Using market trends to inform your law firm marketing efforts is a must for solos and small firms that have limited budgets and resources to market their firms.
Google recently aggregated research from FindLaw and its own inhouse data to provide a look at the legal market trends that should shape your legal marketing initiatives:
74% of prospects beginning a search online end up contacting the office via phone. (FindLaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey 2014)
87% of people who contact an attorney go on to hire an attorney and 72% of them only contact one attorney. (FindLaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey 2014)
96% of people seeking legal advice use a search engine. (Google Consumer Survey, Nov 2013)
38% of people use the Internet to find an attorney. (FindLaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey 2014)
62% of legal searches are non-branded (i.e., generic: “Phoenix divorce attorney,” etc.). (FindLaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey 2014)
74% of consumers visit a law firm’s website to take action. (Google Legal Services Study Sept 2013)
25% of people researching legal topics visit YouTube during the process. (YouTube Internal Data 2012)
85% use online maps to find legal service locations. (Google Legal Services Study Sept 2013)
69% use both a smartphone and a PC for research. (Google Legal Services Study Sept 2013)
31% of all law firm related website traffic comes through mobile search (FindLaw Aggregated Hosted Site Data 2014)
71% of people looking for lawyer think it is important to have a local attorney. (FindLaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey 2014)
So what do you need to do to convert leads based on these facts? Here are a few action steps:
Provide multiple contact options — phone, email, online chat, etc.
Provide a mobile-friendly version of your website.
Have an intake system that allows consumers to reach your firm on the first call and intake specialists trained to convert consumers into clients.
Concentrate on local SEO to ensure your website shows up well in local search.
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