Solo Lawyer Referrals

Many solo lawyers get a majority of their clients from word of mouth referral.  Many times, this leads a solo lawyer to believe that it is the only way for them to get business.  However, solely relying on word of mouth referrals means that the attorney has to face several challenges:

1. They have no confidence in being able to predict how many clients they will get
2. Attorneys can’t solicit services which means they can’t solicit their network for more word of mouth referrals
3. Only having this as a marketing option means the law firm is less attractive to potential acquisition buyers.

Point 1: There Is No Predictable System to Generate Clients

This ultimately leads to stress because an attorney must look at their calendar every week and not know how many people will be coming to them for business.  The best marketing can (1) be tracked and (2) can be increased or decreased depending on a business’s needs.  There is only two standard ways to increase the amount of referrals that you can get.

The first option is to email your friends, family, and colleagues to remind them of your services.  The “pro” of this method is that your network already knows what you are doing and if they know a potential client of your services then they will be happy to recommend you.  The “con” of this method is that you can only use it perhaps one time per year, which means it is not a sustainable marketing strategy.

The second option one has is to join a referral program.  Here is the caveat, the success of your referral network largely depends on your own efforts and the efforts of the referral network manager.  Look for a referral network manager with a track record of growing businesses because ultimately it will be their job to help you grow your business.

Word of mouth referrals do have benefits. It is 10 times easier to sell a referral than it is to sell to sell a cold lead or a warm lead.  In sales, a potential client must feel like they trust you, know you, and like you.  When a prospect comes to your office they feel like they can already trust you and they feel like they know you.  This means, your only job as an attorney is to get a potential prospect to like your firm and like your offerings.  If you have a valuable service, and you can easily communicate the benefits of that service than people will easily want to do business with you.

Point 2: Attorneys Can’t Solicit Services

Though a solo attorney may have countless contacts in their email, most of the time that lawyer is not allowed to solicit that list for services.  This means that in order for a solo attorney to have a steady stream of incoming clients, they need interested parties to approach the attorney’s law firm.

And there are countless ways to get interested parties to approach your law firm this way the solo attorney is not soliciting anyone for services.  One must make themselves available on the internet for others to approach them.  And this could come through:

• Building a website
• Marketing via Search Advertising
• Marketing via Search Engine Optimization
• Marketing via Display Advertising (on blog websites throughout the internet)
• Holding in-person educational events
  • And doing a mass advertising of those in person events (contact us for our mass event listings on 30+ websites)
• Marketing via Facebook
• Marketing via LinkedIn
• Marketing your brand via Instagram
• Marketing your brand via Twitter
• Listing yourself on countless online attorney directories
  • Cost for these can be anywhere from free to $1,000 / year (contact us to see many of the attorney directories you could be eligible for)
• And more

There is a major cost benefit analysis that you can perform to know what marketing option is right for you.  You only have a limited budget and therefore you have to be tactful of how you spend your time and money.