If you’re running a law firm, you need clients. It’s a simple equation. If you can’t attract clients, you can’t make any money, and your firm will have to fold.
How can you get those clients, though? In a recent survey, 43% of individuals said they looked to family for lawyer referrals. It makes sense that someone looking for an attorney would start there, since they can ask their family member if this lawyer or firm did a good job for them.
However, what if you’re trying to attract clients through other means? You can’t rely on just family recommendations for clients, or you probably won’t get enough business.
You might feel like you have plenty of potential clients for your firm out there, but maybe they’re wary about trusting you. Lawyers and the legal profession in general don’t have the best reputation in some circles. You will need to do all you can to let people know you’re a trustworthy entity they can come to when you need legal work.
Let us talk about what you might do to attract some wary potential clients.
Speak Out About What You Believe in on Social Media
First, you need to understand one thing about appearing trustworthy as a law firm. A lot of it comes down to your branding efforts.
When you work on your branding, it helps to convey the sort of business entity you are trying to be. If you attempt to communicate with the public even before many of them become your clients, that is a way you can establish your law firm’s identity.
You can start this process by speaking out about what you believe in on social media. You should definitely have social media accounts for your law firm set up on the various platforms where you believe the majority of your would-be clients spend their time. You can post engaging content on your profiles daily.
To get clients to trust you, it helps to let them know that you feel the same way that they do about crucial matters. That is why you should comment on topical issues and take a side.
That might repel some clients who do not agree with your viewpoints, but it will endear you to others. By making it clear what side you are taking on topics related to social justice and other prominent issues in the news, you make it easier for a would-be client to trust you when they need legal help.
Address Any Negative Comments Online
You should also monitor your law firm’s online presence very careful if you are trying to earn trust from would-be clients. You can do that, in part, by addressing any negative comments that someone makes about your law firm online.
Even if you try your best to satisfy everyone, you might occasionally have a former client who didn’t have the best experience with you. While you can’t always get them to remove negative comments about you online, you can at least try to address those comments in a public forum in a way that’s careful, measured, and polite.
By doing so, you send the message that you’re reasonable and that you’re doing your best to satisfy all your clients. If you throw a temper tantrum online when someone makes a negative comment about your law firm instead, that makes it much harder for any would-be client to trust you.
Have Plenty of Positive Feedback on Your Website
You will also want to showcase plenty of positive feedback from former clients on your law firm’s website. You can’t control what people say about you off of your site, but you can cherry pick the best comments from former clients and feature them prominently.
You can have them on your landing page below the fold, meaning that they will appear when someone visits your site’s landing page and scrolls down a little. If you have many glowing reviews featured there, it sends the message that many individuals liked and appreciated the legal work that you did for them.
Appear on Podcasts and Write Guest Blogs
You can further get potential clients to trust you by becoming a more visible entity in any way that you can. While social media posts can help, there’s nothing like writing personal opinion pieces on legal matters and posting them on either your website’s blog or on other sites’ blogs.
If you write pieces talking about your opinion on current legal topics, it’s another way you can convey not only your expertise, but also what your firm prioritizes. You can take a stand on topical matters so that would-be clients will know that you are on the same side as them.
You can also appear on podcasts or TV shows that discuss legal matters. If you cater to a certain geographic region, and you can find some podcasts or TV shows that also have an area-specific focus, then you might become a minor celebrity.
Remember that every time you make one of these appearances, you’re helping to establish your brand. If a would-be client knows your identity and knows about your beliefs and priorities before they contact you, it’s highly like that they will already trust you to some extent.
Reassure Your Would-Be Clients in Person When They Meet You
You can also help any potential clients trust you by seeming warm and engaging when they meet with you in person. Remember that most people don’t like hiring lawyers. It’s not something to which they look forward. They do it because of obligation.
Try to make the experience of meeting you as pleasant as possible. Try to humanize yourself and make yourself relatable. If you can do that, and you can establish a rapport with this individual or family, then they will probably hire you with a lot less trepidation.
All of this together can put you in a great position for would-be clients to trust you.
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