Though most people (especially those that have never studied law or practiced law as an attorney) believe lawyers to be some of the most well-paid people on the planet, the cold hard truth of the matter is the overwhelming majority of lawyers make nowhere near as much money as most people believe them to.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the value that these attorneys bring to the table (after all, there is a reason why attorneys are believed to be so well-paid in the first place), but absolutely everything to do with the fact that attorneys really struggle when it comes to marketing and advertising.

Many attorneys believe that they have to focus strictly on their legal and representative abilities, and forget completely that they are first and foremost business owners, operators, and people that need to actively sell their services to clients.

Thankfully, there are a variety of different things that you will be able to do to maximize your marketing efforts went comes time to advertise your attorney firm, and we are going to highlight some of the most beneficial and easy to put into place.

Let’s get right to it!

You aren’t going to grow your firm without advertising

It is absolutely impossible (and irresponsible) for you to believe that you are going to have any success whatsoever growing your legal firm without spending money on advertising.

For whatever reason, lawyers and other legal professionals believe that they are going to be able to survive entirely upon word-of-mouth marketing and referrals, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Sure, these efforts are definitely going to help you earn more clients as time goes on, but the truth of the matter is you will never be in the command position to increase your business if you are relying on other people to do your marketing and advertising for you – it’s too much of a reactive approach versus a proactive approach.

Instead, you’re going to want to make sure that you are able to increase your advertising as much as possible, using up to 2.5% (or even more) of your gross revenue on marketing, advertising, and salesmanship efforts. This will help guarantee that you are getting out in front of the marketplace and driving new business actively as opposed to passively, and you should expect to see reliable returns on this investment.

You have to advertise to the right people

The number one reason that the overwhelming majority of attorneys out there do not spend money on advertising is the first place is because they believe it to be nothing more than a waste of money.

And honestly, for the overwhelming majority of attorneys out there, advertising IS a waste of money.

That’s because too many legal firms are out there doing nothing more than coming up with standard advertisements and marketing pieces that look like carbon copies of their competitors, using platitudes and other “fuzzy language” to try and convince people that they are better than the other lawyers in the area – but with no real reason why, no proof to back up their claims, and no incentive for a prospect to choose them over anyone else.

Injury Lawyers should be advertising directly to people that are most likely to need a personal injury lawyer, rather than using a “shotgun approach” with their marketing and hoping that they cast a wide enough net to catch someone.

That’s going to waste a ridiculous amount of your resources, and you’re going to be very (VERY) disheartened by the response rate. Don’t waste your money, instead laser target and focus your advertisements to the people that are most likely to become your clients in the first place.

Let your past successes do the bulk of the talking for you

If at all possible, you’re going to want to try and find a way to use your past successes – the results that you have gotten for your clients and your track record for success – to do the bulk of the “heavy lifting” for you in your marketing and advertising.

Anytime you are talking about legal services (or any other service that isn’t tangible), you are going to be dealing with a “prove it” kind of problem. Unless you were able to prove that you are able to do exactly what you are promising to do for your prospects, you’re going to end up missing out on a lot of business that you would have otherwise earned easily.

Sure, all of the biggest promises in the world are going to win you some business, but nothing is going to earn you more business quite like proof. Prove absolutely everything you can in your marketing and your results will shoot through the roof.