Converting Leads to Clients: The Ones That Got Away

When we talk about marketing, we spend a lot of time talking about generating leads and converting them into clients. We focus on the sources of leads – advertising, referrals from other attorneys, referrals from existing and former clients, website traffic, mass marketing, etc. Then we might spend a little time thinking about the conversion process. Marketing firms focus on getting the leads to your door. What happens then is left to you and your staff. Some firms don’t think about that process at all. One hundred percent of their time, energy, and focus is on lead generation. But if leads cannot be converted to clients, it is all for naught. One way to help that process is by focusing on the ones that got away.

These days, there are many potential leads that you never know exist. People who visit your website looking for someone like you but for whatever reason they don’t reach out. Just because they don’t doesn’t mean that they aren’t good leads. You can’t give up on them so quickly. One way of following up with them is with a digital advertising tool that serves them with ads after they’ve visited your website. You’ve experienced these ads, haven’t you? They work just as well with legal needs as with shoes.

But what about those who do make contact? Those that appear to be good leads but aren’t converted to client status? They are a treasure trove of information that could prove game-changing for your marketing efforts. Such as:

• Why didn’t they choose to engage you?

• Did they engage someone else? Why?

• Did they choose not to engage anyone? Why?

• What could you have done differently to land them?

• What about their experience could be improved?

• Why did they reach out to you to begin with?

• How did they learn about you?

• What was most important to them in making their hiring decision?

• Are they likely to reach out to you in the future? Why or why not?

It’s just like interviewing jury members after a trial.

You could send these people a survey or better yet, have someone call them. It could be that they haven’t decided and the fact that you care is enough to convert them. Or maybe they misunderstood something said in the conversion process. Or maybe they wanted to check out the competition. Follow-up might be the difference between landing them and not.

It's important to listen to what these potential clients say. We can’t be defensive with them or with ourselves when we debrief any survey or interview. We cannot allow excuses to trump an important learning opportunity.

At Cartography, we’re more than just advertisers and more than a run-of-the-mill marketing firm. We are a full-service marketing partner. We’re also a full-service managing partner, handling all those things that take valuable time away from your practice. Let us help you with whatever is getting in the way of being as productive as you can be.