What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the practice of acquiring prospective clients for your business through a combination of digital marketing tactics. If a potential customer has handed over their data to you, then they’re a lead.You’ll want to explore lead generation for your firm if you want to:
- Develop your business
- Attract new clients for new services
- Convert more customers for less cost and time
- Generate more website traffic
For the legal profession, embracing the lead gen approach to growing business hasn’t come easy. Like many traditional industries, the sector has typically relied on customers walking through the door, rather than chasing them down the street. A slower uptake in technology tools and solutions hasn’t helped, either.
As a result, lead generation is too often dismissed as too time-consuming, a problem for the firm’s (often small or non-existent) sales and marketing teams, or thought of as a dodgy list of email addresses bought online.
It’s not easy shifting from established customer acquisition techniques to a lead generation mindset. Some lawyers haven’t ever had to aggressively promote themselves online – rather, it’s a point of pride that it’s enough to be effective, competent, professional, to simply get the job done (and done well). Retaining existing clients and relying on word of mouth to capture new ones was historically enough to keep the business in rude health.
But in today’s competitive sector, lead generation is necessary.
Start targeting
You can no longer rely on customers coming to you. It’s not sustainable in the long-term, and in the short-term, you risk missing out on valuable prospects.The COVID-19 pandemic, which has hastened digital transformation for business, forced the country’s already troubled high streets to close, highlighting how fragile the dependence on footfall is. And the need to get in front of customers online, instead.
One of the greatest advantages lead generation has is the ability to precisely target customers. This makes it easier to find the leads that best match your business objectives, without spending money on inefficient ‘scattergun’ tactics that waste money advertising to people who may never need your services.
Businesses tend to categorise leads as hot (ready to buy), warm (interested, but considering), and cold (not ready to commit). We’ve discussed the importance of nurturing and converting warm leads before. Now, armed with a phone and a spare few hours, you could easily find plenty of leads – but if all those leads are stone-cold, they’re as good as no lead at all.
Start by determining who you want to reach out to – then explore the demographic. What sort of information can you offer them that they can’t get anywhere else? What’s important to them when choosing a law firm? How can you tailor that all-important customer experience to them? Successful lead generation depends on lead quality.
One of the ways we manage lead quality on The Law Superstore is via the customer quote form, which through a series of questions, helps them find legal experts providing the services they need (and the services for which you want to be found). We also verify every customer email to deliver you genuine, qualified leads.
Embrace data
No business decision should ever be taken without careful examination of the data. Luckily, the internet is overflowing with the stuff. You’ll find data in almost every online marketing tool, including The Law Superstore dashboard, which can be used to help make a success of your lead generation campaigns.Analyse everything from email sign-ups to how long people spend reading your blogs. If you currently have a digital marketing team or agency, they’ll be able to supply this data to inform your business decisions.
This information allows you to better target potential customers. Which allows you to better understand your potential customers. Which allows you to better target potential customers. Essentially, it’s an ouroboros; one begets the other.
If you’re already using a lead generation platform like The Law Superstore, the power of data also lets you better understand your existing client-base. For example, you might discover you’re receiving more leads for a particular service or from a specific location. You can then decide on a marketing campaign to attract customers for other services in new areas (or even build on your current success).
You’ll be able to more easily categorise and qualify leads, placing relevant material in front of them at every stage of the ‘buyer’s journey’.
Play competitively
You undoubtedly already have one eye on your competitors. Every firm should. But you need to look well beyond your local area.Lead generation gives you the opportunity to compete on a national scale. And the fact of the matter is, many of your competitors are likely already doing it. You’ve probably seen countless real-world examples of this: whenever you search for a business, you’ll almost always see adverts for rival firms because they’re paying to appear for searches that aren’t for their company.
Lean into this. Find out which firms are competing in the same space. Analyse your rivals. Who are they targeting and how? Are their gaps in their output? Even if you intend on offering services on a strictly local level, you need to be aware of those who have a national outlook. Doing so will help you detect areas of growth.
Get technical
The legal sector has been curiously relaxed about integrating new technologies into existing models. However, for those serious about growing the business through lead generation, the importance of technology can’t be understated.That doesn’t mean upgrading every bit of kit in the office. Rather, you’ll want to implement online tools and platforms that best serve your business objectives. The ones that help you identify and connect with new leads, while cutting the costs and admin time.
For law firms that have suffered under lockdown, online lead generation presents an especially big change to the industry. Driven by technology, it’s more efficient, more productive, and – under current government rules, at least – safer.
The Law Superstore is more than a lead generator, of course. Our platform helps support your marketing tactics, showcasing your firm and your services to a national audience who are looking for legal professionals - without all the administrative headaches and sky-high costs.
Start your free trial and see where lead generation takes you.