On day 1 we explored the “I need more phone calls” issue. Most lawyers are convinced that their only problem is that their phone doesn’t ring enough or that they need more web traffic. By continuing to focus on conversions we’re going to increase your business immediately.
Let’s pose a hypothetical. If I showed up at your office and said “hello, I would like to pay you some money,” would you then make me jump through as many hoops as possible to do so? While most lawyers, on an intellectual level, understand that they need to make the process easy for clients the truth is that they fail to do so in practice. Today we’re going to start with the basics by making it easier for people to contact you.
Lawyers can increase profits immediately by providing potential clients as many contact options as possible
People are less likely to do something if it requires them to step outside of their normal habits or preferences. They’re also unlikely to do something if they have to engage in unnecessary steps. In other words, the contact options for your firm need to be wide enough to fit the individual preferences of various people and it has to be easy for people to use those contact methods. Translation – make it as easy as possible for people to contact you!!!!!!!
There are quite a few people who would much rather contact you through email than by telephone. That being said, there are plenty of statistics that I’ll spare you which show people’s attention span when viewing a website changes dramatically in just one second. By making non-phone call contact options available to the client on all of your web pages you will convert a far higher number of people already visiting your website. While people may be interested in your services, you’d be surprised how many get distracted before navigating to your “contact” page. Let’s make it easier for them to reach you.
The best way to get more people contacting you immediately is to add a pop-up widget to your site. This is a small box that pops up once the user has been on your site for a few seconds. This serves a few purposes. First, it allows users to contact you from any page without forcing them to navigate around your site. Second, by having it pop up a few seconds after they’ve come to your site the widget provides a great “call to action” that will prompt more people to contact you. This will increase your conversions dramatically.
Right now you may be saying “I hate those pop up widgets.” There will be some people who don’t like them but what you will find, and what we have seen with the attorneys we work with, is a dramatic increase in overall contacts. While there may be a few people who don’t like them, you will convert so many more of your site’s viewers that any annoyances become irrelevant.
One mistake attorneys make is to choose widgets which make it impossible to interact with their site until someone chooses to close the widget. We prefer options which allow a reader to view your site without having to interact with the widget if they choose not to. A good free option for this is provided by Olark. This free website add-on can double as a “live-chat” client if you choose to pay for additional services. Just using the freebie, however, will give you the email functionality I mentioned above; we’ll talk later in this series about whether live chat is a good option for your firm.
On our clients’ sites we set these widgets for what I like to call “medium invasiveness.” If someone chooses to minimize the widget then chances are they don’t want to see it. If they leave the site with the widget minimized then it will be minimized automatically the next time they return to the site. If they leave the site with it maximized then it will be maximized when they return. We’ve found this to be a good mix of not annoying people while still increasing conversions.
Before you say that your firm needs more web traffic it’s important that you convert the website visitors that you’re already getting. If you’re not converting then there’s really no point in spending money on more visitors just so you can fail to convert them as well. Doing so would be technically described as “flushing money down the toilet.”
Day 11 action items for attorneys wanting to grow their practice
Most attorneys are convinced that their phone doesn’t ring when the truth is that it rings with more potential clients then their office is even set up to handle. The problem is that they let those potential retainers slip right through their fingers. If you want to grow your profits then you need to work smarter instead of harder by converting the website visitors you already receive. We began dealing with this issue on day 1 and day 2.
Today’s action item is simple. Install the Olark add on, or something comparable, on your website and watch the number of email inquiries increase immediately.
Can the popup be made less intrusive by starting out minimized but somehow catching the users eye (maybe by flickering or somehow being animated), then expanding when a user mouses over or clicks on it? I am admittedly among those who find pop-up panels like the one you describe somewhat obnoxious, but I understand why they might be effective in spite of themselves. Just curious how flexible the options are to minimize the spite.
Hola Kris – it really depends on which one you’re using. The different widgets will usually have different features. For example, there are ones that won’t activate until a user has finished reading an entire web page. There are literally hundreds available and I’m sure one offers something along the lines of what you mentioned. Also, just playing with the various options on each one provides a wide range of possibilities.
I really like you’re idea Kris S. about using the pop up in a less intrusive manner!
This article made me think of a question that I have had in the past about missed calls. At our office, the phone system stores phone numbers with names for those calls that were not answered but also did not leave a message. What is your opinion on legal assistants calling those individuals back to see if there is anyway the firm can help them?
We want to convert calls into clients but also want to respect people’s privacy and if they didn’t leave a message-is it ethical to call them back?
Personally I think the business aspect makes the ethics concern a non-issue Majeski Law. The reason being it’s a better investment of one’s time to focus on “quality leads.” As the likelihood of someone retaining drops then the return on investment, from time spent trying to corral that lead, also drops. If someone isn’t a serious enough lead to leave a message then they’re not worth calling back IMHO.
Thanks for the feedback Luke!
No prob Majeski.