Kevin Mottley, founder of the Mottley Law Firm, took some time to do his research and consider different ways to market his firm before he took the leap. Even then, he knew that it would take a series of “baby steps” before his marketing really revved up.
Mottley Law Firm is run by Kevin and supported by only one other employee, associate attorney Benjamin Kyber. Kevin has been attending GLM Summits for years, and he first started hearing about FWM back in 2011. It was a few years later, after getting to know us better, that he decided to “go for it.”
At first, he was just looking for a website that could be a real tool for attracting clients. “I wanted something that had all the bells and whistles and tools for getting business,” Kevin remembers, “not just a fancy business card or brochure.”
FWM designed and launched a website for him in 2013, but Kevin admits that he initially didn’t do much with it.
When he did turn his focus back to his website and marketing, he knew he wanted to work with a partner that could help him focus his ideas for growth and guide him through each stage of the process.
When he made the decision to partner with FWM for the journey, he was ready to put in the work to further build out his law firm’s website, add content, and get everything going.
Taking Control of Your Marketing One “Baby Step” at a Time
Kevin worked with the FWM team to develop an SEO strategy, and he also entered our Strategic Consulting program with Digital Marketing Strategist Susie Bacus. In Strategic Consulting, Kevin and Susie meet in monthly calls to discuss Kevin’s goals and work out the next steps to make them happen.
“I really like working with Susie,” Kevin says. “We have monthly calls, go over the website and performance, and talk about steps to move the ball forward. I’m just getting marketing engine running again, so it’s baby steps.”
As Susie worked with Kevin to optimize his existing website content, clean up his local citations and legal directory profiles, and improve his online reputation, Kevin got serious about writing website and newsletter content, sharing successful case results on social media, and building up his attorney testimonials.
Susie shares his month-over-month statistics during each call, so Kevin is always in the loop on how well his website and marketing are performing. He also has the opportunity to discuss those numbers in detail, ask questions, and bounce around ideas for improvement and growth.
“Susie is good about listening to what’s going on with me and spinning off those things,” Kevin says. “If I tell her about a great case, she’ll recommend we write a case result about it to promote on the website. When I was working on restarting the newsletter, she recommended an archive page for past newsletters on the website. Our meetings are working meetings where we are keeping the ball rolling.”
How to Carve Out a Niche and Rebrand Your Law Firm
Kevin got the idea of choosing a focus and “niching” his practice through Great Legal Marketing, and he wondered for a long time if it might be the right direction for his law firm. Although it felt like an intimidating risk, he made the clear decision to carve out his firm’s own niche by focusing on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) cases in the summer of 2018.
It was a big step for Kevin, but Susie was ready with the ideas and coaching he would need to make it happen and make it a success.
“We wanted to make Kevin known as ‘THE Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney in Virginia,’” Susie says, and they’ve made great strides together to make that a reality for Kevin.
1. A Website That Works for Your Niche Practice
Kevin’s website needed some adjustments that would better support his practice’s change in focus. While Kevin already took TBI cases under his personal injury practice area, his website didn’t make it obvious.
To put the focus on TBI, Susie and Kevin worked together to “rebrand” his homepage and redesign sections of his website. Susie also offered recommendations that would help Kevin carry his branding over to social media, where he has now made himself known as “Virginia’s Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney.”
2. A Way to Capture Cases That Come Through Referrals
Due to the nature of Kevin’s practice, many of his cases come through referrals from other attorneys. Susie recognized an opportunity for Kevin to capture more referrals through the website and came up with the idea of a dedicated referral page and system.
Kevin wrote the content for the page, while Susie and our development team worked together to launch the page and highlight it on his website.
“Kevin wrote the content and worked with FWM to design a sharp page with strong calls to action,” Susie says. “The referral system that Kevin has created, with the landing page to go with it, will be a strong lead magnifier for Kevin’s attorney referrals.”
3. Email and Newsletter Outreach That Gets Attention
Along with a fresh SEO strategy and the changes to his website, Susie recommended that Kevin support his new focus on TBI cases with email outreach and follow up. Susie worked with Kevin to hone in on his contact list and add tags for referral sources, clients, and past clients.
“Kevin has really taken the time to be intentional about his lead list by tagging it appropriately to get the right information to the right people at the right time,” Susie says.
Kevin also restarted the newsletter that he had initially begun in 2013. While it was well received at the time, he couldn’t keep it up. “I’d been saying for the last five years that I need to get that going again,” Kevin says, and FWM and DSS helped him do it.
With a fresh start, the new newsletter gives Kevin a chance to share more personal stories and help people get to know him better. After the first one went out in January, he was already getting emails from people who had read and liked it.
“I even got a referral from an attorney just the other day who said it was because he read my newsletter,” Kevin says.
“Baby Steps” and Expert Guidance Turn Into Results
“Kevin has had some turbulence in changing practice areas but has seen huge improvements in getting cases within that time,” Susie says. His metric improvements have been encouraging, including:
- An increase in TBI-specific leads
- Goals up by 46% on the website (2017 vs. 2018)
- A continued increase in visibility, with overall traffic up 34% (2017 vs. 2018)
- Social traffic is up and now over 2000, which Susie attributes to Kevin’s use of LinkedIn to spread case result information to his referral network and partners
“I noticed an uptick in TBI leads,” Kevin says, “and I know that has something to do with the website. I got a call in November from a TBI crash survivor in Florida, which I know came through the website. I see positive and encouraging signs—like calls from out of state and ranking higher in search for major keywords, like ‘concussion lawyer in Richmond Virginia’—attributable to work on the website.”
“It can be hard to say why you’re getting a lead sometimes,” Kevin says, “but the phone is ringing more!”
Kevin just obtained a $2.5 million verdict earlier this year, and he feels like the addition of a few more good cases a year is a good direction. Committing to TBI as his primary aim over the last year has made a difference that he plans to keep expanding upon and improving.
A Successful Marketing Partnership Focused on Long-Term Growth
Mottley Law Firm celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and Kevin knows that he is moving in the right direction. He is realistic about his expectations, knowing that he doesn’t expect his traffic, rankings, or leads to grow overnight. He knows that he must put in the work, write the content, and get good reviews and testimonials to get the results he wants—and he knows he has the expertise of FWM to guide him.
“There is a lot I like about FWM,” Kevin says, “but something that stands out to me is my personal friendship with Tom Foster. He is gracious with his time and wisdom and takes a personal interest in seeing me succeed. I need people who are personally invested in seeing me succeed!”
“I remember lying in the hotel bed the night I decided to ‘niche’ myself and breaking into a sweat: You have a wife and three kids. You have no TBI cases. Can you really say you’re a TBI lawyer?”
“I talked to Tom about it, and he said, ‘Yes, you can do it. Here’s how to do it.’ He had my back.”
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