Legal Locator generates qualified leads and sends them to you exclusively, in real time. Contact us to get started today, or read on to learn more about how the system could improve your business.

Buying Leads Vs. Generating Them In-House

One of the big questions attorneys often have is whether purchasing leads or generating them in-house makes more sense. Luckily, you don't really have to choose.

There are enough law firm lead generation companies out there that you're sure to find one that fits any budget. Moreover, many have highly flexible plans. That means you can buy a handful of leads per month, a couple of months out of the year — or you can get many more depending on your needs.

This combination of options and flexibility should let you ease in to lead buying, complement your current strategy, or satisfy any of your other short-term business development goals. In fact, many of our clients at Legal Locator have their own ad campaigns, in-person lead generation, and websites in addition to buying our leads.

Consistent Revenue Generation for Law Firms

Generating revenue for a law firm is anything but straightforward, especially for practice areas focusing on conflict resolution. For example, even when you win cases as a family law attorney or personal injury lawyer, you'll sometimes have issues with billing and fee collection. Keeping a business like that going requires you to have good finances. A consistent stream of new potential revenue sources from a lead generation agency often helps, too.

Predictable opportunities for revenue sources even benefit firms that depend more on administrative processes and repeat clients — estate planners or real estate attorneys, for example. Loyalty isn't what it used to be in these practice areas, but there's still the potential for multiple generations of clients for your firm from a single converted lead. It makes sense to process as many as your firm can handle.

Regardless of the area in which you practice, law firm revenue is often unpredictable. However, incoming leads don't have to be. Pinning down at least this one element of your revenue stream can make it much easier to plan for the future of your business.

Balancing Cost and Revenue

Revenue in any form is wonderful, but it's most useful when it also represents profit. That's what will help your business grow over the long term.

With that in mind, you need a lead generation service that you can use to get a good cost-to-revenue ratio. This is rarely going to be the lowest bidder.

Keep in mind that nobody can promise you that every lead they send will convert. The best lead generation agencies can help, though. For example, we pre-qualify our leads, help you integrate our data into your systems, and even provide insights into how to make the most out of the opportunities each lead presents.

Quality leads come from people who show real interest in legal services. Those types of leads are not always cheap. However, it's what you do in response to that interest — and how efficiently you respond — that determines the total cost to your firm.

The key to maximizing your revenue-to-cost ratio is reducing non-billable and administrative hours while pursuing the highest quality leads available. We provide high-tech tools and personal training so our clients can do just that.

How Online Lead Purchasing Works

Online lead purchasing should ideally be simple from an attorney's perspective. If it seems complicated, feel free to ask for clarification — a good firm should be able to instantly explain what's happening. If it still seems confusing, there could be some active obfuscation at work. In other words, look for another agency.

The main idea is to set up your firm for successfully following up on leads. This means customizing the following:

• The number of leads you receive in a given time period

• Your practice areas, or at least those for which you want new clients

• Your territory — usually a municipality, a county (or parish), or a state

Then, you would learn any proprietary systems and tools that the lead agency provides. After that, leads should come automatically until the end of your planned period or until you change your order. This means you can focus on contacting your potential clients and creating revenue for your firm.

Where the Leads Come From

Unlike the leads you generate yourself, agency leads typically come from large-scale, complex marketing and advertising campaigns. Multiple firms buy from the same agency, which allows you to get the benefit of sophisticated advertising without paying for the entire campaign yourself.

Managing a complex campaign like this requires knowledge and experience. Before you decide to buy leads from an agency, confirm that they have a background in online marketing for lawyers. That experience is highly likely to improve the quality and efficiency of the campaigns, which should, in turn, translate to more conversions and lower costs for you.

Legal Locator and Our Approach to Leads

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, Legal Locator's goal is to provide pre-qualified, exclusive, real-time leads so you can onboard clients and grow your practice. We have extensive experience in online lawyer marketing and a worldwide professional network. Please contact us to learn more, or to start with your first new leads.