What Are You Trying to Accomplish?
A managing partner in Texas asked me last year “how do I get more leads” and I started to answer and then stopped because that wasn’t the right question. The right question was “how do I get more signed cases at a cost that makes sense” and once you frame it that way the strategy changes completely and honestly gets a lot simpler, which I think is the part most agencies don’t want you to figure out.
Pick the one that matches where you are right now ↓
You need more cases, better cases, or just some consistency
More Cases
70.8% of attorneys still rely on referrals as their primary source of new business.
And only 14% of solos have a formal marketing budget, which means the phone rings when it rings and when it stops there’s nothing underneath. I build the thing that runs underneath; organic for the cases that come in while you sleep, paid ads for the ones you need this month, LSAs for the person who just searched your practice area five minutes ago.
Personal injury → · Criminal defense → · Immigration → · Bankruptcy →
Better Cases
“Anesthesia error” converts differently than “medical malpractice” because the person already knows what happened to them. A single catastrophic PI case in a state like Ohio where the cap gets removed for permanent injury can generate more revenue than a hundred soft tissue cases combined, and that difference in targeting is honestly where most of the money is hiding.
Med mal → · Mass tort → · Lead quality → · Cost per signed case →
Predictable Flow
Can you hire someone right now and know the pipeline will support the salary six months from now? If the answer is “I think so” or “maybe” then the marketing isn’t doing its job yet. A diversified channel strategy creates a baseline that referrals sit on top of instead of being the only thing holding the firm up, and that baseline is the difference between guessing and planning.
Less Referral Dependence
I think every attorney who’s been in practice longer than maybe five years has had a referring attorney retire or go somewhere else and felt the revenue drop with no warning. Referrals convert well but you can’t control when they come in, and building the system that runs underneath means the firm doesn’t stall when they slow down.
Family law → · Estate planning → · Employment law → · First year SEO →
You want to own your market, not just be in it
Dominate Locally
In Miami domination means outranking firms with ten times your budget by being more specific than they’re willing to be. In New Jersey it means knowing North and South Jersey are completely different media markets. The approach is the same everywhere; GBP first, local content second, review velocity third, but the specifics change by state and I’ve built strategies for Texas, California, New York, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina and each one is genuinely different.
Outrank Competitors
$500/month. That’s what Percy Martinez was spending when I started.
We ended up outranking Morgan & Morgan in Florida LSAs. National firms run centralized call centers and generic ads and their GBPs are usually spam-heavy, and a local firm that’s more specific about the jurisdiction can outperform them because Google still prioritizes proximity and relevance above brand size, which is maybe the only structural advantage small firms have and it’s a real one.
Website design → · Client results → · How to choose an agency →
AI Search Visibility
When someone asks ChatGPT “who should I hire for [your practice area] in [your city]” the answer should be your firm, and right now it probably isn’t.
77.67% of legal queries now trigger AI Overviews.
AI search requires structured content that models can parse and cite, and the firms that figure this out in the next year or so are going to have a lead that’s hard to close, or at least that’s what the data suggests.
You want the business itself to run smarter
Stop Wasting Money
Most firms I audit find 30 to 50% of their ad spend generates leads that can’t convert because of bad targeting or an intake team that doesn’t answer. The average cost per lead is $649 and that’s the lead, not the signed case. Fixing the leak is always faster and cheaper than pouring in more water.
Is your marketing working? → · When to fire your agency → · Evaluating agencies →
Know What the Spend Produces
Fewer than 20% of law firms can calculate their cost per signed case.
That means 80% are making budget decisions off incomplete math. I track from click to signed retainer and you see reports showing signed cases by source. And you own all the data; if I have to lock you in to keep you the work isn’t good enough.
Revenue attribution → · Cost per signed case → · ROI expectations →
Build a Sellable Asset
4x EBITDA vs 1x revenue.
That’s the gap between firms with systemized acquisition and firms that depend on referrals. The rankings, the brand, the reviews, the content, the tracking infrastructure proving predictable acquisition; building those isn’t separate from marketing, it is the marketing, and I think more attorneys should be thinking about it earlier than they do but here we are.
Tell me the goal.
Send me your practice area, your market, and your current situation and I’ll tell you whether the math works and what it costs. If the numbers don’t make sense I’ll tell you that too, or don’t, either way.
Call or text: 941 626 9198
