People reach out to their friends for a lot of reasons and legal matters are certainly one of them. Recently, we were involved in one of Mike Blumenthal‘s exceptional legal studies, this time organized by Moses & Rooth Attorneys at Law. They sought out to know how people are looking for attorneys in 2015. What the survey revealed is that friend recommendations, referrals and word of mouth continue to dominate in lawyer marketing; friend referrals being the most common method used.
The Survey: Two Questions
The survey was comprised of two simple questions. The first asked, “When was the last time you hired a lawyer?” Here were the responses:
Of the 11,214 participants who responded to this question, 57.7% indicated they had never hired an attorney. It’s interesting to note that close to half of the survey participants responded that they’d hired an attorney at some point during their lifetime.
Only those who responded that they had hired a lawyer within the past year (approx 1400 participants) proceeded to the second question, which was actually an open-ended question. It asked, “How did you find the lawyer that you hired?” Here were their responses:
As you can imagine, there were some interesting responses as the survey allowed people the freedom to use their own words in describing how they found the lawyer they hired in the past 12 months. The responses were categorized as well as can be expected, and the most popular responses are shown in the screenshot above.
We had a lot of fun looking through the data and comparing survey participants’ gender, age, location, urban density, income, and parental status. It was a lot to digest, so we ended up building an infographic to hopefully make some sense out of it all.
How People Find Lawyers in 2015
This survey produced some valuable insights for lawyers who are trying to better understand their target audience and how to connect with them whether that’s through referral programs or SEO. We learned from this survey that younger generations rely heavily on the internet. We believe that behavior will continue and expand as they grow older. Google announced earlier this year that for the first time in history, more Google searches are performed now on mobile than desktop.
Perhaps the most significant takeaway of this survey is how the use of the internet is becoming a legitimate contender to these traditional marketing staples like word of mouth and referrals. Look at how many searches are done on mobile devices in 2015! Google search has become a daily utility, something people cannot go without, and presents limitless opportunities for lawyers to grow their firms.
Devin Harper is an SEO Account Manager at Nifty. He joined the team in 2013 and lives with his wife and three children in Burley, ID. In his spare time, he enjoys fishing, playing tennis and pickleball with his wife, and being involved in his kids’ sports and activities.