The Key to Generating Legal Clients
When you were in law school, you likely envisioned yourself counseling clients and delivering big wins for them. You probably didn’t imagine yourself staying up late thinking about ways of bringing in business to a law firm. What’s more, you might have even felt a little discouraged after struggling to understand the basics of legal marketing.
It turns out getting legal clients is not as easy as most people think. In fact, it can be one of the greatest challenges a law firm has is creating law firm growth strategies that attract clients.
People looking for lawyers might be in dire need of them, but there’s a lot on the line. They’re more likely to weigh their options and be highly selective about who they choose.
Most clients will be looking for law firms that have good reviews online and a track record of successful cases. And it turns out word-of-mouth marketing is still extremely successful. Clio, the leading legal practice management platform, reveals that 59% of clients find a lawyer through a referral.
How do you generate legal clients?
What do clients want most from their lawyers?
While they may be seeking legal counsel or representation, clients want more than capability from their attorney. They want a lawyer who understands them, who makes time for them, and truly understands the importance of a lawyer and client privilege.
No one ever wants to be led on by a lawyer who makes promises they cannot keep. Clients want lawyers who are honest about their case, any risks they may face, and their likelihood of a favorable outcome.
Moreover, they want a lawyer who will explore various options with them and collaborate to form a legal strategy the client trusts.
Legal clients want to work with lawyers who are open, authentic, and genuinely invested in their clients’ cases. They want to work with lawyers who are compassionate, dedicated, and always willing to find new solutions to reach desired results.
In a nutshell, clients want their lawyers to care.
When a lawyer can’t help someone, clients want to be given guidance and told where they can look for help. A good lawyer has no problem referring people to attorneys who are better suited to handle a case.
With these points in mind, you should always position yourself and your firm as client-first: someone who cares about your clients as people. Showcasing your expertise and credibility is important, but it won’t be enough to attract leads if people feel like you care more about your law firm than helping them in their time of need.
What are clients looking for in a law firm?
- Good communication - Clients prefer to work with lawyers that make time for them. This includes being reasonably responsive to phone calls, email, text messages, and even direct messages through a legal client app. If you struggle with the volume of communication some clients want, a mobile client portal platform like Case Status can make it easier by offering them on-demand information.- Great customer service - Every client deserves your time and respect. Periodic check-ins and thank-you messages are simple ways to make a positive impression. Remember, it’s not just the results that clients care about; they also focus heavily on the experience they have with your firm.
- Timeliness - Take a long time to answer questions, clients tend to feel stressed and anxious. Make your clients happier by ensuring you always get back to them in a timely manner. Even if you don’t have an update, a response
- Modern technology - The legal industry is well-known for being slow to adopt new technology, but clients want firms that are up-to-date with the current trends. Most importantly, they want firms that embrace technology, like the best law firm software, to make their lives easier through fast billing and easy payment options, status updates, and a direct line of communication with the firm.
- Convenience - Technology and convenience go hand-in-hand for legal clients. A more efficient firm is able to deliver faster results, and those that adopt client-facing solutions will be able to deliver more responsive, on-demand legal service through a legal client app. This makes clients feel more supported and ultimately more satisfied with their experience.
- Experience - A seasoned attorney is able to provide a deeper level of support to clients, especially those with more complex cases. Law firms that are backed by experience give clients peace of mind.
- Expertise - Legal specialties are also great marketing advantages. A personal injury attorney or criminal defense attorney can attract more clients by speaking directly to their needs.
- Proven results - Nothing is more powerful, even for the best attorney’s marketing, than great reviews. The number-one thing clients want to see is a lawyer with a track record that demonstrates their skill and competency.
How do lawyers find clients?
Referrals are still one of the leading client-generation strategies for lawyers. A firm with amazing work ethic can build a name for itself by satisfying its clients, who pass along their name whenever someone they know needs legal advice.
Modern referrals also come through online reviews. People research a law firm and see reviews on Google and Yelp, which directly influences how likely they are to choose a lawyer for their case. Since 74% of people say reviews directly influence their trust in a company, it’s important for law firms to prioritize customer service to encourage positive reviews online.
Digital marketing for lawyers also helps to attract new clients. Search engine optimization (SEO) helps law firms rank higher on local search pages, so they attract more leads from people searching for “lawyers near me” or “lawyer in [state].
"Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is also an important piece of your law firm growth strategy. By bidding on keywords and paying every time someone clicks their website, lawyers can get noticed more by potential leads online.
Digital marketing for lawyers is the new standard for client acquisition. Way back in 2013, 96% of people looked for a lawyer using a search engine. A small survey of 585 US residents revealed that 62% of them would turn to a search engine when they needed legal advice, 80% would look up a law firm’s reviews before taking action.
Marketing can be a challenge for law firms, especially small or solo firms that do not have a large expendable budget. This is why optimization is everything when it comes to your law firm marketing strategy. Working with a legal marketing company can help get your firm established online, and you can use practice management software to help you manage and close leads.
Can lawyers reach out to potential clients?
No. The American Bar Association prohibits lawyers from reaching out to prospective clients that have not expressed interest in their practice.
Under ABA Rule 7.3, lawyers “ shall not solicit professional employment by live person-to-person contact when a significant motive for the lawyer’s doing so is the lawyer’s or law firm’s pecuniary gain.”
There are three exceptions to the rule. A lawyer can reach out to a prospective client if:
- They are family.
- The person has a family connection, close relationship, or prior business history with the law firm.
- The client in question routinely uses legal services that the law firm offers.
Furthermore, there are ABA rules that highlight the requirements for legal advertising for your law firm. For example, Rule 7.1 states that a lawyer may not make any false claims, deceptive statements, or omit information that makes communication misleading. Lawyers have to be honest if they want to stay compliant, but there is another advantage to their transparency.
Attorneys that speak openly with prospective clients are more trustworthy. People feel like they can count on them to give them realistic expectations and deliver results based on fact, not false promises.
It is in every law firm’s best interest to always follow ABA Rules as their guidelines. They help keep your practice regulated and prevent you from using exploitative marketing practices.
What is legal marketing?
Legal marketing is marketing that specializes in generating new leads for law firms. The goal of legal marketing is to build a firm’s online presence and attract new leads through paid ads, search engines, and even social media posts.
YouTube is a popular legal marketing channel that can deliver good results for lawyers seeking to build their online reputation.
Paid ads can help lawyers get seen more frequently by people in their area who are looking for services the firm offers.
Legal website design and blog writing can improve conversions and fortify a company’s authority in its niche.
These examples illustrate how dynamic and versatile legal marketing can be. Whether you are a new firm or established practice seeking to modernize, legal marketing services can help you stand out online.
Many lawyers are hesitant to adopt digital marketing for their law firm because they find the technology intimidating and time-consuming. While it does take time to fully understand the best practices, the effort is worth it.
The greatest way to optimize your marketing efforts is by using the right tools. Practice management and legal customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you create customized client intake forms to streamline your lead generation. In the 2022 Marketing Outlook for Law firms report, CallRail, a marketing tracking and analytics company, revealed that 79% of lawyers reveal intake software helps them manage their time better while securing new clients.
Intake forms help your firm conduct preliminary screenings automatically. With the option to add custom fields, you can gather key details that let you determine how hot or cold a lead is. You can also use your custom form to automatically eliminate leads that are not a fit for your services.
Automatic email responses can help make leads feel supported, and you can personally follow-up to schedule consultations or refer an unviable lead out to a legal partner.
How to Get Legal Clients Online
There are several strategies lawyers can use to start getting more clients online. Covering these bases will help you establish a good online presence that only strengthens with time. Google favors websites that have been live for longer periods of time, so if you have yet to build or optimize your legal website, that should be your top priority.
Develop a Modern Law Firm Website
- Use a clean, minimal design
- Implement a simple, strong navigational menus
- Focus on content, not advertisements
- Make sure your site loads quickly on all devices
- Prioritize a mobile-friendly layout
- Ensure you have Google Analytics set up to track traffic
Publish a Legal Blog
- Answer frequently asked questions clients have in your specialty
- Explain complicated legal processes that clients want to understand
- Keep a consistent posting schedule that maintains your site’s relevance in search engines
- Research and incorporate keywords into headings and content, like “personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles” or “child custody after divorce”
- Implement calls-to-action that encourage readers to contact your firm to schedule a consultation
Run Ads on Search Engines
- Decide what keywords you want to bid on
- Set a timeline and marketing budget
- Include a strong call-to-action
- Make sure the ad directs clients to a well-designed landing page
- Consider working with a legal marketing company to manage your ads effectively
How do lawyers communicate with their clients?
Lawyers are available by phone, email, and text message. Managing incoming calls, messages, and emails from multiple clients can be difficult to manage, so modern law firms are incorporating client communication portals into their technology.
A client portal is a one-stop-shop for all your legal clients’ needs. It features easy accessibility for both lawyers and clients to use, and there is even built-in direct messaging that eliminates the need for off-platform texts and emails.
You can still get notifications sent to your inbox, which allows you to reply without having to manage multiple accounts at once.
Using a client communication portal can also reduce the number of inbound calls your firm receives each day. Clients are 50% less likely to request updates when they use Case Status thanks to its user-friendly, helpful interface.
We designed Case Status to transform the way lawyers interact with their clients. Our all-in-one platform features messaging, scheduling, feedback tracking, real-time translation, and more to make scaling your practice painless.
Reach out to us today to learn more. We’d love to show you how Case Status could help you improve customer experience with your firm.Book a Demo
What Is a Client Portal?
A legal client portal connects you with your clients while streamlining across communication channels. As important as communication may be to your firm, balancing phone calls, emails, and a seemingly endless array of messages can be challenging and client portals seek to solve these challenges.
Why are communications so important? The answer is simple. In legal services the customer is a person and the stakes are often high. As such law firms are frequently overwhelmed by all the questions clients ask because they want to know their case or matter is moving forward. Clients requesting status updates often interrupt workflows and case work that are the lawyers priority. Thus the challenges are compounded.
A client portal app can help your firm improve customer satisfaction while reducing the number of inbound calls and messages. Instead of replacing a lawyer’s consultation, it offers guidance and, in some cases, virtual assistance or self-service, to support clients throughout the legal process while providing attorneys with more time to perform their valuable work.
Read on to learn more about how client portals work, the benefits of adopting a legal client app, and what to look for in the best client portal software, like Case Status.
What Is a Client Portal Used For?
In its simplest form, a client portal gives legal clients a place to log in, read about their case or status, and send messages to their lawyer. The user-friendly design allows them to get answers to FAQs, send or receive messages, and even upload documents that their lawyer requests.
Lawyers use client portals to improve communication with their clients and maximize their efficiency. With a client portal in place, clients will have a designated hub to find valuable information whenever they need it. This reduces the frequency of clients calling firms or sending multiple emails to ask routine questions.
This convenient tool is a straightforward way for law firms to free up more time without disconnecting from their clients. What’s more, client portals allow for 24-hour support. Even if an attorney is not online, clients can still send messages, get helpful links, and review documents. Ongoing access to their firm can reduce anxiety and help clients feel more satisfied with their level of care throughout the legal relationship.
Are Client Portals Secure?
As with any online activity it’s important to choose a secure client software that has been designed to support the level of strict confidentiality law firms must maintain. The best legal client portals will use high-level encryption that ensures client information and case details remain safely secured on a protected cloud-based server.
Before you join a portal, read its data protection and privacy policies. You can confirm how they handle you and your clients’ data, where it’s stored, and who will have access to it and for what purposes.
Client portals are actually the most secure way to share documents and important information in today’s high-tech era. Emails can be hacked easily, and direct mail can be lost in transit.
Using an encrypted cloud-based solution, you can ensure that all information your clients send remains safe. Your communication will be 100% protected at all times.
Why Do We Need Client Portals?
If you are asking yourself if you need a client portal, the answer is yes. Think about other industries like banking. 10 years ago we would be willing to go to the bank’s brick and mortar office to deposit a check. But now it is expected to do this and so many other activities from our smartphone. Banking isn’t the only industry making this change. All other industries are engaging more effectively online.
In addition to self service, communications are central to a portal. Attempting to manage all your client communication at once is difficult, especially for large firms that juggle dozens of accounts at once. So many cases means a centralized platform is crucial to keep information organized. And most law firms keep multiple channels open: email, phone, SMS text, and mail. When the firm leaves it up to the individual client about which of these channels to use, the result is chaos.
A client portal also helps streamline the collection of paperwork and appointment scheduling. What’s more, customer portal software can allow multiple lawyers to collaborate with their clients. This even includes attorneys that are not part of the firm.
Case Status’s Co-Counsel is a great example of this. With Co-Counsel, you can refer clients that come to your firm to out-of-business attorneys, all while keeping clients connected to your firm and your brand for the lifetime relationship through the secure client portal. It’s a win-win.
The top reasons to get a client portal are streamlined workflows, less disruptions, and better communication with legal clients. You can enhance your productivity while increasing the level of care your clients receive every day.
What Makes a Good Client Portal?
With so many options out there, how do you choose a client portal? We’ve made it easy for you with this list of features. The best customer portal software will give your firm the ability to communicate more effectively while reducing the number of inbound calls your practice receives on a daily basis.
The goal isn’t to off-shoulder client satisfaction but rather enhance it through on-demand resources that allow clients to get instant answers to their questions. Take a look at some of the best features to look for in a client portal.
All-in-One Client Support
Rather than have your legal secretary take messages, pass them along, and get back to them when there’s time, the client portal gives your clients 24-hour access to information. Case Status has found that 93% of clients find what they’re looking for when they open our app, saving them and the law firm time from another phone call.
With ongoing support and at-their-fingertips educational resources, clients have a better experience of your firm without constant contact. Even though they may not be communicating with you as directly every day, they’re still having their needs and concerns addressed.
And when they do need to reach out? That’s no problem with built-in messaging that makes sending and receiving messages a breeze.
Built-in Messaging and Text Support
We live in a mobile-first world, so why aren’t law firms relying on texts and smartphones to communicate with their clients? Email is still valuable for some situations, but in-app messaging and texts save time and lead to faster responsiveness across the board.
With a client portal, you can send and receive messages both in the app and via text that allow for fast replies and rapid solutions. Case Status even offers templates that you can use to speed up your response time and keep clients satisfied.
There’s even a bulk messaging feature that lets you send a message to your entire client base with a single tap.
Real-Time Translation
Language barriers can prevent clients from working with the best lawyers for their case. Not anymore. Case Status uses real-time translation, seamlessly translating 138 languages to English and back through Google’s Neural Machine Translation System.
This allows your firm to assist English as a second language (ESL) speakers with ease and expand your prospects. There are even bulk messaging features and message templates that make communication faster.
Automated Daily Tasks
Law firm workflows are often interrupted by repetitive daily calls and requests for communication. A good client portal eliminates these by offering on-demand touchpoints to help clients find what they’re looking for without the need to contact the firm.
This makes the meetings you do have with clients more meaningful. It also allows your firm to focus more on client acquisition while the retention handles itself.
Most importantly, you’ll have the ability to work faster and focus more on delivering great results, so you can celebrate them with your clients.
With Case Status, there’s also the option to automate happy birthday and happy holiday messages, keeping your firm front-of-mind with clients and making them feel more supported.
Client Feedback Tracking
Case Status makes it easy to see how your clients are feeling throughout the case. We help you keep track of your Net Prompter Score (NPS), which is a customer satisfaction metric used widely throughout marketing.
Knowing your NPS makes it easier to identify where your firm can improve its services. Throughout the case, Case Status requires clients to rate their satisfaction on number scale, giving your firm insights into how you’re performing.
Case Status helps firms identify their happy clients 95% more easily, and it raises customer satisfaction by 30%.
Easy Integrations
The right client portal app for your firm will integrate with the software you already use and love. Make sure you research a portal’s integration options before buying. The best portals will partner with the leading legal practice management software, like Clio, Litify, and CasePEER, to make your workflows even easier.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Client Portal?
If you wanted to build your own client portal from scratch, you would need to find a legal software developer. It’s vital to work with a software company that understands the nuances and needs of law firm software.
To create a fully branded portal with all of the above mentioned features, you’d likely spend between $10,000 to $20,000. Some developers can give you a basic portal for as low as $5,000, but the most comprehensive legal portals can cost over $50,000.
On top of development, you’ll also have to consider ongoing maintenance costs. Because your firm owns the portal, you’re also responsible for ensuring it always works and stays updated with security trends.
Sound daunting? We know. That’s why we’ve made it easy to get your own branded client portal starting at $49/month. Because Case Status has its own dev team, you won’t have to worry about maintenance or troubleshooting, either. In fact, you actually receive support from IT experts throughout your subscription.
What Is a Client Portal Software?
A client portal software, equipped with personalized customer portal names, is an all-in-one communication tool that helps law firms connect with their clients better. It offers immediate answers to clients through a user-friendly dashboard, and it helps reduce the number of unnecessary calls or redundant emails that a firm receives on a daily basis.
Case Status is the leading legal client portal software on the market. Our integrations with the industry’s top practice management software make it easy to get started.
After they go through an easy client portal sign in process, clients will have on-demand access to your firm through the messaging system. They’ll also be able to find helpful resources that answer common questions and resolve concerns without the need to speak with an attorney.
Get started by scheduling a meeting with one of our team members. We’d love to help you learn more about Case Status and how it could benefit your firm. Book a Consultation Today
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