5 Tips to Ensure Your Law Practice Is on the Road to Success
Whether you are about to open a law practice or have recently started taking new clients at your firm, you want to ensure you set yourself up for success. Law is a competitive field — look at attorney listings in any city, and you will find dozens, if not thousands, of options. Clients always have an abundance of choices when they need legal support, which is why attorneys need to get smart about growing their practice.
In the past, legal professionals relied on aggressive television ads and billboards to get clients, but the game has changed. Today, you can build your law practice and help it succeed with these tips:
Specialize
Having hundreds of practice areas can seem like a great idea because you can cast your net wide. Some of the largest law firms in the nation are able to do robust business because they have legal services for just about any situation. However, if you are just starting to establish your practice, spreading yourself too thin can increase your overhead, but it may not help your business get ahead.
Specializing in a specific area allows you to become recognized as an authority in that one specialty. Advertising is simpler, and you can focus on a narrow selection of cases. You can carefully build a team excelling in that area, which may help you gain positive attention for your work.
Build the Best Staff
Staff and networks are invaluable to attorneys. Seek out the best paralegals, administrative assistants and other professionals to work in your office. When you find someone productive, work to ensure they want to stay at your company. A warm, professional staff can make you much more appealing to clients.
Stay Visible
Today, it takes much more than big billboards to get noticed. Instead, you will want to pursue as many of these marketing opportunities as you can:
- Publish articles about your practice area
- Be an interviewed expert in the news
- Give back to your community by taking part in events and pro bono work
- Stay active on a wide range of social media platforms
- Post videos online about your firm and practice areas
- Publish a law firm newsletter to send to clients
- Create and maintain an excellent website
- Place ads in multiple spots — on buses, outside of retirement homes and on cars
Rely on Repeat Business and Word-of-mouth Advertising
Every happy client eager to work with you again is a client you don’t have to aggressively pursue. You want to be in a situation where clients come to you, and one way to do that is by working hard on behalf of clients and keeping in touch. Send holiday cards or offer free promotional materials, like pens, coffee mugs or water bottles, to people you have worked with. You want to stay in their minds so they can return to your offices or recommend you to friends and family.
Be Available
Your clients expect you to be available for counseling or advice when they need you. Unanswered phone calls and being placed on hold will not make your clients happy, and there are hundreds of other law firms in the area that they can call. Utilizing a professional phone system can help you avoid missed calls and appear more professional and attentive overall. The use of virtual receptionists, auto attendants and call forwarding will allow your clients to reach you when they need to, or reassure them that you’ll get back to them as soon as possible when they can’t.
AccessDirect offers a variety of cloud-based phone solutions for law firms. With us, you don’t have to switch numbers or install expensive equipment to have a professional and reliable phone system to help clients reach you. Check out AccessDirect solutions created specifically for the legal industry and find out how the right law firm answering service can help you get more clients. We may even be able to save you money on an administrative assistant.
Follow this advice and your law firm will soon be on the road to success.
