Creating a buyer persona has long been a marketing strategy for businesses selling products, but it can also be a handy tactic for law firms looking for new clients. If your firm is developing new content marketing strategies, one of the most effective tools you can have for this process is a set of client personas that embody the ideal types of clients you want to attract to your law firm.

RizeUp Media provides a full range of digital marketing services to law firms of all practice areas serving communities throughout the US. If you have not developed client personas yet, we believe this can be one of the most effective stepping stones to creating a viable long-term content marketing strategy. The process of developing your client personas may help you understand your target market in greater detail and reveal valuable insights you may not initially expect.

What Is a Client Persona?

A client persona is a vignette of the type of client you want to attract. Think of your client personas as the archetypes of the types of clients your firm represents. For example, if you operate a personal injury law firm, a few examples of possible client personas that fit your business model could be car accident victims, dog bite victims, or injured construction workers.

To develop your client persona, think about the type of law you practice and the type of client you imagine when you think of accepting a case. Ask a few important questions to help you further define your client persona in greater detail:

• What type of cases does your firm handle? The client personas you create must reflect your practice areas.
• Does your firm focus on settlement negotiations, or are you a practiced litigation expert ready to defend your clients in court? Think about your legal strategy for a typical case and apply it to your client persona creation process.
• What do most clients ask during consultations? This will help you create a framework for your client personas, so you can connect with them more effectively.
• Is your average client concerned about the cost of legal representation? Think about the economic condition of your average client to help you develop a more detailed client persona.
• Does your practice area involve complex or technical questions that make potential clients feel uncertain about their legal options? Develop your client persona by considering the things that concern your average client the most.
• If your firm provides criminal defense representation, what types of cases are you willing to take? You can create client personas based on different types of criminal offenses, the penalties these offenses typically entail, and what potential clients in this practice area tend to worry about the most when they come to your firm seeking legal counsel.

These questions should help you envision one or more client archetypes that you can then refine into client personas for marketing purposes.

How Can I Use Client Personas to Market My Firm More Effectively?

Most law firms provide legal representation across multiple practice areas, while some focus on just one practice area. It’s best to develop a client persona for each practice area your firm handles. For example, a personal injury law firm may represent people in motor vehicle accident cases, dog bite cases, and medical malpractice claims. This firm should develop a car accident client profile, a dog bite client profile, and a medical malpractice client profile.

General client profiles can be broken down further into more detailed profiles. For example, you can create multiple car accident client profiles for different types of cases: single-vehicle accidents caused by poor road conditions, multi-vehicle collisions involving numerous drivers, commercial vehicle accidents, common carrier accidents, and others. While you can go into great detail and make many different client profiles, it’s best to keep things general and focus on a handful of client archetypes for the best marketing results.

Once you have a set of client profiles that reflect the most commonly seen clients of your firm, you can begin developing marketing materials around these client profiles. Remember, the goal of inbound marketing is to provide your leads with memorable, valuable, and relevant experiences that resonate with the services your firm provides. Start thinking of the type of content each of your client archetypes will want to consume. Think of the questions your potential clients are most likely to ask during consultations and the information that will be most valuable to them when they need to make crucial decisions about legal representation. Effective development of client profiles requires you to see things from their perspectives.

Why Targeted Content Works

No matter what type of law your firm practices, think of how the average potential client feels when they begin their internet search for legal counsel. Whether they have recently experienced a car accident, lost a loved one due to negligence, or have been arrested for DUI, they likely feel a bit of pressure and desperation. They need answers to the many questions running through their mind about their current situation and will likely cultivate trust in potential attorneys who can answer those questions.

Adopting this perspective will help your team develop content more effectively. Start thinking about the experiences you want to provide to your clients and the information they will need to want to choose your firm to represent them. Content marketing is an inbound marketing strategy. While outbound marketing effectively bombards potentially disinterested leads with blatant ads, inbound marketing attracts leads more naturally by providing them with helpful information and memorable experiences.

Client profiles help you develop more effective inbound marketing content. This development process can be challenging, but when you have the right digital marketing team working with you, you can focus on running your business with a more effective content strategy. RizeUp Media can help your firm create client profiles that resonate with your firm’s goals and help you create a more effective and comprehensive content marketing strategy. If you are interested in developing functional client profiles for your firm, contact RizeUp Media today for more information about our marketing services.