Any law firm aiming to increase their caseload should look to their website before anything else. A dedicated site is a round-the-clock salesman, generating new leads and clients, and affording you the time to work on cases rather than hunt for new ones. A professional and effective website can be a law firm's greatest tool for delivering new clients, while a poorly crafted one can lead to wasted time, money, and opportunity.
If your site has plenty of traffic but your average conversion rate is low the problem almost certainly lies in your law firm's digital marketing funnel. One of the simplest and most effective solutions to turn this around is to create professional, on-message, dedicated landing pages to hook prospective clients. Follow the advice laid out in this article to build the perfect landing page for law firms and immediately impress potential clients.
What Should You Include on a Landing Page?
First it's important to understand what exactly a landing page is. A landing page is a dedicated webpage that exists solely to convince users to perform one specific action. This action varies depending on the industry: email marketers typically aim for newsletter subscriptions, software companies may create leads from requests for demos, retail companies will use landing pages to push new sales or move specific inventory. In the legal industry the focus of a successful landing page is convincing prospective clients to submit a contact form or to call the firm during business hours.
This makes effective landing pages incredibly effective tools in online lead generation when used correctly and designed in ways that maximize their potential. Despite this, however, most law firms use landing pages incorrectly or even don't use them at all. Many will choose to create a flashy homepage for an impactful first impression, but this is not an efficient way to increase your conversion rates.
Your landing page design, whether created to support a targeted ad campaign or to convert the daily visitor count for your website, should be attention grabbing and designed to accomplish the single task of convincing your audience to take action. While there is obviously not a universal landing page template that will turn every one of your visitors into a client, there are some basic principles that are demonstrably effective in increasing your percentages. Follow the tips below to maximize their potential and increase your landing page conversions!
A Compelling Headline with Key Terms
The headline is the first thing a visitor will see when they visit your landing page. Most user's attention will be gained or lost based on the relevancy of the headline, and whether it applies to their needs or interests. All of your landing page headlines should be attention grabbing, compelling, and include the keyword or phrase you are targeting for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.
If your landing page is built for an ad campaign the headline should directly correlate to the ad the user clicked on. Discontinuity in the topic of your message will cause confusion for your visitors and will lead to most leaving the page without reading further.
Informative Subheadings
Subheadings on your landing page should play into the interest you developed and held with your main header. Use these to give visitors more detail about the page and lead them to explore it further. Many landing page visitors will skim through headers to decide if a page is relevant to them, use this as an opportunity to keep their attention and convert them to qualified leads.
Include Relevant, High Quality Images or Video
Having a visual component on your landing page is vital to it's success. Many users will immediately dismiss a page with nothing but text as low quality, untrustworthy, or unprofessional. Use high quality images that are relevant to the headline, subheading, or service the page is about. A stock photo is fine to use, just make sure it correlates or serves to emphasize a specific point.
Videos can be an excellent tool for engagement and you can deliver more specific information to your visitors without showing them a wall of text. Search engines tend to hold video content as higher-quality content, so having embedded landing page videos can also be beneficial to your SEO efforts.
Including visuals on your landing page can help break it up into smaller pieces, helping retain user interest in the page and raising your conversion rates. Don't go overboard here though Your page should be simple and to the point, so don't clutter it up for the sake of adding more. Remember, the point of the landing page is to deliver a crystal clear call-to-action for your visitors.
Introduce the Firm and Share Past Results
The ideal law firm landing page has a clear overview of your practice and what you can offer. There should be some text about the practice area or focus of the firm. Only one or two sentences are needed for each service. Keep things short and to the point, no need to write a biography.
This can also be a great chance to show off past successes. The State Bar won't allow you to make misleading promises, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't share previous case results. Talk up the massive payday you won for an injured client, or the time you beat what looked like an open and shut DUI case. People want to see that you are an effective lawyer and have the experience and background to do well by them.
Think of it this way, a potential client has been injured and is looking for a big payday. They begin comparing law firms sees one listing past accomplishments and one sharing nothing from previous cases. That client is going to the personal injury lawyer with a proven track record every time.
Always remember, you have a short time to convince your visitors that you are the law firm they want to work with. Keep it short, keep it simple, and keep it to the point; but also make sure you show them clearly that you are the right fit for their case.
Share Your Online Reviews
This ties in closely with our last section. Online reviews carry weight for any business, and law firms are not exempt from that. Legal issues are already a stressful situation for people to face, and they want to make sure they find the right attorney to help them through the process. Seeing positive confirmation from others who have been in a similar position can be a massive influence on prospective clients.
Your website should already have a dedicated section for client testimonials, but including a number of choice reviews on your landing pages is a must for generating more leads. Saving the possible client the trouble of having to look for past testimonials means you keep them on your page for longer and increase your odds of converting them. It is usually a good idea to add a star rating graphic to your reviews, and make mention of any awards or high levels of satisfaction from peer-review sites or your Google business profile.
A Call-to-Action
This is the single most important aspect of a successful landing page. It should always include a call-to-action as well as whatever information or tools may be necessary to follow the call-to-action. This is most often a form or similar input offering a case evaluation or consultation. Keep the contact for short and simple; even just a name, phone number, and email often work for this.
You want to have enough information to establish contact with the client, but not require so much that it puts visitors off from completing the form. The sole purpose of a landing page is to convince the visitor to perform a specific action. Be sure to include a simple, to the point message spurring your visitors to commit to that particular act.
Courtesy Goes a Long Way
It can be easy to get caught up in all the marketing buzzwords and statistics you can find while researching ways to make your marketing funnel more efficient. Be sure to remember that this will be your first point of contact with possible clients and humanize the interaction as much as possible. Adding a little courtesy to the process can make all the difference in landing a new case. Have the contact form redirect to a thank you page after it has been completed.
It will leave a positive impression on your visitor and also serve as an opportunity to guide your lead to other resources on your website. Include links to articles, blog posts, or helpful tools that you may have online. Keeping the visitor on your site will help sell them on the idea of hiring you for their case.
Adding a simple thank you to the end of the process is quick and will make the prospective feel appreciated. Building a strong relationship can help you convert your leads and maintain existing clients, so get started as soon as possible.
Make Your Law Firm's Landing Pages the Best
It doesn't take long for most potential clients to decide to either work with your law firm or move on to a competitor. Maximizing the short time you have is crucial to converting your visitors into leads at a higher rate. Using clear and concise information, an attention grabbing call-to-action, a simple and clear design, and staying on message, you can create the perfect landing page that draws your audience in, keeps them on your site longer, and convinces them to contact you.
The best way to ensure your digital presence is being maximized is by working with a digital marketing agency like GoEngine. We are a group of knowledgeable, experienced professionals that work together with you and your team to build the best digital marketing strategy for your marketing objectives. With over 30 years of combined experience, we have developed specialized methods for creating and maintaining a strong online presence.
Together we provide law firms and small businesses with a full suite of digital marketing services that are proven to grow your business. We offer free website consultations and free SEO and marketing audits to get the most out of your law office marketing campaigns. Get in touch with us today to see just how we can help you grow your practice.