Most discussions about law firm lead generation are centered around the fact that there isn’t much structure to it and lawyers rely on good word of mouth and referrals to generate business. This however is slowly changing. More law firms are getting aware of the need for active lead generation activities using available technology, platforms, and modern robust marketing strategies.
The 2021 ABA Legal Technology Survey reported that only 35 percent of respondents from firms of 2-9 lawyers and 7 percent of solo attorneys have a marketing budget, pointing to the lack of a strategic approach to lead generation and a reliance on referrals.
Understanding Lead Generation:
In order to understand more about generating leads for your law firms, we will first define lead generation, why it’s important for law firms, and why your current content might not be able to help you in generating leads.
Most of the time there are 2 types of customers that lawyers have to primarily deal with, someone looking for a comparison/second opinion. Or someone looking for legal advice/information. We need to make sure that we are able to distinguish between the various kinds of interest shown by customers.
- Awareness
- Evaluation
- Purchase
It’s important to understand your sales funnel before going much further with lead generation strategies.
Top of the funnel leads:
TOFU leads are interested in learning more as they start the buyer journey. Most leads will never have heard of you, so marketing strategies should educate, inform, and make potential leads aware of your firm. Think SEO, website, social media, blogs, etc.
Middle of the funnel leads:
MOFU leads are looking to solve particular legal problems and require direct interaction with you so that they can evaluate how your solution can help. Lead generation strategies should combine educational and promotional content as you start to nurture leads. Think FAQs, email marketing, reviews/testimonials, etc.
Bottom-of-funnel leads:
BOFU leads are looking to hire a lawyer based on expertise, previous results, price, availability, etc. Marketing strategies must help leads decide and prepare them to book a consultation and hire your services. Think reviews, case studies, PPC, landing pages with calls to action, etc.
With so many law firms competing for leads, the quality of your lead marketing campaigns will determine how successful you are. The 3 most important concerns are as follows:
- Attracting more clients to your website/content
- Providing the information they need to make a decision
- Converting interest into consultations
There could be several reasons why your current structuret isn’t helping you answer the questions above. In order to improve your infrastructure, there are several places you can start:
- Upgrade your law firm’s website
A professional law firm website should be the hub of your lead generation activities. It needs to look and act the part.
Focus on providing a great user experience with engaging and informative content that answers the central questions in your target persona’s minds — with calls to action that reflect the three different types of leads entering your sales funnel (education, evaluation, and purchase).
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Your website needs to be optimized for search engines to make your content more visible.
This will generate organic search leads — those looking for answers to a question and also those ready to hire and actively searching for a lawyer in your location.
Appearing prominently in local search results like the following estate planning attorneys in Houston will automatically generate traffic and leads.
- Content marketing
Developing professional content that resonates with your target audience is fundamental to the success of all lead generation efforts.
Content improves the quality of your website and your search performance by answering the questions of your target audience. It also gets more people talking about you and sharing your information.
When done right, content can generate a steady and sustainable flow of leads for the long-term health of your sales funnel.
- Lead nurturing with email marketing
Email marketing for lawyers is a great way to turn interest into revenue. Convincing potential clients to provide you with their email addresses is harder than it sounds. Using gated content/lead magnets is an effective way to do this — you offer a valuable downloadable resource in return for email addresses.
- Social media marketing
If you’re serious about lead generation, you can’t avoid social media marketing for long. Used well, social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram have great potential to drive traffic to your website. Relationship-building by communicating directly with current or potential clients, demonstrating thought leadership with the content you post etc.
Want to grow your business using outsourced lead generation techniques, contact us now and let us guide you!
Comments are closed