and I’ve built my firm so that I can make time for marketing because it’s worth the effort.
If you’re looking for more information on marketing, AmazeLaw has a great email marketing bootcamp that you can sign up for at amazelaw.wpengine.com/#newsletter. And if you have any questions about your firm’s marketing efforts, you are always free to email me with questions at info@amazelaw.com. Good luck!