Most law firms spend a decent percentage of their revenue on marketing efforts. Even a Click here and there on relevant sites matters in generating leads and, thereby, marketing. The exact amount usually depends on factors such as area of practice, law firm size, type of marketing strategies and time investment. You can also consider marketing services like Fractional CMO services that will help your business grow and increase their profit. You can check here to learn What is a fractional CMO and how it will benefit your business.
While great marketing directly influences a law firm’s profitability, it may still have a low return on investment (ROI) if not paired with proper intake practices. That’s because a sudden avalanche of calls can cause leads to slip through the cracks if they’re not answered and processed in a timely manner.
Intake vs Marketing Costs
When it comes to cost per acquisition, law firms typically spend much more on marketing than they do on intake. The difference can be as drastic as spending 85 to 90 percent on marketing, compared to only 10 to 15 percent on intake.
Here’s how this might look, for example:
- Cost per acquisition (CPA) = $3,000
- Associated marketing cost = $2,600 to $2750
- Associated intake/retainer cost = $250 to $400
No matter how well you organize your lead generation efforts, high-quality leads can be lost if experienced intake specialists don’t capture and convert them. That’s why allocating less to a proper intake system and pouring money mostly into marketing can result in an expensive loss of leads, making that $2,600-$2,750 marketing investment essentially worthless.
High-quality intake makes it easier to capture each lead, which makes the $2,600-$2,750 spent on marketing a worthwhile investment.
Unfortunately, many law firms miss the importance of high-quality intake. When their marketing ROI is low, they try to adjust their strategy or increase the budget. But what these firms don’t realize is that the ROI can be boosted simply by improving the intake process.
Why Firms Should Invest More in Intake Before Increasing Marketing Budget
A quality intake process can have the following results:
Higher Conversion Rates
As we mentioned in the above paragraphs, with all the time and money you invest in generating leads for your law firm, losing them due to bad intake can be extremely costly. The cost is twofold: Any marketing money spent on the lead is wasted and an opportunity cost is incurred for losing that potentially lucrative client.
High-quality intake aims to convert the lead during the first interaction—like the first time someone calls your law firm, for example, or submits a form on your website.
Properly trained intake specialists know how to communicate with legal leads in ways that maximize conversion chances while streamlining client experience.
Fewer Lost Leads
Just one lost lead per month could cost your firm hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. With poorly arranged intake, it’s likely your firm could lose even more than 12 leads a year.
When you spend 10 times as much on marketing as you do on intake, it costs 10 times less to arrange high-quality intake than it does to adjust the entire marketing strategy by the same percentage amount. This reasonable expense could help your law firm save formidable amounts annually.
Improved Law Firm Reputation
Proper intake doesn’t just increase conversion rates; it improves the client experience. Well-trained intake specialists who respond to prospects’ needs quickly and professionally can turn clients into passionate brand ambassadors. This, in turn, can reduce your overall marketing costs and create organic referrals.
Why a Legal Call Center is a Good Investment
By working with a legal call center, you gain access to a team of legal intake professionals who provide top-notch services. Their focus is to eliminate lead loss and maximize conversion rates.
- Contact to contract — Intake experts can convert prospects during the first call and have them sign a contract via e-sign. By the time the new lead is rerouted to a lawyer, he or she has already been converted into a client.
- 24/7/365 services — By answering calls and responding to web requests round the clock, a legal call center makes sure none of the leads slip through the cracks. To eliminate client shopping, intake experts stick to ideal hold times. They answer calls within three rings and reply to web requests in 2 to 5 minutes.
- Professional approach — Unlike a generic call center, legal call centers train their staff to understand legal industry nuances. Additionally, these specialists practice empathy and patience to ensure smooth and fruitful communication with potential clients.
Improving Marketing ROI with High-Quality Intake
Are you spending too much on marketing? If you don’t have a well-arranged intake process, you might be. Intake doesn’t require substantial investment but can improve your marketing ROI tremendously.
Take full advantage of your lead generation efforts. By collaborating with a legal call center, like Alert Communications, you can save your firm thousands of dollars without rebuilding your entire marketing strategy.
