Marketing for Immigration Lawyers: Top Strategies You Need to Know

Marketing for immigration lawyers can be time-consuming and frustrating— but it doesn’t have to be. Immigration lawyers, like personal injury lawyers and criminal defense attorneys, need a steady stream of new clients to keep their business going. Many law firms are not successful because their marketing efforts focus solely on one specific area, such as organic search.

Any successful marketing campaign must incorporate the 3 M’s:

• Market (target audience)
  
• Message (services provided)
  
• Media (website and other online and offline mediums).

Another critical aspect of marketing is adaptability. Immigration lawyers can be highly successful as small law firms or sole practitioners - but they must be able to adapt to changes not just in immigration laws, but in marketing. The ones who have thriving law practices know how to get immigration clients through law firm digital marketing.

Gone are the days of billboards and bus stop benches. Today’s immigration law marketing incorporates search engine optimization, long-form content, attorney blogging, social media, and PPC ads.

Lawyers who have adapted to changes in immigration attorney marketing have been able to tap into new lead sources and have high conversion rates in signing up clients. In this blog post, we explore strategies for digital marketing for immigration lawyers in 2023.

1. Invest in a Professional Website That Brings You New Clients

Your website is the cornerstone of your law firm’s business presence - and for many of your website visitors, the first impression of your business. Potential clients, specifically your ideal clients in your service area, need to be able to find your website, whether they are searching for your law firm name, or looking in Google for the best immigration attorneys in your city.

A professional, competitive-grade website is a considerable initial investment, but one that will complement all of your other marketing efforts. Because people research legal service providers before contacting one, your website should have content for them to read that identifies you as a subject matter expert on their immigration matters.

An immigration attorney website should provide:

• An explanation of your legal services (and how they differ from your competitors)
• An introduction to the members of your teams (so potential clients can see who they will be working with)
  
• Offer potential clients a way or multiple ways to reach out to you (phone, website contact form, live chat, etc.)

Your immigration website should incorporate the following elements:

— Clean Web Design

Your immigration law website should be easy to find, appealing to look at, and offer an easy way to get in touch with you and your team. With the help of web design services for law firms, it will look fresh and clean and not cluttered. If your law firm website design looks like you built it in 1995, it is likely that visitors to your website will leave to look at other attorneys’ websites instead of contacting you for a consultation.

— Testimonials and Reviews

Testimonials and reviews on an immigration lawyer website and on review sites like Yelp instill trust. You should have a process in place to ask clients for reviews, either during your representation or when their legal matter is wrapped up. Many lawyers include at least a few video testimonials on their websites. These can be timely posts for social media and evergreen content for website visitors.

Testimonials are generally allowed, but make sure you are following the rules regarding attorney advertising. The American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct is a good place to start, but you should verify with your state bar that your state has adopted the Model Rules and any specific differences that apply to your state.

— Mobile-Friendly / Responsive Web Design

Everyone has smartphones these days, and more than half of your website visitors are finding your immigration lawyer website through their mobile devices. When smartphones first came out, many companies developed separate standalone websites. This is no longer necessary with responsive web design which adapts to the display and screen size. Google recommends this, and their algorithms are able to detect if a website has responsive web design.

If your website is not mobile-friendly, it can be difficult to view information. If your website visitors become frustrated, they are likely to leave without giving your services a second thought. Part of your immigration attorney marketing strategy should include mobile-friendly website testing and adjustments for all types of smartphones and tablets.

— Bilingual / Multilingual Services

One unique aspect of immigration law is many clients do not speak English - this should be a consideration in your overall immigration law marketing strategy.

Although courts handle matters in English, many lawyers are bilingual so that they can understand the specific needs of the client as well as communicate with the client.

If you have bi-lingual or multi-lingual staff, your website should mention this (e.g., “We provide legal services in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, and Farsi.”). You may have pop-up windows in different languages, and also prepare videos and content in different languages for the clients you serve.

— Feature All Immigration Issues You Deal With

Immigration lawyers handle a wide range of immigration issues, from forms-based practice (filling out applications and petitions) to litigation matters handled in court.

A website should list all the types of services and issues an immigration lawyer deals with, including:

• K-1 Fiance Visas
• CR-1 Marriage Visas
• Adjustment of Status
• Work Visas
• Removal Defense
• Naturalization
• Asylum
• U-Visa
• T-Visa
• NACARA
• Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Petitions.

For the individuals involved in immigration proceedings, the stakes are high, and there may just be one opportunity to succeed. Before investing hard-earned, limited funds in immigration attorney services, your potential clients will heavily research their legal matters and the services you provide. Your law firm website content and complementing social media sites and review sites should instill trust.

— Easy to Navigate

Once potential clients have arrived on your immigration attorney website, the organizational structure and navigation will be key to converting them to take the next step of calling you or contacting you. Content should be organized in a way that makes sense, and visitors should be able to locate what they are looking for easily.

2. Create a Powerful SEO Strategy to Attract Immigration Clients

Your marketing strategy should be multi-pronged and have distinct aspects that complement each other. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a primary method of generating both traffic to your website and potential clients for your law practice (leads). SEO services for immigration lawyers are really centered around making your immigration lawyer website search engine friendly. This is a multi-pronged approach.

Your immigration lawyer SEO strategy should involve:

• Defining your target clients
• Making specific and measurable goals
• Performing keyword research
• Creating keyword optimized content
• Tracking results regularly

SEO, in and of itself, is multi-pronged because it incorporates numerous elements, both on your website and off. Immigration attorney marketing involving SEO can be aggressive and specific. Elements of your SEO strategy will likely include:

— Providing Useful Content Your Potential Clients Are Searching For

Content is all the material you produce to generate leads for your law firm. Immigration law firms that are successful at SEO understand the value of producing content, not just one time, but regularly.

Digital marketing for immigration lawyers involves all types of digital content, including:

• Evergreen website content
• Case summaries/ case studies
• Information and resources pages
• FAQ pages
• Sample petitions
• Lawyer videos
• Legal podcasts
• Firm emails / newsletters
• E-books
• Infographics
• Social media posts

One of the benefits of hiring a law firm digital marketing agency that specializes in immigration law firm marketing is they are familiar with the type of content you need. A knowledgeable law firm digital marketing agency can supercharge your content marketing strategy by eliminating much of the trial and error that immigration attorneys go through in determining the types of content they need.

— Incorporating Lead Magnets and Gated Content

Lead magnets can be a valuable tool in converting one-time site visitors into clients in the future and are one of the supplementary marketing strategies for immigration lawyers. A website visitor may not be ready to hire you yet for a number of reasons, but that does not mean you should not continue to engage with them. “Gated content” is high-value content that you provide when someone fills out a lead capture form, typically a name and email address.

Examples of gated content for immigration attorneys include:

• PDF checklists
• e-Books
• White papers
• Videos

Marketing experts debate the value of gated content. Some argue that your content should be spread far and wide, and available to everyone. Others argue that website traffic is nothing if it doesn’t generate leads. Gated content allows immigration lawyers to see who is accessing their content as well as give them the ability to contact them.

One thing you should consider: If you restrict your content behind a form, you will not receive any SEO benefit from it as it will not be displayed in search engines. Is it worth the investment? Would it be better to hire a writer to spend three weeks preparing an e-book that only 10 people download in an entire year, or better to hire a writer to spend three weeks creating dozens of pages of SEO optimized content that several thousand website visitors would see each year? If the cost is the same, which will generate more clients for your law firm?

It is important to consider the tactical execution aspect: If you have a lead magnet system, you also need to be marketing to your lead list, such as sending a monthly or biweekly email. This can be standalone content or a digest of your blog posts and other content, but either way, it will require consistent efforts. Your digital marketing agency can help you make these important decisions in your marketing strategy.

— Fully Optimized Content Targeting Immigration Keywords

Industry phrases like “content is key” and “content is king” were coined for a reason. Website content is critical to your SEO for immigration attorneys. But to be successful, content must be optimized to the search terms that your clients are using. The value of any content will increase exponentially the more that it is seen. To get your immigration lawyer seen, you must be targeting keywords.

There are a number of paid tools that provide valuable insight into what keywords you are targeting. You can use Google Keyword Planner to get suggestions for keywords related to your legal services. This is a free tool, but you do need to have an Ads account set up.

Marketing experts agree that adding content often is important. Your content marketing strategy should include regularly publishing new content, as well as updating existing evergreen content. As changes to immigration law occur, your content should be updated with new information. You can use social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to share your new content and generate traffic that supplements organic search engine traffic.

3. Leverage the Power of PPC

PPC, or pay-per-click, is a powerful lead-generation tool for attorneys. Unlike organic SEO efforts, you only pay when a person visits your website. However, once you stop funding your PPC campaign, your ads go away and you do not receive any traffic. If you are in need of business as soon as possible, PPC management for law firms is a quick way to generate targeted, specific leads. ‍

You can spend as much or as little as you like.

— Target the Right Keywords

Anyone with money to spend can run a PPC campaign, but getting a positive return on investment and actually converting clients comes down to targeting. You could spend a lot of money to show up in search results anytime someone searches for the word “lawyer” on Google. But if you are an immigration lawyer in Chicago, IL, a PPC campaign targeting just the word “lawyer” will likely be very expensive, and also will likely have a low conversion rate, because many of the people clicking on the ad are not looking for immigration lawyers. In other words, with this approach, you would spend a LOT of money and probably not sign up many clients.

On the other hand, if you targeted a search campaign to people searching for immigration lawyers in Chicago, as well as specific immigration attorney legal services, such as types of visas, petitions, and waivers, you will be targeting individuals who are much more likely to sign up for your services. Mid-tail keywords and long-tail keywords are typically less competitive and much more affordable.

— Set Up a Negative Keyword List

Everyone running a PPC campaign should be using a negative keyword list.

A negative keyword list has two benefits:

• It prevents you from wasting money in your PPC budget by ensuring your ads do not show up on related, but not relevant searches.
  
• It increases your clickthrough rate (CTR) which improves your ad quality score.

For example, as an immigration lawyer, you may want your PPC ads to show up in searches for “Miami Fiancé Visa Attorney” but not for “Miami Marriage Divorce Lawyer.” Negative keywords can be established on a campaign level or at an ad group level.

4. Promote Your Firm and Content on Social Media

Whether you like social media or not, it is here, and not going anywhere anytime soon. And because your competitors are using social media, you can’t afford to overlook it. You should use social media as an off-site SEO strategy and have clearly defined social media goals with your content. For example, you may use Facebook to target potential new clients and use LinkedIn to target referrals from other attorneys.

Setting up social media accounts is relatively quick and easy, but your strategy should have longevity and involve posts over time. Social media ads can also be used to target new clients and may be a more cost-effective paid search strategy than search engine PPC ads.

Conclusion

If you are wanting to upsize your immigration law practice and generate more leads, you need a digital marketing agency that understands immigration law. Grow Law Firm can help your law practice stand out from your competition while making your marketing efforts cost-effective.

We have helped large and small immigration law firms, and solo practitioners, increase their online presence and profitability. Our law firm digital marketing team works closely with our law firm clients while taking the burden of day-to-day marketing tasks off their plate.

We offer a free consultation to discuss our full range of legal services and how we can help you achieve your goals.