Estate planning clients must be wooed. They’re not coming to you in need of immediate assistance— instead, they have the time to take their time as they consider whether or not they want to work
Online assessments are one of the best tools to get a legal marketing campaign off the ground. With them, you can attract leads to your site, get their contact information, and learn a few important facts about their case all at once.
What is an online assessment?
An online assessment works like a more effective landing page. First, let’s take a quick look at how HubSpot defines a typical inbound landing page:
“A landing page is a website page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. A good landing page will be targeted to a particular stream of traffic – say from an email campaign advertising a particular whitepaper – and, because it is targeted, and because it has an interesting offer behind a lead capture form, you will convert a higher percentage of your website visitors into leads with which you can follow up.”
An online assessment takes your initial consultation and puts it online, while giving the visitor actionable next steps.
For example, if you’re a pardon & expungement lawyer, your initial consultation is all about determining eligibility. Has this person applied for a pardon? Is this person eligible for an expungement? When will they be eligible for an expungement?
With logic, flow charts, coding, and a good website, you can take this initial consultation online. Ask the user a few questions and determine their eligibility online. The potential client is ecstatic to get an immediate answer on their eligibility, even at 3 am, and you arrive to the office at 9 a to an inbox of leads.
BENEFITS OF USING ONLINE ASSESSMENTS
Here’s the why and how of using online assessments in your legal marketing campaign:
GET DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT LEADS.
Law firms have to approach inbound marketing a bit differently. Most businesses just have to generate as many leads as possible and get their contact information.
This is less than ideal for law firms since an email address is very little to work with and most leads can turn out to be unqualified anyway. Sorting through all of them is a waste of time.
The assessment, which works like an initial consultation, is how you can target leads who actually have relevance to your law firm. By asking a few preliminary questions and providing the website visitor with some immediate feedback, you can determine what a potential client would be eligible for right off the bat.
ATTRACT MORE LEADS WITH VALUABLE CONTENT.
In addition to fulfilling the role of a landing page, online assessments also attract leads straight from the search engines. When someone has a need, they will look for any information they can find, and this online version of the initial consultation will point them in the right direction.
Furthermore, online assessments help users solve problems, which is one of the most important SEO indicators. You can improve your site rankings by offering genuine help to users.
GENERATE LEADS ROUND THE CLOCK.
Another nice thing about adding an online assessment to your site is that it’s up all the time. If someone is researching their situation at midnight, then they’ll still be able to have an initial consultation by filling out your assessment.
Law firms that don’t provide this option are just waiting for potential clients to contact them during their office hours. By 9 A.M. the next day, some leads will have either found another firm or have forgotten to give you a call.
ESTABLISH BRAND CREDIBILITY.
Providing a free online assessment is a great way to establish brand credibility. This is one of the most important factors for getting better site rankings and getting your content shared.
It might be weird or unusual to think that your law firm is a brand, but just imagine how prospective clients feel when they first visit your site. They want to know if they can trust you, and offering quality content is a good way to show what your law firm is all about.
SAVE TIME AND MONEY.
Lastly, a more practical point of online assessments is that they help law firms save time and money. For one, the initial consultation will be automated online, as opposed to a phone call or in-person meeting.
In addition, you don’t have to waste as much time meeting with potential clients who don’t have a case. They’ll be filtered out following the results of the online assessment.
Putting your initial consultation online is one of the best secrets to legal marketing. To talk more about using online assessments to generate qualified leads, contact us today.