How to track your law firm’s marketing activities
Guest blog by Ben Trott, Managing Director at Marketing Lawyers
The old adage that “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”, is now officially dead!
I still hear it most days though when visiting firms, but there is really no excuse nowadays for simply tracking your marketing activities. It shouldn’t be painful, and the resulting data means you can decide where to focus more of your time, money and effort for a greater return on investment (ROI).
That simply means more new leads and cases for your marketing budget.
Having previously managed marketing and new enquiries teams in-house at a national law firm, and going through the problem of tracking for many years, I too know the initial difficulties of tracking leads. People don’t remember how they found your firm, fee earners might forget to ask, there’s 200 source codes on the case management system and no simple way to see the wood through the trees.
Running a law firm is also difficult enough in today’s fast paced, digital world. Law firms traditionally used to get professional referrals direct to partners or senior members of the firm, and the department would keep a loosely tracked referral sheet locked away in a dusty draw somewhere. Trust me, I’ve found them!
However, with the rise in websites and digital marketing, more and more firms are generating new clients from online search. From organic rankings, to online adverts, print adverts, SEO and social media. There’s a range of potential touch points and sources clients could be coming in from.
Modern tracking now enables you to know exactly where your marketing spend is producing a ROI. It allows you to spot trends and enables the attribution of calls and leads to their source, in order to focus marketing efforts and improve your ROI.
One of the main challenges I’ve found that law firms have after generating an enquiry, is converting leads efficiently into private paying clients and tracking that process. For example, do you know:
- How many calls you received for each department last month?
- Who they went to?
- Whether they converted?
- If they didn’t convert, why not?
- Where those enquiries came from?
Law firms often have a busy reception or new enquiry teams answering calls, whilst at the same time scanning, copying, filing, perhaps doing office management and other activities alongside dealing with clients and booking meeting rooms. Often there are many different individuals with varying levels of knowledge of what areas of law your firm can handle and how to handle those calls. A properly mapped out process on what to do with those calls will help convert more clients.
It can also be awkward to ask potential clients how they found your firm, and sometimes callers aren’t sure of the difference between online adverts and natural search results on Google.
Law firms tend to operate in different market from other businesses because often legal services are a considered or distress purchase, where emotions can run high and speed is very much of the essence to alleviate their concerns.
Asking how they found the firm can sometimes feel inappropriate in the circumstances, and can detract from helping the potential client.
At Marketing Lawyers we specialise in training front of house staff on handling enquiries, tracking leads via our legal CRM system, and generating calls through online advertising. We use Mediahawk to help law firms track their calls back to their marketing activities. Their tracking software works with dedicated phone numbers. From PPC, email, social, print and other marketing campaigns. It gives rich analysis, clear return on investment information, and 100% lead attribution.
You can listen in to your calls, as well as knowing which campaign they are coming in from. Listening in is a great tool so you know if those calls converted and can highlight training needs. Often, I have found firms turning away work which they could have taken on!
To join the dots at your firm, there are some simple steps you can take to start tracking data and mapping your enquiry process. By tracking properly, you can help increase your return on investment and the work coming into your firm.
Could you be losing out on work by not tracking your leads?
Ben Trott is a legal marketing expert and MD at specialist law firm marketing agency, Marketing Lawyers.
Marketing Lawyers was set up to provide advice and support to law firms and barristers’ chambers. From expert blogs and support software to mentoring and outsourced activities, Marketing Lawyers is the one stop shop for all your marketing and law firm needs.