If you are looking for ways to grow your practice, generating more qualified leads has to be at the top of your list. The competition between attorneys to get to the best leads first can be intense. So, how can you give yourself an edge?
Paid Leads vs. Self-Generated Leads
There are a number of challenges when you look into buying leads.
- Cost: The leads can be even more expensive than you realized once you determine how few actually became clients.
- Quality Problems: You have to pay regardless of the quality of each lead. They are rarely screened according to your own criteria for a qualified prospect.
- Non-Exclusivity: The leads may not even be exclusive. You still have to battle head to head with a number of other competitors to try to convert each lead into a client.
There are a lot of benefits from creating your own lead generation process.
- Targeted Advertising: You can choose the types of cases that you want to attract and which advertising vehicles you want to use (ex. your own websites and landing pages, pay-per-click campaigns, email campaigns, etc.). Some types of advertising may cost you little-to-nothing such as referral campaigns to your own former clients.
- Messaging: You can control the message. You can even put qualifiers into your advertising to reduce the number of unqualified responses that you get.
- Qualifying: You can determine how prospects are screened so you spend your time talking with qualified prospects. Your time is a limited resource, it has an actual monetary value and once it is spent (whether it was well-spent or not) it is gone forever.
- Reducing Cost Per Lead: By tracking your actual cost per sale you can evaluate the true value of different advertising venues and campaigns. You have an opportunity to continuously improve your advertising decisions and drive down your cost per lead.
Reduce Qualifying Overhead & Beat Competitors
Using an outside professional intake service can enhance the value of generating your own leads even further.
- Reduce Overhead: You only pay for actual usage. You are not stuck with the fixed overhead of hiring additional staff or the headaches of recruiting, training and managing them.
- Expand Coverage Hours: You can get 24×7 coverage 365 days a year. This allows you to capture leads you were missing before and purchase less expensive advertising.
- Identify Best Prospects Quickly: Prospects can be screened according to your criteria so you can focus on the best leads first.
- Reach Qualified Prospects Faster: You can design a follow-up process that ensures your competitors never get a crack at your leads. Qualified leads can trigger an immediate notification process so your investigator, paralegal or other staff member can begin closing a prospect.
Make 2015 your best year yet by giving yourself the gift of an efficient, cost effective lead generation process!
This blog was written by Laurie Leonard, the President of SUITE 1000, a U.S. based national telephone answering service, inbound call center and outsourced call center service. Her company has specialized in handling legal intake, sales leads, email lead response, appointment scheduling, customer service and help desk calls for over 20 years.
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