A successful advertising campaign for a new law firm is extremely important because your new firm will need to acquire a status within the legal market in order to attract new clients. Some of the basic forms of advertising you should consider include traditional print advertising, billboard advertising, online advertising and personal letters or announcements to existing clients as well as potential clients. Mentioning your high-profile clients and achievements will also help to inform the public of the quality of your services and establish credibility for the new firm.

Creating a Press Release

When starting a new law firm you should draft a brief press release announcing the partners in your new firm and any high-profile clients you may be serving. Experts recommend that instead of saying your law firm specializes in any one area of law, you should highlight your professional focus through the use of specific qualifications. For example, rather than saying you specialize in litigation you might wish to state that you are, "certified by the national academy of trial attorneys and your law firm is happy to serve the Fortune 500 company, XYZ Corporation."

Determining Your Audience

In order to launch a successful law firm advertising campaign, you will need to determine the specific audience you wish to reach. While general practitioners and personal injury attorneys will typically direct their advertisements to the general public, specialized attorneys may wish to avoid certain types of advertising, such as billboards and phonebook ads. For example, attorney's specializing in representing other attorney's for misconduct and malpractice suits may wish to place their advertisements in legal journals and bar association publications.

General Restrictions

Because lawyers are bound by state ethics codes, there are some restrictions on how you can advertise your services. Although the restrictions vary by state, lawyers are generally prohibited from guaranteeing specific results, making factual misrepresentations or comparing their results to other attorneys. Before printing or releasing any type of advertisement, you should make sure that it complies with all ethical rules in your area. Additionally, if you intend to mention your client's name in your advertisement, you should contact your client for permission.

Examples

Successful law firm advertising campaigns often contain multiple ways to contact the attorneys, professional grade photographs, client testimonials, previous case results and examples of media exposure and integration with modern forms of technology such as blogs, RSS feeds, twitter feeds and prominently placed videos. Also, rather than providing general tag lines, successful law firms have used clever and memorable tag lines such as, "Two hours. Period," "Seriously Unbelievable Client Service," "A Law Firm that Really Moves," and "Ready for Trial." On your website you may also wish to create a listing of any new and previous clients. For any new clients, your website should feature a short plug announcing the new relationship.