Until fairly recently, many U.S. law firms used in-house marketing staff to help bring in new clientele. Larger law firms sometimes included a full marketing department, while smaller ones tasked existing employees with sourcing new legal leads. But according to the 2016 Report on Trends Impacting the Legal Industry, most law firms now outsource their legal marketing. In fact, 62% of law firms say they’re happy to outsource their legal lead generation efforts to external legal marketing companies. Legal marketing gets outsourced more frequently than human resources, IT, and accounting tasks, the survey reported. This new alternative to hiring in-house marketing staff not only reduces overhead costs, it also improves overall profit margins.
Here’s why outsourcing lead generation works so well for today’s most competitive law firms.
Why More Law Firms Are Outsourcing Lead Generation
Many law firms depend on referrals to bring in new clientele. But the truth is, referrals can’t keep most law firms’ pipelines consistently full. And while some law schools now teach marketing skills, the focus usually falls on personal branding — not lead acquisition.
Today’s legal practices face many challenges, including tightening profit margins for larger firms whose aging partners aren’t ready to retire. For firms like these as well as lawyers going solo, it’s more economical to outsource their legal lead acquisition marketing tasks.
Reason #1 Why Outsourcing Works: You Get Better Prospects
Outsourcing your lead generation can consistently improve the prospects you’re getting right away without any guesswork. Some national firms have marketing budgets and staff dedicated solely to lead generation. In fact, the ABA Journal survey of the largest law firms in the US, UK and Canada shows that Chief Marketing Officers are still struggling to accurately measure their department’s ROI. Without deploying detailed analytics or demographic targeting tactics, those ad dollars must necessarily hit the broadest possible audience. Then, internal employees handle all the lead filtering and qualifying work through email and on the phone. Ultimately, 200+ phone calls could produce only 1-2 viable new clients.
While working with an experienced lead generation company, however, you’re paying for decades of expertise that attracts qualified leads. What’s more, lead generation companies like LeadingResponse can provide detailed analytics and optimization reports customized for each client’s unique needs. Building a competent marketing and business development team takes time, money and patience. Combine tightening profit margins with high turnover for non-partners, and it’s clear why law firms are outsourcing their lead generation.
When you partner with LeadingResponse, we deploy an array of digital marketing channels to attract high-quality leads, including:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Branded websites with unique content
- PPC and display advertising
- Social media
Almost as important as knowing how to generate strong prospects is knowing which tactics to avoid, like buying email lists.
Reason #2 Why Outsourcing Works: You Close More Retainers
The 2016 Industry Trends Report also found 23.6% of law firms said attracting new clients was among their greatest concerns. The only thing firms said they were more worried about was increasing net profits (23.8%). But without strong analytics and benchmarks in place, measuring your marketing ROI for new client acquisition can still be difficult.
Attracting only the most qualified potential clients has made LeadingReponse an industry leader in lead generation for over two decades. In addition to strong digital marketing channels, we use geo-targeting and real-time lead delivery to ensure each prospect is exclusive. After launching a new campaign, we meticulously analyze, optimize and recalibrate our strategy over time to maintain lead quality. Firms who partner with us can take advantage of our completely free and 100% secure Lead Management System (LMS) software. Firms who opt into using the LMS enjoy higher conversion and retention rates and personalized customer service from a dedicated account manager.
Reason #3 Why Outsourcing Works: Growth Happens On Your Terms
If you’re a smaller firm or solo practitioner, just keeping your pipeline full each month can be an uphill battle. Partnering with a lead generation firm lets you focus on what you do best: closing retainers and litigating cases. Imagine never approving another direct mailer or newspaper ad to help generate new business. Or the countless hours you’ve spent networking at conferences and events, hoping to get a few solid client referrals.
And once you’re ready to take the next step and grow your business, LeadingResponse can help you do that, too. Our optional U.S.-based call center service can place outbound calls, get contracts signed and make live transfers. With staff available 24/7 and a contact rate above 70%, converting retainers 365 days per year has never been easier. Choosing to include this additional service can help you scale business up quickly without hiring and training additional in-house staff. When you partner with LeadingResponse to help grow your law firm’s business, you dictate the timeline and delivery terms. Best of all, we’ll never offer your leads to any competitors, so you won’t race anyone to close new retainers.
Want to know more about what LeadingResponse can do for your law firm? Tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.
