You became a lawyer to practice law, but at the end of the day, a law firm is a business. You need operating and marketing skills to bring in new clients and keep your firm going strong, which may not align with your skills as a lawyer.

Every firm has the potential for success and different areas for improvement. Learning what those are and how to maximize opportunities while minimizing weaknesses is the key to your law firm’s success.

Summary of the Cruising Altitude Profile

The Cruising Altitude profile (systematic, adaptable, stagnant) describes a law firm that is a well-oiled machine in terms of systems and processes but struggles with investing in its market presence. Firms in this profile likely have a well-designed system of streamlined processes to stay organized – it’s reliable and predictable.

Optimized firm processes are vital to absorb growth, but they’re not enough to drive growth on their own. What’s missing for a firm in the Cruising Altitude is the investment in law firm marketing tactics that support consistent growth over the long term.

In the Cruising Altitude profile, the majority of the firm’s new business is generated from word of mouth. While this is an excellent source of new prospects, solely relying only on this source limits reach and allows competitors to control your position in the market. Eventually, your firm will hit a ceiling.

Growing a Law Firm in the Cruising Altitude Profile

You understand that streamlined processes help you manage your business, and you need to take the same approach for your marketing presence.

Fortunately, you have the key legal technology in place to hit the ground running with a robust marketing strategy, competitive analysis of the market, and an in-depth understanding of law firm marketing trends.

Define Your Law Firm Marketing Goals

Running a law firm is running a business. Like other businesses, it’s important to keep up with industry marketing trends to attract new clients and keep the firm growing and profitable.

These include:

• Creating a brand

• Creating an SEO strategy

• Embracing content marketing and video marketing

• Focusing on the right social media platforms

• Showcasing case studies

• Posting reviews from clients

• Creating segmented email marketing campaigns

• Using automation to track legal marketing trends

With all of these trends, you will need goals to determine if your strategy is working. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that ensure your marketing results are meeting your expectations, and if they’re not, how you can pivot to get better results.

Each goal should be aligned with a purpose that’s achievable in a specified timeframe, such as brand awareness, lead generation, and client acquisition.

Tip: Unlock your unique profile and full roadmap to success by completing the 5-minute Law Firm Growth quiz

Measure Your Law Firm Marketing Strategy

In the Cruising Altitude profile, you already understand the value of legal technology and established processes. These can work for you to enhance your law firm’s marketing strategy, which is the missing component of your law firm’s success.

Learn how to use your current systems to track your marketing efforts and manage leads, prospects, and client contact information. Your legal CRM can not only be used to create workflows and customizations, but you can access and analyze potential and active client data with real-time dashboards and reports to inform your future marketing efforts.

With new clients, an effective client intake process can set the tone of the relationship and showcase your professionalism and skills. You can impress them immediately, gaining a better return on investment and conversion rate.

Another benefit of a customized intake process is that you can include custom fields to get granular data, which can be used to provide a better client experience. All of this information is stored and managed in your client management portal automatically.

Outlook on the Cruising Altitude Profile

Law firms in the Cruising Altitude profile have robust modern processes and systems but fail to use them to drive new business. Their marketing strategy is stagnant, preventing them from creating and maintaining sustainable growth in the future. Shifting that same focus on processes with law practice management software to enhance your law firm’s marketing strategy can attract new clients, improve the relationship with current clients, and position your firm for future success.