When I started my law firm in 1997, our goal was to provide quality legal services to as many people as possible. Since then, we’ve recovered more than $1.2 billion in gross for 50,000+ people. And superior marketing and technology have contributed greatly to this success. Marketing a law firm involves a wide array of efforts across multiple channels. To maximize these marketing efforts, the right case management software is key and will help you stay organized and make better, data-driven decisions.
There are many different potential marketing stimuli that might prompt someone to contact a law firm. Making a decision to call a particular firm could result from advertisements viewed on billboards, television, and the internet, or it could evolve from word of mouth or professional referrals. And among these traditional channels, there are many different ways your marketing messages can be communicated – including phone calls, website forms, email, text messages or even social media.
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Marketing should increase the number of clients/cases for your law firm. And your case management software should aid these efforts. My firm’s case management software, GrowPath, streamlines my staff’s intake processes, manages contacts for marketing automation, and provides actionable business analytics so that we can implement smart marketing strategies.
Streamlining Intake
Making a positive first impression is important. To do this, you need polite and engaging intake specialists who communicate effectively. They must know exactly what questions to ask to elicit the necessary information.
Scripted Prompts
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I recommend that you provide your intake specialists with scripted prompts which lead the caller to disclose the right information about the matter at hand. At my firm, our case management software provides the prompts, analyzes the answers, and then signals the intake specialist to ask additional questions based on the previous answers.
Lead Scoring
The next step is deciding what to do with the potential case. For many firms, this is when an attorney has to step in, evaluate the case, and then reach back out to the caller. This may not work in today’s face-paced world. After all, the caller may reach out to other attorneys for an answer.
At my firm, our case management software has a tool that scores the lead using preset variables. Based on the resulting score, the software will notify the intake specialist during the call of the appropriate next steps to take. The specialist can then immediately usher the caller through to the next phase of the process.
This helps us avoid losing potential cases.
Our firm’s case management system helps us sign up the clients as well. We can sign up clients via email or text directly from the software – even while they’re on the phone with us.
If you’re interested in more ways you can increase your intake conversion and sign more of the clients you want, my colleague, Eric Sanchez, recently delivered a fantastic masterclass on How to Get More Clients During COVID.
Finding Additional Cases
Cross-selling is part of marketing. Sometimes people contact for one thing, but may have another need. What if they have been exposed to a drug that’s part of a mass tort and they don’t even know it? How would we know to ask?
Here’s an answer.
Our software’s patented Buzzwords™ allow us to create “trigger” words (like “earplugs” if you want 3M cases), and when our staff types them, our Buzzwords tool prompts them to ask additional questions. This allows me to mine for new cases without having to train staff to do so.
Further, if a mass tort breaks, our software allows us to instantly search all of our client records to find potential new cases. These can be for existing clients, former clients, and even past intake callers.
Marketing Automation
One of the primary functions of marketing is generating contact lists. Our firm’s case management software provides confidential, secure cloud-based contact lists that can easily be searched and tagged. These lists, in turn, help us personalize and nurture all of our relationships – clients, former clients, prospects, and referral partners. These lists are easily used for monthly newsletters, email campaigns, and many other marketing efforts.
Marketing Analytics
During each intake, ask the caller what made them call your firm. Although this is only measuring top-of-mind awareness, that’s still valuable information for further marketing efforts.
Our firm uses intake data for many marketing purposes. For instance, the time of a call can be overlaid with marketing reports which encompass television buy data and day/time of commercials.
We can also use the lead score, mentioned earlier, to show us what types of marketing are providing the best cases. At our firm, we also run reports on cost per lead and cost per case by marketing medium. This allows us to reallocate marketing spending specifically to the channels that provide the best return on investment.
Armed with information, our firm’s marketing department makes better decisions, and these decisions result in more qualified leads.
See for yourself how GrowPath’s legal case management software can improve your law firm’s marketing, advertising, and business development and take advantage of special PILMMA member pricing: growpath.com/pilmma
James S. Farrin is the Owner and Advisor of GrowPath. He is also the Founder and President of the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. His law firm has recovered more than $1.2 billion in gross for over 50,000 clients over the last 20 years.
