If you’re going trying to build a larger audience and find new leads for your law firm then Facebook ads are something you’ll want to check out. But using them correctly and most efficiently can be tricky.
To get this ball rolling, here are four strategies you can use to find leads that don’t require a doctorate in Facebook ads.
1. People Always Want Free Stuff
People like getting free stuff, so use it as a way to introduce your product or service to your audience. Once you’ve got their attention, collect contact information so that you can continue to nurture the relationship and guide them through the customer journey — from awareness to retention.
Free products serve as a “soft opening” and introduction for newcomers to your practice. People who use your free product have started a relationship with your brand, which can be a tipping factor in deciding which lawyer to retain down the road.
2. Ask a Question
Find out who is serious about finding a law firm and who is just looking around. Use your instant form to ask these qualifying questions.
Draw leads in a connect with them using a survey with a contact information form. This will give you valuable information about your leads that can help you nurture them.
Here are some tips for getting the most out of a survey Facebook ad.
- Figure out if your potential client values align with the value of your practice. This will help you to know right away if a potential client is a good fit or not for your practice. In addition, you will be more prepared to move forward and excited to work with them once you meet during the consultation.
- Follow up timing. If you’re lead has downloaded a piece of premium content, or received the free content that we discussed before, ask about their thoughts with the content. Gauge the reviews and the leads that love the free content you’ve already provided are more likely to want to work together in the future.
- Use the survey to do some of the pre-consultation legwork for you. This could mean asking certain key questions that can either qualify or disqualify a lead from going any further into your sales funnel. For example, if your personal injury practice only covers certain types of injuries or you specialize in certain types of cases, then try to filter out all the cases that don’t fit with a survey. Saving everyone’s time in the long run.
Even if your survey follow up doesn’t convert every lead, they can still capture feedback that you can use to improve. Keep this in mind and think of using surveys on your website and in other areas of your marketing strategy too.
3. Use Video!
Videos are the future. Not only does Google love them for SEO purposes, but people love them too. You are more likely to get and retain a leads attention with a video.
But remember:
Users only watch about a third of the way through Facebook videos, put your call to action in the video as early as possible.
Here are two tips that will improve the effectiveness of your videos:
- A video that is informational or provides actionable advice will be the best tool for increasing the number of leads. They will be easy to digest for people new to your firm and reassuring to those that already know you.
- Like we mentioned before, make sure your CTA comes early in your video. Since a lot of people are not going to get to the end of the video, you want to still make sure your video is effective. Don’t leave anyone guessing with what to do next or let them leave before you want them to, make it clear, make it easy and provide leads with some direction on what you want to them do next.
4. Don’t be Afraid to Play the Waiting Game
Facebook ad delivery is based on demographic characteristics and interests (age, gender, education, location, occupation or hobbies). Which means not every lead is going to be in the market or looking to buy legal service right now.
According to sales and marketing expert Chet Holmes, only 3% of people meeting your firm’s ideal client profile are looking to hire a lawyer right now, and only another 6% of your target market is thinking about retaining a lawyer.
This means, if your ads are of the “hire our firm, we are great” variety, they will only appeal to 9% of total viewers in your target market.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m plunking my “hard-earned” down on an ad campaign, I want better reach than 9%.
So what’s the solution? It’s simple, the lead magnet
Find a topic (preferably framed as a problem) that would appeal to any potential purchaser, and where your legal service is one small part of the overall solution. Then write about it!
Save that document as a whitepaper, ebook, video or podcast and give it to leads in exchange for trade their email address. Boom, now you can keep in touch with the lead and stay top of mind when they are finally ready to buy
The creation process isn’t difficult, but coming up with a topic that your target clients will really want to get access to is tricky.
The bottom line is most legal topics are boring. You have to create something that appeals to what your client wants or fears most, where your legal services are part of the solution. Then put it out there and wait for them to come back to you.
Now that you know how to create lead ads and what to put on your forms, it’s time to get out there and drum up some new and excited leads.
