Attorney Marketing: How to Get More Clients
In today’s digital age, attorneys must adapt to innovative marketing strategies to attract clients and build a solid reputation. In a recent episode of the Be Picked podcast, host Andrew Kolsky and brand strategist Laurelyn Ponder discuss practical tips for new attorneys looking to establish their presence and credibility in a competitive market.
Understanding the Importance of Foundations
Laurelyn emphasizes that before diving into social media marketing and public relations, attorneys must establish a strong foundation. This includes setting up a client relationship management system, organizing contracts and invoicing, and ensuring there’s a reliable team to handle incoming client inquiries. Without this infrastructure in place, marketing efforts can lead to chaos.
Laurelyn states, "If you don’t have systems in place, once you start adding social media and PR, it’s all gonna collapse."
Leveraging Local Marketing
For attorneys starting out, local marketing is a vital strategy. Laurelyn suggests that practitioners utilize their community networks as a primary source of client acquisition.
She notes, "There’s always going to be somebody who needs services in all sorts of parts of law or medical practices. Someone's always going to get sick."
By attending local networking events and engaging with the community, attorneys can build relationships that can lead to referrals.
Preparing for Networking Events
When attending networking events, Laurelyn advises attorneys to focus on human connection rather than pitching their services right away.
"Think about it as a conversation... People buy from people," she explains.
Having a well-prepared LinkedIn profile is crucial, as it serves as a digital business card that potential clients can refer to later.
Maintaining an Active Online Presence
A common misconception among new attorneys is that having a well-designed website with good SEO is sufficient.
Laurelyn stresses the importance of ongoing engagement: "You have to stay consistently posting, whether that’s articles or thought leadership pieces."
Regular content posting keeps the website active and improves search engine rankings, making it easier for potential clients to find the attorney’s services.
Utilizing Digital Marketing Tools
With the rise of AI and new search technologies, it’s essential for attorneys to stay updated on digital marketing trends.
Laurelyn highlights the concept of AEO (AI Optimization) and the significance of an effective Google Business Profile. This dual approach helps enhance visibility both locally and online, which is crucial for building credibility.
Taking it Step by Step
Laurelyn reassures new attorneys that building a successful marketing strategy doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
"You do not have to tackle this all at the same time. Tackle one thing at a time."
She encourages attorneys to focus on local marketing first or to hone their skills on platforms like LinkedIn, rather than spreading themselves too thin across multiple channels.
Conclusion
Building a successful legal practice requires a strategic approach to marketing. By focusing on foundational systems, leveraging local networks, maintaining an active online presence, and utilizing digital marketing tools, attorneys can effectively attract and retain clients.
Remember, consistency and genuine connection are key to establishing credibility in the legal field.
Key Takeaways
Establish foundational systems before diving into marketing.
Leverage local networks and community engagements for client acquisition.
Maintain an active online presence with consistent content posting.
Utilize digital marketing tools and stay updated with trends like AEO.
Take a step-by-step approach to marketing without overwhelming yourself.
Tags:
#LegalMarketing #ClientAcquisition #SocialMediaStrategy #LocalMarketing #DigitalMarketing #Attorneys #BrandVisibility
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Andrew Colsky (00:14)
Welcome to the Be Picked podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Colsky, and we are all about helping professionals get the unfair advantage in client acquisition. My guest today is Laurelyn Ponder, and she knows a lot about that. And rather than me trying to give you the whole resume, I'm gonna let Laurelyn introduce herself and her company.
Laurelyn Ponder (00:40)
Yes, so thank you for having me on the show. My name is Larlene Ponder I am a brand strategist and social media expert that helps service-based businesses grow from the ground up with social media strategy PR and podcast placements
Andrew Colsky (00:56)
Fantastic, Excuse me, and if I understand it correctly, you have a podcast of your own that you're working on.
Laurelyn Ponder (01:04)
Yes, we are currently at Starting Social Studios. My company is about to launch a podcast called The Brand Visibility Effect on tips on online marketing, PR outreach and brand authority. And so what that whole podcast is about is just starting.
tips to get yourself out there, get confident, get the visibility that you need, as well as tips for social media management, marketing, and PR to get your name out there.
Andrew Colsky (01:39)
Fantastic,
and that's exactly what we're talking about here and the audience we're talking to. So why don't we hop into some of that? So let me give you a scenario. I am an attorney. I've got a sole practice or a small practice. I am either just starting out or I'm starting to realize that I need to build my credibility to try and start building my client base.
Laurelyn Ponder (02:07)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (02:07)
What?
Do I need to think about first when we start getting into the world of the internet? What do I need to do?
Laurelyn Ponder (02:14)
In the
world of the internet...
The number one tip for you start anything is don't automatically jump to the visibility, jump to the social media marketing, jump to the PR and those placements. Because if you don't have systems, a client relationship management system, your contracts, your invoicing, your team, paralegals, anything like that to maintain the client flow once they come in, then it's just when you start adding social media,
and PR, it's all gonna collapse. So definitely make sure you have your systems in place and for solo practitioners that are in these firms that have the systems in place, start posting on social media, but make sure you have your foundations, your messaging, and who you want to target in terms of who you want to help. And that will help grow your Instagram and your LinkedIn and make sure you have thought,
thought leadership content out there to kind of turn that wheel when you do start posting and getting your name out there visually.
Andrew Colsky (03:30)
Wow, okay, so there's a lot of infrastructure that one needs to have in place. I've heard often when I speak with people about getting their name out there, one of the biggest things is you don't wanna go about doing all this stuff to get people to call you and then not answer the phone.
Laurelyn Ponder (03:51)
Yes.
Andrew Colsky (03:51)
And it's so hard, especially if you're a solo practitioner or a small practice, getting to the phone.
pulls you away from everything else. Now hopefully you have some assistance that someone else can be answering the phone for you, but they can only answer what they can answer. They're not the attorney doing the work. So I think that goes right along with what you're saying is if you're not set up and ready to be able to take the inquiries that come in, focus on getting that set up first.
Laurelyn Ponder (04:24)
Yes, and the foundations when it comes to the marketing part of it, service providers have a great local marketing network. Use that, use your town, get your name out there organically by networking.
For example, lawyers, there's always going to be somebody who needs services in all sorts of parts of law or medical practices. Someone's always going to get sick. So you utilize your local market before you think about getting on the digital platform. But do that in tandem to where you're not overwhelmed. But once you have the systems in place, then you can really scale the digital marketing efforts.
strategy.
Andrew Colsky (05:14)
Yeah,
great great information there What is your advice to your clients on? if they do go out to different networking events and and Maybe they speak at their church. Maybe they go to a chamber of commerce meeting Whatever it may be wherever that wherever they're going to find their client base How do they set themselves up for that do they need some kind of a?
tagline or an elevator speech or what's the best way to be prepared for networking events?
Laurelyn Ponder (05:48)
For networking events, just think about it as a conversation. It's not automatically going to go to where you say, oh.
I'm just going to pitch you my services. This is what I do at the root of the cause. Try to figure out their pain points and just have a conversation. Human to human connection and people people buy from people. So when you're at your churches, when you're at your libraries, just constantly engage, but also make sure that you have your LinkedIn handy. Just your basic name, your firm or what you work at with your work history.
and you can be able to refer that be like hey there's this is this is my linkedin let's connect online and you can use that in tandem of
business cards as well depending the demographic you're speaking to but that is a great way to get started. It's just a conversation and those networking events if people are interested then you can direct them, hey give me a call or let's set up a time here's my email sort of that structure.
Andrew Colsky (06:58)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, okay. And LinkedIn is certainly a very powerful tool that people use all the time.
Laurelyn Ponder (07:06)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (07:08)
But what about the situation where they give out their LinkedIn address or their profile and then people go there and then they don't see anything on the profile? What
should they be doing?
Laurelyn Ponder (07:23)
Yeah, so in that case,
make sure you have your photo and then and make sure you're posting at least once a week. LinkedIn's algorithm really boosts you out when you post every single day or at least four times a day. So make sure you have something visible in your expertise. And that's where the digital marketing comes into play. So you sort of have to balance the foundations of your firm and getting your firm up and running so you can take the client acquisition.
on as you get traction, but also that visibility component that you're speaking of. So make sure your bio is written to where it has keywords on who you help, who I, who, what is your pain points? What is your desire state? And
And with the posting, you can talk about those pain points consistently and those content pillars that we call in marketing. And that's sort of your core component when it comes to digital marketing is this core content pillars sets you up for success. So, you know what you're talking about and you really just need to three to five to get started. Just topics that you can think of of.
Oh, you're in this situation. This is how I can help you get out of it. Or I have a referral problem. For my case, a lot of people that service providers I work with, were, are referral based. So this is how you get out of it by setting up a marketing system and then CRM on the backend to help with the digital marketing efforts.
Andrew Colsky (09:00)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So yeah, because I can see that, you know, let's say someone is a sole practitioner and they're setting up their practice and their training and their life and their time has been going to law school, learning how to deal with legal cases, learning about litigation, learning about their area of expertise. And they probably haven't had too much time to learn about
social media, and then they hear things like proper keywords or search terms or whatever, and it's probably baffling and scary for many people. And then they might start to be thinking, well, how am I supposed to know the search term? How am I supposed to know how to set this stuff up?
Are
there any quick and easy tips for that or is this where it really becomes, you know, just like you're an attorney and you're a professional doing what you do, there are professionals who do the other piece of this.
Laurelyn Ponder (10:07)
Yeah, so.
Definitely there's definitely two options to this you can There's a free utilized source. That's called the internet get on Google YouTube get on Google and Also, this is where I step in I help you with the foundations with audit But if you're ready to take that next step we really hone in on the messaging the foundations and then we make sure it's consistent posting and we scale that with PR and
to get your name out of there, out there. But when you're at that stage of, I really don't know what to do, just if you don't know something, Google it or.
outsourcing expert because I've been in in the professional service world for about four to five years up and in and out of agencies and in corporate and so I know the brand behind it and also the freelance to agency work style so there's definitely multiple avenues that you can go with but when it comes to SEO and keywords just just search what are the common phrases that clients search
up when I'm in law or when I'm in medical? How can I get visible and find the most common keywords? Neil Votel is a great resource for this. Where can I find those keywords that I can be searchable?
Andrew Colsky (11:40)
So does any of this change now that we're starting to get into not just your traditional Google search, for example, but now we've got all the AI search that people are using. And I, you know, I know that that's a different animal from the way that Google would find information. So how do people become aware of what they need to do from that end?
Laurelyn Ponder (12:09)
Yeah,
what we call that is AI searching is called AEO. It is such a new kind of transformable way of how we're thinking about getting search because we have all these AI bots that are just crawling and indexing on the internet. And so how you can go about that is just keep in mind that these search engines work in tandem and get in getting a Google business profile for your
local network and they're working together in that searchability and that exposure. So it's definitely a new avenue that we're exploring and it's definitely changing digital marketing but make sure your message is clear. You have a crisis communication plan in place just in case there's any bad exposure or positive exposure to your firm and really just understand that it
works within a system to boost you up so the most exposure that you can get either local or on digital on the internet helps in tandem to build up your credibility and your name.
Andrew Colsky (13:24)
So, you know, I spend a lot of time reading posts that attorneys put up on LinkedIn or other social media places around the internet. And when they talk about marketing, obviously, I'm very interested in that. And I see over and over and over again, you got to get good SEO, good SEO, good SEO, good SEO on your website, a good website with good SEO. And it's like, OK, well, that's true.
Laurelyn Ponder (13:52)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (13:52)
But
what it also appears to be is, or at least it generates the thought that, okay, so if I'm a new attorney and I'm starting out, I can go spend money, I can get a great looking website set up, I can make sure they put all the right SEO terms in, and then I just park it and pay for it monthly and I don't have to do anything anymore. Is that gonna work?
Laurelyn Ponder (14:19)
No, it's really not going to work because you have to stay consistently posting, whether that's articles or thought leaderships. If you're at to that point, then I would probably think if you have the systems in place, let's get your name out there. Let's build that authority. Let's use that LinkedIn and then get you on those podcast placements and in whatever industry that you're in and then get you in editorials and magazines and journals.
because it works in tandem because you can't just let the internet sit and I have a website because if it doesn't work properly, it won't boost up in the rankings. It essentially means the first couple three clicks when you type in, loggers near me, doctor's office near me, it's not gonna populate. And so that works in tandem with your website with Google My Business.
is sort of like a content machine and to make sure that it all works together where people actually see your company page. But if you if you let your website sit, I just have my website. People will go to it. You have to drive traffic to it to actually get booked and you actually have to get out there. And so that's what my podcast hopefully is going to talk about is how to be authority in your field to where that
traffic and that inbound traffic grows.
Andrew Colsky (15:53)
So I can already feel the anxiety building if I'm a new attorney and I'm listening to this, because that's, okay, so now I got to write this blog stuff and I can't
Laurelyn Ponder (16:06)
Thank you.
Andrew Colsky (16:06)
just get a good website, but I got to keep adding stuff to it. And then you're talking about getting out there and talking places and networking. When am I going to do my work as an attorney? How do people actually do this? The people that are successful in marketing a new practice or a small practice.
How are they successful in doing this?
Laurelyn Ponder (16:26)
it
comes down to your business core. It all seems overwhelming at times, but you do not have to tackle it all at the same time. Let me repeat that. You do not have to tackle this all at the same time. Tackle one thing at a time. Get good at your local marketing. Get those referrals in. Then we can grow into digital. Or if you want to do it back engine way, get good at LinkedIn. Really hone in on that. Really hone in on your writing style.
A lot of marketing practitioners say you don't have to do it all at once. You don't have to be on every platform. Just pick one or two and just really get good at it. If you really like getting on camera and being making videos while you're doing your firm and helping clients get on Instagram and LinkedIn. If you just like writing and you want to stay behind the scenes, just be on LinkedIn. You have to just, it's called purr.
So marketing experts will just say focus on one to two platforms at a time so you can manage that day-to-day interaction and make sure your firm at the core is successful with client delivery and operations for your team.
Andrew Colsky (17:54)
So it sounds like I've got, as the practitioner, I've got another job in addition to my job of being an attorney and worrying about all those things that I've got to worry about, court deadlines and ethics rules and all these other things. So what does someone like you do to help me? What can you take off my plate and make better for me so that I don't have to
do it myself.
Laurelyn Ponder (18:26)
Yeah,
so definitely where I come into play or anyone that you engage with in terms of marketing and like I just want to off source this. have I have a busy firm. I have the systems in place that I have clients to take care of.
you can outsource it to somebody like me who's a social media brand expert that's good at PR and we and somebody like me who's went to college for this we will do a dumb for you system and just essentially at that stage take care of it for you and in my business I meet monthly with my clients and I make sure there are detailed reports and what's
doing well and once not doing well and we really take it back to the basics of at the core what's the foundation and how do we build that strategy to where it seems manageable and not overwhelming.
Andrew Colsky (19:27)
So can you give us an example of, again, I'll give the example of a beginning attorney trying to get their practice going and they find someone like you to help them with their marketing. What specific types of things could they expect that you could take off of their shoulders and what things would they still have to be doing themselves?
Laurelyn Ponder (19:54)
What they would have to be still doing themselves is it just depends on the plan, but let's just take you're on LinkedIn and you have really strong engagement on LinkedIn. We will take the copywriting and we will manage the posting and then we can apply that to the visibility efforts. And then what I do as a strategist is I make sure that
There's time effort to get that visibility in the plan and get you on those podcasts. But essentially we take care of the caption writing, the managing of the posting online, and we take care of website copy if there's anything that needs to be updated from the foundations as you grow as a business. And we essentially take that off your plate. It is a collaboration. So it.
there's a lot of we would do the script writing and all you have to do is hit record if you're interested in let's say doing a podcast all you have to do is hit record we would do the scripting we would do the posting we would do the hosting and make sure it's visible online but definitely
All you have to do is really hit record if it's a video component. But in that LinkedIn case, we would do the ghost writing and make sure it's hit home really to your voice and your firm. But it's essentially on a custom need because every firm is different. But essentially there is a collaboration there to where we make you strong, to where it feels really seamless and
Like, this is great. I don't have to worry about posting anymore. I don't have to worry about getting content out there anymore. It's essentially just a relief to know that you have a team behind you, an expert behind you that gets it and that you're not alone, but you can build that authority at the same time if you bring in a partner.
Andrew Colsky (22:03)
Right, right. Well, that provides a certain degree of comfort, you know, knowing that someone can help get a lot of this stuff done. I would like to talk a little bit about some of the mistakes that attorneys make when trying to market.
Laurelyn Ponder (22:21)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (22:23)
I'll throw one out and then I'd love to hear some of the things that you've seen. One of the big ones that I see is
I
guess maybe it's a lack of understanding of what social media is from the standpoint of thinking that it's a commercial. Like I come out,
Laurelyn Ponder (22:40)
Okay.
Andrew Colsky (22:41)
you know, my name is Andrew Colsky and I do family law and I can help you with your divorce. Here's how to reach me. And that's probably not going to get viewed by many people at all versus
Laurelyn Ponder (22:53)
Right.
Andrew Colsky (22:54)
addressing instead of addressing your credibility or your content or your degree address the problem the client has. So what does a client
Laurelyn Ponder (23:03)
Yes.
Andrew Colsky (23:04)
have if they're dealing with a divorce? I want to keep custody of my kids. So video on the most effective ways to help you keep custody of your kids is probably going to be something that people are more interested in watching. If you then provide the proper.
content and you do it all within
Laurelyn Ponder (23:23)
Right.
Andrew Colsky (23:23)
your ethics rules. So what types of things have you seen attorneys do or what things should they be aware of?
Laurelyn Ponder (23:31)
What they need to be aware of is that ethics component, that client confidentiality. We can create hypotheticals and...
just the pain points that you hear in general, those common, those common, just help me with this. And so we would draft a plan, but social media at its core is really engaging the community of your client or your, just a person that comes across your stage. It is.
community at its core that you're like this is what I provide and this is how I can help you that Transformation state whereas that TV placement sort of I'm I'm Andrew Kostry. That's more That is more media buying TV placement that's a little bit more complex and a lot doesn't it's effective especially for
local TV stations, but it could take a bite into the marketing budget if you have one set aside. So social media at its core is about the community, the human engagement, and really you just have to talk about the transformation of this is how we go through these issues or for example these are this is how you this is how we handle this sort of case.
without mentioning the patient's or the client's name. And so that way your practice is protected with the compliance of the law.
Andrew Colsky (25:17)
So can you give us an example of something that you have seen or maybe you've done yourself that you would say is one of the most effective things that people have done to help to promote their practice?
Laurelyn Ponder (25:33)
Yes,
so I believe that if you get on, if you're comfortable getting on camera, Reels in Instagram is really effective, especially for the younger generations because public opinion and finding that information because we, the internet is full of information. We're very overstimulated by it. And so
doing reels to get that exposure and making sure it's step by step broken down into simple terms that is not medical or legal jargon really does successful. And so I would say reels and then really a storytelling narrative, whatever that might be for that person, really getting, if you're the founder, really getting your name out there and building that authority as the person of your firm.
Andrew Colsky (26:30)
Right, right. And I think that, you know, like you said, the storytelling component is so incredibly important for social media aspects. And while you have probably, you know, trial attorneys who that is their bread and butter is storytelling. It's not
Laurelyn Ponder (26:47)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (26:47)
the same case for like a transactional attorney who
Laurelyn Ponder (26:51)
Right.
Andrew Colsky (26:51)
many of them don't even want to be on camera. So there's a real challenge there. But
Yeah, understanding that outreach to the core issue that the person looking for the video is looking for is important. And, you know, one other point here, and I'd love to hear your feedback is when you are a professional service provider and you're looking to put your content out there on social media, there's this tendency, I think, to say, my God, only videos to get like a million views are successful. And
You look at the videos, got a million views and in many cases it's, you know, look, somebody did a silly dance. Well, I don't think you're to have much credibility as an attorney because you did a silly dance. What you
Laurelyn Ponder (27:38)
Mm-mm.
Andrew Colsky (27:38)
really want is you don't want a million views on your video. You want the correct views on your video. That may be a hundred views, but a hundred views are the right people that are looking for the information that you're providing is going to be much more meaningful.
than a million views because you did a silly dance.
Laurelyn Ponder (28:00)
You're
right on point, Andrew. You don't have to, that's what we call, social media has the perception of vanity metrics and being viral. That's how much I will get the exposure to bring in those client leads. You only need a hundred views on your reel or if you're not, or just a few like impressions on your LinkedIn because
That will track the right ICP and that comes down to the messaging and the story you want to tell and that at its core is just developing a story through the writing of getting to know What you're good at and just mapping that out and being off that online You don't
Andrew Colsky (28:49)
Mm-hmm.
Laurelyn Ponder (28:50)
have to do a crazy dance. You don't have to be
a thousand views online because usually those thousand views end up being the wrong person that you want to work with. So making sure that messaging is aligned in that foundation and the story you really want to tell is key to getting the right person that you really want to help.
Andrew Colsky (29:16)
Right, right. And you know, I often tell people when they question that, you what do you mean? If it only got 100 views, it was no good. And then I say to them, you know, not everybody does this, but I think a lot of people these days do this. If you need help doing a certain thing, like maybe you need to, I don't know, replace a light bulb in your car, whatever. Where do people go today? Well, most people go to YouTube and they look it up.
Laurelyn Ponder (29:46)
Okay.
Andrew Colsky (29:46)
So the person who did the video of showing you how to replace the light bulb in your car, they're not doing it for the million views. They're doing it because it builds their credibility and it provides something meaningful. And now you'll think of them when it comes time to the next type of thing where you are trying to get people to look you up again when the next issue comes up. So, you know, it's...
Laurelyn Ponder (30:13)
Exactly.
Andrew Colsky (30:15)
You you gotta kind of put it into the right framework.
Laurelyn Ponder (30:19)
Yeah,
so the right framework, there's not a right framework for...
There's not a one-stop-shop framework to where you can repeat, but the three key components that I can say if you can take away from this video is utilize your LinkedIn. Get savvy. Don't get overwhelmed with the story that you want to tell. Do one or two postings a week. If you don't get to posting that day, that is okay. You have other concerns that you have to worry about until you can get to the point of
using that local market to really that referral base.
it
now reads Instagram and all the social platforms so they work hand-in-hand with getting your name out there. So definitely just experiment with posting one to two times a week and utilizing your local network to get started and then you can build from there.
Andrew Colsky (31:51)
Yeah. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. So we are actually at the end of our time here for the Be Picked podcast. Lauren lyn Ponder, I want to thank you very much for joining us. Now you can be found on LinkedIn as well. Correct?
Laurelyn Ponder (32:07)
Yes, I can be found on LinkedIn, Instagram and at the brand visibility effect tip tips on for online marketing PR outreach and brand authority that's launching in February on Spotify and any any any listening platform that you can think of.
Andrew Colsky (32:28)
Fantastic. Well, we appreciate that. for, to see this podcast and other podcasts, you can visit us at bbe-picked.com. And you can also find a lot of other tips and tools that help you to build your credibility to be the one who's picked when people are looking for that professional. So with that, we will see you on our next episode. Laurelyn, thank you for joining us.
Laurelyn Ponder (32:56)
Thank you, Andrew.