By Legal Futures Associate: The Law Superstore
It would be easy to think that as lockdown is being phased out, the legal market is likely to bounce back to what it was. But along with many other industries, the market has changed course and nothing is the same. Recession, job uncertainty and concern around a second wave means consumers aren’t acting as they used to. Those who trusted word-of-mouth have become tech savvy Googlers. Those who relied on recommendations have made friends with review sites. Those who would use their local high street solicitors are now looking online, from the safety of their homes.
It’s not about damage limitation, it’s about opportunity. If legal firms aren’t making the most of an online audience, they’re missing out.
Understandably, there has been resistance from traditional firms about going digital, not just in legal services, but across various industries. When things have been working well for a long time, there’s no need to change. Especially if you’re a small firm with a strong local customer base, and ties to your community.
This is especially true when the truly tech savvy firms seem to have huge budgets, teams of experts and dominate space online. Going digital seemed complicated, with intensive development work, along with expensive campaigns and even more analysis. Why bother, when you could always rely on your local customers knocking on your door?
But Covid-19 has changed that and the firms that are thriving right now are the ones who have pivoted and adapted to ‘the new normal’.
Across all industries, there’s signs of innovation in the face of collapse – companies pivoting to takeaways, home deliveries and socially-distanced experiences have led the way during lockdown. Luckily, for the legal sector, making changes doesn’t have to be quite that labour-intensive.
Embracing digital marketing doesn’t have to mean big budgets, external agencies or lots of website development. We know from our twenty years of experience with conveyancing solicitors that no one has time to be worrying about that. You just want the customers to find you, so you can do what you do best.
That’s where lead generation can cut out much of the noise and let you get straight through to the customer.
Lead generation is a simple form of digital marketing that lets someone else do the hard work of building up a brand with content and SEO, adapting Pay Per Click bids and getting the customer to fill out their details. Legal firms benefit by being featured – the customer learns more about them, but more than that, the firm gets the contact details and can call straight away to find out more information and get the case.
We’ve seen huge growth from our partners over the last few months, and the ones who are really thriving are those who are expanding into different legal services (supplemented by lead generation) or are exploring different locations. There are so many legal services where you don’t have to think local anymore, and the clients don’t expect to either.
We know that lead generation hasn’t always been the focus for firms who could rely on high street footfall, but beyond needing the impetus to pick up the phone and call a potential client, it’s incredibly low effort and low risk.
Have a look at our White Paper around how lead generation can support legal firms who have struggled during lockdown, especially those without an in-house marketing team. We include case studies from two firms who have used lead generation in different ways, with impressive results.
As legal professionals, it can be tempting to dismiss digital marketing, but making use of those tools can ensure business is still growing throughout the pandemic and into the uncertain legal landscape. People will always need lawyers, it’s just whether they can find you.
Have a look at our White Paper to find out more about how lead generation can support firms during the pandemic.
