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With pressure on the UK economic climate, recent years have been a rollercoaster for small and solo firms. Despite that, we’ve seen a resilience within the sector, with nearly half of all respondents to our Bellwether report expecting their firms to grow over the next 12 months.

We spoke to Emma-Egerton Jones, award-winning solicitor and founder of Egerton-Jones Consulting, about what to avoid when bringing in new clients with limited resources.

How are some of the most successful small firms overcoming the biggest challenges to growth? 

Managing a small law firm certainly isn’t for the faint hearted! Keeping up with the onslaught of regulations, increasing insurance premiums and ever improving software systems often feels like it’s down to sheer resilience and determination. But there are some challenges that present a real opportunity for smaller and more agile law firms! 

There’s no avoiding the fact that today’s clients are simply harder to please and won’t hesitate to seek out a new service provider at the first hint of dissatisfaction. They have higher expectations and a greater need to understand the value of the work, the way it’s delivered, and the relationship that comes with it.  

Smaller firms are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this. They’re closer to the clients allowing for a deeper understanding of their wants, needs and expectations. Rapid growth can be seen in the firms who have identified the need for an efficient but ‘people-centric’ approach to everything they do. 

What are some of the most effective ways a small firm can attract new business realistically – whilst keeping the investment to a minimum?

This year is all about reducing wasted effort and extracting more value from the activities you’re already doing to attract work, ideally on your existing budget. For example, here are five ways firms can supercharge their growth without additional cost:   

1. Better understand your most profitable clients' wants and needs 

A client listening exercise is always invaluable. Interview key clients to gain detailed insight into where you’re exceeding their expectations and why, as well as what you could do to better shape your services around their needs. Not only does this make your most important clients feel valued and help you identify existing opportunities, but it allows you to shape your service, events, marketing, and literature to really resonate with other clients just like them! 

2. Ramp up relevance in your content marketing

Legal updates with case commentary are great ‘thought leadership’ but tend to serve other solicitors rather than your target audience! Content marketing is all about getting in front of a prospect with the information they’re looking for just before they need your service. Think about what they might type into a search engine as their legal problem begins to materialise. Write articles on . It’s helpful for them - and the Google algorithm loves it, so it will drive more people to your website. If you’re not sure where to start, put your service into google and look at a) the top-ranking content; and b) the ‘people also ask’ results to generate a list of ideas. 

3. “Make it easy” is your new motto

Whenever you’re considering any business or service development, ask yourself how you can make it easier for the client. This can have a huge impact on how your marketing and service delivery are experienced.  For example, does your firm make it easy for your clients to:  

• Understand your content marketing? 
• Find evidence that they can trust you, such as testimonials and reviews? 
• Contact you and speak to someone quickly? 
• Budget for your fees and understand your value? 
• Understand your written advice and follow instructions? 
• Know what’s going to happen next? 
• Pay your invoices? 

Changing your writing style, tone of voice, how you talk about pricing, and display information and testimonials online is all free. These small things have a big impact! 

4. Get strategic about referrals

Client buying habits tell us that referrals are going to be hugely important this year, so invest a bit of time getting your strategy right. Referrals aren’t generated just by having the occasional lunch or legal update event for local intermediaries and multipliers. You have to cultivate a relationship that makes them feel valued without asking for referrals. The secret to referral generation is actually all about them. Their motivations. Their reward system. Their brand. Build a rewarding connection through a framework of regular and meaningful touchpoints and, once the work starts coming in, remember to reinforce the referral behaviour with a token of appreciation! You want them to make a habit of it! 

5. Get emotional

It’s no secret that I’m a huge advocate of using client experience to win more work by doing less. Developing your client experience is about looking at the emotional impact of every interaction with your brand on the client. Map out a service delivery and at each touchpoint consider whether your client is feeling confused, frustrated, stressed, irritated etc? If so, what small improvements could you make to ensure they feel more positive emotions such as understood, reassured, confident, trusting, delighted etc? 

On a human level, small firms can impact their clients emotionally in a way that larger firms may find difficult. Excellent experience generates fully connected clients who instruct more, spend more, pay faster and go out and sell your services for you sending work and referrals into your firm at no additional cost. 

For more tips on how to boost your growth whilst sticking to your budget, take a look at this article.