A Small Law Firm’s Guide to Dealing With Competitors

The goal of marketing for small law firms is to get more clients to hire you; in most practice areas, the same client will only need your services once, so you are always on the lookout for new clients.  Likewise, the other law firms in the same city have the same goal and the same base of potential clients, so the competition is fierce. 

Conventional wisdom in the marketing sector, especially when it comes to digital marketing, holds that you should pay close attention to what your competitors are doing and try to do it better than they do or reach a segment of your audience that they cannot reach.  Learning more about your competitors can always teach you more about yourself, but there are lines you should not cross with your legal marketing content.

Think of Them as Referral Partners Instead

In the legal profession, the easiest way to get your competitors’ customers to become your customers is if your competitors refer them to you.  Therefore, you should not think of the other law firms in your city as rivals, but rather as referral partners.  For example, imagine that two solo law firms operate in the same small city, advertising to family law clients.  Branwell Bloggins has an initial consultation with a woman whose husband has just surprised her with a divorce petition.  He makes suggestions about how she might approach her divorce case, but the client does not seem convinced; everything he says seems to make her more upset about her husband’s betrayal.  At the end of the consultation, he decides to refer her to Evelyn Enterprise, whose law firm is located in the next zip code over, and who is also in her element with family law cases.  Branwell thinks that, because Evelyn is also a divorced woman, this woman will trust her more and will feel like Evelyn understands her.  In turn, Evelyn refers a DUI defense client to Branwell because Branwell is young and single and can afford to work around the clock practicing door law, but Evelyn must pick and choose her cases so she can make her work schedule accommodate her parenting time.  This would not be possible if Branwell and Evelyn had decided to see each other as enemies.

Don’t Go After Your Competitors

The worst thing you can do is to mention your competitor’s name in your marketing content, especially in a negative context.  If the home page of Branwell’s website said that his clients get an average of 20 percent more parenting time than Evelyn’s clients, it would only make him look like a jealous hater.

Don’t Go After Your Competitors’ Clients

Another stinky move is to use underhanded tactics to find the contact information of your competitors’ clients.  If Branwell were to email a complete stranger whom he believed to be Evelyn’s client and say, “I can get you a better divorce settlement than Evelyn can,” the best possible outcome would be that the recipient would delete the email.

Marketing Content Can Be Catchy Without Being Sleazy

The professional law firm content marketers at Law Blog Writers, LLC can produce eye-catching content without being misleading or sensationalist.