30 September 2026 · 6 min read · Oscar Markham
Marketing probate work without sounding ghoulish
Somebody who has just been appointed executor is dealing with paperwork at the worst point in their life, usually with siblings who do not entirely agree, and usually with no idea what any of it involves. They are searching for reassurance and a process, not for a firm that describes itself as dynamic. Probate is the practice area where tone does the most work and where most legal marketing gets it most wrong.
Answer the questions people actually type
How long does probate take. What does an executor have to do. What happens if there is no will. Do all the beneficiaries have to agree. What if the house has to be sold.
These are searched constantly and answered badly, usually by pages written for other solicitors. A firm that answers them plainly reaches people at precisely the moment they decide to get help.
Calm is the entire tone
No urgency, no superlatives, no stock photograph of a gavel. Short sentences, practical information, and an acknowledgement that this is a difficult time without dwelling on it.
The client is judging whether you will be patient with them. Everything on the page either supports that impression or undermines it.
Set out what happens, in order
The stages, roughly how long each one takes, what you need from the executor and when, and what will require decisions from the family.
Uncertainty is the main source of stress here. A firm that removes it is doing something genuinely valuable, and it is the clearest possible demonstration that you handle this work regularly.
Remember who is actually reading
Frequently a son or daughter living somewhere else, dealing with an estate at a distance, coordinating siblings by phone.
Saying that you are used to working with executors who are not local, and that updates come without having to be chased, speaks directly to the thing they are worried about.
Wills are the same audience, earlier
Nearly everyone who goes through probate resolves to sort their own affairs out. That is the moment to be present with something on making a will.
It is also a far easier conversation to market than probate, and it comes from the same content rather than needing its own campaign.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.