Estate planning has an unusual sales cycle. Almost everyone agrees they should have a plan, and most people keep putting it off, sometimes for a decade. Then something happens, and they want it done this month.
That should shape how a small firm markets itself. People already believe estate planning matters, so convincing them isn't the job. The job is to be the firm they find in the week something finally pushes them to act.
The usual caveat: my job is the marketing, and the ethics calls belong to you and your state bar. Where I mention a rule, it's the ABA Model Rule, which your state may have adopted with changes.
Build around the event, not the document
Think about what actually moves someone from meaning to do it to booking a consultation. A new baby, and the realization that nobody has been named as guardian. A marriage, especially a second one with children from the first. A divorce. A parent's death, and the probate process that follows. A diagnosis. Buying a first home, selling a business, retiring.
Each of those leads to a different search, in different words. A new parent types who gets my kids if I die, not revocable living trust. Someone who has just been through a parent's probate types how to avoid probate in Texas, often with some feeling behind it. A business owner types what happens to my company if I die. Most estate planning websites have a page for each document: wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives. Very few have a page for each situation, and that's where the searches are.
A page for each event doesn't replace the document pages. It comes before them. The new-parent page explains, in plain terms and for your state, how to name a guardian and why a will alone may not be enough for young children, then links to the documents. The reader arrives with a problem and leaves knowing which documents solve it.
The online will sites aren't your real competition
Search for how to make a will and the first page belongs to national online services and big publishers. A small firm isn't going to push them aside for that search, and it doesn't need to. Someone looking for the cheapest possible will was never likely to hire a lawyer.
A small firm wins on what those sites can't do well. One is state-specific questions: estate law varies by state, and a national page has to stay general. The other is the situations where a template is risky: blended families, a child with special needs who receives benefits, property in more than one state, a family business, a beneficiary you're worried about. People searching for those have already realized a form might not be enough, and these tend to be the more valuable matters.
Write for those people directly and honestly, and say so when a simple will is probably fine. A firm that tells readers that when it's true gets believed when it says otherwise.
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People want an estate planning lawyer they can sit down with, usually close to home. Signing typically requires witnesses and often a notary, and many clients are older and would rather do it in person. So the map results and your Google Business Profile matter more for you than they would for, say, a firm that handles federal appeals.
Check that the profile's primary category is right, that your practice areas are listed, and that the address is a real office where you meet clients. If you're unsure about categories, the categories guide explains how Google uses them. Only build pages for towns where you genuinely serve clients, and give each one something specific to say, such as how probate works in that county's court. Thirty town pages with the same paragraph on each don't help anyone.
Say how you charge
Estate planning is one of the few areas of law where many firms charge a flat fee for a defined package. People who've been putting this off for years often worry about an open-ended bill, and a website that says nothing about fees does nothing to settle that worry.
If you charge flat fees, say so, and list what's included: the will or trust, the powers of attorney, the healthcare directive, the signing meeting, and whether funding the trust is part of the price. Funding is the step people most often don't know about, and a trust that was never funded may not avoid probate at all. A published starting price removes one of the main reasons people delay the call. If you'd rather not, explain how you quote and when the client will know the number, which should be before they commit to anything.
Referral partners, within the rules
Financial advisors, CPAs, insurance agents and elder care professionals meet your future clients before you do, often at exactly the moments above. They're the best referral partners an estate planning firm can have.
The rules set the terms. Rule 7.2(b) says you can't pay someone to recommend you. It makes room for reciprocal referral arrangements with nonlawyer professionals on two conditions: neither side is locked in, and the client knows the arrangement exists. Separately, Rule 5.4 keeps legal fees from being split with anyone who isn't a lawyer. So these relationships run on being useful to each other, not on payment. You send them clients who need what they do. You explain things clearly to the clients they send you, so they look good for having sent them.
The most practical thing you can give a referral partner is something to hand to their client. A plain one-page sheet explaining what happens at your first meeting and what to bring makes you easy to refer. The advisor can pass it on without having to explain estate law themselves.
Getting reviews from private people
Estate planning clients tend to be private about their affairs, and most won't post a review unless you ask. Ask anyway, at the signing meeting when they're feeling relieved, and follow up with a direct link. Some will be happy to leave a review under their initials, and that's fine.
Two rules apply. Google forbids rewarding anyone for a review, and it forbids asking only the ones you think will be glowing. And when you reply, ABA Formal Opinion 496 makes clear that a negative review doesn't justify revealing client information. Thank people, keep it general, and never confirm what someone came to you for. There's more on asking in getting reviews as a law firm.
Follow up with the people who haven't signed yet
Plenty of people who contact an estate planning firm don't sign right away. They want to talk it over with a spouse, gather documents or think about who to name. Some are lost to silence rather than to another firm.
Keep a list of consultations that didn't turn into clients and follow up at a sensible interval with something useful, like the checklist of what to gather, or a note when a change in your state's law affects them. A quarterly email to past clients brings in the next round of work too. Plans need updating after major life changes, and satisfied clients often send their adult children to you when the time comes.
Where AI search comes in
People now ask ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews the same questions: do I need a trust in Florida, what happens if I die without a will in Ohio, who gets custody of my kids if I don't name a guardian. What they say is drawn from pages that deal with the question head-on, for that particular state. A small firm that writes those pages well can become the source an answer is built on, and sometimes the firm it names. AI search for estate planning lawyers explains how that works in more detail.
If you'd like to know where your firm stands, start with a free audit. It shows the estate planning searches you already appear in, the event pages you're missing, and how your Business Profile compares with the firms taking those clients near you. It costs nothing, carries no contract, and I turn it around in 24 to 48 hours. What ongoing work looks like is on the estate planning SEO page.
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