Per Thomson Reuters' State of U.S. Small Law Firms study, the majority of law firms recognize that they have problems with acquiring new client business. However, the study also highlights that too few firms take the steps to address these challenges.
Because an important part of your law firm's success lies with how you market your services and expertise, investing more in this process is key in addressing business challenges. So, how does marketing help your law firm attract new clients? The answer is: by entering potential new clients into the marketing funnel, a series of strategies designed to attract people's interest, generate leads and nurture those leads into clients who can then advocate for your firm.
When potential clients realize they have a problem they start researching to better understand and solve it. The clients will then start looking for an attorney to help them with their problems.
Advertising can help make your law firm more visible and boost interest in your services.
Once you attract your ideal audience and people become leads, it's time to cultivate a relationship that's built on trust, and turn them into clients. In the marketing world, this process of developing relationships is known as lead nurturing.
What Is a Lead?
Before we detail the process of lead nurturing, you need to understand how marketing professionals define a lead.
Leads are people who have the potential to be prospects: potential clients and contracts. They understand their need for your services and have requested more relevant information.
What Is Lead Nurturing?
Lead nurturing occurs when you engage with potential clients, turning their interest into a signed contract.
Once you know that a person interested in your services is a prospect, you need to cultivate the opportunity.
This process is called lead nurturing, and it entails increasing interest, trust, consideration, intent, and turning potential clients into satisfied ones. Lead nurturing helps convert more people into clients by using:
- Targeted content. You help leads progress through the client's journey when you deliver customized content that addresses their frequently asked questions or concerns.
- Multi-channel lead nurturing. You connect with leads through using different channels, such as social media, website content and direct sales outreach.
- Lead scoring. This is used to rank each lead against a framework of the perceived value prospects have to your law firm. The score is used to determine which leads are preferentially engaged.
- Timely and frequent follow-ups. Most lawyers become overwhelmed by converting every lead they have to handle. But if their requests are not answered, the leads will most likely opt for a competitor and will be lost, which will result in revenue loss for you. Ensuring communication and following up promptly keeps the lead engaged and interested. The odds of a lead turning into a signed contract are 21 times greater when contacted within 5 minutes after the lead was submitted.
- Sales and marketing alignment. The overwhelming majority of law firms that align their sales and marketing departments report increases in the number of contracts generated.
With a thorough strategy and by instilling effective systems, you can easily use lead nurturing in your marketing tactics.
If you need help turning interest into intent and developing your lead nurturing strategies that deliver vetted contracts, give us a call or fill out our online contact form to get started.