Marketing Your Law Firm in 2018, Part One: Why is Lead Tracking Important for Lawyers? - Martindale-Avvo

Marketing Your Law Firm in 2018, Part One: Why is Lead Tracking Important for Lawyers?

*This article is the first in a three-part series in which we will examine lead tracking systems, best practices for lawyers to follow up with leads, and how to make sure that your intake team is handling leads correctly and professionally. Check back over the next couple of weeks for parts 2 and 3 in the series!

It is no secret that lawyers are paying more attention to their marketing practices than ever before. While some firms are still able to subsist on referrals from clients and other attorneys, most dedicate some effort to developing efficient and effective lead-generation and tracking processes.

If you have a diversified marketing strategy, you are likely generating leads from referrals, digital marketing, print, TV and radio, and any number of sources. You likely have several points of contact for your firm, including your office phones, answering/intake services, online contact forms, live chat services, and walk-ins.

Trying to keep up with all of the leads you’ve driven can be overwhelming. In the meantime, potential cases can fall through the cracks and be lost.

That’s why you need lead tracking. These days, many lead tracking software options exist to help automate your processes and ensure you get the most out of your leads. Never lose out on a client due to poor organization again with the help of lead tracking.

What is Lead Tracking?

Lead tracking is the process of effectively monitoring your leads to determine which actions need to be taken and, ultimately, close more sales. Lead tracking usually involves categorizing leads based on several traits; for example, how they contacted your firm, how close they are to becoming a client, and general demographic data. You can then pursue the appropriate action for each lead to most effectively convert them from contacts into clients.

There are many potential benefits for your firm, including:

  • Better Lead Organization: Using lead tracking software keeps your leads categorized and accessible. You will be able to organize your leads by the method most useful for your firm.
  • Time Efficiency: When your leads are organized, you can spend less time trying to manage them and more time converting them. With lead tracking, you’ll be able to instantly see what stage each lead is in and quickly pull up the information for particular types of leads.
  • Sharper Reporting: When your leads are organized and tracked through every stage of the lifecycle, you’ll be more easily able to understand them. Which kinds of leads most often become clients? Which have potential but need more work? Which never work out and should be abandoned altogether? With this information in your hands, you can capitalize on the most promising leads and improve return on investment (ROI).
  • Customization: When all the information about a particular lead is centralized in one place, you can more easily understand what that lead needs. You can then customize your sales tactics for that lead’s specific circumstances to maximize the chance that they might become a client.
  • Client Conversion: Ultimately, all of these advantages work together to ensure more leads turn into real clients. You won’t lose track of valuable information, you’ll be able to specialize your interactions, and you’ll be able to do much more in shorter amounts of time. When clients receive this level of individualized attention and prompt service, they are more likely to retain your services, but also to refer you to others, creating a never-ending cycle of increased clients and increased client satisfaction.

Clearly, as a modern law firm, a robust lead tracking system can help you grow your business and stay in control of the leads that you are working so hard to generate.

Best Lead Tracking Tools for law firms

Of course, law firms aren’t the only businesses that utilize lead tracking software. Any company is going to have leads they need to manage and track. That means that some lead tracking software is optimized for law firms, while others have different focuses. Some of the foremost lead tracking and CRM software for lawyers include:

  • LeadDocket: LeadDocket is software designed specifically for law firms and specializing only in lead tracking. It was created by two software designers, a personal injury attorney, and a legal marketing specialist, so you know that it is optimized to fit your needs.
  • Lexicata: This software is also designed exclusively for law firms. Its goal is to streamline your lead tracking process, mainly if you have many leads to keep organized.
  • Base: Base is full-scale CRM software, or customer relationship management software, which means that it goes beyond lead tracking. It offers client- and business-focused features, such as task, customer, and sales management, in addition to lead tracking.
  • Zoho CRM: Manage the entire lifecycle of your customer relationships through this robust business system that was designed as a cheaper, effective alternative to Salesforce.
  • Pardot: Owned by Salesforce, Pardot allows you to score and grade leads, manage email drip campaigns, and measure the ROI of your marketing efforts.
  • Salesforce: This fully customizable CRM platform is one of the most popular choices for businesses of all sizes across all industries. You get real-time customer information in one dashboard, as well as access to thousands of business apps (like Pardot, mentioned directly above) that help you nurture and manage leads through the entire sales process.
  • Freshsales: Track user behavior, manage and score deals, and use the helpful phone and email integrations in this helpful lead management software. While not as robust as Salesforce, Freshsales has a streamlined interface and is helpful for small-to-medium sized businesses and law firms.

Which Lead Tracking Solution is Right for My Law Firm?

To find the right lead tracking software, it is critical that you evaluate your current marketing efforts and intake abilities. How much time and money are you spending on advertising? How many leads does your firm generate each month?

Firms with a more focused marketing and advertising strategy, and more active campaigns, may want a more robust system that integrates with other apps and offers in-depth reporting for your whole team.

Smaller firms may wish to choose a simpler lead-tracking-only system to keep leads in one place that is easy to log into and view for monitoring purposes.

Regardless of size, it is wise to set up some form of lead tracking system to make sure that you don’t lose any valuable contacts due to inefficiency. A lost lead is a potential client lost, and no firm can afford to miss out on opportunities.

Stay tuned for the second installment in this series: “Best Practices for Following Up on Leads”.

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