2 minsDo you know how many clients you're ACTUALLY getting from your website, and how many of them are bouncing off like bullets off Superman's chest? Probably not. Let's look at the ways most lawyers, not doing it Alchemy-style, screw their websites up with their (overly-tight) Conventional Wisdom hats on.
MISTAKE #1: Written For You, Not For The Client.
Big Fail. This one's #1 on my list for a reason. Lawyers love to put up these "brochure sites" that look like everyone else's. When you follow the herd, you can't see where you're going. And the only thing you CAN see is someone else's rear end.
A website is to market you to the visitor, not to you. In other words, your resume may be fancy and nice and all, but that's not why the client is there. They're there to get *information*. Information shows them your expertise much more than "look at me, ain't I awesome." Show, don't tell.
MISTAKE #2: No Clear Call To Action.
A "call to action," in the marketing world, is what you're asking the prospect to do. In other words, after looking at this web page, what do I do next? Most lawyer websites assume that the visitor is going to go through each of the pages, one by one, then come to the conclusion that they'll call the lawyer. That's not how it works (as I can prove to ya using web analytics)... Web visitors bounce around. They may look at your Areas of Practice page, then your home page, then get bored and they're off to Facebook.Funny cats are more interesting than your website. Sorry, but they're not going to your "Contact Us" page and picking up that phone. Doesn't hardly ever happen. So shouldn't that change what you put on each web page, oh landed gentry of web property? Yep.
MISTAKE #3: No Intake Process
If you watched my latest (greatest) Getting Referrals training, you know there's no substitute for your referrals (or any potential client, for that matter) knowing exactly what to expect before they hire you. We call it the Intake Process. Now of course there's an art to HOW you do this. What you should (and should never) say. It isn't obvious, and most lawyers get this wrong. It's a subject in and of itself, so I'll go over that in a future post (Practice Alchemy members: head to the Training Portal and get the how-to now).
But the bottom line is, messaging matters. We're so careful with the legal work - the legal wording - and then we get sloppy with our marketing. When, in fact, the difference between a practice that's a business failure and a business success is the art of the marketing, not the art of the law. Don't like that idea? That's fine. Don't read this blog. Because until you embrace that law practice success is about building a real business, you aren't ready.
