Effective Marketing Strategies for Law Firms with Seth Price

attorney Sep 16, 2021

Effective marketing strategies are the backbone of business growth. However, marketing for law firms often gets overlooked by most law firm owners. But before you start hiring people or buying services products, ask yourself: do you understand how it works and how it can help you?

In this episode, Seth Price joins us to talk about how to assess what marketing strategy your firm needs based on three important metrics. Seth shares the need to focus on intake and conversion first, as these drive your revenue growth. Seth also cautions against jumping to conclusions — it takes time to see ROI on marketing strategies.

If you want to know more about marketing for law firms, then this episode with Seth Price is for you!

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

Understand how the type of practice, budget, and time frame affect marketing strategies for law firms.
Learn how to improve your intake and conversion rate.
Discover why it is essential to be patient with your marketing strategy.

Resources

Smith.ai is a 24/7 virtual receptionist and makes sure you maximize your lead intakes. Use the code PROFITLAW100 and get a $100 discount on your purchase.
Fireproof by Mike Morse
Traction by Gino Wickman
Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Eager to learn more insights on law firm growth? Check out these Profit with Law episodes:

Episode 144 - From Law School to a 150 Person Firm with Mike Morse
Episode 166 - Hope is Not a Good Strategy for Growing Your Law Firm with Michael Duffy

Connect with Seth: LinkedIn | Email | Phone: 347.661.9999
Price Benowitz LLP
BluShark Digital

Episode Highlights

How Seth Started with Marketing for Law Firms

Seth Price left big law during the dot-com bubble to start his legal practice. Price partnered with his buddy, who was the chief legal officer. Meanwhile, he took care of intake and leads.

In a business, there’s a visionary and integrator. It’s hard to be both, so you need to figure out which one you are and find someone to fill the other one’s roles.

Understanding Your Role in the Firm

You have to recognize early on which role you best fit in, so you can identify what kind of people to bring in.

Moshe: “We all need to be asking ourselves every day, “Who can do this?” Not “How do I do this?” Because there isn't anything that you do in your law firm that someone else can't do.”

You also need to be aware of your level of passion and interest for specific roles.
Everything in your law firm can be done by someone else.
It's not enough for you to create a system and bring people in for execution. You need to understand how the system works.
The more you understand the system, the more you can make wise investments for your firm.

Know the Big Picture for Your Firm

Instead of focusing on infrastructure, you need to see whether or not your leads and intake can sustain you.
Before investing in marketing for law firms, you need to know what you want to do with your firm.

Seth Price shares a couple of questions you need to answer to identify your business model.

Are you referral-based? Will you use the web? Are you going to use prepaid legal?
Answering these questions will help guide your investment decisions.

Be Patient and Observe the Predictable

If you want to grow, you need to have a replicable system in place.
You need to understand how many clients you need a month and how much should be spent in marketing to produce that.
It can take months before you see results from marketing. What’s important is investing in your business early on.
There’s no easy path to growth: don’t listen to people selling shortcuts.

Seth Price: “There are so many different places where the SEO could get blamed and it turns out the intake is wrong. As the captain of the ship, you have to make sure that it's not just one area but that each of these areas is working.”

Marketing for Law Firms: The Rule of Thumb

When marketing for law firms, get started with SEO as soon as possible.

Seth Price: “The best time to plant a tree SEO-wise: yesterday. Second best time, today.”

There's no one rule for all firms; you need to figure out what works for you.
Pay per click works, but it may be too expensive. This strategy may not be good marketing for law firms that are just starting.

LSA can be beneficial for plaintiffs attorneys but may not work for higher dollar products.

Everything takes work and time. Just find what works for you first.

Seth Price: “If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. The marketing that works is generally hard work and margin. If somebody understands what they're getting, it's going to be infinitely better.”

Effective Strategies Are Not One Size Fits All

When assessing what will work for you, start by looking at your type of practice, budget, and timeframe.
In general, SEO works well for those with over $350,000 in revenue.
Generally, you can expect upfront investments in marketing for law firms to be at around $50,000. However, this increases if you’re in a competitive market.
The timeframe can also be different for firms.

Seth Price: “Know what's there, look at the options, and pick smartly. It's very often what fits for your practice, your budget, and your timeframe.”

Don’t Say Yes to Everything

Focus on a particular area in a practice, and you'll see growth faster.
There's also merit in taking work other firms don't want.
You can strategically place yourself in a market with less competition. This way, it's instantly easier to get clients.

Seth Price: “Basically, you play guerrilla tactics: where can you put a pin on the map and that's going to get you enough calls because there isn't competition?”

As you grow, you need to make sure you have a sustainable and workable frame in place. For example, invest in a website that can support your growth.

Seth Price: “The website is an asset. For people that are starting out, what I want to avoid is building out a frame job that isn't going to be supported as you grow.”

Look at Your Intake Process

Have a dashboard that tracks all the important metrics in marketing for law firms.
Take a look at your intake and conversion rate. You need to be able to take people to the finish line.
Even when you’ve handed this role to someone else, monitor the conversations taking place in the intake process.

Seth Price: “If you're not listening to the phone calls of somebody other than yourself taking the intake, it's gonna cost you. The question is when not if.”

Firm Growth Depends on Its Stage

Your needs will change over time, depending on what stage your firm is at.
You need to know what you want for yourself and what you envision for your firm.
People often focus on scaling without considering profitability and revenue.
There are many ways you can grow your firm, listen to the full episode to find out more!

Seth Price

Seth Price is the founding partner and business backbone of Price Benowitz LLP. He is also the founder and CEO of the marketing agency BluShark Digital. With his legal expertise and marketing experience, Seth Price took a 2-person law firm to 40 attorneys in less than a decade.

Seth has achieved a 10/10 rating on the attorney rating site AVVO and received the AV Preeminent rating by Martindale-Hubbell. Seth is also a sought-after speaker at conferences. He has spoken on marketing for law firms, best practices for firm operations, and legal digital marketing.

Seth Price also serves on the National Trial Lawyers Association’s executive committee. Seth advocates for giving inner-city youth an opportunity for top-rate education.

Reach out to Seth Price on LinkedIn, email ([email protected]), and via phone at 347.661.9999.

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