One important key performance indicator (KPI) for the success of any law practice is cost per lead, or CPL. Understanding how much lead generation costs your firm each month can quickly help reign in programs that aren’t delivering strong return on investment and hone your law firm marketing to deliver more clients to your door, without exorbitant costs.
Here are six ways to start improving your CPL today:
- Keep score. You can’t truly measure CPL unless you have an effective way of tracking specific leads, attaching them to expenditures and keeping a scorecard of what strategies are winning. Any online lead-gen application today comes with built-in analytics. Make sure you’re comparing data across marketing efforts—or find an expert who can help you interpret the numbers.
- Monitor consistently. Whether you think you’ve already landed on a new-case generation tool that works consistently well or you’re trying an entirely new strategy, monitoring these initiatives are critical. Check in regularly. What’s leading to the most new contacts? Which programs are converting at a higher rate? When are spikes occurring?
- Maintain brand consistency. That goes for all channels. If you are savvy about law firm digital marketing, you already know that your brand must touch people in a variety of ways—from the Internet, to social spheres, to interpersonal communications. Again, as you experiment with the most effective lead-generation tools, you might think of your legal brand as your “control.” Keep core brand attributes consistent, while tweaking messages for different audiences and platforms under that brand umbrella, so you can measure the value of response.
- Change one variable at a time. If you are pursuing multiple lead-generation pathways, try not to change too much at once, or your next step won’t be clear. Instead, pick the low-hanging fruit—for example, the most ineffective new-business developer—and start there. Like any experiment, you need to limit variables to effectively draw conclusions.
- Market to your database. We already know that the best—and most cost-effective—leads come from referrals by clients who already know your attorneys or have expressed satisfaction during or after a legal case. Don’t overlook the potential of your database to tighten up CPL. Not sure if you’re leveraging your catalog of past clients effectively? Ask your advertising agency to walk you through the newest customer relationship marketing platforms.
- Evaluate new marketing channels. The beauty of law firm marketing these days is it’s driven more than ever by technology. The innate flexibility of tech allows advertising agencies to constantly test new and existing lead-generation applications to help your law practice settle on what works best. We are no longer tied to a few marketing channels, but instead can explore attractive new opportunities as they come online.
If you think leads may be costing you more than they’re worth, give Network Affiliates’ law firm marketing pros a call to investigate your current lead-generation ROI. Call Network Affiliates now at (888) 461-1016!