We often talk about lead generation and getting potential clients to reach out to your law firm. While driving more visitors to your website is extremely important to grow your business, what happens after a potential client lands on your website and contacts you is equally as important, if not more so.
To maximize conversions (aka paying clients), your website needs to have carefully developed landing pages with a strong & compelling call to action. You also need to have representatives readily available and prepared to answer immediate questions. The longer a potential client has to wait for answers, the more likely they will go with your competitor.
Carefully Developed Landing Pages
Landing pages are the most important on your website. They should be the one-stop-shop for answering your client’s questions and removing any uncertainties.
Orbit Media Solutions has a fantastic 13 point checklist for elements a B2B service page should include. While the legal industry is not typically B2B, a lot of these elements can be transferred to your landing pages.
Source: orbitmedia.com/blog/b2b-service-page-checklist
Here are a few key elements that should be included:
- Answers to the top client questions
- Prior client testimonials
- Data and statistics
- Years of experience
- Number of successful cases
- Typical settlement amounts
- A clear and simple flow that reads left to right and top to bottom
- Detailed and thorough information regarding the services provided
- A strong and compelling call to action
Consider The Answers
The main reason why potential clients do not convert is because they cannot find the content (answers) they are looking for.
Consider a potential client looking for a divorce attorney. What types of questions do you think they would have?
- How much does a consultation cost?
- How will you protect my family and finances?
- What does the divorce process look like?
- How will I know what is happening with the case?
- What are your fees for handling my case?
- How many years of experience do you have with divorce cases?
- How many successful divorce cases have you had?
If these answers aren’t easily found on the website the potential client will either go back to the search results and find another lawyer or contact you to get more information. More than likely, they will look for another lawyer who answers their questions.
We recommend documenting questions you receive from phone calls and contact forms to look for repeat questions. The answers likely should be included on your landing pages. This will help the potential client easily overcome any uncertainties and saves you from repeatedly answering the same questions. Ultimately, it will save you time and money.
Strong & Compelling Call To Action
Your website probably has a call to action such as ‘Call Now’, “Contact Us’, “Learn More’, or ‘Schedule a Consultation’. While these are short and sweet, they are not very compelling. To encourage a potential client to take action, a call to action needs to be strong, bold, and visibly attractive.
It should be prominently on every page and be a complementary color to your website. For example, if the primary color of your website is blue your call to action should be orange. This could include your phone number, a button to schedule a consultation, or a link to complete a contact form.
The phone number should be on every page and placed in both the header and footer. It is also important to make sure the phone number is clickable when viewed on mobile devices.
We recommend testing different calls to action on your website to see which one works best for you. While ‘schedule a consultation’ is effective for someone ready to hire a lawyer, this may be too far down the sales funnel for a client who may need to get more information about pricing.
Call To Action
Here are a few of our favorite calls to action for law firms:
- Talk with an expert lawyer now
- Get your free case estimate
- Schedule My Consultation
- Schedule a Consultation. It’s quick and easy.
- Get My Customized Solution
- Ask An Expert Attorney
- Register for a case evaluation
- Get Started Today
Converting Phone Calls
Do you know what happens when someone calls your law firm? Do you know if calls are being answered and what your representatives are saying?
Representatives answering calls should know how to answer basic questions and be prepared to transfer the call as appropriate.
Depending on your area of legal expertise, callers may be distraught or upset because of their current situation. It’s important to have appropriately trained representatives handling these types of calls to effectively defuse situations if they arise.
You should avoid having calls go to voicemail, as the likelihood of them becoming a client decreases with every minute that passes.
The use of an auto-attendant or virtual receptionist is one way to ensure you are not missing important calls. Vonage is a great solution that also integrates with customer relationship management tools (CRMs). If you prefer a more cost-effective option, Grasshopper is a good alternative.
What Happens Next
You are getting phone calls, form fills, and online chats, but how do you manage and follow up with these potential clients?
There should be written processes and procedures for following up. You wouldn’t want a lead to get lost in the shuffle of day to day activities.
Some things to consider regarding following up:
- How are you going to follow up?
- Phone call, email, newsletter
- How often are you going to follow up?
- The next day, once a week, monthly
- How are you going to keep track of follow up conversations?
- Spreadsheet, filing system, CRM software, marketing analytics software
Once you have determined your process for following up with potential clients, you definitely need a strong system to keep track of your follow-up efforts.
An easy and uncomplicated tool that we often use is CallRail, which is a tracking and analytics tool for phone calls and web forms. You can track the source, record calls, qualify leads, add notes, and more.
Depending on the size of your law firm, it may be helpful to have a customer relationship management system (CRM). A CRM can help manage interactions with prospective and current clients. It will help you streamline your process and improve customer relationships.
Some of the more popular CRMs include Salesforce, Zoho, or Clio. If you are thinking about using a CRM, be sure to do your research to determine which solution is best based on your individualized business needs.
Get Optimized
In conclusion, if your website hasn’t been optimized for conversions, the traffic coming to your website will likely not result in a paying client. You need to have well developed landing pages, a compelling call to action, highly-trained representatives answering calls, and a strong process in place for following up with potential clients.
Once that is in place, you will start seeing more conversions (paying clients) from all sources such as pay-per-click, organic search, social media, and other channels. Not sure if your website is optimized for conversions? We will provide a complimentary website conversion audit to let you know where you can improve.
