The property law market is crowded, but you can still stand out from the crowd.
Real estate law firm marketing may not be a phrase that rolls off the tongue, but it’s something that all companies offering property legal services must make full use of.
The legal industry is crammed full of companies specializing in real estate matters, from international organizations to small law firms.
In the United States alone, there were over 50,000 such law practices in 2023, according to research company IBISWorld.
If you’re a real estate lawyer operating in this industry, standing out from the competition is harder than ever, especially when you must work out:
Yet the road to a strong local and online presence, increased lead generation, and a steady stream of new business isn’t as bumpy as you might think.
If you focus your marketing efforts in the right areas, you will start to see results very quickly.
Let’s take a look at seven real estate law firm marketing tactics that can help us do this.
Looking to grow your customer base (and revenue)? Duckfund’s partnership program puts you in touch with new clients and pays you commission for passing on existing CRE customers.
How do you do marketing for commercial real estate law firms?
The best way is to zoom out and figure out what you want to achieve. In most cases, it’s simple: you want to increase your company’s revenue by attracting more customers.
A smart marketing strategy is your best route toward achieving this, which you can break down into smaller actionable marketing tactics.
Here are seven tried-and-tested real estate law firm marketing ideas that you can put into action immediately.
The growing online presence of real estate legal firms makes it hard to stand out from a sea of competition.
A quality content marketing plan, however, turns your business into a lighthouse that guides your target audience to your services.
How does it do this? The key is to back up high-quality writing with smart SEO (search engine optimization) techniques so that you rank as high as possible on Google’s search rankings.
Your law firm website pages are a good place to start. You should make sure that key client pain points (and how you can solve them) are at the forefront of your mind when creating this content.
A blog, too, should cater to the property concerns troubling your client base with articles about how to solve property legal disputes and the best attributes to look for in an attorney, to name two examples.
Blogs are a great way to differentiate yourself from rivals and mark yourself out as a thought leader in the property field. 66% of US law firms do not have a blog, according to a recent report by the American Bar Association (ABA). This means you can get a head-start on two-thirds of your rivals by publishing just one quality piece of content.
Source: ABA (via On the Map Marketing)
All content should be fully optimized for search engine results, which means carrying out in-depth keyword research and infusing the relevant terms into your copy and meta data. It also means using backlinks to quality sources and optimized images, which Google algorithm’s have come to value highly in these days of mass AI-product content.
Doing all of this in-house may be tough, especially if you have little content marketing expertise on your books. Many firms hire a specialist marketing agency to execute their content and SEO strategy for them, which often turns out to be the most cost-effective approach.
Having a social media marketing campaign is important for two reasons: most of your prospective clients will use the likes of LinkedIn for professional purposes, and such networks are great for promoting your business’s new content.
It also allows you to eliminate several deterrents that prevent people from hiring attorneys in the US and Canada.
Social media lets you respond to potential clients quickly (slow responses are a turn-off for 54% of people, according to Statista); build a connection with your audience (30% point out a lack of rapport); and gives you a strong online presence (one in four people complain at a lack of it).
Source: Statista
Building a following on social media platforms requires little investment, just a fair amount of time and knowledge. If you do it well, you establish a connection with your target audience and a rich source of potential leads.
Here are some quick and actionable tips to do this:
The rise of short video platforms like TikTok means that posting clips of a friendly face is more likely to get people to stop the scroll and check your content out.
If this person is giving out useful property-related info, then that will go a long way to building trust and brand awareness within your audience, crucial factors in the property legal industry.
As a real estate attorney, you know more than anyone how essential trust is in your line of work. Put simply, people won’t work with you if they don’t have full confidence in your expertise.
Testimonials and positive reviews, then, are kryptonite for CRE investors looking for a lawyer to manage their property deal.
You can convey expertise, professionalism, and excellent customer service in just a few words from a satisfied client.
This social proof should feature as prominently as possible across all of your channels including:
Do this well and you’ll also alert legal marketing review sites like Avvo who often look for trustworthy law professionals to showcase to their user base.
Emails are now an extremely popular digital marketing method for property law firms thanks to the rise of tools like Mailchimp.
You can now build a targeted email marketing campaign in just a few minutes with emails and newsletters that show off your firm’s expertise and bring your readers a regular dose of legal knowledge to their inboxes.
Marketing automation platforms now also make it extremely simple to measure the results of your campaign. Metrics like open rate and click-through rate let you know how well you’re engaging with your target audience. They also provide suggestions like ideal sending times and how to refine your content based on subscriber activity.
Emails are another great attorney marketing channel for building trust. Investors familiar with your name due to it appearing in their inbox once a week are more likely to opt for your legal services when they need them.
Putting down an earnest money deposit (EMD) for a commercial property has become increasingly important over the past few years, especially in fast-moving markets where the EMD can reach up to 10%.
A new wave of lenders is dealing with high numbers of CRE transactions right now thanks to a growing gap between the EMD volume that investors need and what traditional lenders are willing to provide.
EMD lenders often have clients who need legal help with their transactions, something that the lender can’t provide. This is where you can step in to help.
Teaming up with an EMD lender can turn out to be a two-way process: you get a steady stream of customer referrals from them, while they pay you commission for any clients you put their way who need financing to cover their earnest money needs.
You can even combine your online marketing campaigns so that you reach a wider pool of potential clients that you can both use for different stages of the purchase process.
What is the best form of advertising for a lawyer?
It’s a good question, but paid advertising is in with a good shout, especially if you’re looking for quick results.
Google ads give you immediate visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs), placing your firm's name at the top of relevant searches. Organic search results tend to need more time to achieve prominent positioning.
You can also target who sees your ad more precisely when paying for it. Google Ads gives you the option to choose location, demographics, and search intent which is more likely to connect you to qualified leads.
The one big drawback is that the pay-per-click (PPC) of $54.86 for lawyer-related keywords is among the most expensive in 2024, so your paid ads need to be carefully crafted to get a high return on investment (ROI) and efficient use of your advertising budget.
Source: WordStream
If you can do this then, paid ads are a powerful tool for reaching targeted audiences, and driving conversions for your legal practice.
Ever gotten frustrated with a commercial website because they don’t answer a burning question you have?
Well, guess what? Your visitors will feel the same if you don’t do the same for them!
A well-rounded website and blog content will do much of this work for you, but adding an FAQ section is a useful way to cover all bases. This might include information that doesn’t fit into other copy, like certain terms and conditions of your service or your pricing models.
If you’re struggling to think of which questions you could include, then founder and CEO of marketing specialists Good2bSocial Guy Alvarez has some advice.
“Think about the top questions that you get all the time from your clients.” he said in a SEMrush interview. “What are those questions that you get repeatedly? You can build your content calendar by basically answering those questions.”
Here he touches on another important point: you can use the FAQs you come up with to power your content marketing strategy (mentioned above) and answer your target clients’ chief pain points.
FAQs are also great for fitting in awkward keywords that stodge up your copy otherwise. This way, you get smooth, flowing content and extra shots at that coveted Google front page.
You might even put your contact information in your FAQs, like address and phone number, so that people know how to get hold of you.
Want to have access to an investor pool that makes real estate deals worth millions of dollars each month?
Duckfund is a EMD finance provider that commercial real estate professionals trust to help them expand their property portfolios. Our Sign Now Pay Later model allows them to quickly complete a deal and even work on several deals at once.
We’re looking to partner with real estate legal professionals who can represent our clients during the property purchase. We also pay commission for any clients you put our way, creating a new law firm marketing strategy for you in the process.
Growing a law firm isn’t easy, which is why Duckfund’s partnership program is so useful: let us help you unlock new opportunities and take your real estate practice to new heights.
Ready to grow your business with an innovative two-way referral program? Contact Duckfund to see how you can get new clients and create a solid source of commissions.
