The fear of every small business owner is that they’ll put all time and money into their website and they’ll see it produce nothing. Oh sure, maybe you’ll get some nice traffic numbers—the “vanity metrics.” But when it comes to the bottom line of getting more clients and moving the needle for the business, the website comes empty.
The need to improve website conversion can seem particularly challenging in legal marketing, where the cycle between the first contact with a prospect and turning them into a client might be longer. Fortunately, there are solutions. There are concrete steps that lawyers can take to improve website conversion and positively impact their practice.
Start with tracking.
Let’s begin by making sure we have accurate data with which to work. Is your Google Analytics dashboard tracking the number of people who will fill out the contact form? Make certain that successful completion of the form directs the user to a page with “thank-you” in the URL and then track that URL.
Phone calls can’t be tracked with the same level of precision, but you don’t have to be completely at sea. The Event Tracking feature of Analytics can track how often a person scrolls their mouse over the phone number and how often a mobile device clicks and dials. And even short of that, your gatekeeper needs to be asking incoming callers how they found you.
Review the contact form.
Now that we’re following best practices for tracking success, let’s go to a key instrument of that success—the form itself. If you just took a stock form, embedded it on a landing page and then left it, you probably aren’t enjoying much success.
Take a look at the visual quality of the form. Do its colors match up with the rest of the website? Does it come across as a nice pop-up that automatically invites every person who comes to the website to get in touch? I know, you probably find pop-ups annoying. We all do, but they work.
You also want to ensure that you aren’t asking for any more information than you absolutely need. You probably don’t need the prospect’s phone number right now. Sure, you will eventually. But for now, the purpose is just to get them in the sales funnel. Don’t rush the process.
Are there are other reasons to sign up?
A law firm will have a hard go of it if the only measure of success is by someone getting in touch to set up a consultation. Your website is the first marketing outreach to people who probably haven’t heard of you. Give them a chance to know you and what you can do for them. Offer valuable content—such as a newsletter—for free and invite them to sign up.
