If you find yourself unhappy with your web marketing, the first step is diagnosing the problem. The chain of events, from someone looking for legal services online to signing a retainer agreement with your firm, contains several links. Let's take a look at what might be wrong.
Let's face it, if you're not being found online, your web marketing is broken. But how do you know whether or not you're getting found. There are several metrics that can help you ascertain whether or not you are being found. Generally speaking, the best metrics are your impression data from Google Webmaster Tools and Google Adwords and your visitor data from Google Analytics. These tools will tell you how many times your site appeared in organic results, paid search results, and how many times someone visited your site.
Getting found online is obviously the first step to getting a new client from the web. The solution to getting found can be boiled down to four main components:
Once you are getting found, the next step is turning your website visitors into potential client inquiries. Getting 15,000 unique visitors per month means nothing if not one of them inquires about your services. Converting website visitors into potential client leads can be very complicated. However, the best place to start turning conversion around is with your website design, content, and paid search ad copy.
Your content needs to address the problems and issues facing your potential clients. What are they looking for? Why are they searching? Once you have identified their issues, how can you solve them? What solutions do you offer? Why should they inquire? How can you help?
In addition to content, design, and ad copy, another important aspect to conversion optimization is the call to action. Do you make it easy for a visitor to interact with your website? Do you provide several different ways for your visitors to contact you? Is it clear what the visitor is getting by calling you or filling out a form. What are you offering them to create the incentive for them to contact you?
So you're getting visitors and leads, but you're having trouble turning these opportunities into new clients for your firm. While this is not a "good problem" it's generally more easily fixed than the prior two. Failing to turn inbound potential client opportunities into new clients usually comes down to one of three issues:
Notice the overlap with content and ad copy. That's why these two components are so critical to your web marketing. When we see a law firm getting a lot of traffic and a lot of inbound inquiries, but not turning them into clients, we initially look at their intake process. How is the phone being answered? Is it a person or a recording? Attention spans of web users are short and the supply for legal services online far exceeds the demand. If you want to capitalize on your web marketing efforts, you must have a person answer your phone immediately. If you can't afford a full-time secretary, there are several very affordable virtual receptionist options out there.
If it's not your intake process, chances are we're back to reviewing your content and/or ad copy. If your marketing doesn't match your actual offering, you will get a lot of mismatched potential clients. The most common example is when the legal professional isn't clear about in which practice areas and locations they work. In other words, if your a Chicago criminal defense attorney and you are generating a lot of inbound leads from Champaign bankruptcy consumers, your content and/or ad copy are out of whack. Be clear about what you do. Don't make your visitors hunt to find out about you.
If you fear that your web marketing isn't working, or you'd just like a pat on the back, request a FREE Web Marketing Evaluation and Competitive Analysis. You might be able to fix your problem a lot faster than you think.
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