Stories define our shared experiences.
As a result, using your website to brand and market your law firm through storytelling can be highly effective. The story of who you are, what you offer, and how you help your clients is a better way to engage potential clients than facts and figures.
This is true whether you’re in a consumer-facing area of the law or whether you’re working in a business-to-business firm – that’s because at the center of any decision to hire an attorney is a human decision-maker. And humans love stories.
Storytelling can help show the human side — and real personality — behind your firm. And it breaks down that barrier quickly.
In this blog post, we’ll point out three ways to incorporate storytelling into your law firm’s website to drive more visitors to your website and more business to your firm.
Storytelling on your website’s homepage
Your homepage – and other main pages on your site – benefit from storytelling. It takes potential clients from confusing statutory language and legal jargon into a much more compelling and deeper understanding of their problem. The way you tell this story can indicate how much you understand your potential client, and how aligned your motivations are.
In a lot of legal matters, potential clients don’t realize that they can do something about the problem that they’re facing, so it’s a good idea to clarify how your firm can help them.
An example of a story-based law firm homepage
Your goal:
Use your pages to teach web visitors about the law, their options, and that you’re available to help.
Potential client’s goal:
“What do I do? Is it worth getting an attorney? Do I have a case? Can this firm help?”
Classic approach (Less effective):
“When someone is injured, the claims process can be long and complex. An injured person needs a skilled attorney who will support them. If you or a loved one has been injured, contact our firm today.”
Storytelling approach (More effective):
“When you’re injured, it can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Serious injuries can cost an incredible amount of time, effort, and money to get back to a normal life.
The road to compensation can be difficult and confusing. You might not know where to begin and how to get compensation for your injuries.
An experienced personal injury attorney will know which approach is best. Every case is different, and the law is applied differently depending on the situation…”
To learn more, listen to our podcast episode about evaluating your law firm’s homepage.
Storytelling in your attorney bio
While your education and expertise are important, they’re much more compelling facts when they’re worked into a client-focused story.
Your clients are going to look at every page on your site with a lens that’s different from yours. They’re looking at each of these pages and asking themselves, “Does this information here tell me that this person can help me, specifically?”
They’re also trying to figure out if they’ll like you. Your personality is linked to how you run your practice, how you relate to your clients, and how you practice the law. The attorney bio — when it’s done right — should humanize you and make you very approachable. It should highlight the way that your goals are linked to those of your potential clients. (The same can be true of the “About the Firm” page.)
Potential clients want to know how much you care about your work because that’s going to translate to how much you care about them as your client. They want to know how enthusiastic you are because that’s going to translate to how enthusiastic you are about their legal problem. You’ll want to show your potential clients why you’re an expert without simply listing where you went to school, the bars they’re admitted to, and so on.
An example of a story-based attorney bio
Your goal:
Use your attorney bio to teach web visitors about your firm and have them hire you.
Potential client’s goal:
“Is this attorney someone I want to work with? Will I like them? Do they care about me?”
Classic approach (Less effective):
“Attorney Jane Smith received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Arizona in 1976. In 1981, she received her Juris Doctor degree from…where she ranked among the top ten students of her class and graduated Magna Cum Laude…While in law school, she received two American Jurisprudence awards for excellent achievement in the study of law…”
Storytelling approach (More effective):
“I didn’t always know that I wanted to be a lawyer. But I’ve long been a believer in the idea of “being the change that you want to see in the world.” It’s why I started my career in journalism — I felt passionate about human interest stories, and I wanted to be the voice of people who weren’t being heard…”
To transform your bio from a list of facts into a compelling narrative, see our piece on compelling attorney bios.
Storytelling in your firm’s case results/victories
When it comes to case results and victories, most lawyers start and end by stating the outcome itself. But without understanding the facts, the challenges, and the journey you took to get to the result, the result itself doesn’t always resonate with potential clients.
Case results that use storytelling to drive more business have some features in common:
- It shows what the firm did to earn the result;
- It has a protagonist that is not the attorney (typically, the protagonist is the client);
- It shows the odds that the client and firm were up against;
- It shows that you helped the client overcome the struggle they were facing;
- It shows that justice was done, order was restored, loss was prevented, etc.
- It personifies the client and shows that the law firm cares.
An example of a story-based case result/victory
Your goal:
Use your case results to teach web visitors about your firm’s successes and have them hire you.
Potential client’s goal:
“Have other people had a good experience with this firm? What can I expect if I work with them? How hard will they fight for me? Do I matter?”
Classic approach (Less effective):
“Plaintiff was rendered a paraplegic by the accident and also lost sight in her right eye. Her husband pursued a claim for loss of consortium. They have one adult child. After substantial discovery on agency issues, the defendant’s motion for summary judgment was denied. The case proceeded to mediation shortly thereafter and was settled for $5.5 million dollars.”
Storytelling approach (More effective):
“My client was a mail carrier who loved her work. One day, while walking along her route to deliver mail, the unthinkable happened: she was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer. She lost her ability to walk, her sight in one eye, and the job she loved. We were furious when we discovered the driver of the tractor-trailer had a substantial criminal record but was hired by the trucking company anyway…”
To learn more, see our piece on creating case results that speak to potential clients.
LawLytics helps you showcase your firm’s storytelling.
By focusing your marketing efforts into stories on your law firm’s website, you’ll develop more conversational ways to talk about what you do, why it’s important, and why you’re good at it. When marketing becomes more like storytelling, everything becomes more authentic and more relevant to your potential clients.
LawLytics helps small law firms get more and better potential clients by providing everything you need to succeed online. The platform is designed to help you get quality leads and makes it easy to have a successful website that attracts and converts your ideal clients.
If you’re not a LawLytics member and you want to get the most out of your law firm’s website, schedule a 20-minute interactive demo with us to see how it works.
