Legal Marketing 101

Law Firm Websites That Actually Convert

• Rosen Advertising • Season 4 • Episode 25

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Law Firm Websites That Actually Convert

Five seconds. That's all the time your law firm website has to make a first impression before potential clients click away. In this eye-opening episode of Legal Marketing 101, I reveal why most legal websites are nothing more than "leaky funnels" - digital brochures held together with virtual duct tape that hemorrhage leads and waste your marketing budget.

Whether you've invested thousands in a custom site or have a template shared with hundreds of other attorneys, the fundamental problems remain the same. Today's legal consumers expect more than scales of justice and walls of text - they need mobile-optimized experiences, clear guidance on next steps, and language that makes them feel understood during stressful situations. 

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Speaker 1:

Law Firm Websites that Actually Convert. Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. Our websites aren't just a digital brochure. It is our number one conversion asset.

Speaker 1:

But most law firm websites are leaky funnels, just a hodgepodge of band-aids and duct tape that aren't going to give you any good results, and I'm sorry to say it, but for those of you that have paid tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars for your website, it's probably only a variation of that, and if you're only paying a few hundred dollars a month or a year for your website, you probably have something that a hundred or a thousand other attorneys have, and here's why this matters. The average visitor to a website decides in under five seconds. I always used to say it was nine seconds. I got that from a pay-per-click book. It apparently is now closer to five seconds, but they decide in about five seconds whether to stay on your website or to leave. If your website isn't converting, you are burning your ad spend, your search engine optimization, your SEO budget and, ultimately, your credibility.

Speaker 1:

So today we are talking about mistakes people make on their websites, particularly law firms, obviously, and let's start with one of the most common and most costly websites mistakes we see in the legal world. Treating the design, treating the content, treating the website like it is just window dressing. You know what I'm talking about here. This is the lawyer website aesthetic with scales of justice in the header, a gavel stock photo, somewhere near the footer, a wall of text in Times New Roman just thrown right in for good measure. It's not just outdated to be doing this, it is actively turning away potential clients. Here's the thing. Design is not just how your site looks. It's not just the colors and the fonts and all of that stuff. It's a much bigger picture. Essentially, it's about how it actually feels to the person using it. Does it build trust in those first three, first five seconds? Does it feel easy to navigate? Does it work on a phone without having to pinch and zoom and, you know, feel like you're a grandmother in 2010? If the answer is no, you're probably losing leads before they ever see how good your firm actually is.

Speaker 1:

Modern design doesn't have to mean flashy animation or edgy graphics. In fact, it usually means completely the opposite. It means clean lines, simple layouts, intuitive structure, content that leads you to the next page, and it means that your site loads quickly, it looks sharp on any screen size and it guides the visitor again to taking action without having to think about something too hard. We're starting to move away from the legal brochure and more to the easy to use service, even if we're not actually providing the service on the website. And let's talk about mobile. Over 60% of legal searches happen on mobile now, whether that's ChatGPT, google, whatever it is, if your site isn't mobile first and it's not, I mean not just mobile friendly, but actually mobile first then you're behind. Now that means buttons that are thumb clickable, phone numbers that trigger a call with one tap and forms that don't feel like a task to fill out on a smaller screen.

Speaker 1:

A poorly designed site and again, not the visual, necessarily, but the design overall. A poorly designed site signals to your potential client that maybe the rest of your firm is also kind of outdated. And yeah, it can sound a little bit harsh, but it's how people think, especially when they're stressed or in a hurry or comparing you to three other firms in the same zip code. So ask yourself if a stranger that you don't know, that doesn't care who you are but has a problem, if they landed on your homepage right now, would they trust you or would they bounce and check out two other guys. All right, let's talk about another silent killer of law firm websites Weak or missing calls to action, ctas.

Speaker 1:

We've talked about this in a lot of different contexts. When it comes to the website, if your big call to action is just the lonely contact us button and there's nothing leading a user to that, oh buddy, we have got a problem. And here's why People don't land on your site ready to go hunting for a way to reach you. That's not what they are interested in. Hiring you isn't the action they are trying to complete. They need clear, repeated signals about what to do about their problem and why they should do that now. Contact us doesn't create urgency. It doesn't tell them what to expect. It just kind of sits there and I can hear you saying yeah, yeah, yeah, toby, you've got to do all this content.

Speaker 1:

But look, there are a couple of easy ways to cheat this. The fix is a real CTA. This is specific, action-oriented and easy to find. Think about things like schedule a free consultation, call now to speak with an attorney, start my case review, and don't be shy about repeating these throughout your pages. One button is never enough. You want your CTAs woven throughout your homepage, your practice areas, even your attorney bios. But the thing is, stay consistent. If we're using start my case review or start my free consultation, use that everywhere, because it's not just about the wording, it's about frictionless action.

Speaker 1:

That means click to call buttons on mobile, so if someone can call you in one tap, it means forms that don't ask for 15 fields of information before someone can reach out. You have autofill options and you have consistency throughout the messaging. So every form is the same. There's no decision to be made about which form is better to fill out. And then, immediately when the user submits their information, they get a confirmation message right away that says something like we've got your info, someone will be in touch shortly and keeps the situation light and warm.

Speaker 1:

And don't underestimate the power of that well-placed chat widget. Yeah, everybody's using chat. A lot of prospective clients. They want to dip a toe in a little bit before they jump onto a call or swipe, a credit card, and a live chat or even an AI-powered option can help us bridge that gap at a relatively low cost. Sometimes we capture some leads that otherwise would have bounced.

Speaker 1:

I know I've said this to many of you, but I don't like chatbots, but they do work. And here's the bottom line your site is not there to just inform, it is there to convert. And that only happens when you make the next step crystal clear, easy to take and a huge confidence booster for the user, because if visitors are having to think too hard about how to reach you, they'll find a firm that isn't going to make them work so hard to spend their money. So let's move on and I know, like some of this episode, this is also going to sting a little bit, but this one is a trap that almost every firm, every attorney, falls into at some point in their career Writing the content for their website like they're submitting it to a panel of judges instead of actual human beings. I get it. You've worked hard to earn your credentials. There's a natural instinct to lead with authority, and this type of content does do that in a lawyer's eyes. But if your homepage reads like a Supreme Court brief, you are not impressing your potential clients. You are losing them, even if they are judges.

Speaker 1:

Most people who visit a law firm's website are overwhelmed, anxious and trying to make a decision quickly, even if it's not really happening. They kind of don't care about your AV ratings or your law review articles, and in some areas, they're never going to care about that. What they really want to know is can this firm or this attorney can they help me? Do they understand the situation I'm in right now and can they help me get out of it? That means we need to ditch the jargon. We need to ditch the ego copy. We need to speak in plain, compassionate language Instead of saying we offer comprehensive litigation services and family matters. We help people navigate divorce and custody. We use clarity, confidence and support to help you Every step of the way. We've got your back. Same message, but one of these actually connects. This is where empathy becomes a competitive advantage. We've talked about client story. We've talked about how to build that. Lee at the Rosen Institute has talked even more than I have on this subject.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, write these things like we are a real person, because we are. Think about the questions that this person is going to be Googling at 11 o'clock at night or one in the morning. Think about the fears that they're not saying out loud, not only to their spouse or their friends, but to anyone at all, and then figure out how you can meet them there. This foundation of sales is applicable in any business, but especially so in one where it's so much about trust, and if the story isn't enough, we can back it up with social proof. So we say that we can do all of these things and then we show the testimonials. They can go a really long way in calming nerves. We sprinkle in some Google reviews. Maybe we put in some of those awards, media mentions even if we have them and, even better, get the quotes from a real client that shows how you made a difference in their life not just in their case and actually the even better is video. But that's another episode.

Speaker 1:

The goal isn't for us to prove whether it's on Google or our website or in any forum. It is not to prove that we are the smartest lawyer in town. It's that we're the right lawyer for this particular client, and the faster our advertising copy makes these people feel seen, understood and supported, they are not going to be able to pick up the phone fast enough. Now we're going to get into our last big mistake that law firms make on their websites, and here's the kicker. The first two aren't really going to be valuable for you unless you're nailing the third and the big mistake that law firms make. Number three is ignoring your conversion data, because here's the truth your website is either working for you or against you. It is never in the middle. If you're not measuring what's actually happening on your website, then you are basically driving down the road with a blindfold. On Most firms, they launch the website, they check the traffic once in a while. Maybe they get the emails from Google and that's about it. But traffic, it really kind of means nothing if it's not converting into clients.

Speaker 1:

We always have a feel for this, but we really need to know some statistics. Are people clicking on the CTAs? Are they scrolling past the contact form? Are they getting stuck on a practice area page, getting confused and bouncing? And Google Analytics is great for this, but tools like Hotjar can also be really helpful. They give you heat maps and session recordings. It's essentially a visual map of where people are engaging with the page, where they're clicking, how far they scroll and then where they drop off. It's like you can literally watch someone walk through your digital office, see where they hesitate, where they get confused, where they just say screw it and leave, and then in Google Analytics we've now got the full picture what pages are performing, where people come from, how long they stay, what path they take.

Speaker 1:

If we're running ads, maybe we want to put up call tracking. It can be really effective for capturing those visitors. If we're running it to forms, we don't have to. But without any of these tools we will just never know which campaigns, which pages, which keywords are actually driving sales, phone calls and foot traffic.

Speaker 1:

Once you have the data, then it's time to test, and we're not going to go into it today. A-b testing doesn't need to be too complicated. You can test two headlines, two CTAs, the placement of a contact form, the color of a contact button, and I've seen law firms lift their conversion rates 20, 30, 50, 100% just by changing the wording of something like submit this form to get my free consultation. And the best part is that you will never need to guess. The data will tell you what's working and what's not, and when you start making decisions based on behavior instead of gut feelings. Your site is becoming this actual, living, evolving lead engine that is going to work for you, and this is where the real growth happens.

Speaker 1:

If you can put all of these pieces together, make your design terrific, the actual experience of the website being fantastic. Have clear calls to action that actually lead the user towards what you're trying to have being fantastic. Have clear calls to action that actually lead the user towards what you're trying to have them do. Have human copy that explains to people what's happening and resonates with them, and then have the complete tracking. You need to understand which pieces are working and which aren't. You're on the right path, but if you need a second opinion on your site's performance, check out RosenAdvertisingcom. Send me your URL and I'll pick a few for a live teardown in an upcoming episode. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more Thanks.

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