When a family law attorney looks out into the internet to check the competition, they’re apt to see a veritable ocean of family law firms, partnerships, and sole practitioners, all advertising their expertise in every aspect of family law, including Niche Marketing in Family Law. From adoption to postnuptial agreements and everything in between, it seems as though all facets of family law are full of talented lawyers, LLMs, and mediators. What’s a new attorney to do in such a saturated market?
The answer is niche marketing. Finding a niche to occupy is essential in today’s oversaturated internet market. You needn’t abandon all other areas of your practice (although you might) but you must identify a core area and attract clients to that niche. How can you effectively “nichify” your practice?
Define Your Niche
Your niche should be an area that you enjoy working in and are skilled at. Don’t make the mistake of scrolling through the local listings, finding an underrepresented practice area, and deciding that’s where you’ll focus. If you’re not interested in writing prenuptial agreements, you won’t have the desire or drive to make that your specialty niche.
The newest fad in niche marketing is the “micro niche.” A “micro niche” or sub-niche is an even smaller subset of the niche market. The micro niche is important when its time to market your unique skill or offering.
Within family law, there are many possible niches, each with their own set of micro niches. For instance:
- Divorce, which has high-value divorces, legal separation, collaborative divorce, amicable divorce, and simple dissolution
- Custody and visitation. Sub-niches include child support arrears, men’s custody, custody modification, and out-of-state custody.
- This subspecialty features additional sub-niches in foster care, international adoption, and open adoptions.
- Pre- and post-nuptial agreements.
Market Research
Once you’ve located your niche (or niches), do your research. Make sure there are enough clients in the niche you want to exploit. It’s possible that one reason nobody else is working that niche is because there isn’t enough demand for it. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer post-nuptial agreements in your practice, just that this cannot be the primary focus of your career.
Market research exists for nearly every possible niche and career. Organizations like the American Bar Association and state bar have already analyzed the demographics of their members. The ubiquity of the internet and social media makes finding clientele easier, but you should still be sure you can find enough clients in a reasonable radius to make your specialty worthwhile.
Create Your Service
Once you have your niche and know it will be marketable, you should establish who you are and how you’ll market yourself. This is known as “positioning.” Positioning yourself as a niche firm means explaining how and why you’re different from other firms offering similar services. Your target clientele wants to come to you because you provide something special that they cannot get at another firm. This is more difficult than it sounds.
One way to start is by looking at your competitors’ websites and seeing how they describe their own services. What do they call their special services? What will you do that your competitors are not doing, at least according to their website?
A key method of differentiation is language. Take time to write out your descriptions in a friendly, relatable language. Many big firms, especially in now that AI is doing a lot of online content, tend to use legal jargon and choppy sentences to describe their work. A sentence like “We can swiftly handle your dissolution of marriage” will send clients fleeing for a real person.
Imagine you’re describing your service to someone in a grocery checkout line. If they asked, “Why should I hire you for my divorce?” what would you say? That is your niche marketing plan.
Spread the Word
Once you get yourself established, be sure to have your clients behind you! Referrals, client reviews, and word of mouth are the best way to get new clients. Just because you’re striking out in a new direction does not mean that former clients can’t be a help.
For instance, if you were a personal injury attorney in your former life, and now are striking out as a divorce attorney, you might mention your plans to current clients. If you handled their cases well in the past, they might be willing to mention you to friends and family who need legal advice in other areas. How you deal with former clients affects how they will remember you when others ask them for advice.
Don’t Forget to Network
Don’t forget to network, especially when exploring Niche Marketing in Family Law. The Divorce With Dignity Network is here for people like you. Our ranks are filled with individuals who sought a new direction in their careers, and now we’re dedicated to guiding you along your path. Our Providers possess extensive experience in family law, counseling, therapy, and running a one-person office. We offer referrals and marketing strategies spanning across the West to kickstart your journey. Discovering a new niche like family law requires a deep understanding of existing ones, and for new professionals in the legal field, this can seem daunting.
If you’re a newly graduated attorney or an old hand switching gears, we’ve been there and done all that. We want you to be successful and we can give you a compass to start your journey. Join our Providers in the Divorce With Dignity Network. Schedule your complimentary Success-Strategy Consultation today!
