While running a successful law practice requires many different skills, both in and out of the courtroom, it’s also important to make sure your firm is spending its resources wisely. No matter how good you are at negotiating settlements, drawing up contracts, or handling criminal trials, wasting money is a surefire way to find yourself in financial trouble. It’s especially important to make sure whatever you’re spending on marketing your firm is being put to good use.

Because law firms rely more than ever on their websites and other digital marketing tools, it’s crucial to make sure you’re getting a good return on your investment. To that end, it’s smart to check in with your marketing agency regularly to see how they’re using your money and what kind of return you’re seeing.

In addition to carefully examining whatever statistics they show you, the team at Client Chat Live recommends you ask your marketing agency the following three questions:

Question 1 – What’s My Cost-Per-Client?

This is really the most fundamental question to determine any marketing team’s success: How much is it costing you for each client brought in by your current marketing campaign? A law firm needs a steady stable of clients to grow and thrive, and if it’s costing you too much money for each new client you’re getting, your firm could easily find itself in a financial death spiral. The same is true if you’re spending a lot of money on marketing and aren’t seeing any new clients coming in.

A simple way to calculate your cost per client is to total up all your marketing-related expenses and divide that number by however many new clients you’ve signed in a given time period (usually a month, though you could use whatever time interval you want).

However, your marketing costs are more than just whatever you’re paying your marketing agency. You’re also paying for staff to handle incoming phone calls, emails, live online chats, and inbound leads from your website’s contact form. There’s also a cost to keeping your website up and other assorted expenses. All of these expenses have a cost, and the only way to recoup those costs is to regularly sign new clients.

When you ask this question of your marketing agency, you should expect them to have detailed data on what your costs are and how much each new client is costing you. Even if you’re happy with the number of new clients coming in, there may be money that’s going to waste, and you want to make sure you’re maximizing the allocation of your firm’s limited resources.

Question 2 – What’s My Cost-Per-Lead?

Asking this question may sound like you’re repeating yourself, but there’s a subtle, important distinction between the number of clients you sign and the number of leads coming in. The distinction is this: Every client that calls your office, sends you an email, fills out an online contact form, or engages in a live chat is a lead, but not all leads become signed clients. While this may not sound like much of a difference, it actually means a great deal in terms of making sure you’re efficiently spending your marketing resources wisely.

One particular data point to watch for in this regard is the percentage of high-quality leads (meaning people who are contacting your firm for legal services) that become signed clients. Turning potential leads into signed clients is a delicate art, but in many ways, it’s the most crucial component of your marketing campaign. If you’re getting lots of potential leads but aren’t signing a lot of clients, that’s a problem. It means that something is wrong with the late-game steps in your firm’s client pipeline, perhaps with how your in-office staff is responding to requests for your firm’s services.

On the other hand, maybe most of your high-quality leads do end up signing with your firm, but you aren’t getting a lot of leads to begin with. If this is the case, it suggests the issue is somewhere earlier in the client pipeline. It could be that your website isn’t optimized for mobile users, the content on your pages is out-of-date or clunky, the contact form on your website isn’t working correctly, or that your marketing team isn’t using the right tools to find a receptive audience. Regardless of what the issue is, a low number of incoming leads suggests you need to review your marketing operation.

Question 3 – What’s My Website’s Conversion Rate?

Moving further up the client pipeline, another key metric to monitor when it comes to your marketing campaign is your website conversion rate. If you aren’t familiar with this term, your conversion rate is the number of people who take a specific action you’re looking for (i.e., filling out your online contact form or calling your office) compared with the number of visitors to your website.

Your conversion rate directly impacts the number of leads coming in to your firm, which in turn affects the number of new clients you’re signing. If you’re getting thousands of visitors to your website every month, but few of those people are taking the next step of making contact with your firm, you’re wasting your money. To really make the most of your marketing budget, you want to make sure your marketing team is bringing the right people to your website and that they’re actually interested in what your firm has to offer.

Contact Client Chat Live Today to See How We Can Help Your Firm Grow

At Client Chat Live, we’ve made it our business to provide cutting-edge marketing services to law firms nationwide. Our sophisticated digital tools, especially our live chat integration for legal websites, are designed to guide high-quality leads through the client pipeline, so you see a steady flow of new clientele. With our help, we can help your firm reach its true potential. Learn more by calling us at (808) 495-0231 or visiting our contact page.