Influencer Marketing for Law Firms

Influencer marketing in the legal sector has been a slow burner because it is often viewed as an unnecessary expense. People question how influencers can be different and whether audiences actually listen to them or not. In reality, influencers are extremely powerful even if you don’t realise it. 

If your law firm can boast that you’ve collaborated with well-known names within the legal industry, you instantly mark yourselves out as unique against other firms that have not. Furthermore, if customers researching your law firm see you working with reputable industry organisations, they instantly are going to feel more assured that your law firm is the correct choice. As a result, influencer marketing can actually be an extremely powerful lead generation tool.

Getting the right voice for your company is the cornerstone of influencer marketing for law firms. Although influencer marketing is an extremely exciting venture, it can be very easy to get it wrong by talking to the wrong people. What’s more, this can quickly add unnecessary costs which become a larger burden for your business. If you waste all your money down the wrong avenues, that can put you at a serious disadvantage when you actually do have to negotiate with the perfect match. 

Spend time conducting detailed research on your potential influencers to make sure they are the perfect fit, both commercially and personally. You’ll want to develop a strong working relationship with them, so it’s critical that you feel they are the right fit for your law firm. 

Once you establish contact with your influencer, it’s important to make sure that you pitch topics that they will be interested in and have profound knowledge in. Influencer marketing for law firms tends to focus on three key areas – legal expertise, socio-political factors affecting law, or the advent of technology into the industry. 

Assuming you’ve spent time researching your influencers properly, you are going to be talking to the right voices. It’s then up to you to work out how you pitch. It can be through either mutual benefit, offering financial remuneration – after all, legal influencers are often field experts and have multiple opportunities to do this, so getting them onside is crucial – or longer-term tangible benefits. Be clear with whatever you are offering and write up a formal agreement so it is always available for reference.

Once you’ve created quality content, the next stage of influencer marketing for law firms is to distribute it effectively. Focusing on original and unique content will help mark you and your law firm out as subject matter experts that are looking to try and expand the legal canon and also place you in good stead for being able to engage further on the topic. Ideally, you and your influencer should both be prepared to spend time engaging with and responding to anyone else who joins the conversation – and don’t be afraid to encourage further discussion. 

The biggest thing to remember is not to completely overload and overwhelm your audience. Concise, consistent snippets of useful information in a digestible way is better than an absolute deluge of detail. Above all, be prepared to spend as much time and money promoting your content as you did creating it, so it gets shared to as wide an audience in the legal sector as possible.

Influencer marketing for law firms shouldn’t just be about expecting an instant glut of enquiries once you post your first piece of content. Like SEO, influencer marketing is a strategic activity that focuses on long term gain and growth. 

In fact, for small and medium law firms, engaging with a reputable influencer can help you shape the long-term business strategy for your own practice, as you’ll be speaking to someone who has much greater experience and depth within your chosen market and consequently is more likely to spot future potential legal trends and opportunities.