3 things every lawyer’s website needs to convert the most potential clients into clients:

• Branding — Your website needs to create instant branding to grab your website visitor’s attention and impress them.
• Reviews / Testimonials — Reviews and video testimonials increase conversions.
• Multiple methods of contact are crucial.

BRANDING

Try to create a brand that does not include your law firm’s name. If you want to brand your law firm’s name, you’ll need millions of dollars.

If you’re concerned about your state ethics rules allowing the use of a trade name, just use a brand in addition to your law firm name.

Gagnier Margossian, LLP calls itself “GAMA LAW.” I know a law firm that calls themselves the “Killer Bees” and uses a logo with a killer bee. You can even use a word that has nothing to do with law. A new real estate website calls itself “Purple Bricks.” Not that you should call yourself Purple Law, but that stands out and is a lot more brandable and memorable than Gagnier Margossian, LLP.

Although they are not great brand names, a quick look at the top 20 law firm brands reveals that many of the names are short and/or a little different than a regular name. These names all stand out better than most law firm names and have been shortened for branding:

• DLA Piper
• Clifford Chance
• Jones Day
• Freshfields
• Linklaters
• Denton
• Skadden
• White & Case; and
• CMS

Marcum is a good example where the name of an accounting firm is short and simple and branded with the slogan Ask Marcum.

My suggestion is to stay away from names. Purple works a lot better!

To get some ideas, look at Google images for law firm advertising. Especially look at billboards to see what grabs your attention.

If you have a vanity phone number, don’t even bother looking to create a law firm brand. Your vanity phone number is an instant brand and should be your law firm brand.

REVIEWS

Reviews are the second most important item to convert potential clients into clients after branding. We use a system to obtain written reviews, which also posts copies of the reviews on our website.

Everyone reads reviews when buying something on the Internet. It’s no different for people looking to hire an accident lawyer. When someone injured in an accident lands on your website, they will look for reviews.

TESTIMONIALS

Video testimonials can be even more powerful than written reviews, but don’t ignore written reviews just because you have video testimonials. They are both important.

If you don’t have a video testimonial on your website now, call your lawyer marketing agency and get it done as soon as possible.

Video testimonial from a personal injury client who called 1-800-HURT-911

MULTIPLE METHODS OF CONTACT

MOST POPULAR WAYS WEBSITE VISITORS CONTACT US IN ORDER OF POPULARITY

• Phone Number — The majority of website visitors who contact us call our phone number.
• Chat Service — Website visitors tend to use the chat service after hours.
• Email Form — This is hardly ever used.

Give potential clients who visit your law firm website as many ways as possible to contact you. Some website visitors might want to call but not email you, while others may not want to call but will send an email or would rather talk to someone by chat.

According to a study of US customers by research agency eConsultancy, phone calls were the most preferred method of contact, slightly beating out email and live chat. While people use live chat on our website, no one ever uses the contact form.

ConversionSciences says, “Calls are king.”

• Phone calls are 10X more likely to lead to a sale
• 61% of mobile searches result in a phone call
• 52% of mobile ad clicks result in a phone call

WHERE TO DISPLAY CONTACT METHODS ON YOUR WEBSITE

Make sure that all of your contact methods, phone, chat, and email, are clearly visible on every page of your website.

Your contact information should be displayed at the top of your website, in the left or right column if your website has one, at the bottom of your website, and even on the page.

Our website, newyorkmotorcycleaccidentlawyer.com, prominently displays the phone number in a stationary banner across the entire width at the top of the website. The phone number is also displayed in the first and second images in the image carousel.

Our website also uses a “hello bar,” which always stays at the top of the page as the website visitor scrolls down the page. The “hello bar” has a clickable phone number and email button designed to stand out and display a call-to-action message.

In the left column, our phone number is prominently displayed and is clickable. Below our phone number is an easy-to-notice email contact form (which no one ever uses).

The phone number is also prominently displayed on the homepage near the top of the page. Again, the phone number here is also clickable.

The website also has a Contact Us page, which can be reached from the website menu.

If your law firm has a vanity phone number, it should be prominently and largely displayed across your website as your brand. A vanity phone number is what makes potential clients want you to be their lawyer.

This article shows some examples of websites with vanity phone numbers.

This image shows the homepage of the lawyer’s website with the following:

• “Hello Bar” at the very top with the phone number and email contact button;
• Vanity phone number logo is displayed large across the width of the website;
• Vanity phone number in the carousel image is displayed only on the homepage; and
• Vanity phone number logo in the left column.

PHONE

The majority of potential clients who contact us do so by calling. We obviously use the vanity phone number 1-800-HURT-911®, but if your law firm has a numeric number, most website visitors will still call.

Your vanity phone number and numeric telephone number should be clickable so that mobile phone users can simply touch your phone number to call. This is easily done using the HTML code <a href=”tel:1-800-XXX-XXXX”>1-800-XXX-XXXX</a> (just substitute your phone number).

Your phone number should be prominently visible on every page of your website.

CHAT SERVICE

Using a chat service is a requirement. Website visitors viewing your website after hours will usually assume that your law office is closed and will give their information to a chat service. Even during office hours, website visitors occasionally give their information to our chat service.

Lawyer.com (the call center we use) says that 79% of potential new clients prefer a live chat box over email or a phone call. They offer LawyerChat, which uses the same great LawyerLine representatives with expertise in legal intake.

We use and highly recommend Ngage Live Chat.

Ngage Live Chat offers a substantial number of features and methods to contact a lawyer. Ngage Live Chat can even integrate with your law firm’s Facebook page.

We have Ngage send an email and a text message to both my partner and me. This lets us contact the lead within minutes of the chat, no matter where we are. In fact, I received emails and text messages while on vacation in Paris and, within minutes, was able to call the lead from Paris. The next year, I was on a cruise in the Mediterranean, but I paid for Wi-Fi, so I was never out of contact.

Best of all, Ngage Live Chat only charges for quality leads. When you get a lead by live chat that you feel is not an appropriate lead, simply click a link to request a credit. When we get leads outside our geographic area or from people asking a question but are not potential clients, we simply request a credit, which is always promptly given.

This image shows the Ngage Live Chat screen, which can be dismissed by the website visitor, but there is always an easily found button on the left and bottom right of the page for the website visitor to engage in chat should it be desired.

EMAIL FORM

The email form should be simple and not request a lot of information. Some lawyer websites have contact forms that ask for details about the visitor’s case, such as the date of the accident and even more detailed information.

Potential accident clients may not even know the date of the accident or other information requested. Furthermore, requiring a website visitor to answer any more information than necessary to contact the potential client should be avoided because people simply don’t like to fill in a lot of information or don’t want to disclose information.

We only ask website visitors to fill in the following information on our contact form:

• First name (required)
• Last name (not required)
• Phone number (required)
• Email address (required)
• Message (required)

CONTACT US PAGE

Our contact page has:

• Clickable phone number
• Different ways we can provide a free consultation
• Geographic areas we serve
• Office locations with photos
• Images of our business cards and Smartphone code.

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