Is your law firm targeting the wrong audience?
Digital marketing has so many moving parts, it’s easy to lose focus and chase after wrong metrics. We fall into the trap of assuming that rising numbers are always positive, while falling numbers are inherently negative.
But when it comes to connecting with your ideal client, I’ve found bigger isn’t always better. While working to grow your audience is an essential first step, you also need to realize that audience members and potential clients aren’t necessarily the same. You should always be working to increase the value of your audience, so you’re reaching those who want and need your legal services.
This begins with a deeper understanding of your true target audience—their preferences, demographics, and needs. By honing in on these factors, you can ensure your marketing efforts resonate with the people who will benefit most from your expertise.
Leverage Your Email List
The email subscription list in your CRM or marketing automation tool is the ideal place to begin. By leveraging the data you already have on hand, you can uncover critical details about your audience and begin to get a sense of whether or not you’re attracting the people and/or companies that are ideal prospects for your law firm.
Audience Segmentation: Demographics and Firmographics
Start with audience segmentation, breaking down your email list by personal traits (demographics) and company attributes (firmographics). Determine which parameters are most relevant to your specific goals—factors like gender, job title, company size, industry, and location.
Tagging and organizing contacts according to these criteria will provide a clearer picture of your subscribers, so you can determine how closely they align with your law firm’s target audience. Segmentation will also reveal whether specific groups dominate your email list, such as business owners, executives, men, women, or other distinct demographics.
As you review your list, you’ll likely discover gaps in the data. If your email signup form only allows you to collect basic subscriber information, like names and email addresses, consider updating it (without going overboard) to gather more relevant details. There are also “data-appending” services that can use your existing email list to research subscribers and fill in missing information, or you can research audience members on your own using platforms like LinkedIn.
Behavior-Based Audience Segmentation
If your firm uses a marketing automation system, it’s probably also capable of segmenting your audience based on their behavior.
By analyzing how your audience members interact with your website, you can gain valuable insights into what resonates with them most. This data can play a crucial role in shaping your future content strategy, ensuring your efforts align with audience preferences and needs.
Understanding The Broader Market
Once you’ve gained a clear understanding of your current audience, you can evaluate how well its members align with your law firm’s ideal target market. By comparing your actual audience with the broader market you’re aiming to reach, you can better determine if you’re truly attracting the potential clients your firm needs to engage.
Identify Your Ideal Target Audience
Your target audience should align with the profile of your ideal client. Once you’ve identified the type of person that fits those parameters, you can estimate the size of your overall market.
Understanding your market size is crucial to determine what you’ll need to do to reach your target audience. As you evaluate market size, it’s also important to consider whether you want to capture a small share of a broad, general market or pursue a larger share of a more focused, niche market. For instance, your firm might be interested in any clients involved with the medical field, or they might be seeking to specifically connect with private practice doctors within a certain specialty or geographic area.
Choose Which Characteristics To Compare
Once you’ve identified your law firm’s overall target audience, you can narrow it down using specific characteristics. In most cases, the same characteristics you used to analyze in your email list—or a subset of them—will be the most useful. For example, if you’re targeting medical professionals working in hospitals, you might focus on factors like gender, job position, and location. This will allow you to create targeted audience segments, just as you did with your email list.
After defining your audience and the characteristics you want to analyze, you can begin gathering the actual data. While there isn’t a single source for obtaining these details, LinkedIn can provide much of the data you need to ensure accurate estimates. Many industry and professional associations also have access to statistics that will deepen your understanding of your audience.
The goal is to compile data that reveals the size and composition of your target audience. For example, you might discover your intended marketing area includes 159,000 medical professionals. They are almost evenly split between 3 different counties, and consist of about 65% males and 35% females. Now you have hard data to compare with your own numbers.
Putting It All Together
With insights into both your actual audience and your ideal target audience, you can now compare the two to evaluate your current position. Identify any gaps where your actual audience differs from your target audience to determine where you need to make adjustments.
A few examples:
- If your target audience is split more or less 50/50 between males and females, but your actual audience is 80% males, you’re missing a significant part of your target audience
- If your ideal audience consists of doctors in private practice, but your actual audience is mostly comprised of hospital staff, you’re reaching the wrong people.
- If you are targeting a relatively small niche market and only seeing a response from 1% of that market, you might need to reinforce marketing efforts to reach more people.
The insights you gain will depend largely on your firm’s specific circumstances, market dynamics, and the quality of data you can access. However, these insights will prove invaluable as you fine tune your marketing efforts for maximum results. Nothing drives better marketing outcomes than truly understanding the audience you aim to reach.
You can’t rely solely on traditional marketing channels to reach your audience in 2025. As online behavior shifts, it’s crucial to leverage the social media platforms and online communities where potential clients are likely to engage.
1. Use Social Media Analytics
Tools like LinkedIn Analytics, Facebook Insights, and Twitter Analytics can provide valuable insight into who is engaging with your content. By scrutinizing these metrics, you refine your strategy to ensure you’re connecting with the right people.
2. Join Relevant Online Groups
Whether it’s LinkedIn groups or industry-specific forums, online groups provide direct access to potential clients. Engage in discussions, share insights, and position your firm as a thought leader in your niche.
3. Targeted Paid Advertising
Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn allow for highly specific targeting options based on demographics, interests, and behavior. Use these tools to direct your marketing efforts toward the segments most likely to need your services.
4. Regular Content Updates
Keep your content relevant by regularly updating your blog, social media posts, and email newsletters. Address current legal trends, changes in legislation, or common client concerns to stay top-of-mind with your audience.
5. Monitor and Adapt
Digital marketing is dynamic. Regularly analyze your campaigns and be ready to adapt based on the feedback you receive. Utilize A/B testing to determine what resonates most with your audience, and continuously refine your approach.
Takeaway
The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and your law firm’s strategy for reaching its target audience should evolve with it. By analyzing your current audience, gaining insights into the broader market, and adopting innovative strategies, you can fine-tune your outreach efforts to attract your ideal clients.
