Marketing for law firms: Be the Firm the Referral Looks Up.
Law firm marketing written to New Jersey's advertising rules, for the client who was referred and still checks you online.
How Clients Find a Lawyer.
Referrals start the search, but a large share of clients go looking on their own.
Read the full picture
Clio's Legal Trends Report found 59% of clients sought a referral from someone they knew, 57% searched on their own by some other means, and 16% did both; 17% found a lawyer through an online search engine. The figures are from the 2019 report, which Clio still publishes, so they show the shape of the decision rather than this year's exact split.
Lawyers have mostly moved online. The ABA's 2024 Legal Technology Survey found 90% of respondents had a website, down from 94% in 2022, while solo practitioners rose to 70% from 61%. Social media use as a marketing tool fell to 80% from 89%, with LinkedIn the primary platform at 76% and Facebook at 53%.
Google lists bankruptcy, business, criminal, DUI, estate, family, immigration, personal injury and real estate lawyers among the categories eligible for Local Services Ads, the pay-per-lead listings at the top of the page that carry a Google Verified badge.
In New Jersey, every one of those channels carries the same obligations. RPC 7.1 treats as misleading anything likely to create an unjustified expectation about results, and comparisons with other lawyers need a named source, substantiation and a fixed disclaimer. RPC 7.2 requires a monthly capture of all website content, kept for three years.
What We'd Run for a Law Firm.
Search and reputation for the client checking you out, written to the advertising rules, with every draft sent to the firm for approval.
Practice Pages That Answer Questions.
Plain-language pages on each practice area that answer what clients ask search engines and AI assistants, with no implied results.
Search Ads Without Implied Results.
Search campaigns for your practice areas, with ad copy written to RPC 7.1's bar on unjustified expectations about results.
Reviews the Referral Will Read.
A complete profile per office and a review request routine, since referred clients still look you up.
A Site Written to the Rules.
Attorney and practice pages written to RPC 7.1, with any certification stated in the wording the Board on Attorney Certification requires.
LinkedIn First.
Attorney and firm posts led by LinkedIn, the platform 76% of ABA survey respondents on social use.
Explainers, Not Verdicts.
Edited attorney bio and explainer videos from your footage, sent to the firm for approval.
Every Claim Is Written to the Rules.
New Jersey's Rules of Professional Conduct govern websites, ads, social posts and award badges alike.
No unjustified expectations.
A communication is misleading if it is likely to create an unjustified expectation about results, and comparisons need a named source and the Supreme Court disclaimer.
Certified means the exact words.
RPC 7.4(d) requires naming the certifier and stating that the certification was granted by the Supreme Court of New Jersey or an ABA-approved organization. The Board on Attorney Certification requires the exact words "Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a ___ Attorney," and shorthand is no longer acceptable.
Website backups for three years.
Lawyers capture all website material at least monthly and keep it for three years.
The ABA's model rule on specialists.
ABA Model Rule 7.2(c), a model rather than binding law, bars implying specialist certification unless the certifying organization is approved or accredited and named.
A planning summary, not legal advice. Your board and counsel have the final word.
The Work, in Your Own Portal.
Every draft goes to you for approval in your portal, and the monthly site work is logged step by step.
Search Work, Step by Step.
Each monthly sweep moves through six steps, and the SEO, AEO and GEO scores are logged for every month we audit.
- 1Research
- 2Audit
- 3Fixes shipped
- 4Verified live
- 5Re-scored
- 6Report sent
One Dot per Promised Post.
A dot fills when a post we made goes out. Every draft goes to you for approval, and you can approve, send back or deny it.
- Published by us
- Went out, not credited yet
- Still to come
Your Website, Stage by Stage.
A website build shows which of six stages it is in, in plain words, from signing to launch.
- 1Signed
- 2Research
- 3Your website form
- 4Planning
- 5Building
- 6Live
Search figures come from your own Google Search Console and Analytics. We report what moved; we do not promise rankings.
Commonly Asked Questions
Batch Marketing runs search, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile management and websites for law firms, with every claim written to fit the ABA Model Rules and New Jersey's Rules of Professional Conduct on advertising.
Can a New Jersey lawyer advertise Super Lawyers or Best Lawyers?
Can our website say we are certified specialists?
Can we post past case results?
Do we really have to archive the website?
Are Local Services Ads open to lawyers?
Be Easy to Check and Hard to Fault.
Tell us what you sell and where. We will tell you which two channels we would start with, and why.