Marketing and advertising for law firms is expensive, but how many law firms are tracking their return on investment, or ROI?
How many law firms are making marketing decisions based on “their feelings” rather than the numbers?
How many lawyers are interested to find out if they are running a law firm that makes profit, or a sinking ship that happens to also do legal work?
I wish the figures were different, but according to our own research, almost 60% of law firms do not track marketing ROI!
Without proper measurement of marketing ROI in your law firm, you will never be able to ascertain whether your firm is maximizing profit, and your ability to grow your practice will be hindered.
However, a fair amount of lawyers polled were interested to learn how to track their marketing ROI – so that’s what we’re gonna do in this article!
We’ll show you how to track leads, measure ROI in your firm, and discover how a strong partnership with a marketing agency you can trust can empower your marketing decisions with data, not just feelings.
And the best reason to measure marketing ROI in your firm, according to our polls above: Your competition is not doing the work.
So let’s get to it!
Measure Marketing ROI in Your Law Firm
Simply put, to measure marketing ROI in your law firm, you have to answer for these three parameters:
- Lead Tracking
- Average Cost Per Lead
- Average Cost Per Case
Although there are plenty of resources on firm management practices, how to bill your time, and which case management system is the best, we will stick with marketing and dive right into lead tracking.
Four Ways to Track Leads in Your Law Firm
Ask them directly
Crazy right? This used to be a huge point of contention in marketing meetings – the way in which we asked phone intakes how they heard about our firm.
We settled on this phrase to be asked towards the end of the call: “How did you hear about (law firm name)?” Digitally, there are a million ways to track leads, but in the analog world, you have to trust what people say, and then verify it with call tracking afterwards.
Unique Tracking Links (known as UTMs)
The Internet has afforded us many tools to help expand businesses online, and one of the simplest and most effective tools for digital marketers are Unique Tracking Links, known as UTMs (short for Urchin Tracking Modules).
Using a tool like Google Link Builder to affix unique tracking codes to all your digital advertising can be a huge help in analyzing where your traffic comes from and what channels to invest your marketing dollars in.
Call Tracking Technology
Without a doubt, the single best thing you can do to track ROI in your law firm is get call tracking software. The phone was the Number One channel for client acquisition in my old law firm. With UTMs and call tracking software in place, I could trust that if the intake staff couldn’t grab a lead source or were given a wrong lead source, then we would always have an actual back-up and be able to verify where the call originated from.
If you’re looking for call tracking software, Call Tracking Metrics is a reliable company that has helped our clients keep track of leads in their firms.
Lead Tracking Software
At my old firm, the lead tracking software was my own two hands, an Excel spreadsheet, and grit.
Nowadays, there are dashboards and apps aplenty that can help, but without a curious and dedicated user, most tech fixes in the marketing department are going to fall to the wayside or become neglected and out-of-date.
At Consultwebs, we help our clients establish cost-per-case metrics and other important benchmarks that are connected to firm goals.
Each Consultwebs client has a dedicated account manager and has access to their own marketing dashboard (pictured below), keeping them up-to-date with campaigns, ensuring objectives and campaigns are focused, and making sure the metrics that matter are easily available.
To learn more about the Consultwebs SMART Dashboard, click here.
The win-win situation here is to get your CRM or case management system to have marketing fields so you can track Lead Source right in the signed case.
Another benefit to attaching lead sources to your case management system will also become evident when you track the quality of cases. If a certain marketing channel is giving you cases with high turnover rates, it’s time to switch the message or adjust your strategy.
How Do I Calculate Cost Per Lead in My Law Firm?
- Add up your monthly marketing spend per channel (social, search, TV, Radio)
- Add up new leads acquired in the month
- Divide your marketing spend by new leads
Total Marketing Spend / Total New Leads = Cost Per Lead
That’s it.
We could keep going and show you how to incorporate firm costs, discover conversion rates against your average fees, and provide ROI worksheets, but our expert Tanner does just that in our podcast:
How Do I Calculate Cost Per Case in My Law Firm?
Founder of PILMMA, Ken Hardison, has been giving high-quality legal marketing advice for years at his organization, and he has a simple formula and example on how he calculates CPC at his practice;
Cost per case is found by combining your cost per lead with your conversion percentage. Personally, I know that I convert 10% of my leads to clients. For example, if I spend $3,000 for 100 leads and convert 10% of those leads, I’m getting 10 cases. That means my cost per case is $300.
There are plenty of articles and advice on what a good ROI percentage is, but ultimately that number may adjust on comfort level, investments in marketing campaigns, and costs/overhead.
If you’d like to go more in-depth and speak with one of our legal marketing specialists, our ROI Calculator can help you discover business development insights for your firm and shared metrics you can build marketing strategies on.
Don’t Have Time to Track Your Law Firm’s ROI?
That’s why it’s nice to have a dependable legal marketing agency you can trust when it comes to getting more cases from the Web, and tracking the effectiveness of your efforts through ROI.
Calculating the return on your marketing investment is not a simple process, and it’s only valuable if you consistently monitor and adjust your strategy accordingly.
At Consultwebs, we manage every aspect of your law firm’s online marketing campaign, and we are not afraid to discuss results. Indeed, our success as a marketing agency is tied directly to your success as a law firm.
If you’re serious about investing in expanding your law firm online and getting cases from the Web, you deserve to have a legal marketing agency that wants to help you track ROI.
Want more advice on law firm marketing? Sign up for the Consultwebs newsletter, follow us on social media, and subscribe to the LAWsome Podcast.
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