While managing an attorney firm, I developed a library of Excel spreadsheets to track and trend all marketing efforts. Primary online cost denominators included cost-per-visit and cost-per-call while other metrics examined consults, retainers, revenue and margins.
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The chief goals were to benchmark return on investment (ROI) and correlate the impact of all new online initiatives.
At the time, I hardly perceived this as a novel idea. Surprisingly, nevertheless, as I met with more and more advertising providers, they would chuckle and comment that our analytics were not only unusual, but extraordinary. Upon further examination, we found no attorney firms with the actionable data we had.
Don't Flush your Budget
Today, LawClick is continuously striving to enhance our ROI analytics and performance reporting. Our newest Executive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Report was developed with this in mind and delivers greater ROI transparency. We believe the old adage, "the proof is in the pudding". Though most agree a winning formula is rarely stumbled upon, many law firm marketing strategies are just that. Attorneys literally "flush" their marketing budget when they don't demand ROI validation.
To enjoy marketing success, Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) must be thoroughly tested with specific target markets and campaign initiatives. For example, one must be able to compare the total cost of pay per clicks, on a given keyword, at a given cost per click, against total generated revenue. Campaign variances must be rigorously evaluated for adjustment. Additionally, the gathering of actionable marketing intelligence is crucial to optimizing one's media mix and spend.
Just as law firms must differentiate themselves from their competitors, LawClick seeks to do the same through more ambitious metrics. In taking the next step, we must work more closely with our law firm clients. Critical conversion data must be shared and analyzed. Attrition rates in prospect scheduling, appointment fulfillment and retainer acquisition cannot be overlooked. To facilitate this shared accountability, LawClick is developing a software tool that tracks these conversion elements right from a firm's computer desktop.
Prospect Qualification – Getting Better Paying Clients in the Door
Why track all this data? You need to know what works with your most profitable clients. We help firms flesh out this most profitable target audience. All attorneys want better paying clients. Obviously, a firm's advertising strategies and message facilitate the vetting process. Thus, web visitors qualify themselves through a series of decisions they make before and after they arrive at your site. Prospects must:
- Choose to go online and launch a search engine to find information
- Select a keyword or phrase on which to query
- Select your website from an organic link or paid advertisement
- Educate themselves about your value proposition
- Select your services over other competitive offerings
- Choose to act by initiating contact via phone or email
You're not forcing your message on prospects who don't want to hear it. Your prospects effectually qualify themselves based on your ads and firm message. Our job is to wisely position your website in the path of these qualified visitors, i.e. prospects that want to know more about your services and have sufficient funds to retain you. This is what produces higher conversion rates, lower costs-per-client, and a higher ROI.
Analytics that Drive Bottom-line Profits
At LawClick, our analytics and performance reporting is designed to help attorneys navigate their way to competitive advantage. There is no reason to waste significant time and money on strategies that cannot produce the results you seek. What's the bottom-line? Attorney firms must understand website visitor behavior, and then focus on the right business metrics if they are to maximize ROI.
See "BusinessClick - Marketing Measurement and Performance Reporting"
