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Month: June 2013

What Are Your Web Stats?

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It seems that there are still many misconceptions on how a website should perform for a law firm. Many law firms expect their website to replace their ads on TV in terms of lead generation.

There are numerous problems with this. The future of the web is on social media. Eventually, these may end up replacing your current websites.

The other problem with this expectation is that many law firms are expecting the web to generate the sort of business their TV campaigns did in the 1980s. Here’s a news flash: the old days of just placing ads on TV and waiting for the cases to role in are dead.

Look at the analytics

What are analytics? Analytics are the statistics of your law firm’s website. The most popular tool used is Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses a little piece of code placed on every page of your website to track each visitor that comes to your site.

Google then culls this information together in real time and provides various charts and graphs that show how users use your site and how your site is performing. It provides information such as how many visitors came to your site, the most popular pages,  and how visitors found your website.

This is really skimming the surface of Google Analytics’s capabilities. Learn more by going to the official Google Analytics page. If your website does not have Google Analytics installed, have your IT person install if for you and begin tracking.

So, what does success look like online?

The goals of your firm will determine what success ultimately looks like. The bigger issue with most law firms is that they don’t even understand how well their website performs. Most law firms are completely in the dark in terms of how many visitors come to their website on a monthly basis and how many leads their website has actually generated.

Without knowing this information, how can your law firm make an informed decision on how to improve their presence online? Furthermore, without a baseline, how can your law firm set reasonable goals for their website?

Knowledge is power

It’s a hackneyed expression, but very true. It’s impossible to make intelligent decisions online without having the numbers to back up your decisions. Knowing how your website performs and establishing realistic goals and expectations is the first step to growth. Acting on this new found information and truly embarking on an intelligent SEO, social media or PPC campaign is the way to experience success online.

Why Lead Tracking Helps Your Advertising Agency

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It’s rare to find a law firm that truly understands the importance of tracking its advertising. In the legal world, the most successful firms are often times the ones that are meticulous trackers. Law firms that know where their cases come from and what type of case makes them the most money are the ones that can make the best business decisions.

While tracking helps the overall business of law firms, tracking can also help their advertising agencies as well. We’re biased, but we would love to see more law firms track so we can create better advertising campaigns for our clients. Here’s some ways tracking helps law firms.

Where Do We Stand?

Tracking helps agencies understand just how well their advertising strategies and tactics are performing. Ad agencies can make more informed decisions and know when a change in the creative or media mix is necessary to move the needle.

Without tracking, knowing when a change is necessary is all guesswork. Guesswork can lead to making decisions that are not wise and can set back both the firm and the advertising agency as well.

Which Ad Makes “The Needle” Move?

In order to understand what is truly effective in your advertising plan, your firm should be evaluating, testing and recording results. For example, you could test different creative on different stations or select specific day parts to see what works most effectively for your firm. Many firms do this sort of experimentation, but determine the success of these experiments based on their gut instincts rather than on what the numbers tell them.

While your gut is important in making decisions, ignoring the numbers when adjusting your advertising campaign is shortsighted and can lead to missed opportunities. Furthermore, failing to track will make it difficult to conduct these sorts of experiments in the first place and can lead to a stale campaign.

Advertising is an Investment

At the end of the day, your advertising is a significant investment in your law firm. Do you track your 401K or do you just let it run on autopilot? Do you check your bank statements or do you just guess how much money you have in the bank? If you track the success of other areas of your life or firm, then why would you not track your advertising?

Having a polished, well thought out advertising campaign can have a significant impact on your law firm’s success. Failing to track your advertising investment is myopic and doesn’t allow your ad agency to do its job to the best of its abilities.