How to Market Law Schools: Strategies, Tactics and Best Practices

First-year enrollment in law schools has significantly declined over the past decade. While there are signs of a modest rebound, the competition to attract a shrinking pool of law students remains intense. Adding to the challenge, one-third of law school applicants are choosing not to participate in candidate referral services. How can law schools adapt and thrive in this highly competitive landscape?

As an evidence-based creative agency that has been helping ambitious higher ed brands win an outsized share of a shrinking market,  here are our recommended strategies, tactics and best practices to market your law school:

Craft a Memorable Brand

In the sea of sameness, brands win. A brand is the DNA of an institution that affirms its purpose. The practice of branding demands that a law school:

1. Define core promise that is enduring, immutable and indisputable.
2. Articulate a distinct and memorable brand image.
3. Position the law school vis-a-vis peers.
4. Pursue a big idea, without which the law school will be ignored.

Dominate Search Engines and AI Generative Engines

Page one is destiny for both Google and Generative Engines like ChatGPT, perplexity and Google Gemini. If prospects can’t find the law school, they won’t enroll. If corporations can’t find the law school, they won’t recruit or partner.

The journey to Google and Generative Engine page one presence begins by creating an institutional Keyword Guide with the following groups of keywords a law school needs to claim and own:

1. Programs keywords.
2. Brand keywords.
3. Reputation keywords.
4. Thought leadership keywords.
5. Location keyword.
6. Decisioning keywords.

Because fresh content is the fuel of Google and Generative Engines, create an editorial calendar. Never create a piece of new content without identifying the keyword first. You become the story you choose to tell.

Inspire Prospects with a Beautiful and Persuasive Website

A website is the digital soul of an institution. All roads lead to it. Here are some guidelines worth following:

1. Merchandise hope.
2. Don’t be a bore. A law school can’t bore people into enrolling, or buying into its brand ideals. You must inspire prospects to inquire, visit and apply.
3. Secure Google page one rankings for all the law school’s programs. If a program can’t be found, prospects won’t consider enrolling in it.
4. Romance prospects with sophisticated, high-fidelity academic program pages for all your programs: JD programs, one year master’s, LLM degrees, certificates in emerging areas and dual degree programs.
   
   Feature courses, clinics, institutes, centers, talented faculty, students, successful alumni, internships, career traditional and non-traditional paths, recent employers and placement stats.
   
   Spotlight special scholarships. Highlight STEM designations to attract international students eligible for 36 months of extended practical training after graduation.
   
   Connect the classroom to various facets of experiential learning, including legal clinics, externships and internships, moot court, mock trials, pro-bono projects, negotiation and mediation competitions, research assistantships, writing for law journal and reviews, working on policy advocacy projects, study abroad programs, public speaking and debate forums, and more.
   
   Show how interdisciplinary centers of excellence and symposia funded by corporations, major foundations and other government sources are critical part of the academic experience.
   
   Connect the success of law school graduates with collaborative and teamwork aspects of their education in ways sufficiently concrete that they make sense to prospects and their parents.
   
   Demonstrate how graduates are transitioning into the world of meaningful work and the work of the future. 
   
   Underscore how employers prize the program alumni they have hired.
   
   Punctuate the argument with placement details such as top employers and starting salaries.
   
   Highlight your law school’s US News rankings.

5. Tell stories of faculty imparting attention to detail, resilience, professionalism, inquiry, self-reflection, ethical awareness, discipline, discernment, and perspective — the things that lead students towards greater legal professional success. 
   
   Highlight how faculty and alumni are opening doors for students to gain internship/clinical experience, find job opportunities, and explore innovative career paths.

6. Create online viewbooks and microsites that distill the argument for the law school.
7. Streamline admissions process. Avoid frustrating prospective digital native students with arcane process. Develop an accepted student microsite.
8. Show how a law school’s first year foundational 1L curriculum and other student experiences shape their foundation, bolster mental discipline, and develop broader legal habits. Make the case that core courses nurture the development of ten key skills for legal success: legal analysis and reasoning; critical reading; legal research; legal writing; oral advocacy; issue spotting; problem-solving; time management; interpersonal communication; and persuasion and argumentation.
9. Showcase your strategic plans to understand the school’s roadmap for navigating emerging challenges, how the law school curriculum, pedagogy and resources are being directed to meet the needs of the changing legal landscape.
10. Showcase the large variety of law clubs and organizations to mirror areas of competitive advantage and emerging specialties.
11. Spotlight experiential opportunities legal clinics, externships and internships, moot court, mock trials, pro-bono projects, negotiation and mediation competitions, research assistantships, writing for law journal and reviews, working on policy advocacy projects, study abroad programs, public speaking and debate forums, and more.
12. Highlight extracurricular events where law school prospects hang out such as bar association events, moot court and mock trial competitions, academic and legal conferences, judicial clerkship and court visits, trial observations and legal workshops, law firm open houses and information sessions, and more.
13. Amplify speaker series that attract surrounding communities with topics like technology and cyber/AI law, environmental and climate law, healthcare law, space law, international law, sports and eSports law, social justice and equity law, fintech and cryptocurrency law, cannabis and psychedelic Law, and more. Host hybrid events and promote them through digital and traditional platforms.
14. Make students and alumni the hero of the institutional journey, not the institution. Celebrate successful alumni. Show how alumni have gone on to assume leadership roles in their chosen areas of specialization.
15. Express Gen-Z and millennial diversity — religious, racial, and gender in your photography.
16. Feature brand anthem video to tell your brand story and why the law school matters.
17. Create a law resource hub as an extension of the law school website. Feature symposiums, summits, graduate addresses, keynote speakers, and emerging law topics such as technology and cyber/AI law, environmental and climate law, healthcare law, space law, international law, sports and eSports law, social justice and equity law, fintech and cryptocurrency law, cannabis and psychedelic Law, and more. Promote all this via social media.

Get Social

Turn on the charms and enhance a law school’s likability with social media.

1. Tell better stories of impact and consequence of students, talented faculty and successful alumni.
2. Partner with influencers.
3. Promote social posts.
4. Create an editorial calendar.
5. Measure metrics.
6. Keep an eye on peer institutions.

Win Hearts and Minds with Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Law schools must fish where the fish are. They must engage in integrative marketing with omni-channel micro-segmentation:

1. Identify pockets of receptive alumni and mission-aligned students. Understand right-fit demographic and psychographic micro-segments. How will you meet and exceed their needs?
2. Implement precise paid advertising campaigns with story landing pages and A/B testing. Have the discipline to feed the winning ads and landing page alternatives, and starve the losers.
3. Conduct persistent content/SEO/GEO marketing campaigns with educational, career counseling and thought leadership content.
4. Amplify via social media.
5. Execute charming email marketing campaigns.
6. Run traditional media advertising if you have spare budgets.

We hope we get the chance to use our talent and experience in marketing of law schools to advance the cause of law education at your institution. Please review our higher education marketing capabilities and consider partnering with us.