Speaker 1: 0:05

How do I create viral marketing campaigns for a traditionally serious law practice? Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. The idea of going viral, as it were, might seem like it totally belongs to pop culture, trendy businesses, fast food, restaurants who are snarking at each other or the entertainment industry, but the truth is, even the most traditionally serious industries, like lawyers, can capture really widespread attention if you use the right approach. So by the end of this episode, I want you to understand not only how viral marketing works in a legal context, but also how to actually apply these strategies in ways that are going to enhance your firm's reputation, build deeper client relationships and ultimately grow your revenue and your practice. The reality is, you don't need to resort to flashy gimmicks or compromise your ethical standards, and, in fact, the best viral campaigns are often the ones that stay true to the brand's core message while finding an innovative way to engage with their audience.

Speaker 1: 1:10

When you think about law firms and marketing, the term viral is probably not the first thing that you're thinking about. Traditionally, legal marketing has always been pretty conservative and has emphasized authority, professionalism and a sense of reliability, and that's a good thing, and it's understandable. After all, clients are trusting us with their significant issues, whether this is something like protecting their business, fighting for their rights, dealing with their divorce or even just navigating some kind of complex legal system. So maintaining that reputation is really crucial, and that's where the struggle lies for us. One of the biggest challenges that we in the law firm marketing universe face when we're considering viral marketing tactics is the fear of losing this credibility. There's a perception that going viral is tied to entertainment or humor or sensationalism areas that really feel at odds with the serious and professional tone that we need to project. Another concern is the actual ethics surrounding legal advertising. So, depending on your jurisdiction, there are going to be strict guidelines about how you can advertise your services, and this just adds another layer of complexity to creating content that has mass appeal. But the thing is, the digital landscape is changing really quickly, like I always say, and the way people are engaging with different types of businesses, including law firms like yours, is evolving along with it. Clients today expect more than just a website with a whole bunch of services listed and some basic information. They really do want to see your firm's personality, your values and your commitment to your clients. They also expect that your content is going to be engaging and potentially even interesting for them to share. And for law firms, this means we need to find a balance between maintaining our professionalism and tapping into the tools and strategies that make viral marketing possible. So let's take a step back and define what this all means In the context of the legal world.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Going viral doesn't have to mean creating a flashy, sensational video that racks up millions of views overnight. You do not need to have your receptionist twerking on the front of a Ferrari. Instead, let's think of viral marketing as content that generates mass engagement, leads to conversation and gets shared around within your target audience, and all of this can happen without compromising your professional image. So for law firms, this can look like a well-crafted blog post that answers common legal questions in a way that's both informative and relatable, or a short video that demystifies a complex legal issue, making it accessible to everyday people. Now, I know those don't sound viral, but we're going to get to that.

Speaker 1: 3:48

The key here is to align your viral marketing efforts with the core message of your firm. Viral content for a law practice should reflect the values and expertise that make your firm trustworthy and authoritative. So, if you specialize in family law, a viral campaign could center around providing free resources to families that are navigating complex issues like health issues in the family, immigration issues, children who are getting kicked out of school or suspended from school any kind of issue like this. Providing those free resources can be helpful to those people. And, of course, that's where we always want this to start from, because that content is shareable, because it's helpful, and if it's relevant and it positions you as a leader in the field, it's even more shareable and it's good for you. But the key here is to stay true to your brand. Yes, we're embracing creativity and technology and we're doing all of the cool TikTok stuff, but we can create campaigns here that actually resonate really deeply with our audience because they're our true brand, they're what we really think, and at the same time, we're not sacrificing the professionalism that defines our practices.

Speaker 1: 4:56

So let's break it down a little bit and talk about the key components of a viral marketing campaign for a law firm. And first is authenticity and the story. I've talked about this a lot before, but we're going to. We're going to jump back into it again, because in the world of viral marketing, authenticity really is everything People can sense when content is just a little bit too polished or you're being insincere. And in a profession like law, where trust is pretty much everything, it's even more important to come across as genuine. This is where storytelling becomes a really powerful tool. By sharing real, authentic stories about your clients or yourself, or your team or your community. This resonates with people because it's relatable. People connect with stories on an emotional level and when they see that your firm has genuinely helped someone overcome a challenge, they're more likely to share that story because they know it could help someone else.

Speaker 1: 5:52

One way to really easily tap into this I've said it a hundred times before, but we can focus on client stories. Of course, we do need permission when we're doing something like testimonials or reviews and we have to stay within our ethical guidelines. But if we can actually tell a story of someone who was really a client, we can show how we made a difference in someone's life and it gives potential clients this tangible example of what we could do for them. This not only helps them come to a decision, but it humanizes you and your firm and makes the entire process more approachable. But it humanizes you and your firm and makes the entire process more approachable, but another approach that you know I've hammered client success stories, I've hammered reviews tons. But another way we can do this is through community engagement, so we can highlight our firm's involvement in local events or if we're doing charity work or whatever it is. It shows us that we're not just about business and it shows that we're really well invested in the well-being of our community. I don't really think I need to explain why that's important, but the reality of this community engagement and these client success stories is you do have to go out and do it before you can do the story about it.

Speaker 1: 7:00

So breaking down complex legal concepts into more bite-sized, easy to understand content can be an easier way to get your foot in the door and it can help position your firm as a trusted guide for all of the issues someone is going through. When you make the law a lot more accessible, you build credibility for yourself and you invite your audience to share content that adds value to their own networks. So that's a good one to push. But the other thing you can do, depending on what type of content you want to produce, one of the really key tactics and there are other ways to sort of jump on this, but you want to leverage the current trends. So it's hard to stay relevant in general, but in the digital world, we really have to tap into these trends to make sure that people are interested in what we're doing. Things just move so fast and it's really difficult to stay caught up with everything. So, whether this is a current event, a cultural moment, a meme, an industry trend, we can provide opportunities to engage with our audience while positioning our firm as both knowledgeable and timely, because we're hitting something that's relevant.

Speaker 1: 8:07

So the key here is finding trends that naturally connect with the legal services you offer, without trying to force a connection or just seeming really opportunistic and annoying. So, for example, if there's a trending piece of legal news, like a high profile court case in your area or nationally, or some new legislation that affects what you do, or just an issue about the law that's dominating headlines in general, so much so that it's seeping into everything else, you could then create content that provides your expert analysis or just explains the implications for people, even for your clients. People really want to turn to professionals to help understand these complex issues, and if you offer your insights on these trending topics, you're establishing yourself and your firm as a go-to source for trustworthy information about things people read elsewhere. And we can capitalize on these trends another way as well, if we're doing the content about them. We can also leverage these trends through the viral hashtags that are tied to things like legal reforms, awareness campaigns or even specific issues. So, for instance, if there was a national awareness campaign around a topic like data privacy, labor rights, criminal justice reform whatever it was your firm can join the conversation so you can create posts or videos that offer your expert perspective, but you want to make sure that the tone matches the seriousness of the topic. So by contributing meaningfully to these conversations, we're amplifying our message and we're attracting engagement while still remaining professional. And by carefully selecting and then slowly contributing to more and more trends, we're enhancing our firm's visibility, we're staying relevant and we're generating this viral potential without compromising our brand.

Speaker 1: 9:48

But the thing is, the brand on its own needs a little bit of work, whatever your law firm's brand is. There's another step we need to take here that's going to really set us up for viral success, and that is humanizing the brand. So people connect with people, not just businesses so much, and that's why humanizing our brand matters when it comes to creating viral marketing campaigns. So we want to showcase the individuals behind our firm our lawyers, our staff and what their day-to-day experiences are like. This makes our practices feel much more approachable and relatable.

Speaker 1: 10:22

Sharing these behind-the-scenes moments, like what a typical day looks like in the office or what you guys are having for lunch one day, or profiling your team members, whatever it is All of this allows potential clients to see the human side of your practice. This day-in-the-life content is particularly effective because it pulls back the curtain and shows the real people that clients might work with. So, whether it's a humorous moment or a more personal, serious reflection on why someone became a lawyer or a paralegal or wanted to work with this specific law firm, this kind of content fosters a sense of trust and connection that is very real. What we are trying to do here is drive this emotional connection. We can even do things like highlight charity efforts, community work, attending events in the community, whatever it is People really like to support these businesses that give back. And if we share our firm's involvement in local, national whatever it is type of causes, this makes our practice much more relatable and it shows that we're socially responsible. And these emotional connections these are really crucial for driving viral engagement, because when our audience feels connected to the firm on a human level, we get significantly higher levels of sharing content, which leads to the visibility and engagement we're looking for across social platforms.

Speaker 1: 11:40

And here's the thing. There are a lot of things you can do to set yourself up for viral engagement, but there's really never any guarantee. And I do have one more idea for how to maximize the potential for virality, but what we're trying to do here is build these emotional connections and even if the post doesn't go viral, even if we get 20 views or 10 views, if we're doing it well, we're making this emotional connection and we're actually providing valuable information to the potential client, we are going to make progress and we are going to make sales. So, whether or not it's effective at going viral, the key with these tactics is to keep doing them, because they come from a place that is actually designed to resonate really well with people. At the end of the day, virality is mostly about the people. Yes, the algorithms have something to do with it, but what you're really looking for and what the platforms really look for when they're going to serve this content to more people is are the people, liking it, sharing it, engaging with it, commenting on it all of the stuff that we want to see. As far as engagement, that's what those algorithms are really looking for, so building this connection with the potential client is valuable, whether or not we go viral.

Speaker 1: 12:51

There's one more thing, though, and this is really the most fun thing about trying to go viral, because one of the key ways to get a post to go viral is to focus on emotion and humor, and even in a traditionally serious industry like law, emotion and humor can be really powerful tools to connect with our audience, but we do have to be careful. The key here, like the key with all the other keys, is to strike the right balance so that the content is still professional, but it resonates emotionally with the person or it makes them smile or makes them chuckle. Emotionally driven content often revolves around these powerful stories, the things we've been talking about. So a heartfelt testimonial from a client whose life your firm has positively impacted can touch on universal themes of justice, fairness or even personal victory. Emotional storytelling like this taps directly into the empathy of the people you're targeting, making your content more relatable and more shareable, but, on the other hand, the humor this can be used to really humanize you in your practice, but it needs to be kind of subtle and tactful. So a lighthearted post could work about the quirky realities of working in a law firm, or a meme about something that is a little bit clever and related to the legal world but still respects the gravity of the legal matters you handle. These kinds of things can make your audience smile without undercutting your professionalism and ruining your reputation.

Speaker 1: 14:18

So, whether you're engaging with emotion or with humor, the goal is to make the content more memorable, more approachable and, ultimately, more shareable. So we get more eyeballs and, when done right, these elements can drive viral engagement by creating content that people actually want to share with their own networks because it improves their position. Okay, now we're not going to talk about the platforms for this, because there's the potential for virality on any platform. There's TikTok, there's YouTube, there's Facebook, instagram, and you could even go viral on LinkedIn. So whatever platform you choose to attack, just be consistent, keep working on it and keep using the core tenets of what it will take to go viral, and eventually you'll get there.

Speaker 1: 15:01

But there is one thing you need to keep in mind when we're creating these viral marketing campaigns for a law firm. Maintaining the ethical integrity standards of our bar association and our state is a non-negotiable part of the deal. Every piece of content has to align with the legal ethics and with the state bar guidelines. So this means being really mindful of how we present our services, avoiding exaggerated claims, superlatives and always being respectful of client confidentiality. Of course, I don't need to be the one lecturing you guys on this, but the thing is, it's really tempting to push the boundaries for the sake of engagement or to listen to your marketing person when they try to push those boundaries. But it's really essential to prioritize transparency and accuracy in all your communications and to make sure your marketing people understand where the red lines are.

Speaker 1: 15:49

So we still want to strike this balance between engaging content and our professional image. But yeah, it's challenging, but it's entirely achievable. So the easy way to do it, like we've talked about, is to focus on creating content that resonates emotionally or even intellectually, without sacrificing the trust and credibility we've already built Through thoughtful storytelling, educational content, showcasing our community involvement or our charitable involvement. All of these are ways to engage our audience without crossing the ethical lines. The goal is to make us seem relatable and human because we are, while remaining grounded in professionalism. Look at the end of the day, viral marketing is possible for you and it's possible for even the most traditionally serious law firms, but it just has to be done strategically. By focusing on this authenticity, leveraging the trends we can identify carefully and ensuring our content is aligned with ethical standards and what our clients actually want to share, we're going to create viral marketing campaigns that resonate with our audience while keeping our integrity intact. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more Thanks.