Fractional CMO for your law firm: in-house marketing without the overhead. I build the system that makes your firm the name independent advisors and accountants reach for, and the accurate, province-specific source the AI answers draw on.
conversion rate, against a 5.55% average for legal search ads¹
14.1%
Line: conversion rate, against a 5.55% average for legal search ads¹
I'm Joshua David Little. I've run my own consulting firm since 2004, I've helped lawyers prepare complex cases for trial, and I ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads.
The planning work worth building a practice on comes from business owners and families with real assets. Many of them sit down with a financial advisor, an accountant, or their bank before an estate lawyer comes up.
The search was for how a Calgary owner of a business worth about $5 million should plan an estate.² At least one bank's wealth arm employs its own will and estate specialists, inside the very advisor channel an estate firm wants referrals from.
Estate planning lawyer is searched about 5,400 times a month in Canada, estate lawyer about 2,900, and wills and estates lawyer about 1,300.³ Of those three, the name on your sign comes last.
Google's AI told the Calgary business owner that "In Alberta, you can use multiple wills." Multiple wills are used mainly to reduce probate fees, and Alberta's own fee schedule tops out at $525, so there's little reason for them there.² ⁴ An accurate, dated page for each province gives the AI something better to draw on.
Power of attorney 12,100 a month · estate planning lawyer 5,400 · estate lawyer 2,900 · lawyers that do wills 2,400 · cost of probate in ontario 2,400 · succession planning 1,300 · wills and estates lawyer 1,300 · holograph will 1,300 · probate lawyer 1,000 · family trust 590 · estate litigation lawyer 480 · estate administration tax 390 · estate freeze 320 · contesting a will 320.³
A bank with its own will specialists can keep the planning in-house. An independent advisor has no one in-house to send a client to, which makes a good outside lawyer worth knowing. That advisor is where the work starts.
A plain-language note for their clients on probate costs in your province, or a checklist for a business owner thinking about an estate freeze. Your lawyers send it directly and share it on LinkedIn, so the advisor has your name in hand before a client needs it.
An evening for the clients you share, co-hosted with the advisor, puts both of you in front of the families you serve.
Cost of probate in ontario is searched about 2,400 times a month, and estate administration tax about 390.³ A page that explains the cost in your province, and how the process works, answers the question people are already asking. Ontario first, then every province you serve.
Planning pages carry a date and get checked against the province's own sources, so the AI has a correct page to draw on and a client never reads a figure that changed years ago.
Estate freezes, family trusts, and succession for business owners. Each gets its own page, with the lawyer who handles it named.
A civic club, a church group, a seniors' centre, or an advisor's evening for their own clients. Each talk is built for the firm and the room, and it's genuinely useful. At the end, your lawyer says what the firm does and offers a next step, such as a guide people can sign up for or a first meeting, and the questions people ask in the room become pages on your site.
Instead of trying to convert visitors directly into clients, we strategically capture their information first so we can follow up and nurture the relationship.
Create guides, toolkits, and webinars that help prospects understand their legal situation – positioning you as the expert before they ever call.
Get contact information and permission to follow up by offering something genuinely helpful, not just a consultation request.
Automated emails that continue providing value while keeping your firm top-of-mind during their decision process.
Continuously refine what's working through data – not guesswork – so your results keep getting better.
Know exactly which marketing activities generate clients and how much each client costs to acquire so we know which platforms to amplify and which need more optimization.
How each step looks for a Canadian wills and estates firm: A planning guide for a business owner or a family with real assets, written for your province; a way to sign up on every page, every ad, and every talk; follow-up that keeps helping while the client decides; testing that keeps what works; and tracking that follows each person to the signed retainer.
On the first screen of Facebook ads for wills and estates in Canada, 18 of the 30 ads came from law firms, many of them small-town practices. A small-town practice grows on the people who already know it: material for the bankers and accountants who refer, talks in the community, and a strong local profile.
Do-it-yourself will kits take some simple wills, and holograph will is searched about 1,300 times a month.³ A page on when a handwritten will or a kit falls short reaches the people who need more than a form, and gives them a reason to come back for the planning.
Estate litigation lawyer is searched about 480 times a month.³ A contested estate gets its own situation page, like any other matter the firm wants.
If an assistant or a junior lawyer handles the marketing today, I'll train them and lead the work.
A 14.1% conversion rate, against a 5.55% average for legal search ads.¹
About 75 times its ad spend back in estimated case value.⁵
About 11 times its ad spend back in estimated case value.⁵
We call ourselves wills and estates. Why write to estate planning lawyer?
Because that's what your clients type, about 5,400 times a month in Canada against about 1,300 for wills and estates lawyer. You don't need to rename the firm. The pages use both, so the people searching either way find you.
The system is based on best practices that work across industries, so it adapts to any practice area with customized resources and messaging for your specific clients.
Through the independent advisors and accountants who don't have one. Give them useful things to hand their clients, keep in touch with them on LinkedIn, and invite them to co-host. A firm that helps an advisor serve a client well becomes the firm that advisor recommends.
They can, when the talk is built for the firm and the room, ends with a clear offer, and gets followed up. We plan each one with you.
Yes, and this page is written for Canadian estates practices. I also work with firms in the US, the UK, and Australia.
By video. We meet on screen for the assessment and for every strategy call, wherever in Canada your firm is.
No long-term lock-in. When the work stops helping your firm, I don't want your money.
That comes down to what your firm needs and how much of the work my team does. We settle the scope together after the assessment.
¹ LOCALiQ, 2026 search advertising benchmarks: attorneys and legal services average a 5.55% conversion rate.
² Aquila's research: Google's AI and ChatGPT, logged out, an executor's question in Vancouver and a business owner's planning question in Calgary.
³ Google Ads Keyword Planner, Canada, average monthly searches.
⁴ Government of Alberta, court fees: the probate fee for an estate over $250,000 is $525.
⁵ Case value estimated from average case value.
A 45-minute to one-hour video call with me. We map your firm's marketing together on a whiteboard, and you keep the map whether or not we work together.
Currently accepting a limited number of Fractional CMO relationships.