With all the lead generation tools available today, law firms should not have a big problem getting leads. The problem that I’ve found is that law firms are not doing a good enough job of converting those leads into qualified prospects.
While your law firm website may have initially been set up to generate leads, it now needs to do a good job of helping you convert those leads — getting visitors to take some action, whether it’s filling out a form or picking up the phone. If you’re unsatisfied with the lead conversion capability of your law firm website, you need to focus on improving these 3 key areas in order to boost your conversion rate:
#1: Your Target Market
The first key to developing a high-converting website is understanding your target market. You don’t want everyone with a legal problem — you want people looking for a lawyer who does what you do.
Therefore, it is important for your content to align with their individual needs and be organized to easily serve up the information they are seeking. Then it needs to lead them on the path to taking an action — signing up for a free consultation, live chatting with you, sending a request for a phone consult, etc.
#2: Website Elements
To convert visitors into prospects, there are some foundational elements that should be a part of your law firm website, including:
- Home page banner — the first thing visitors see, it should communicate your unique selling proposition (USP) and feature your contact information.
- Features and benefits — explain who you serve, how you serve them, and the benefits of hiring you.
- Testimonials — social proof is more important than ever when it comes to hiring a service provider today. Testimonials provide this critical endorsement and give prospects an idea of what it is like to work with you.
- Call to action — each page of your law firm website needs to feature a call to action — a prominently placed phone number, a contact form, or a Live Chat function.
#3: Website Analytics
Google Analytics provides critical insights into who is visiting your site, the pages they visit, whether they visit from a desktop or mobile, the search terms they use, and more. All of this data can help you increase your conversion rate. Some key data points to review regularly include:
Audience
- Total users — the total number of unique visitors that came to your site during a defined time period.
- Total sessions — the total number of times someone visited your site over a defined time period.
- Session duration — how long people spend on your site. If it’s not long, this can be a sign your content is not relevant to them.
- % New sessions — the total number of new people that visit your site over a defined time period versus people that have visited in the past.
- Bounce rate — the specific pages that people leave immediately. If the bounce rate is high, you need to change the content on that page.
Acquisition
- Direct — someone enters your website address directly into their browser.
- Organic search — someone used a keyword to search and then clicked on a link to your site from the search results.
- Referral — someone gets to your website from a directory site.
- Social network — someone gets to your website from a social media post or link.
Of course, improving the conversion ability of your law firm website will do you no good unless you have a trained intake person or team to handle inquiries from prospects. And it’s not enough just to have a warm body; you need a person or people who have been trained on how to convert your leads into appointments and, eventually, clients.
We talk about lead conversion a lot at our Rainmaker Retreat law firm marketing boot camp. If you really want to ramp up your client acquisition rate in 2020, you need to attend one of our upcoming sessions:
- March 20-21, 2020 — Scottsdale, AZ/Talking Stick Resort
- June 12-13, 2020 — Charlotte, NC/Hilton Charlotte Center City
- August 14-15, 2020 — Las Vegas, NV/Aria Resort & Casino
Click on the box below for more info and to take advantage of early booking discounts.
