You’re generating leads, but many of them don’t seem to be the most qualified. Maybe you’re referring out more cases than you’re accepting. Or worse, maybe you’re taking on more cases you need in order to stay afloat rather than just taking the cases you actually want. All of these issues could involve your lead quality. Here’s how to make some improvements.

1. Accurately track your lead sources

Do you even know where your leads are coming from? If your CRM isn’t attributing a lead source to your leads, it’s going to be difficult to understand where they’re coming from and why they’re not a good fit. However, if you know (for example) that the majority of leads that found you on Google aren’t the right fit, you know you can make adjustments to your SEO strategy to potentially correct the issue.

Conversely, if you received three referrals for the exact type of work you enjoy doing, and they all came from your most recent email newsletter, then you know that marketing channel is working really well.

2. Create Targeted Content

If you’re constantly referring out work because it’s a case type you don’t like or it’s someone who can’t afford your services, it’s likely because you have content that is attracting those people. It’s time to change it.

Create content that covers the exact type of work you want to be known for. This will help you get seen as the expert in that specific area, which begins to remove price as a primary obstacle because people will spend more to work with who they perceive to be the best. Yes, it really is that simple!

3. Maximize Your Referrals

Your best source of leads will come from the people and sources who know you best—your past clients and strategic partners! You’ve either worked with these people in the past or you meet with them regularly. They know what you do well, which means they know exactly what kind of business to send your way.

However, this only works if you keep in touch with them and stay top-of-mind. That’s why email newsletters work so well. If done correctly, you not only resolve issue #2 of this article, but you also work towards maximizing the number of referrals you could (and should) be getting.

If you’ve done any kind of marketing for your firm, you’re likely familiar with the term “SEO” — Search Engine Optimization. Over the last couple of decades, marketers have made careers out of trying to game the system, manipulate algorithms, and help get a business’s website to the top of a search ranking in Google, Bing, and others.

Now, the arena is beginning to shift away from SEO and into SGE — Search Generative Experience.

Google introduced this when it began incorporating AI into its search engine. You will now receive a more conversational and context-driven result when you search for something. Answers are becoming more intuitive and personalized.

The SEO model is about connecting your website to specific searches. If you are high enough in the rankings, people will click on your site and look for the information they need. SGE is a direct challenge to SEO tricks. 

Information now appears as natural language and appears before website results. Even after generating an initial response, it may suggest follow-up questions to expand your search. Though websites and links will appear, people are drawn to the direct answers that SGE provides. 

How SGE Impacts Marketing

SGE is significant because it alters how people search for information and engage with legal websites online. Because AI drives the results, keyword stuffing and technical SEO gimmicks will be less effective. Ironically, useful, well-written, and authoritative content will stand out more in the SGE-dominated landscape. Educational content that answers fundamental questions is more likely to be used and referenced in an SGE response. Google itself has said that its algorithms prioritize content from trustworthy sources. 

Content Marketing Is (Sort of) Merging with SEO

Even if you favor Google rankings over the more tangible results that content delivers, focusing on people, not robots, will get you there. Writing for people is now appeasing search engines. Publishing evergreen content gives Google timeless, reliable, and in-depth answers that it can use to answer questions. Ensuring that your blogs and FAQs go up consistently increases your chances of being featured in a generative result. 

That said, this is all a bonus—icing on the cake. Content marketing works even if Google doesn’t feature your website. There are too many people fighting for limited space. By focusing on delivering educational and authoritative content to your established audience, you will get more referrals and better clients.

When it comes to an effective social media strategy for small businesses, many marketing gurus will tell you that engagement is the name of the game. The more likes, comments, and shares you get, the more successful your presence will be.

That isn’t true for law firms.

Why? It isn’t because your subject matter is dry and boring (even though you may think it is). Rather, it’s because a lot of your subject matter is very sensitive and heavy. People won’t want to engage with that sort of content because they don’t want to air their dirty laundry out in public.

So what are you to do? Abandon social media entirely? NO!

Here are three other metrics you want to focus on instead:

1. Reach

Reach refers to the number of unique views that your post received. When there isn’t much engagement, reach can tell you how well your posts ended up doing. While some platforms (FACEBOOK) limit the organic reach of content, you can boost posts for as little as $1 per day to extend that reach beyond just people who already follow your page, making it an attractive and cost-effective alternative to past forms of advertising like billboards and Yellow Pages ads.

2. Impressions

Impressions are the TOTAL number of views that your post received. This number will always be larger than reach because it counts multiple views from the same user.

3. Click-Through Rate

If your content is valuable (blogs, videos, lead magnets, etc), then you’ll be encouraging people to click through to your website to consume that content. If a particular subject is especially pertinent to your audience, they’ll click through to your website.

What About Engagement?

If you’re still hoping for a lot of engagement, mix up the kind of content you post. Share more behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of life at the office. The more you can humanize yourself and your firm, the more people will be comfortable with engaging. However, you also get what you give. Don’t just sit back and wait for people to comment. Go out and participate in the social media community as well by leaving comments on others’ posts!

A Final Note About Your Numbers

You’re likely still wondering something like, “What’s a good number of impressions or clicks for my firm?” The answer, as usual, is “it depends.”

After all, a firm in Salina, Kansas, won’t have as large of a market as a firm in Atlanta. The goal, at least to start, is to work on building your reach until you notice a plateau. That may be 5,000 people or 500,000 people. Regardless, it will take time to get there, so focus on what you’re posting and how people click through or how many impressions you can get.

There’s no denying it: artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way businesses operate. Among Its many advantages are powerful tools that streamline more complicated processes and enhance overall productivity, allowing you and your staff to do your jobs more efficiently.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at five remarkable AI tools that can help take your firm’s efficiency to new heights. Learn how these cutting-edge solutions can transform the way you work and ultimately contribute to your firm’s success.

Jasper

Powered by advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, Jasper can support and streamline various tasks within the legal industry, especially the drafting of legal documents. By analyzing a vast collection of pre-existing legal documents, contracts, and agreements, Jasper can offer suggestions, identify potential pitfalls, and ensure consistency and accuracy in the drafting process. This not only expedites document creation but also minimizes the risk of errors or omissions.

By leveraging natural language processing and machine learning capabilities, Jasper can swiftly extract relevant insights, identify patterns, and provide comprehensive summaries of legal materials. This allows lawyers to focus on higher-value tasks such as crafting strategies, advising clients, or preparing for litigation.

Opus Clips

Law firms often rely on social media platforms to engage with their audience, share legal insights, and showcase their expertise. However, creating engaging content can be time-consuming, especially when dealing with lengthy YouTube videos. 

Opus Clips simplifies this process by allowing law firms to extract relevant clips from those videos, making it easier to generate concise and attention-grabbing content for social media platforms. These clips can serve as teasers, enticing viewers to explore the complete video or seek professional assistance from the law firm.

Midjourney

Midjourney is an AI tool that generates images from natural language descriptions or prompts. Lawyers can utilize these images in slideshows, exhibits, and digital platforms to enrich the overall quality and impact of their case presentations. In addition, Midjourney can assist in creating mock-ups and demonstratives that illustrate scenarios, timelines, and spatial relationships and improve jury understanding of their arguments. 

This tool can also serve as a valuable asset in legal marketing and branding, allowing lawyers to generate unique and captivating images that align with their practice areas, differentiating their firm and leaving a lasting impression on potential clients.

SheetAI

Lawyers can leverage SheetAI to enhance their Google Sheets experience and streamline their work processes. 

For example, when faced with complex legal questions or decision-making scenarios, they can use the SHEETAI_LIST feature to generate multiple AI-generated answers. This function provides lawyers with a range of diverse solutions and perspectives, helping them make informed decisions and explore different angles on legal matters. By having access to a variety of answers, they can gain valuable insights and consider various possibilities before finalizing their approach.

InboxPro

InboxPro is a powerful email tool with intelligent features designed to streamline email management and productivity. With the tool’s capabilities, lawyers can process and handle their emails up to five times faster.

InboxPro’s I-powered email assistant harnesses the power of AI to generate email drafts in a matter of seconds, saving lawyers time by allowing them to concentrate on the core content instead of spending time creating each message from scratch. Similarly, the TLDR feature automatically summarizes long emails, providing a concise overview of the content. These capabilities can ultimately improve email management workflow.

Otter.ai

Otter AI, an advanced meeting assistant, streamlines the note-taking process, promotes collaboration, and saves valuable time. With its AI-powered capabilities, Otter automatically records audio, transcribes meetings, and generates accurate written notes. It also facilitates collaboration among team members by allowing them to add comments, highlight key points, and assign action items in real time. Additionally, Otter’s automated slide capture feature automatically inserts shared slides into the meeting notes, providing a complete context of the discussed content for later retrieval.

Conclusion

Integrating AI tools into your law firm’s workflow can be a game-changer by revolutionizing how tasks are performed, increasing productivity, and driving efficiency. By harnessing the power of AI, law firms can optimize their operations, freeing up time for higher-value work, improving client experiences, and ultimately positioning themselves for success in a rapidly evolving legal landscape. Embracing these AI tools empowers law firms to stay ahead of the curve and maximize their potential for growth and innovation.

Over the last couple of years, engagement on LinkedIn has been booming. According to its parent company, Microsoft, the platform got so popular in 2021 that its overall revenue jumped 36% in the fourth quarter alone. And it hasn’t really slowed down since.

This is great news for you, because more people using the platform to connect professionally and nurture business relationships means more potential eyeballs on your content — which will generate leads, referrals, and ultimately revenue. 

To cash in on this popularity, you need to level up your LinkedIn game. Here are three tips to help you go that extra mile on your personal and business pages. 

1. Maximize your connections

LinkedIn shares your content to all of your connections on the platform, so the more you have the better! To beef up your list, try exporting your contacts from your email. LinkedIn will automatically search out accounts with those email addresses and make growing your contact list easy. 

2. Take advantage of the LinkedIn Publishing Platform

Did you know you can write and publish blogs directly on LinkedIn using the article publishing tool on your home page? You can even use images and hashtags. This is a great secondary spot to store your content and get more visibility with your network. Your blogs will appear on your profile, further positioning you as the expert.

3. Host events with LinkedIn Events

Yes, that’s right—you can host events and webinars with live-streamed videos right on LinkedIn. It’s even easier than setting up a Zoom meeting, and it’s another great way to show off your expertise, nurture your connections, and add value for leads and clients following you on the platform. Visit Business.LinkedIn.com/marketing-solutions/linkedin-live for all of the details. 

LinkedIn is also a great way to find and attract talent. According to Business Insider, roughly six people are hired through LinkedIn every minute. Whether you want to strengthen your network, convert leads, or grow your team, this is a tool you can’t afford to overlook.

As a business owner, surely you have a master budget that you keep track of and update regularly. For many firms, Marketing may just be a line item and a catch-all for anything marketing-related they plan on doing. However, if you want to better track your marketing’s ROI and take control of how your hard-earned revenue is being allocated, start by revising your budget.

Remember: all marketing is not created equal. The money you spend on Google ads is very different than the money you spend on sponsoring a community event. With that in mind, you may have multiple line items within your marketing budget for things like:

  1. Marketing Staff — this is anyone who works for your firm who handles marketing.
  2. Advertising/Lead Generation — This is where you’d categorize things like pay-per-click ads, SEO, or any kind of TV or radio spots.
  3. Events — Do you sponsor any local or industry events? The sponsorship and travel costs should go here.
  4. Content — This is where any content-related charges go, even if it’s just the outsourced payment to a vendor. However, any costs for blogging, video, podcasting, etc. go here.
  5. Software — It’s really hard to market without some sort of software helping you out. Maybe you pay for MailChimp, Hootsuite, or some other apps. Those charges go here.
  6. Offline Marketing — Do you have an aggressive direct mail campaign or a print newsletter?
  7. Referrals — What sort of investment do you make each month to obtain and nurture your referrals?
  8. Miscellaneous — It’s always good to have a miscellaneous line for those things that may not quite fall into any other category. Just make sure you stay consistent.

Are all of those things (aside from payroll) marketing activities? Yes, you want to make sure you’re intentional about where you spend your money. Don’t just throw money at the proverbial marketing wall and hope something works out. Have a specific budget within your master budget to track each activity. 

What’s the point?

When you understand that various marketing strategies produce different outcomes and that your firm needs to market differently to people depending on where they are in their buyer’s journey, it becomes easier to break things down and track individual ROIs.

For example, you may be able to generate all the leads you need for just $1,000 each month. However, you’ve noticed that those leads take several months to convert. After some research, you learn that content marketing can help nurture those leads along, so you decide to invest in that. Being able to see that separated out and broken down in your budget will help you develop a better understanding of your ROI.

The only question remaining is how much money should be devoted to each line item. Unfortunately, there’s no magic answer because it depends on the size of the firm and its objectives. You should, however, be devoting about 10% of your revenue to your marketing activities. From there, decide what’s most important to you and start spending!

If you listen to the majority of legal marketing companies out there, they’ll likely tell you that the only way people are going to find your law firm is if you appease the Google gods and do a plethora of things to get Google’s attention. But that’s only because they want to sell you SEO services which can cost you thousands of dollars every month for the hope of being on the first page of a search.

And while plenty of people still search Google for law firms, there are other ways consumers are making their buying decisions these days.

1. Social Media

Sharing blogs, videos, and more from your website on your social media platforms is a super easy way to make sure people find you online. If you have a good number of X followers and LinkedIn connections, then your job is pretty easy.

Facebook, however, is where you can really get a lot of traffic to your website. Share the blogs and videos, and then boost those posts. Boosting is like creating a little ad that appears on people’s timelines. The best part is that you can create custom audiences so you can target the exact kind of people you want to visit your site.

2. Paid Ads

Whether you do this through social media or Google’s Pay-Per-Click platform, paid ads can virtually guarantee visibility and website traffic, especially if you pick the right spots to place your ads. For example, if you’re a business attorney, placing ads on your local city’s business journal website can potentially yield good results.

3. Network!

Even though we’re in an increasingly digital world, there’s still value in putting boots on the ground and meeting people. But outside of traditional networking mixers, there are things you can do to digitally network as well. Find ways to become a guest on influential podcasts or webinars. Participate in LinkedIn groups. Doing so can open you up to a new audience and drive people to your website.

This is also a great way to build your email list which, if you’re sending out a consistent email newsletter, can also help people find you. For example, someone who receives your email can forward it to a friend or colleague who may need legal help, thus expanding your network by referral.

Yes, marketing is expensive. Buying pay-per-click advertising, hiring a copywriter to create compelling content, sending out print mailers — all of these things cost money. That said, the cost of marketing isn’t what frustrates most lawyers. What they hate is worrying they’re spending thousands on the wrong marketing. 

It’s an understandable concern, but really, you only need to do one thing to ensure you’re not pouring your marketing budget down the drain: Measure your own success. 

When you employ a third-party vendor to do your marketing, it can be tempting to “set it and forget it.” In other words, you might just expect the vendor to keep track of your ROI (and most of them do provide data to show the results they’re getting you).

Don’t give in to that temptation! No one has a better understanding of your goals and the full scope of your firm’s marketing efforts than you. If you’re ready to take charge of your own marketing destiny and stop wasting your money, take these three steps today. 

STEP 1: UNDERSTAND WHAT MATTERS 

Not all data points are created equal. Despite what some marketers will tell you, an increase in Instagram followers doesn’t translate to more revenue. The first step to measuring your marketing success is deciding what’s worth measuring. Focus on statistics that move the needle like the number of referrals, new clients, and returning clients that your marketing efforts generate. 

STEP 2: DEFINE SUCCESS 

What does the word “success” mean to you? Consider what your goals are and what achieving them would look like. Do you need to get a certain number of referrals or new clients per month to feel like your marketing is working? Figure out what matters to you. Then communicate your goals to your vendor. 

STEP 3: ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY 

Whether you’re a business owner, marketing manager, or project lead, you need to accept responsibility for tracking your marketing success. Start making spreadsheets — then use them! This doesn’t mean you have to do all of the marketing yourself, but tracking your own results is empowering and gives your firm independence, letting you see for yourself whether your investments are paying off. 

Are you struggling to charge what you deserve? Raising your rates can be tricky, and right now, it might seem particularly tough or even insensitive to consider given the constant complaints about inflation and rising costs. However, not only do you deserve to be paid well for your work, but ensuring you can charge a reasonable amount could also make the difference in keeping your own family and firm safe in the long run.

So how can you raise your rates the right way? Through your marketing! But how? You’re certainly not going to announce that you’ve increased your rates or anything like that. Instead, it’s all in how you position yourself and your firm.

Content is a powerful tool. It can touch pretty much every aspect of your firm, and that includes your rates. If that seems impossible, consider this: Great content will build your reputation, positioning you as the expert and the go-to thought leader in your practice area. And when you’re seen as an expert, you can charge like an expert. It’s actually that simple.

However, this outcome hinges on having a steady stream of the right kind of content. Most importantly, it has to be educational and relevant. You need to appear to be the foremost expert on your topic, offering wisdom and advice to readers that answer the questions they’ve already been asking in their heads. Nothing is more compelling for a reader than finding all of the answers they need in one place—whether that’s your blog, your website, your podcast, or your social media platforms. Ideally, all of these spaces should be full of educational content.

That said, you don’t need to do an insanely deep dive into every topic you discuss to prove you’re educated. Remember, your average reader likely doesn’t know a lot about your practice area — you aren’t writing for other lawyers in your field. As long as you focus on the things you do, stay on topic, and offer some useful information, you’ll effectively build your reputation and give yourself the brand boost you need to raise your rates. 

When you’re ready to actually raise your rates, the smartest way to go is implementing an annual or semiannual rate increase. Whatever timeline you choose, scheduling these increases will motivate you to keep putting out great content and doing your best work. You’ll feel like you deserve the increase, and the more targeted, top-quality content you put out, the less resistant your clients and prospects will be to work with you or balk at the price.

In fact, raising your rates will soon start working with your content to improve your reputation—people expect the best lawyers to charge a bit more and could get suspicious if your services and price seem too good to be true. 

Don’t undersell yourself or listen to the people who say you need to be in a huge firm to charge what you deserve. With the right content strategy, you can make it happen.

There’s a stigma out there that says attorneys only care about getting every last cent they can out of people. The truth is that the more you give, the more you’ll receive in the long run. Gatekeeping all of your expertise won’t convince people that you’re the right person for the job. Many consumers will be surprised to find you giving away free information, and it will help you get ahead of your competitors.

So how do you eliminate that stigma? By offering free information on your website. What does that look like? Well first, it’s easier to tell you what it doesn’t look like. 

If your website is no more than a couple of pages that has your contact info, lists the areas of law you practice, and simply says “We can help,” then your website isn’t actually very helpful. It’s not highlighting your expertise and it isn’t addressing your visitors’ concerns. Instead, your website should have the following:

1. A Regularly Updated Blog

Having a regularly maintained blog with evergreen topics that cover your practice area(s) is a great way to provide information on your website. You don’t have to recreate chapters from your law school textbooks, but you can provide basic, surface-level overviews of a given issue and show that you’re the expert they can trust.

Just make sure that you’re writing for the people who will hire you, not other attorneys you want to impress.

2. A Robust Video Library

For people who prefer watching videos to reading text, a video library is another great way to provide free information. Even more, video has a couple of psychological benefits that blogs can’t provide.

  • First, they break down any sort of barrier that exists between you and the client where they lose any intimidation they felt by you. They can now feel more comfortable around you knowing they can put a face and a sound to your name.
  • Second, the videos mentally prepare viewers for when they take the next step and come into your office for the consultation. Even if it’s just slightly, that extra preparedness will make your job easier.

3. A Newsletter Signup

Whether you have an email or print newsletter campaign, make sure there’s a way people can opt into it on your website. Then, if you’re doing your marketing right, they’ll receive your latest blog or video (or both!) in your next newsletter without them ever having to regularly check your website.

4. A Complimentary Download

This is a great way to capture leads on your website. Having a free download, such as a white paper or ebook, is arguably the biggest credibility booster you can have on your website. And here’s the thing: You don’t need to actually write a full-length book or legal brief. You can take one of your most evergreen blogs, expand it a little bit, and turn it into a free download. Anything more than 1,500 words becomes laborious for the reader.