Part 1 of a series for New Attorneys

The following is an excerpt from a webinar, titled Top 3 Online Marketing Strategies for New Lawyers aired on 5/24/2016.

For an attorney new to the field, there are a number of challenges you must overcome as you begin your career, especially if you plan on starting a firm of your own. One of the most pressing issues is how to market your services to potential clients. In the past, attorneys could grow their practices organically, often through referrals or word of mouth — something that’s nearly impossible to do in today’s digitally driven world.

According to preliminary results from a 2016 Martindale-Nolo survey, the top three "online" marketing strategies for attorneys are lead generation (including online directories), search engine optimization (SEO for lawyers) and Social Media — far outpacing more traditional methods like print, TV and radio advertising as a whole. In fact, we've seen a significant decrease in search engine marketing (SEM) - now only 1% versus 13.5% in the 2015 study. As we'll see in Part 2 of this series, SEM costs have increased significantly in just the last year, and Google has made significant changes that affect ranking. These are possible reasons why this online method has decreased in use.

Fortunately, there are nearly limitless opportunities for attorneys and law firms to connect with potential clients online, and these three top strategies can all deliver strong returns on investment.

As you work to grow your practice and attract more leads, we encourage you to focus your online marketing on the three core strategies of lead generation, SEO and SEM. By doing so, you will establish a solid foundation as you ramp up your efforts in the months and years to come.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our series as we discuss details on SEO and SEM, and how new attorneys can use these strategies to launch and grow their practices.