Law Firm Marketing Agency
Generating leads is an essential part of any business. B2B businesses have had great success with lead magnets—and law firms can, too. Ready to lay the bait and lure in new clients?
When we speak to most firms and ask what a “lead” means to them, they say a consultation request or a call to the office. However, this definition leaves out a valuable segment of your potential clientele.
While warm leads such as consultation requests are important, lead magnets can help you attract potential clients who are not quite ready to make a purchase yet.
In this article, we’ll define lead magnets for lawyers, including examples of lead magnets for lawyers, how to identify a good topic, elements of a good lead magnet, and how to host the lead magnet when you’re ready to start attracting leads.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a marketing tool that attracts leads (aka potential clients) by offering them something of value in exchange for their contact information. It helps you grow your base of interested potential clients.
This free resource needs to provide useful information or address a pain point that will help your specific clients.
A lead magnet could be a:
- Whitepaper
- eBook
- Guide
For instance, you might create a guide on how to prepare for a legal consultation or an eBook that explains common legal mistakes in the start-up phase. It depends on your practice area.
A lead magnet is not a silver bullet solution for attracting clients. It is not a one-and-done project and it is not a substitute for providing high-quality legal services or building lasting relationships with clients. However, there are big benefits to using lead magnets in your business.
Benefit: Position yourself as an expert in your field.
Benefit: Build trust with potential clients.
Benefit: Generate leads for your law practice.
Sure, someone who exchanges their email address for a free resource might not be ready to book you immediately. But now you can begin to nurture them in your lead nurturing ecosystem.
How to identify a good lead magnet for your business
A good lead magnet topic is:
- Urgent and important for the potential client
- Related to your law firm’s expertise
- Distillable into a short, actionable resource
Start by taking a deep look at your prospective clients. What specific problems do they have? What information do they need? What format would help them the most at this stage in their need for legal help?
Consider the most commonly asked questions in your area of practice. Is your inbox full of emails from people asking the same question? Does your receptionist get the same questions over and over again? Which page on your website gets the most hits? Use this data to inform your topic selection.
Once you have a topic that is important to your clients and related to your offerings, brainstorm ways to simplify it into a digestible format like a checklist, template, or guide.
Hint: Look for gaps in the market where you can provide unique value. For example, if your competitor is providing an infographic that explains the timeline for a custody case, try offering something different—like short scripts to help people talk about custody with young kids.
Elements of a great lead magnet
A great lead magnet must provide real value—but its value is based on its specificity.
Don’t make the mistake of trying to cram everything you know about the topic into one resource! This approach won’t help your potential clients, who are stressed and just need help solving a specific problem.
Specific and actionable: Don’t just regurgitate generic legal advice. Give them something they can use.
Solve a problem: Your lead magnet should be the cure to what ails them.
Short and sweet: Simplify the solution. Ain’t nobody got time for a 100-page legal document.
Strong graphic design: A boring whitepaper won’t cut it these days. Visual appeal is good for comprehension and good for your brand.
How to host, gate, and use your lead magnet properly
Hosting: You can host a lead magnet on your website or on a platform like LinkedIn. With LinkedIn, there is a cost—but people can sign up directly on the platform and they’ll send the data to you. This is a great way to get lots of eyes on your resource.
Gating: Be sure to gate it properly. Don’t force people to provide a ton of information just to get the resource—ask for just enough information to be able to nurture them.
Nurture: Have a plan for nurturing. This one is important! If you just have a lead magnet without a follow-through plan, you will fail. Ultimately, you want to drive them further into your nurturing funnel.
Lead magnets are also great for sharing with referral sources. You might provide them with an ungated version, in this case.
Review and next steps
Lawyers are no strangers to the art of persuasion, but in today’s world of digital marketing, they must also be masters of the lead magnet. The right lead magnet can be a powerful tool for any law firm looking to generate and nurture leads.
- A lead magnet is a free, gated resource that potential clients can get by giving you their contact information.
- A good topic is specific, urgent, and relevant to your law firm’s expertise.
- The lead magnet should be visually appealing and actionable.
- Have a plan to nurture the leads you get from lead magnets.
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