By Legal Futures Associate Perfect Portal
3 tips for getting more business through your firm’s website
Your website can be a great tool to quickly generate leads and convert those leads into business. It seems like a no-brainer, moving from a telephone and clipboard to a form online that the client can fill out themselves, at their leisure.
The benefits are really appealing:
- No more details written on post-its or printed forms, which can literally slip between the cracks.
- No more manually typing out the client information into multiple different systems.
- Websites don’t have to lock up the office at 5.30 or have other cases they need to prioritise that day.
All this seems great, even necessary to keep up with the competition, to take some of the pressure off your already busy staff.
So, when the website is launched, why aren’t you seeing the immediate uplift in business, the time savings, the benefits that were promised?
Here are three common mistakes and tips on how to not only avoid them but to get the absolute most out of your website and boost your business:
MISTAKE – One for all
When talking to a client you don’t treat everyone the same, so why would you do that online? Using the same form for every enquiry and matter-type can negatively impact your lead generation. Making the experience personal can be the difference between winning (and keeping) a client and them going somewhere else.
TIP – Make it personal
Use matter-specific enquiry forms, so that you’re asking the right questions. If you can, use dynamic forms that will change the questions that you’re asking depending on what answers the client gives. When doing things online you’re making things quicker, more convenient, easier, but this can be at the expense of the personal touch. Using forms that are specific to the client’s enquiry can allow you to retain that personal touch and make the client experience that much better.
MISTAKE – “Just get it on there”
You’re not a website designer or digital marketer, but you know how websites should work. When you visit a website, you want everything to work in the way you expect, so why should your site be any different? Optimise your pages for the user journey. In simple terms this can mean as little as putting your enquiry form in the right place on the page, it can be the key to ensuring more clients submit enquiries.
TIP – Think about the journey
Look at your website from the point of view of the client. If they are looking for information, your form should be in an obvious place that makes sense in this context, so they can get the information they need and then are encouraged to get in touch. This will improve the quality of your leads, and ensure the client feels informed and comfortable enough to fill out the form and make an enquiry.
MISTAKE – Making more work
You are busy. You have clients to look after, cases to manage, and not enough hours in the day. Moving to a digital solution is meant to help with this, so why create more jobs for yourself? Having multiple systems that don’t interact with each other means moving data manually, via spreadsheets or typing out, from one to another. Not only is this less efficient it’s less secure. Look at your workflow and go with integrated systems that don’t create more, manual, jobs.
TIP – Think holistically.
What’s the process? You want the client to input their information on your website, be able to instruct remotely, and that information to be sent to your CMS. Does everything ‘talk’ to each other? Look for a provider that can integrate your website journey with your CMS, so you don’t have to manually move data around, it’s there, ready for you to action.
A website is a great way to boost your business but, as with everything, the tool is only effective when used correctly.
Choose a website or solutions partner that’s a good fit for you, they’ll be as invested in your success as you are, want to work with you to optimise your website, and you’ll see those benefits immediately.
Sounds great – how do I get started?
At Perfect Portal, we support law firms to win more business and grow. Our easy-to-use digital business development solutions are designed to optimise your online presence, helping you to attract and win more clients:
Install Perfect Portal’s dynamic Intake Forms on your website in minutes—no coding required. Add them to every service page to capture leads across all areas of law. And here’s the best bit – track your results right away in the Perfect Portal dashboard. To learn more and get started, contact the team today.
