Integrity Marketing

Four Psychological Tips to Help Transform Leads into Clients

Consider these four simple psychological factors presented by MarTech Advisors to move website and social media visitors from digital leads to living, breathing clients.

1. The power of reason.
   Give me a good reason why I should become a client. Show me that I will benefit or gain some kind of advantage by reaching out to your office to make an appointment. Will you be able to provide something to me that will help my family? Tell me what it is and how it will help.
   
   
2. Reciprocity leads to loyalty.
   People are more inclined to engage with those who have helped them. By giving me something first, you’ve made me more likely to feel compelled to do something for you. What can you give me on your website? Give me an enjoyable, seamless, heartwarming video that shows me how much you care about what you do. Tell me some information that I didn’t know – and that may be important to me. If you want to give me a whitepaper that I can download and share with my elderly parents, make sure the typeface is easy to read and the design is optimized for home printing. Don’t disappoint me.
   
   
3. Drive action with a sense of urgency.
   People are more likely to act when they know that there is a limited window of time to respond. This is a tricky one for law firms. Your most urgent message is for people to do estate planning while they are still well and able to plan. A person who does not have an estate plan who suffers a catastrophic injury leaves their family members in a mess, whether they are dead or alive. As professionals, we don’t like to over dramatize this – but taking a too passive approach isn’t good either. Is there a middle ground that can work for you?
   
   
4. Curiosity drives engagement.
   People are curious by nature. When you ask us a question that creates a sense of curiosity, you get our brain cells firing – creating a strong sense of wanting to know. Ask thought-provoking questions to make us want to resolve an issue. Do you know what will happen to your family when you are gone? Did you know that an estate plan can resolve many of these issues? Ask us questions and show us that you can help us find the answers.

Quantity or Quality – or Both? What Drives Blog Success

It’s an age-old question – what’s more valuable, quantity or quality? We see it when we can buy a fast-food burger for a really low price, but a grass-fed, free-range all beef hamburger from a quality restaurant costs at least ten times more.

Is your blog like a burger?

Maybe. For best results, we recommend going for quality content and steady frequency.

If you are blogging at least three times a week, congratulations. You are giving people more opportunities to hear from you on topics that are important to them. Do they need to revise their wills? How are big name celebrities doing with their personal estate matters? Are your blog readers creating a mess for their heirs?

Frequency has a value. It sends a message: you are a source of information and you are consistent. These are two important values for your constituents to see.

Check out this great post from Hubspot that examines a six month study of blog posts to reveal what kind of posts work best for their audience as well as determining the most successful rate of frequency. While you don’t have to dig in this deep, the information that you can get from your own data will help steer you in the right direction.

Check out your Google analytics – there we go again, leaning on the data – to see which blog posts move more traffic to your site, and you’ll have more information about what topics resonate with your target market.

Every week we send you Essential Blog topics so that you have relevant content to post on your blog. Don’t forget to make this one of your must-do weekly marketing tactics.

Moving at the Speed of Light

Are you keeping up with the changes that are transforming estate planning law firms?

It’s not easy.

The pace of change in law firm practice management and law firm marketing is moving at the speed of light.    

The excitement right now? Globalized technology. This is where the practice of law is headed.

All of the processes in your office that are being assisted by software – from CRM (Client Relationship Management) to document management to marketing – are moving towards  a single, integrated, seamless platform.

Is that really possible? Yes.

When is it going to arrive? Very soon.

For  “early adapters,” those select individuals who are ready and willing to take the leap and who understand that new technology is an investment in their law practice and their future that requires  time and money, it’s almost here.

For those who take a “wait and see” approach, the future is further away.

Our recommendation: don’t wait too long. The future won’t always wait! 

 

Don't Commit This Marketing Sin

When it comes to getting a new website, one of the important aspects is your domain name; especially your EXISTING domain name. On occasion we find that some firms are not sure how to access their domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy or Network Solutions) or they don't know who manages their domain name server (DNS).

When this happens we go through a series of investigative steps to help the law firm track down who their registrar is or who manages their DNS. And other times we are met with resistance and an inclination for the law firm to think that it would be much easier to just get a new domain. This couldn't be farther from the truth! Don't be tempted to commit this marketing sin!

Consider the following potential evils that could occur:

• Loss of custom email accounts
• Any printed materials that display your custom email address
• Potential administrative loss of social media accounts that are connected to your custom email
• Contacts from social media accounts that list your personalized email address
• Access to social media accounts could be lost
• Subscription services associated to your email may be lost
• Clients who have your email address saved will not be able to reach you and may become frustrated
• Any online listings that contain your email and domain will now be wrong
• All printed material containing your domain will be worthy of file 13 - and nothing else
  • Consider all the pieces in the hands of current and potential clients, as well as, referral sources
  • This includes stationery, brochures and business cards, to name a few
• Any previous print ads will be incorrect
• The power of link juice associated to your domain will be lost
• All cached web pages will result in errors
• One could be faced with competing with his or her own self and having no control over it
  • The losing service provider can do whatever they want with your domain
  • Worst case scenario would be if they leave your old web site and email live

Before you resign to let that old domain go, consider the downside of doing so and the costs involved to recoup.

Photo Attribution: The three monkeys: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil Copyright © John Snape | Creative Commons | Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

If You Aren’t Taking EMail Marketing Campaigns Seriously, You Will Now!

At IMS, we try to cast a wide net when gathering helpful information, so unless your practice combines estate planning with patent law, this will be news to you.

A few days ago, Google was issued a patent on a process best described as a spam fighter with consequences. The patent is on a process that will identify spammers and connect their spamming activities to their websites and other digital properties, which Google can subsequently penalize in some form, usually their rankings.

Today’s spammer is not limited to the individuals who send endless emails about hair replacement methods or other medicines. Today’s spammer often seeks to monetize their online activities, and focuses on ways to build large numbers of visitors. The end-game goal of the spammer is to get a massive number of views. For example, one target would be to maximize visibility of a channel on YouTube (Google owned) views.

The end-game of Google is to promote a quality experience for the user, with content that is relevant to their search.

We don’t have to tell you how important Google and Google rankings are to the health and well being of any website and any business that needs its website to be visible.

This much is clear: the world of SEO is forever changing and keeping up to date is a big and important task. Keeping you current, and ensuring that your social media campaigns are strong is our end game!

Are Your New Client Phone Calls Going into Space?

Now that you know how important the website’s Call to Action is to your law firm website, you also know that the phone calls that result from that Call to Action are a key part of your estate planning law firm success.

IMS clients tell us that while they love to get a stack of email forms in their inbox, the people who are ready to retain sooner rather than later – serious “buyers,” not “shoppers” – are those who pick up the phone and make a call.

The more immediate and self-directed clients call for an appointment.

When they call, these self-directed leads are ready to move forward. 

If you are getting phone calls and not getting appointments, we have a few questions.

Are you unknowingly placing barriers between your callers and an appointment?

Who answers the phone?  Is it someone from your office, or an answering service?

If it’s a service, are they placed on hold while the service connects them to someone in your office? How long is the hold period?  What are they hearing while they are on hold?

What happens when they get to a person at your office – do they have to repeat the reason they are calling, or has the service already explained why they are calling?

How well are the calls handled from your team members? 

We have seen a number of instances where there is a major disconnect between outstanding website and social media performance and the number of new client appointments and the phone conversation is the big link between the two.

Our research is underway to uncover hard data (if you are a regular reader of this blog you know that we lean heavily on the data!) but in the meantime we ask you to consider this:  the weakest link in a law firm’s new business area may be the person who answers the phone.

We’ll continue to explore this area in weeks to come – stay tuned!!

Time for A Mid-Year Check Up for Estate Planning Law Firms

We love summer, especially mid-summer. We love the traditions of summer – going to the beach, lake swimming, fishing, making time for family. We always tell our clients to tell their clients to take a moment next time they are at a family picnic and remember that estate planning protects those they love.

Another tradition of summer that we like – the mid-year law firm check up.

If you set performance benchmarks for your practice, this is the time to review the year’s progress and consider what is working, what is not, and what you can still change to reach your goals for the year.

If you don’t set performance benchmarks, we strongly suggest you consider starting this practice.

Your mid-year review should include your marketing efforts.

If you haven’t already made your website mobile friendly, we can’t emphasize enough how important this is to your law firm success. You have lost some ground with a non-mobile friendly site – there’s still time to catch up for the year if you start the process now.

Are you reaching the people you want to work with? If you love your clients, that’s an easy yes. If you find that your clients are not appreciative of what you do for them, or they are purely driven by pricing, then maybe you need something to change.

Is your staff doing a great job converting leads into clients?  Do they answer the phone with a warm greeting, treat new callers and existing clients like good friends, and help reinforce your practice as a warm and caring professional office that offers superior levels of service?

Not getting the answers you want to these questions? Give us a call – we have more than two decades of experience and hundreds of estate planning law firms who have made IMS an integral part of their success story. 

Lawyer Video: Personal or Professional?

What millennials know that Baby Boomers may not:  today’s legal services consumer expects a personal touch when they are dealing with estate planning and elder law offices.

Consider the difference between going to a law firm to discuss your loved one’s health challenges and planning for nursing home care versus meeting with a contracts attorney to set up a partnership agreement for your business.

You want to know the attorney who is being entrusted with your business is good – but you also want to know that the estate planning attorney’s heart is in the right place, that he or she understands the intense emotions you are experiencing as you and your family move through this difficult process.

That personal touch, a strong sense of authenticity and integrity (yes, we chose that for a reason) are what legal services consumers want when their legal needs are deeply personal.

Millennials don’t see a split between personal and professional. To them, personal and professional are one and the same. And authenticity matters. The biggest sin is insincerity.

Today’s adult child of elderly parents wants to know who you are just as much as (and sometimes maybe more than) what you know.

That’s why you need a lawyer video. Consider this recent video that we produced for our client Vinnie Bonazzoli, who shares a very personal experience with visitors to his website. He clearly cares deeply about what he does for his clients and understands their needs and concerns.

About Vincent E. Bonazzoli from Integrity Marketing Solutions on Vimeo.

 

Could that story be as moving if it were simply words on a page?

We don’t think so. That’s the power of lawyer videos.  

Do you have a story to tell? We can help – call James Campbell at 877-352-2021 x80.

ADA Compliant Accessibility Rules

Law firm managers may be asking themselves, "Does my website meet ADA accessibility rules and regulations?" A better question may be: "Does my website need to meet ADA accessibility rules and regulations?"

An ADA compliant website would likely not apply to your law firm. Yet, your site was designed with certain features in mind that meet compliancy standards. These features include utilizing HTML alt tags on all images (for screen readers) and any PDF file that is created on behalf of your law firm is compatible for optical character recognition (OCR) programs.

If you are a government contractor or providing state/local government programs, services or activities, the information at http://www.ada.gov/pcatoolkit/toolkitmain.htm may be helpful. This toolkit covers all aspects of design from parking lots, building construction and websites.

 

Photo Attribution: A Compass Drawing a Circle Copyright © Arnaud333 | Creative Commons | Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

Dissecting Your Website – Why is that there? Part 4: Call to Action

The call to action is one of the most important elements of your website design and definitely should not be overlooked. This week in the “Dissecting Your Website” series, we’ll be talking about some best practices for call to action items on your website. If you want to start from the beginning, be sure to also check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 first!

A call to action item is a link or button on your website that encourages your viewers to become leads by filling out a form online. The most effective buttons should:

• Start with a verb, be action-oriented
• Be short and to the point
• Make it clear what will happen when clicked
• Draw your eye without distracting from the main message of the page

For our Essential Attorneys, great call to action options would be something like “Request a Consultation”, “Contact Our Office”, or “Register for a Workshop”. These all start with an action, are brief, and clearly explain what you are about to do. Your viewers will also feel like they are getting something of value (a consultation, information, personal interaction) in exchange for giving you their contact info.

The way the call to action buttons are designed is also very important. They should stand out, but still coordinate and not detract from or cheapen your brand message. Flashing buttons and marquees are not what we are going for! Through careful placement, layout, font choice, size and color, the design team at IMS will make sure that your audience knows what you want them to do next. It is also a good idea to have your top-priority call to action item located in the hero section on the website. It can often be a good compliment to your tagline and we want to make sure it can be seen it right away. Stick to just one primary call to action item – the more you add, the more diluted and ineffective they become.

But what if you really want to feature more than one area of your practice or call to action item? The best solution in this situation is to still pick just one as your primary call to action item to focus on. Then feature the rest in a section just below the hero section. I also like to design this second set a little differently so that the primary item still stands out the most.

For an example of these principles in action, take a look at IMS President Kyle Krull’s new website. Here, “Request a Consultation” is the primary call to action. It is action-oriented, very clear and to the point, and is designed a little differently than the three buttons below.

Next week: In our next stop in this series, we’ll talk about something a little more personal – the welcome message! Why is the welcome message so important, anyway?