Grow Your Law Firm through Intentional and Strategic Marketing with Cassidy Lewis

business development business growth law firm marketing techniques network staffing strategic marketing Sep 29, 2022

Are you a law firm owner or an attorney looking to grow your firm or solo practice? Even if you already have a pool of clients and other people engaged with your business, you still need marketing to thrive. Whether it’s a dedicated in-house marketing team, one-man marketing team, or outsourced marketing services, you’ll need people to determine and carry out concerted and intentional strategic marketing efforts tailor-fit to your business.

In this episode, Cassidy Lewis, CMO for Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers, shares her expertise and talks about the importance of investing in strategic marketing to build your business. She discusses the value of referrals and how relationships with attorneys and firms — even competitors — can bring better results to your company. Cassidy also imparts valuable marketing advice for law firms and solo practitioners alike.

If you want to make the most of your resources and invest in strategic marketing for your firm, then this episode is for you.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode

Learn how referrals help produce the best results for your business.
Discover the importance of having a dedicated marketing team for your law firm.
Identify strategic marketing techniques that fit your style and your business.

Resources

Interested in accelerating the growth of your law firm? Grab a FREE Law Firm Expansion Coaching Session with one of our coaches. Slots are limited, so grab yours before they’re gone!
Connect with Cassidy: Email | LinkedIn | Phone: 753-333-3333
Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers
The Lewis Marketing Group
Seven Figure Attorney Summit hosted by Craig Goldenfarb
Generating Business Referrals Without Asking: A Simple Five Step Plan to a Referral Explosion by Stacey Brown Randall
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People by Dr. Gary Chapman & Dr. Paul White

Episode Highlights

How Cassidy Started in Marketing

Cassidy has been in the marketing industry for 13 years.
She was a Marketing Director at Northwestern Mutual, where she did local political campaigns.
After years of marketing work, Cassidy built her own marketing agency, The Lewis Marketing Firm.
She wanted to focus more on her two children and was later approached by Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers to become their chief marketing officer.

The Value of Referrals in Law Firms

Her employment with Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers resulted from a referral.
She initially interviewed for another firm, but did not get the job. A year later, Cooper Hurley was looking for a CMO and the firm she interviewed for referred her to them.
The firm did not post the job. They wanted resumes of people they knew.
Moshe emphasizes the need for law firms to focus on referrals, which applies to both employees and clients.

Cassidy: “This is a year later that that initial effort is bearing fruit. It just goes to show that you never know what impression you’re going to make that is going to ultimately drive something to you that you might not have had otherwise.”

Spending on Strategic Marketing

It might be impossible for a single vendor to give a firm all the attention they need.
Cassidy recommends firms to have a designated marketing director or even a marketing assistant.
Start off with what the firm naturally does well. If you enjoy and excel in client services and referral marketing, focus on those efforts first.
Then look at strategies that the firm wants to implement but normally does not have the capability.

Finding the Right Marketing Services Provider

Make sure that the vendor is a trusted provider in legal marketing.
Immediately inquire about their specialty and align it with the strategy you prefer. If it’s not what you’re looking for, move on to the next one.

Cassidy: “Any company that tries to sell you a social media campaign, and you’re not at the forefront of it, you need to run.”

If a firm does not fit your needs, Cassidy suggests asking them for a reference instead.

Building Your Referral Network

There are three main referral partners: (1) other attorneys, (2) other professionals who come in contact with your ideal client, and (3) past clients, family, and friends.
Even competitors are part of your referral network. For instance, if a competitor is unable to take a case and you build a relationship with them, they’re likely to send the case to you.
Be proactive about building referrals.

Choosing Your Potential Attorney Referrals

Cassidy believes attorneys need more structure around how they connect with their attorney friends.
In building your attorney referral network, consider these questions:

Who are our top referral partners?
Who knows them in the office?
What type of cases are they referring to us?

For attorney marketing, Cassidy recommends LinkedIn ads and local and state-wide legal publications.
Cooper Hurley Injury Firm developed a technique called “Next Four.” Cassidy explains this strategy, so tune in to the episode to learn more!

Clients: Your Unique Value Proposition

Cassidy: “I think the one thing that we have that no other injury firm has are our clients… [M]ost people don’t get in multiple accidents, and if they do, they’d come back to us. That’s our one unique thing. We try our best to spoil them.”

Their firm has a designated Director of Client Services who ensures the clients are well taken care of.
For instance, they give their clients gift boxes every three months and nine months.
They also have a “settle-versary” gift to celebrate the settlement anniversary of their client’s case.
The firm also does an anonymous survey every six months where clients rate their services.

Why You Should Invest in Strategic Marketing

Cassidy: “It is much more difficult to be an attorney and handle cases and then try to do marketing as well. There has to be an investment in marketing, which includes somebody that is dedicated to your marketing.”

Marketing should not be an afterthought.
Having an in-house marketing team is the best route. They can coordinate with vendors and research altogether.

Moshe: “It costs money to run your firm, to build it, and grow it. You have to have the resources to do that. You can’t start a firm with $100.”

If you cannot hire an entire team, it is still better to have a dedicated strategic marketing personnel from the get go.
Outsourcing is an option, but it will cost your firm more money and effort. You also have to coordinate with them separately.
Tune in to the episode to hear Cassidy talk about the structure of the marketing team at Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers.

Strategic Marketing through Community Involvement

Community involvement holds an untapped marketing potential that many firms do not leverage to their benefit.
Like other strategies, you will still need a system to implement it efficiently.

Cassidy: “There’s nothing wrong with just giving money away. But if you’re looking to grow your business, there has to be some strategy behind it.”

If you sponsor a community or organization, people become actively involved in the process and with your business. Your firm is now visible to them.
Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers created a name for all their community involvement activities: Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers Cares. They focus on education and other youth-based initiatives.
If you’re in marketing, you cannot be afraid to talk about demographics.

Driving Reviews for Your Law Firm

Cassidy: “If you begin to measure it, it will grow.”

Most of the time, what’s missing in law firms are systems. There has to be a system in place — even for driving reviews.
In Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers, the Director of Client Services contacts clients upon settlement and asks if they would like to leave a review. Nine out of 10 times, the client says yes.
Other methods to drive reviews are review contests.
When asking for reviews, take advantage of the euphoric moment.
The velocity of the reviews has to do with the algorithm. Be mindful and careful about not dumping too many reviews on one location too quickly.

How Incentivizing Helps Your Firm

Cassidy’s firm hosts in-house contests to encourage their staff to reach goals.
You can’t assume what makes your people tick.
Incentives can be financial or in kind like time, office perks, food trucks, parking spots, and gym memberships, among others.
Establish a company culture and know your employees’ love languages.

About Cassidy

Cassidy Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer for Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers, is a “core” marketer with extensive experience in marketing-sales, communication, digital, social, event planning, direct response advertisement, and several additional strategies.

She is also the owner of The Lewis Marketing Group, a full service brand management firm that provides advisory, consultative, and collaborative marketing services to help businesses reach their marketing needs.

Before Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers, Cassidy also worked for the Northwest Mutual, Elizabeth City State University, and Nationwide Insurance.

If you wish to get in touch with Cassidy, you may send her an email at [email protected] or call her at 757-333-3333.

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