Legal marketing is an industry where phone calls are one of the the most reliable ways to drive leads and conversions. Online form submissions and emails can still yield big dividends for dedicated digital marketers, but the peace of mind you get from speaking to a real human being means that phones are king, especially when it comes to discussing sensitive legal matters.
This presents some challenges that legal marketers know all too well: Choosing the right representation takes plenty of time and research, and it’s not often that a single phone call leads neatly to a conversion. Prospective clients rightfully want to take their time, explore their options, and make sure they’re selecting a law firm or lawyer that can do the best possible job.
The complicated path to purchase is one reason why lawyer referral services have become so popular. A trustworthy referral service can eliminate most of the guesswork, and make sure new clients are connected with the optimal representation for their needs.
Lawyer Connection — a legal referral service based in Toronto, Ontario — specializes in helping clients hammer out the nature of their case, and then connects them with the right attorney or law firm within their network. Best of all, there’s no cost to the client for this service.
Lawyer Connection prides themselves on offering first-class assistance and support for their clients, and for the growth they’ve seen in the few short years they’ve been in operation. And one key factor in their success is the advanced call tracking and analytics provided by CallRail.
Legal eagles don’t just go with their gut
As Lawyer Connection got their business off the ground, they saw that the barebones call tracking service that came pre-packaged with their webhost was totally inadequate. After some research, CallRail’s extensive featureset cemented it as the superior solution.
“Over the years, we’ve found that the legal business is not as big on data-heavy marketing as other industries,” says Rafe Malach, co-founder of Lawyer Connection. “There’s a lot of reasons why that is, especially since in this industry conversions usually don’t happen with a single phone call. There’s a good bit of research and planning that goes into choosing a lawyer to represent you.”
Faced with these complexities, many law firms opt to fly blind — they look at which channels seem to be driving the most leads or calls, and plan their marketing strategy around content or channels that worked best in the past.
“But in my experience, the most valuable thing when it comes to legal advertising is knowing how to pick winners and losers: Which channels are performing, and which ones aren’t,” Malach explains.
“If you’re doing direct-response and you have no idea what’s working and what isn’t, you’re going to be far less effective than someone who can say with certainty which channels are outperforming the others. That way, you don’t have to just go with your gut, you can look at hard numbers and ROI, and make an informed decision.”
A flexible featureset brings opportunity and peace of mind
Initially, Lawyer Connection was drawn to CallRail because they’d be able to provide their clients with phone numbers local to the Toronto area, and for the granular reporting broken down by source and marketing channel. But as the months rolled on and they began to optimize their marketing around the analytics brought in by CallRail, they discovered a bevy of other features that had a big bottom line impact for both them and their clients.
One CallRail feature in particular became their ace in the hole: LeadCenter, which allows them to sort their inbound calls by channel and properly match leads with previous web or phone touch points, while also providing additional flexibility for managing their clients’ outbound calls. “We sometimes make custom websites and phone setups for the lawyers and firms we partner with, and the cool thing about LeadCenter is that it allows them to make outbound calls that appear to be coming from the number that’s listed on their website,” Malach says.
“We’ve seen how consistency with a unique or branded number can bring a lot of peace of mind for both the firms and the clients they’re reaching out to. We represent lawyers from cities all over Ontario, so when they’re able to make outbound calls using local numbers, it builds a lot of trust right out of the gate. A generic 1-800 number just doesn’t have the same impact.”
Another feature that makes CallRail indispensable for Lawyer Connection and their clients is the ability to set custom call flows and routing based on factors like time of day and location. Most law firms don’t take calls once they close for the day, so call routing allows inbound calls to be directed to a personal cellphone during after-hours. And if they can’t take the call at that time, call routing ensures that the voicemail is sent to their office voicemail system rather than their personal inbox, ensuring that their clients never miss an opportunity to capitalize on a lead or conversion.
“Without CallRail, say you get a call at 9:00pm at night and no one answers — you might not ever realize the call even took place,” Malach explains. “With call tracking, not only do you have the opportunity to answer the call, you can even see what keyword drove the call and gauge how valuable the call might be just from that. “
More inbound calls and optimized ad spending
After several years of fine-tuning their marketing based on the insights gleaned from CallRail, Lawyer Connection has seen results that any business would envy: They’ve more than doubled their inbound call volume since implementing advanced call tracking. That means more clients connected to more firms, and better case outcomes thanks to their data-driven approach.
“We were contacted by over 7,000 inbound callers in 2016, which breaks down to just under 600 people per month,” Malach says. “This is one area where we can see that CallRail has made a big difference for our business. By using CallRail data to guide our marketing, that number is more than double the monthly callers we had seen before we used [call tracking].”
Even better, CallRail’s comprehensive analytics and source tracking allows them to make smarter use of their marketing budget and ad spend through ad buys that deliver the best ROI. They don’t have to rely on their gut instincts when they invest in a high-performing marketing channel — they’ve got the reporting to prove it.
“With this setup, I can have all our advertising channels categorized according to value and ROI. So when it comes time to set my ad bid [in Google Ads], I can look at the reporting and set the most cost-effective bid based on this reporting,” Malach says. “It’s awesome!”
But most importantly for Malach and his team, thanks to CallRail they can give firms and lawyers breathing room to focus on what really matters: “There’s a lot of value for our clients here, because they don’t have to jump in and set anything themselves, or fiddle with the settings. We can optimize their campaigns from one central location, so all they need to focus on is results. Every firm should be using call tracking.”
If you’re a data-driven marketer ready to unleash the power of advanced call tracking and analytics for your business, you can start right now: Request a demo of CallRail or begin your 14-day free trial.
