What Makes a Quality Lead?

When it comes to leads, quality can be a hard factor to define. As an agency that specializes in selling leads to attorneys, we would recommend looking for the following attributes:

● Real-time delivery

● High degree of customization

● Options to receive different types of leads, such as call-only

● Specialization in lawyer marketing

You will notice that we did not include conversion rates in our list of quality factors. The rate at which a lead converts into a new client for a law firm is dependent on too many variables, and you should be skeptical of any agency that promises or strongly implies a specific number.

Luckily, many of these conversion-rate factors are under your firm's control. If you're targeting conversions, here are some strategies that could increase your overall rate for any leads that come your way (purchased or not):

● Respond promptly when contacted and answer the phone every time you get a call

● Train intake staff to follow a conversion-focused strategy

● Buy only the amount of the leads you can process per month

● Buy leads for the types of cases that have the highest conversion rate for your firm

Once you have some of these systems in place, be sure to keep track of what happens. You can use your own data to determine which leads are of the highest quality for your firm.

Choosing the Types of Leads You Want

You will have some options when it comes to selecting the types of leads you want to buy for your firm.

There are several different strategies, so let's look at a couple of them.

One popular strategy is to buy leads that each could generate large amounts of revenue. This typically involves buying fewer leads per month at a higher price per lead. Firms that do this often have customized and responsive intake processes. An example would be targeting leads for divorce in an affluent geographical area.

Another strategy is to buy more leads with the goal of maintaining or increasing the baseline caseload at a firm. These are usually leads for cases that the firm can confidently:

● Streamline intake

● Convert at a high rate

● Bring to closure quickly

A firm that wants personal bankruptcy cases might take this approach. Some attorneys focusing on non-adversarial practice areas, such as residential real estate transactions, might also benefit from this tactic.

You shouldn't feel locked into a specific approach. Many attorneys combine these strategies to pursue multiple business development goals.

Focusing your strategy doesn't necessarily increase the quality of the leads you're buying. However, having the option to focus in the first place is a good indication that you're buying from a quality agency.

Making Your Own Leads Vs. Buying Leads

Going back to the idea of doing things yourself, it is definitely possible to create high-quality leads through marketing and advertising campaigns. However, there are some reasons that this is not the only way law offices secure new leads.

The first reason is the complexity of PPC campaigns, a common lead source. PPC is not difficult to start using, but it requires either a lot of work or a large budget to use effectively. This makes the overall cost of buying leads directly lower for most firms.

Another reason is that organic lead generation strategies take time to start showing results. For example, it takes time to grow the readership for your blog or increase your search rank for a website. Both of these tools can be powerful lead generators, but buying leads is usually the best way to get quality leads while you build your presence.

A Look at Pay Per Call

Quality means different things to different firms. For many, ease of processing makes a big difference.

Lead providers might give you leads in a variety of formats. Examples include direct messages or client contact information. One way to make leads easier to process is to get them in a call-only format.

The pay-per-call model could result in a higher conversion rate if your intake process is already streamlined to handle incoming calls. Pay per call has many other possible benefits:

● You do not have to worry about your leads getting stale as long as you answer the phone promptly

● Calls can typically integrate more easily with tracking software since they use existing systems

● Redirecting the budget to pay per call can partially or completely replace advertising campaigns intended to generate calls

● This is one of the only ways to generate a dependable number of calls per month for your firm

Whether or not this option is right for you depends on your business development goals. However, it does serve as an example of how flexible PPL services can be.

Choosing a Lead Provider for Your Law Firm

Choosing a lead provider is a relatively big decision. You ideally want to find a partner that is:

Flexible in terms of contracts and delivery schedule

Able to supply the number of leads you want

Positioned to help you grow your business at your pace

Specialized in law firm leads

Legal Locator's goal is to provide quality leads for attorneys. Contact us today to get started with a personal consultation.