If you’re trying something new, it’s always beneficial to research something about it before beforehand, rather than just jumping into it blind.
This is true whether it’s picking up an instrument, cooking, or trying a new sport, like tennis or golf. In this case, if your firm isn’t utilizing legal marketing in order to get new clients, it’s a good idea to understand it before you sign up for it.
That way there aren’t any surprises when you first start utilizing their services. Here are some things you should know about legal marketing before you try it.
How Much You Want to Spend
Like anything in life, whether you’re going grocery shopping or planning a vacation, you’ll want to determine beforehand how much you want to spend on your marketing efforts. This is truly dependent on you and or your firm.
Every budget for every firm is going to be different. If you work for a big firm with a lot of lawyers and intake staff, you might want to have a high marketing budget in the hundreds or thousands.
If you are a solo practitioner, your budget will be much, much lower. When you have your budget already in mind, when you’re learning about a lead generation’s cost per lead, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what you’re getting in return for the money that you will be using for it.
Know What You’re Allocated Within Your Budget
This tip goes in handy with our first one. If you’re using a lead generation service for multiple areas of law, then you’ll want to allocate where your money is going to for your leads.
If your firm does personal injury and workers’ comp., maybe you’ll want to spend more money on PI leads because those have been really successful for you in the past.
If you’re a Social Security disability and personal injury lawyer, maybe you’ll set 75% of your marketing budget to SSD leads and 25% to PI leads because you have more attorneys in house who handle disability claims. How you allocate your budget depends on your firm and where you want your legal marketing budget to go.
Understanding Cost Per Case
Knowing your cost per case is a really good way to evaluate how well your marketing efforts are doing. Your cost per case (CPC) tells you how much you spent to acquire one new client.
- CPC= Budget Spent on Marketing Channel / # New Clients
CPC is a more accurate measure of your marketing efforts than your retention rate because it can really help you compare your marketing efforts for different marketing campaigns.
Lead prices and retention rates can vary for lead generation companies, so just looking at retention rates doesn't give you a clear picture.
Instead, compare your CPC. CPC is a lot more telling than your retention rate because it can really help you compare how much you're spending to acquire a case.
Next Steps to Take
Find out what else comes with the money you’re spending on your marketing. For example, at eGen, we have our own lead management software called eLuminate that will help your firm keep a better track of your ROI of the leads that come in.
If you haven’t used a lead generation service before or you want to increase your current lead volume with us, please give us a call at 617-800-0089 and we’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have.