Influencer Marketing for Law Firms

Advertising and marketing has only become more difficult as consumers have become more wary of marketers’ tactics. We’ve discussed before that one way to overcome this challenge is publishing client-centric content more than promotional content. One way to increase the value of your thought leadership is influencer marketing, the fastest growing online customer-acquisition channel. Influencer marketing can be defined as an authentic way to connect with industry leaders, bloggers, and experts who can share your products and services with their own following.

Influencer marketing for law firms may seem strange at first. After all influencers originally gained momentum in the fashion, health, and lifestyle communities of Instagram. However, as we said with Instagram, it may be worth it for lawyers to explore non-traditional strategies to stay relevant in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Benefits

There are a variety of benefits to this type of marketing strategy. First, it comes across as more authentic. Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to gain new clients. When an industry influencer shares your content or partners with your law firm, they are ultimately advocating for your services. Due to this, influencer marketing has a high ROI. According to a recent poll, businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on this type of marketing. In essence, building trust with target markets and spreading your name across channels builds your own influence as a thought leader.

Challenges

The first challenge of this type of marketing is identifying  influencers to connect with. If you’re on social media you can look to your connections there. Who has an influential voice in your industry and who has a large following behind them? For influencer marketing, you’ll want to consider who has a similar target audience to your firm that will likely be receptive to your content.

Opportunities

Now that you’ve identified potential influencers, what does this type of marketing look like in practice? You don’t have products to show off, so your content is key. One way to gain influence is to engage with experts on social media and hope that they retweet or share your blog posts or podcasts in return.

Another option is to invite these influencers to write a guest post for your blog, be the key speaker for an upcoming podcast, or an expert opinion in a new webinar. This can be mutually beneficial for both the influencer and your law firm. You gain recognition and traffic to your site when they share the collaborative content with their following, and they gain another platform to give their insight on.

Summary

As more consumers are becoming inundated with ads and resorting to ad-blockers, it’s more important than ever that your content is found and read. By engaging in influencer marketing, your law firm can use relationships with industry experts to leverage their own influence and be heard by a new audience.