What Prospects Look For When Searching For A Lawyer

Just as no two attorneys are the same, neither are any two clients. Each person is going to have their own unique needs they will want to have satisfied when looking for legal counsel.

To appeal to these prospects, it is essential for a lawyer to have a website that appeals to all sorts of different buyers. We have determined that there are four types of buyers that a good legal site needs to appeal to the:

Competitive Buyer — These prospects are the type of people who make quick and logical decisions. Competitive buyers simply want “the best.” When visiting your website, a competitive buyer wants to know, “What separates you from your competitor?” They generally want an attorney to show what they’ve done to distinguish themselves as a top level attorney. For this type of client, a lawyer will want to show what they have done in the courtroom. High dollar cases can be advantageous in appealing to competitive buyers.

Spontaneous Buyer — A spontaneous buyer is also quick and emotional with their decisions. They deliberately seek contact information and often look immediately for a live chat or a phone number to call. Spontaneous buyers want an immediate response, feedback, a way to contact an attorney right away. A spontaneous buyer might be in a more desperate situation than other types of buyers, so it is essential to make sure that these kinds of people have the necessary way to make that initial contact with you. In many cases, merely being there to talk to a spontaneous buyer will ultimately lead to them becoming a client.

Methodical Buyer — The methodical buyer tends to be slow and logistical rather than being quick and emotional with their decisions. In other words, these buyers are going to be reviewing all the practice information and the attorneys’ bios. In effect, they are seeking more of a long-term relationship with the attorney. A methodical buyer views a lawyer as more of a long-term, almost business partner rather than someone that will take care of their legal need immediately. Make sure that the information on your website contains information that conveys how often clients return to you for assistance with legal needs and make mention of the importance of relationships to your firm.

Humanistic Buyer — A humanistic buyer is also slow, but they are more emotional with their decisions. Whereas the methodical buyer might pay more attention to professional qualifications, the primary focus of a humanistic buyer is going to be seeking to relate personally to the attorney. They want an attorney-client relationship on a more personal level. These buyers will respond, again, to the personal side of their life in the attorney’s biography more than the decisions they have won for clients. To appeal to a humanistic buyer, you want to make sure that your website includes information about yourself that has nothing to do with the law. Talk about your pets, your hobbies, your favorite professional sports team. Humanistic buyers want to know that a lawyer is human, and too many websites fail to do that.

I find that most firm websites do a great job whenever it comes to showing their success in the courtroom, whether it’s dollar figures won or the number of cases they have won. They also succeed in establishing their qualifications such as the college they went to or just different recognitions that they have earned throughout the years.

Where the majority of attorneys fall short is with the humanistic and spontaneous buyers. While a live chat does a good job offering the spontaneous buyer precisely what they want, firms often leave out things like their hobbies, information about their family, and things such as pictures of the attorney doing activities outside of the office such as fishing or spending time with their family.

Creating a legal website that appeals to all four of these types of buyers is by no means an easy task, but it is also not impossible. When an attorney tries to approach their website from the perspective of each of these kinds of buyers, many answers seem to come rather quickly for implementing solutions or improvements.

If you feel that you should be hearing more often from one of these types of buyers, you should not hesitate to take a more compelling look at your existing website and try to consider how each buyer would view it if visiting for the first time.