What is a lead?
In general, a lead is somebody who gives you their contact details, usually their email address, sometimes in exchange for something of value.
They’re essentially someone who is on the way to becoming a client of yours, but isn’t quite ready to commit yet.
And why do you want to get a lead?
When a potential client shares their contact details with you, they’re indicating that they’re interested in your service. By adding them to your mailing list and sending them a series of emails, or keeping in touch with them through some other means, you’re fostering a trusted relationship with them over time, which makes them more likely to eventually become your client. This practice is called lead nurture.
I often hear from law firm owners about how they get a lot of visitors to their website, but those visitors leave without ever booking a call.
The question those law firm owners have is, how can you get your visitors to give you their contact details before they leave your website?
The most effective way to do that is by creating some sort of lead magnet.
A lead magnet is an asset, like a downloadable guide or an online quiz, that offers value to your ideal client, and encourages them to give you their contact details in exchange.
There are many different types of lead magnets, and I’ve created hundreds. I’m going to share the five most effective types proven to work really well for law firms today.
#1: Free downloads
This is a free guide, or a cheat sheet, a checklist, a white paper… any kind of asset that your ideal client would find valuable.
Every firm, and their ideal client, is a bit different.
A lawyer recently shared their success with an infographic that’s working really well for them.
I know another lawyer who uses a case study as a really effective lead magnet, in the form of a PDF download.
Think about your ideal client – what questions are they consistently asking you? What problems are they trying to solve? What value are you happy to offer up for free, in exchange for a new lead? Figure it out, build your asset and put it on your website for your ideal client to find.
#2: Webinars
Particularly since COVID-19 sent us all into isolation, most of your clients will be very familiar with Zoom and webinars – webinars are another really effective way of generating leads for your law firm.
Webinars are typically around half an hour to an hour long, and they can be packed FULL of valuable content your ideal client will love.
At the end of the webinar, you’ve got the opportunity to pitch your legal services and invite viewers to book a call with you.
Webinars are a really great way of not only generating a lead, but also nurturing a potential client.
You can either invite people to a live webinar, or pre-record webinars to make available on your website.
The real trick is coming up with a topic that appeals to your ideal client. With the right topic, your website visitors will be more than happy to give you their email address in exchange for the valuable information you plan to share.
#3: Online quizzes
We’ve all done an online quiz before (big thanks to the creators for confirming which Spice Girl we are, or where we should take our next vacay). When done well, an online quiz can offer a lot of value as a lead magnet for your potential clients too.
A really popular quiz bot that was used by one of my law firm clients in 2020 was a quiz on the COVID relief packages for small businesses.
A small business owner could come along, answer a few questions and easily find out what sort of COVID relief was available for their situation, before contacting the firm for help. Easy!
To stretch the value of a quiz further, a few personal or demographic questions thrown in can help identify an ideal client – something that is really useful to know.
#4: Online groups
The amazing thing about having an online group is, it allows you to bring together lots of your ideal clients in one place.
You can offer value to all members of your group at once, and you can bring in other experts to do the same.
Online groups are a great way to gather leads because you can foster conversations and help people form relationships with you and each other, all while demonstrating the services your firm offers.
Groups are best formed with some kind of gated entry – before you let somebody into the group, ask them a series of questions to make sure they fit your ideal client profile.
When one of the questions includes “What is your email address?”, you’ve got yourself a lead that you can start contacting. Just be sure to make it clear when they provide you with their details that you plan to add them to your mailing list.
Online groups can be built on a number of platforms, but some of the most popular are Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, and private Slack groups.
#5: Email marketing
Email marketing is one of my absolute fave forms of lead nurture.
Email marketing is super effective because when you have a mailing list, you can fill your e-newsletter with valuable information, tips, techniques and strategies that are really appealing to your ideal client. Once sent, you can then analyse open rates and engagement, and improve what you send out to nurture your leads more effectively next time.
The data that you gather is managed directly by you, whereas with the likes of online group platforms for example, data can be disabled, removed or changed by the platform provider, leaving your historical analytics at the mercy of an external strategy.
Email marketing offers a great way to gather leads as well, because if you have an email newsletter that goes out regularly – and you can demonstrate how it offers value to a prospective client – they’ll be interested in signing up.
On your website, it’s most effective to make subscribing to your newsletter super attractive. Don’t expect to gather hundreds of leads with an offer like “Subscribe to our newsletter here”. Sell the newsletter as a valuable asset for the prospect to have by describing the content, cadence and quality of your emails.
If you can do that, email marketing is a great way to gather leads and nurture potential clients.
Thanks so much for reading all the way to the end, I hope you found this list valuable. If you give any of these lead magnet ideas a try, I’d love to hear how you get on!
For more tips and ideas on growing and scaling a modern, successful, seven figure law firm, sign up to my Savvy Lawyers Facebook group.
