Most guides on how to market a law firm start with tactics: build a website, post on LinkedIn, ask for reviews, try Google Ads. All of those can help. None of them is a strategy, and a firm that adopts them one at a time tends to end up with a lot of activity and very little to show for it.
Law firms win work differently from most businesses. Instructions come through reputation, referral and relationships, and almost every one is checked before it is confirmed. Good marketing for law firms starts there: with how your clients actually choose a solicitor, and where your firm is losing them along the way.
This guide sets out a practical framework for building a law firm marketing strategy, the channels that matter most for different types of firm, the professional rules to work within and a 90-day plan to get started.
Start with how your clients actually choose a firm
Before choosing any channel, find out where your work comes from now. Ask fee earners where their last twenty instructions originated, check your matter intake records and look at which pages enquirers visited before getting in touch.
The answer usually looks different depending on the firm:
| Type of firm | Where work typically comes from | What that means for marketing |
|---|---|---|
| High street and private client | Local search, reviews, word of mouth, repeat clients | Be easy to find locally, reassuring and clear on price and process |
| Regional commercial | Referrals from accountants, banks and other advisers, existing clients, local reputation | Strengthen referrer relationships and partner visibility in the region |
| Specialist and boutique | Reputation in a niche, directory rankings, referrals from other firms | Be unmistakably known for the specialism |
| City and international | Relationships, directories, panel appointments, cross-border referrals | Partner credibility, thought leadership and directory recognition |
This step matters because it stops firms copying marketing that suits someone else. A conveyancing practice that depends on local search and a disputes boutique that depends on barristers' recommendations need very different plans.
Known, found and chosen: a framework for marketing a law firm
Every instruction passes through three stages. Strong firms invest in all three. Most firms are strong in one and quietly weak in another.
Known. The firm and its partners are recognised for specific work by the people who matter: clients, referrers, directory researchers, journalists and peers. This is built through relationships, directory rankings, partner positioning, thought leadership and a consistent presence on LinkedIn.
Found. When someone searches for the firm, a partner or a legal problem, the firm appears, and appears credibly. This now includes AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews as well as traditional search. It is built through SEO, useful content and consistent firm information across the web.
Chosen. When a prospective client compares the firm with two or three others, everything they see confirms the recommendation: the website, partner profiles, evidence of past work and how easy it is to get in touch. This is built through a clear website, strong people pages and a responsive enquiry process.
The question for most firms is not "what marketing should we do?" but "which stage is costing us the most work?"
Building a law firm marketing strategy in six steps
1. Decide what you want more of
Marketing should follow the work the firm wants, not the work it already has in abundance. Name two or three priority practices, the type of client for each and the markets you serve. "More commercial property work for regional developers" is a usable goal. "Grow the firm" is not.
2. Find out where work comes from now
Use the source-of-work review above. Record the source of every new matter from now on, if you do not already. Without it, no one will ever be able to say what marketing produced.
3. Identify the weakest stage
Look at each priority practice through the known, found and chosen framework:
- Are partners recognised for this work by referrers and directories?
- Does the firm appear when someone searches for the practice, a partner's name or a common client problem?
- When people reach the website, do they find a credible practice page, strong profiles and an easy route to contact?
The weakest stage is usually where the next pound of budget will do most.
4. Choose a small number of priorities
Three well-run activities beat ten neglected ones. For a regional commercial practice, that might be a directory submission, a referrer programme and rebuilt practice pages. For a high street firm, it might be local search, reviews and clearer pricing pages.
5. Plan partner time
Almost every effective law firm marketing activity needs lawyer input: matters for submissions, insight for articles, approval for profiles, time for referrer lunches. Agree upfront how much time each partner will give, and make the asks small and specific. Programmes that ignore this stall within a quarter.
6. Set measures and review dates
Agree what success looks like for each priority before you start, and review quarterly. Useful measures include directory rankings, referrals by source, visibility for priority searches, enquiries by practice and, ultimately, instructions and fees.
The main channels and what each one does
| Channel | Best for | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Referrer relationships | Commercial and specialist firms | A named list of referrers per partner, regular contact and two-way referrals |
| Directory submissions | Commercial, specialist and international firms | Strong matters, prepared referees and consistent submissions year on year |
| Partner profiles and thought leadership | All firms | Profiles that describe real work, plus regular, specific commentary |
| Partners in commercial and specialist practices | Consistent, useful posts from partners, not only the firm page | |
| Website | All firms | Clear practice pages, strong people pages, compliant pricing where required |
| SEO and AI visibility | Firms whose clients search, and firms checked after referral | Visibility for priority practices, locations and partner names |
| Content and newsletters | Firms with expertise clients want explained | Short, timely briefings sent to a relevant list |
| Events and webinars | Commercial and specialist firms | Small, focused sessions for the right audience, with follow-up |
| Reviews | High street and private client firms | A steady flow of genuine reviews and professional responses |
| Paid search | Practices with urgent, high-intent searches | Tightly targeted campaigns with tracked enquiries |
| CRM and follow-up | All firms | Every enquiry recorded, answered quickly and tracked to outcome |
Two points are easy to miss.
Referrals are marketing. For many commercial firms, a structured referrer programme will outperform any digital channel. It needs the same discipline as any other campaign: a target list, regular contact, something useful to say and a record of what comes back.
Digital channels support reputation. Even a warm referral is checked online. A partner whose profile is thin, who does not appear on LinkedIn and whose firm is absent from directories loses work they never knew they were being considered for.
If you want help bringing these channels together, our legal marketing agency page explains how we work with firms across all three stages.
Law firm marketing ideas that are worth more than they cost
Not every useful activity needs a large budget. These law firm marketing ideas consistently punch above their weight:
- Rewrite your five most important partner profiles. Describe recent work, clients and sectors in plain language.
- Map your referrers. Ask each partner to name the ten people most likely to send them work, then plan contact for the year.
- Publish a short briefing within days of a significant legal change. Speed and clarity matter more than length.
- Send a quarterly practice update to clients and referrers, written by a partner, not a marketing department.
- Fix your Google Business Profile for each office: categories, hours, photos and genuine reviews.
- Turn one webinar into five pieces of content: an article, a LinkedIn series, a newsletter item and FAQs for the website.
- Ask clients for feedback at the end of a matter. It improves service, surfaces testimonials you can request permission to use and often prompts repeat work.
- Prepare for the next directory cycle early. Start collecting matters and confirming referees months before the deadline.
- Check how AI tools describe your firm. Ask ChatGPT or Gemini which firms they would recommend for your core practices, and note who appears instead of you.
- Track the source of every new matter. It costs nothing and changes every future marketing decision.
Marketing within the professional rules
Law firm marketing operates under rules most businesses never encounter. For SRA-regulated firms in England and Wales, the key points are:
- Publicity must be accurate and not misleading, including information about charges (SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, paragraph 8.8).
- No unsolicited approaches to members of the public to advertise legal services, other than current or former clients (paragraph 8.9). Approaches to businesses are not covered by this rule but should still be professional and relevant.
- Transparency Rules require price and service information for specified services, the SRA digital badge and a published complaints procedure.
- Reviews must be genuine. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 makes fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews explicitly unlawful.
- Confidentiality comes first. Matters, case studies and client names are used only with appropriate approval.
Firms regulated by CILEx Regulation, the Law Society of Scotland or the Law Society of Northern Ireland should check their own regulator's requirements.
How much should a law firm spend on marketing?
There is no reliable universal figure, and benchmarks quoted online vary widely. A more useful approach is to work from the plan:
- Cost the priorities you have chosen, including external support and partner time.
- Compare that cost with the value of the work it targets. For many commercial firms, a single new client relationship will cover a year of focused activity.
- Protect a consistent baseline. Reputation-building activities, such as directories, content, LinkedIn and SEO, compound over time and lose value when switched on and off.
- Fund measurement first. Matter source tracking and enquiry tracking cost little and make every other decision better.
Common mistakes in law firm marketing
- Starting with tactics instead of priorities. Activity is not strategy.
- Marketing the firm rather than its people. Clients hire lawyers. Partners need to be visible in their own right.
- Spreading effort across every practice. Focus wins. Generalist messaging is forgettable.
- Using several suppliers with no shared plan. Directory narratives, website copy and LinkedIn profiles end up saying different things.
- Ignoring partner time. Marketing that needs lawyers' input, without planning for it, stalls.
- Measuring followers and traffic. Partners care about referrals, enquiries and instructions.
- Stopping and starting. Reputation compounds. Most channels need at least a year of consistent effort; our guide on how long SEO takes for law firms explains why for search.
A 90-day starting plan
Days 1–30: understand
- Review where the last 12 months of instructions came from
- Agree two or three priority practices and target clients
- Assess each priority against known, found and chosen
- Start recording the source of every new matter
Days 31–60: fix the foundations
- Rewrite key partner profiles and practice pages
- Correct Google Business Profiles and directory listings
- Agree each partner's referrer list and contact plan
- Set up enquiry tracking on the website
Days 61–90: start building
- Publish the first partner-written insight and share it on LinkedIn
- Begin preparing the next directory submission
- Run one small client or referrer event, or a webinar
- Hold the first quarterly review and adjust priorities
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to market a law firm?
There is no single best channel. The most effective approach is to understand where your work comes from, decide which practices you want to grow and strengthen whichever stage is weakest: being known, being found or being chosen. For many commercial firms that means referrers and directories. For high street firms it often means local search and reviews.
How do small law firms market themselves?
Small firms do best by focusing on a few things well: clear partner profiles, an accurate Google Business Profile, genuine reviews, regular contact with referrers and a website that explains services and pricing plainly. Consistency matters more than budget.
What should a law firm marketing strategy include?
Priority practices and target clients, an assessment of where work comes from now, a small number of chosen activities, a realistic plan for partner time, agreed measures and quarterly review dates. It should fit on a few pages and be easy for partners to act on.
How much should a law firm spend on marketing?
There is no reliable universal percentage. Cost the activities your plan requires, compare that with the value of the work they target and keep a consistent baseline for activities that compound over time, such as directories, content and SEO.
Can solicitors approach potential clients directly?
SRA-regulated solicitors must not make unsolicited approaches to members of the public to advertise their services, other than to current or former clients. Approaches to businesses are not covered by that rule, but any publicity must still be accurate and not misleading.
Does a law firm need a marketing agency?
Not always. Many firms run effective marketing in-house. An external specialist helps when the firm lacks capacity, needs specialist skills such as directory strategy or SEO, or wants senior strategic direction for an in-house team.
Talk to us about marketing your firm
If you want a clearer view of where your firm is being overlooked, and what would make the most difference, we can help. Legal Verge works only with law firms. We start with how your clients choose you, and build marketing around that.
Book a strategy call to talk it through, or see how we work as a legal marketing agency for UK and international firms.