CSI for a Poor Lead Generating Law Firm Website
One nice thing about attending the Planning for the Generations Symposium last month was the ability to sit down with attorneys and have in-depth conversations about what they felt was…or was not working in terms of driving new business to their law firm.
By far, the biggest area of disappointment we heard had to do with their law firm website.
Most told us they had spent big money to have a site designed, but it wasn’t driving leads. This was especially frustrating for attorneys who did not own their websites, but were hosted with big companies which charge hefty monthly fees to maintain and keep the site live.
At the very least, they just wanted to see their website cover the costs of maintenance–but they were certain the site wasn’t even generating that much.
Finding the Disconnect
Whenever a client tells us their website isn’t bringing in new business, our first job is to identify the disconnect. Here are some of the questions we ask:
- Is there a website MARKETING problem? Having a website and website MARKETING are two totally different things. It takes ongoing work to ensure your site is found by ideal clients. Is the site optimized for SEO? Is the attorney (or legal staff) blogging regularly? Is the site being promoted on social media or via Pay-Per-Click ads? All of these strategies can increase the effectiveness of your firm website and must be done on a consistent basis or you WON’T see results!
- Is there an ADMINISTRATIVE problem? Whenever an attorney tells us they aren’t getting calls from the website, we go into full-blown data gathering mode. What I typically find is that their phone is connected to a voicemail answering service (so they don’t actually know who is calling and where they are coming from)–OR the secretary is not asking each and every lead how they found the firm. Once we take care of these two very simple things, it then becomes clear that leads ARE coming in from the website….they just didn’t know it!
- Is there a CONTENT problem? Maybe you’re ranking on page 1 in all of the search engines, but people STILL aren’t calling your office. It could be that your content is unclear, overwhelming or has no real call to action. Perhaps it looks too generic and doesn’t display you as the expert you are. All of these issues can cause visitors to immediately leave and move onto to the sites of your competition.
- Is there a NICHE problem? More people than ever are searching for services online, but what if your ideal clients still aren’t there? Do you handle elder law? VA Benefits? Social Security? Many of your ideal clients may simply not know how to find you because they can’t use the web. In this case, it’s still important to have a great website, but you’ll need to focus your efforts on traditional advertising and offline marketing strategies, too.
Collecting The Data
Until you figure out the answer to the questions above, you can’t really come up with a solid plan to increase the effectiveness of your website. Here are a few things to set up and start tracking to help you get to the bottom of these issues:
- Google Analytics- You must have analytics installed on your site. You can’t make an educated plan of attack if you don’t know exactly how many people are visiting your site, where they are coming from, how long they are staying on your pages (i.e. if your content is not relevant or is overwhelming, they’ll bounce right off), what keywords people are using to find you and what the most popular pages on your site are. Google analytics gives you all of this data every single day–for FREE.
- Track all inbound calls- I know things can get crazy during the day, but every single caller must be asked how they found your firm. This can be done conversationally as your secretary works to gather more information and determines how you might be able to help them. Some secretaries may feel awkward asking this question until a potential client actually schedules an appointment, but encourage them to ask everyone regardless.
- Make sure your calls are being answered by a live person- You can’t do the step above if your calls are being forwarded to an answering machine. If you don’t have anyone to answer phones at this time, sign up for Call Ruby. I highly recommend their services.
- Ask people you trust to critique your website- Find out how they feel about your content, the layout and the first impression it gives them. Where do they feel confused? Overwhelmed? Turned off? You’d be surprised what an extra set of eyes can discover. When doing this just last week for a client, we found out his homepage said he practiced in a completely different state and his phone number was wrong! Would you call that guy? And if you did–you wouldn’t even get through!
- Google yourself- Know where you are ranking for your top keywords (including your name!). If you can’t find yourself past the first few pages in Google, you are virtually invisible to potential clients. Time to do some SEO.
These are just a few steps we take when undergoing website analysis for a client. If you’re unhappy with the results of your website, I encourage you to do a little “tech CSI” and seek to uncover the answers to some of these questions. Your findings may make a huge difference in the business you are able to generate from your website and marketing efforts this year.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.