How to Leverage In-Person Events to Help Market Your Immigration Law Firm

In previous articles we’ve focused on marketing your immigration law firm using digital marketing and social media, partly because these tools allow you to reach a much wider audience than, for example, your community or nearby geographic area, and partly because during COVID, that was the only way to reach prospective clients at all. Now that in-person events are coming back, however, it’s time to talk about how in-person events can be yet another tool in your marketing toolbox and how you can leverage them to expand your network and connect with new clients. 

‍

Event marketing has long been a key way for businesses in general to put themselves out into the world, build connections with their target audience and community in real life, and otherwise grow their brand. Indeed, in the immigration law context, the goal of event marketing would be to provide information about your legal services, perhaps answer specific questions, try to schedule consultations to further discuss cases with potential clients in more detail, better understand a potential customer’s Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and ultimately to close new business.

‍

So, this blog will dive into some background information about event marketing, share some event ideas a family-based immigration law firm can organize, and similarly share ideas for business immigration law firms as well. Let’s dive in.

Some general thoughts about event marketing. 

Hosting an event to market your law firm doesn’t have to be an open-ended event for anyone who walks through your door. The goal behind event marketing is to create an event specifically for your target audience and make sure that event enables that target audience to connect and engage with you, learn about you and your work, and network with one another.

‍

Indeed, in-person events can help you create lasting connections with your target clients or, if you organize an event with another immigration law firm, you can build a stronger relationship with that firm as well. You may not gain a new paying client at every event and with every interaction, but you might get some email addresses to add to your law firm newsletter, some additional social media followers or simply contact information for you to follow up with in the future.

‍

And don’t worry, promoting more than one law firm or otherwise partnering with another business doesn't have to dilute your brand. For example, if you practice family-based immigration and focus on Green Cards and citizenship, you can partner with someone who focuses on asylum to have broader expertise in the room. Alternatively, if you practice employment-based immigration, you can team up with a real estate agent to promote - you can show that ideal clients how you can help them navigate their employment-based immigration law case and your partner organizer can explain how their services help relocating families finding an ideal place to live. 

‍

Let’s go through some examples of in-person events you can organize or be part of to help market your immigration law firm and build both potential professional connections and client connections as well. We’ll split our recommendations based on whether you practice family-based or employment-based immigration law.

Event marketing ideas for family-based immigration attorneys

Let’s start with family-based immigration: in this field, your events should have more of a “community feel.” What might that look like? Here are some ideas:

• A free-of-charge gathering involving food: This could be a breakfast, coffee, or lunch that you hold at your office, the public library, a community center, or another local public venue. It doesn’t have to be fancy - even just some coffee and pastries (bonus points if the pastries are from a local, immigrant-owned business!) that you can do to get people in the door. As the host and organizer of the event you can make an announcement, share some information about you and your firm, or otherwise come up with something that would tie the event into the kind of cases your law firm handles.

‍

• A language-specific immigration Q&A: If you live in a community with a large immigrant population speaking a language other than English, another idea is to set up a free immigration Q&A session in their language. Immigrants who are not fluent in English may be wary of the immigration process and of engaging with immigration lawyers who don’t speak their language. If you speak a second language, connecting with your local community in person, in that language, can be really powerful. 

‍

• Organize or sponsor an event with a performer or artist from the community: Whether you choose to support a local artist or you’re able to sponsor or host someone famous or respected from a particular community’s home country, this will create excitement around the event with the added benefit that it brings extra eyes on you and your services. Make sure that people know what your role behind it is, who you are, and what you can do for them as an immigration lawyer.

‍

Ultimately, if you’re able to set up a space where things like cost, language, etc., are removed as barriers, that can help build trust within your community and increase awareness of both your services and the value you bring to the community as an immigration lawyer. As mentioned above, you can host small events at your office, local library or religious community center, or if you have a bigger budget, you can rent out a hall, auditorium or arena. Ultimately, the goal is to get a certain group of people in one place and deliver value. The rest of the pieces will fall into place.

Event marketing ideas for employment-based immigration lawyers.

The focus and the ambience of your events is going to change depending on your area of practice. If you’re using events to market your business immigration services, here are some ideas.

‍

• Organize an industry happy hour: An industry-specific, after-work activity gives attendees the opportunity to “talk shop” in a relaxed atmosphere while getting to know each other on a personal level as well. This is a great opportunity to showcase and support a small business, like a local brewery or restaurant, for example, and bonus points if it’s immigrant-owned as well. Consider sponsoring one or two free drinks for anyone who arrives, arrange a special discount for attendees for the duration of your event, or otherwise make the happy hour special with some kind of freebie. Depending on how the event is set up you can then determine whether and how you’d like to introduce yourself and your law firm. Maybe you get on a stage for a moment if it’s a large group, or make a toast if it’s a small one. Or maybe you don’t say anything during the event and let the promotion itself do the work. 

‍

• Host a panel discussion on an industry topic: Specifically, reach out to and gather a few guest speakers from your industry who can provide insight, advice or other useful information that would be valuable enough to draw a crowd from the industry. A few examples of locations that may be a good fit for a panel session include your office, a conference room in a co-working space or a university library or auditorium. Ultimately, it should be a place where people can have a discussion and engage with the panelists by asking questions and getting answers. If you can invite current clients as panelists and have your audience learn from them, that indirectly benefits you as well.

‍

• Attend in-person conferences! Whether you simply attend an industry conference to go to sessions and casually network, pay for a booth where attendees can visit and engage with you, or get invited or otherwise sign up to speak and share your knowledge and experience, industry conferences can be a powerful way to pick up new clients. Importantly, you’re going beyond immigration law conferences and rather focusing on conferences related to your clients’ industries. For example, if you handle immigration for real estate companies or hospitals, attend a real estate conference or healthcare industry symposium to meet prospective clients that align with your current expertise and may be impressed by your existing book of business. 

‍

Oh, and for more ideas on how to actually get to speak at these conferences, check out our three favorite ways to secure speaking engagements as an immigration lawyer on our blog.

Manage your immigration law firm’s growth with Docketwise

Whether your marketing happens online or in person, effective marketing leads to growth. And to manage your growth in a way that makes sense to you and helps you save time and stay organized, it’s important to use a case management system that allows you to scale.

‍

At Docketwise, we’ve built an immigration case management, forms management and CRM platform that suits law firms of all specialities and sizes. We pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial spirit, our focus on building features for all types of clients, and our industry-first open API that allows our users to connect Docketwise to a number of other platforms. 

‍

If you’re new to Docketwise, and would like to try and see if it’s a good fit for your firm, schedule a demo on our website today.

‍

If you’re an existing Docketwise client, thank you for preferring us for your immigration case management needs!

‍