How to Improve Legal Marketing with Improved Speed to Lead

Rushing through legal processes, due diligence, or legal research is rarely a good idea. It takes time to do it right and ensure you’re thorough. Your clients deserve no less than whatever time it takes. However, other aspects of law firm operations do require some speed. That’s particularly true when it comes to connecting with potential clients. 

What we’re talking about here is speed to lead and it’s an essential metric of success. It’s also the culmination of your legal marketing efforts. If your team can’t manage to connect with leads when they’re ready, they’ll defect to your competitors. So, what is speed to lead and how can you tap into it to transform your legal marketing?

What is speed to lead?

Speed to lead is nothing more than how quickly you (or your team) can respond when a potential client (a lead) contacts your office. That might be an automated form on your website. It could be a direct email. It might be a phone call or a message sent through Facebook Messenger. All of these are viable routes a potential client might use to reach out. 

Why does speed to lead matter?

Not sure why it’s so important to get back with potential clients as quickly as possible? Check out a few important statistics from Doodle.

• Connecting with a new lead within the first five minutes of them reaching out makes it 100 times more likely that you’ll reach them.

• Reaching out to a new lead within five minutes makes it 21 times more likely that you’ll qualify them than if you wait just half an hour.

• Many law firms take an entire day to respond, and some take a full week to reply, if they reply at all, meaning that those leads are almost certainly going to look elsewhere.

Connecting with potential leads quickly is even more important for specific types of law firms, such as those that focus on personal injury cases, because clients are in pain and distress, and they need a solution right now. Given just how critical speed to lead is to your law firm’s success, it makes sense that you know how to improve it.

How to improve speed to lead

No law firm’s legal marketing process is going to be perfect. However, you can take these steps to dramatically improve things so that you’re able to get back to leads as quickly as possible.

1. Identify bottlenecks

The first thing you must do is identify potential bottlenecks that prevent you from answering inquiries as quickly as possible. Is your office understaffed? Do you have clear policies regarding replying to emails, SMS, and chat messages? Do you have dedicated team members answering the phones? What’s your policy on returning phone calls? All of these can be hurdles that prevent you from converting leads into clients.

2. Set clear expectations

Your entire team should have a firm understanding of the expectations when it comes to responding to inquiries. And that goes for all communication channels. You must communicate your expectations and then ensure that everyone’s living up to them. If they’re not, find out why. It’s not usually because they simply don’t want to. It’s more often because of conflicting expectations, wearing too many hats, or other issues that should be addressed.

3. Implement AI

AI is a powerful tool that your office should not be without. It has immense potential and can help you move leads through the funnel quickly and without the need for human interaction until they’re ready to convert. For instance, an AI-powered chatbot embedded on your website can provide important information for leads based on keywords in their query, their geographic area, the urgency of their needs, and more. 

4. Use virtual receptionists

Law firms must constantly find new ways to maximize profitability. For small firms, that usually means going without dedicated receptionists and allowing other team members to fulfill multiple roles. That’s never a good idea where speed to lead is concerned. Instead, use a 24/7 answering service with human receptionists. They can answer calls, vet leads, provide information to move leads further down the funnel, and hand off warm phone calls when the lead is ready to convert. They can also handle other tasks, like call-backs and follow-ups, replying to SMS messages, and even booking appointments. 

Automated technology and expert human agents help boost legal marketing success

Your legal marketing efforts should be geared to do more than get potential clients to your website. Often, that’s just the first of many touchpoints. Automated technology, AI-powered chatbots, and expert human agents all have roles to play in improving your speed to lead and accelerating the success of your legal marketing efforts.

At Smith.ai, our virtual receptionists are available 24/7 so no matter when a lead reaches out, they’ll get an answer. That means no more waiting for hours or entire days for a reply, and it also takes the onus off your team so they can focus on what they do best. However, we can do more to support your success. 

Our AI-powered chat can turn your website into a lead-generation machine, while our human agents handle sensitive or complex situations. We also help you avoid spam and marketing calls, provide you with call intelligence and metadata to assist in your marketing efforts, and provide lead screening and intake services to streamline your processes.

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.

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