Do these in order
If you're a solo or a two-lawyer shop, marketing has to fit between hearings. So the question isn't what works. Lots of things work for somebody. It's what to do first with six hours a month and not much money. Here's my suggested order, cheapest and fastest first:
- Make sure a person responds, fast, to everyone who contacts you.
- Ask the people who already know your work.
- Set up your Google Business Profile properly and start collecting reviews.
- Build a small site with a page for each thing you want to be hired for.
- Add one directory or referral service that makes sense for your practice.
- Only then consider paid ads.
That order is my opinion, and it isn't right for everyone. A brand new criminal defense solo might need ads in month one to make rent. But most small firms buy step six while steps one and two are broken.
Step one is your phone
Clio's 2024 study had shoppers contact 500 law firms by phone and email as a client would. The results should cheer you up, because this is your easiest edge. Only 40% of firms picked up when called, and 48% couldn't be reached by phone even after being given the chance to respond to messages. Just 33% responded to email. On the phone, only 41% offered rate information and 36% could explain the process and next steps.
You don't need an intake team to beat that. You need a receptionist service or a colleague covering your hours, a two-line script, an email reply that names a next step, and a rule that everyone gets an answer the same business day. If you do nothing else in this article, do that.
Also put something on your website about what happens next and what you charge, even if it's a range or how you price. Clio's shoppers could find pricing on a firm's site only 14% of the time. The Rule 7.2 comment expressly allows you to publish the basis of your fees, including prices for specific services and payment arrangements. Florida adds that if you mention a fee, you must say whether costs are extra, so check what your state wants.
How to get clients as a lawyer without paying for them
Referrals cost little and come with trust already attached, yet they're easy to leave to chance. Make a list of everyone who could send you a case. Past clients, lawyers in other practice areas, your law school classmates, accountants, realtors, therapists, whoever fits your work. Then contact a few each week, with something useful in hand.
Stay inside the lines. Rule 7.2(b) says you can't give anything of value for a recommendation, with exceptions. These are the ones you'd actually use:
- Reciprocal referral agreements with another lawyer or a nonlawyer professional, if the agreement isn't exclusive and the client is told about it. The comment adds that these shouldn't run indefinitely and should be reviewed periodically.
- Nominal gifts as thanks, such as a holiday token. A gift is out if it's given in consideration of a promise or understanding that referrals will come.
- The usual charges of a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer referral service. Your state or local bar may run one, and it's worth a call.
Then there's direct outreach. Rule 7.3 bars live person-to-person solicitation when money is a significant motive, with exceptions for other lawyers, people you have a family, close personal or prior professional relationship with, and those who routinely use that kind of legal service for business. So calling a stranger you know has just been sued is out. The comment says text messages and written messages that people can easily ignore aren't "live" contact, but states vary a lot here, so don't assume. Florida, for one, has filing requirements and a 30-day wait on certain unsolicited written messages after an accident.
Solo attorney marketing online: less than you think
The ABA's 2024 survey gives a useful picture of what you're competing with. 70% of solo firms have a website, up from 53% in 2021. Most solos (76%) manage their own site content. Only 11% of solos and 19% of small firms blog, but more than 40% of those who do say it has brought in retained work. And 70% of solos are on LinkedIn, so that's a good place to be findable, even if it's not your main channel.
So the bar for a good small-firm site isn't high. You need a home page that says who you help and where, an honest bio with your admissions and the kinds of matters you handle, one page for each service you want to sell, and a contact page that says what happens after someone reaches out. Then write answers to the three or four questions you get on every intake call. That's maybe ten pages.
On the blog question, I'd skip the calendar and the "10 tips" posts. One clear page on what an uncontested divorce costs in your county will do more for you than a year of generic monthly articles. Our law firm SEO playbook has more on what to put on those pages.
Set up your Google Business Profile the same week. Google has specific rules for attorneys, and they matter more for solos working from home, because a rented mailing address doesn't qualify. Law firm local SEO walks through those rules, how to ask for reviews and how to respond to a bad one.
A plan for a two-attorney firm
Say you run a two-attorney family and estate firm in Boise (made up, as are the figures). You have about six hours a month and about $1,000 a month to spend. Here's how the first three months might go:
| Month | Do this | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Add a call answering service. Write the intake script. Publish fee ranges and a "what happens next" page. | A few hundred dollars for the answering service |
| 1 | Fix your Business Profile. Send a review request to every client whose matter closed in the last year. | Your time |
| 2 | Write to 20 people who could refer you. Offer reciprocal referrals to two lawyers you trust, in writing, and tell clients about them. | Lunch |
| 2 | Publish or fix pages for your top three matter types. | Your time, or a writer's |
| 3 | Claim your directory profiles. Look into your bar's referral service. | Varies by bar |
| 3 | Check what actually brought in calls. Keep what worked. Decide whether ads are worth testing. | Nothing |
Ask every new client how they found you, and write it down in one spreadsheet. A year from now, that column will tell you more than any dashboard.
Paid leads, ads, and what to skip
Paid channels work when you know what a client is worth and can respond fast. Until then, they're an expensive way to find out your voicemail is full. LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks put the average click for attorneys and legal services at $9.87, and an average lead at $131.63, and that's across all of legal, so your practice area and city may be well above it.
Local Services Ads are often the best first test for a local practice, because you pay per valid lead rather than per click. You'll need to pass Google's checks, including a bar license check and, where local law applies, professional liability insurance.
Lead-selling services are allowed under the Model Rules, with limits. The Rule 7.2 comment says you may pay for leads as long as the generator doesn't recommend you and doesn't imply that it analyzed the person's legal problem to pick you. Read what the vendor's ads actually say, because you can be responsible for them.
Things I'd skip for now: awards you pay to display (Florida only allows awards from a bona fide organization using objective criteria, and other states may look hard at them too), paid social before you've got a website worth visiting, and rebranding. Nobody ever signed a client because of a new logo.
Where Sojig fits, and when it doesn't
Sojig is our product. It suits a small firm that wants the website part done without learning SEO: it drafts pages and articles each week for you to review, and sends a report. Plans start at $99 a month as of November 2026, sized by your site's page count.
If you have fewer than ten pages and you're still sorting out what you want to be hired for, it's too early. Spend the first $99 on an answering service instead. And if you'd like a person you can call about all of it, a marketing consultant or legal marketing agency will suit you better.