Probably one of the earliest proverbs we remember from childhood is: The early bird gets the worm. When you’re a child, your parents may have said this to you to get you to go to bed because you have to rise early for school the next day. When you’re older, it’s said to you to convey the message that if you prepare, work hard, and have initiative, you will be successful.
What it means in the context of law firm marketing is that if you do something before everyone else, you reap the rewards.
Being first is not easy. You have lots of competitors all vying for the same clients. Every day, your competitors are becoming savvier about online marketing strategies. Some have bigger budgets. Some started before you and have an established presence.
So what can you do to be the early bird that gets the worm?
The latest Legal Trends Report from Clio, which provides cloud-based practice management platforms for the legal industry, surveyed 2,000 legal services consumers and found that responding quickly to phone calls and emails is the most important factor for potential clients:
Potential clients also have expectations about response time:
- 10% expect a response within an hour
- 24% expect a response within a few hours
- 45% expect a response within 24 hours
If your law firm takes more than 24 hours to respond to an inquiry, you are failing to meet the expectations of 79% of potential clients! According to the Clio report, only 5% of prospects said they would wait 72 hours or more for a response.
Since you will probably not be the only attorney a prospective client contacts, it is critical that you are the attorney who returns that phone call or email immediately. And you can only do that if you have a great intake system. (See my post on How to Build a Stellar Law Firm Intake System.)
Of course, you have to do all the right things to get them to contact you in the first place:
- A content-rich website tailored to the needs of your potential clients
- Active social media profiles
- A blog
- SEO
- PPC
- Email marketing program
For more smart ways to increase signed clients and grow your practice, click on the webinar below.
