How to Generate a Healthy Pipeline of Qualified Leads

Running a law firm can be daunting. In law school, they teach you every aspect of law—except how to grow and scale your law firm.

In order to grow your firm, you need a healthy pipeline of qualified leads. A lead is someone who is genuinely interested in your law firm and the services that you provide—a potential client, if you will.

In this article, we are going to talk about two different kinds of leads: qualified and unqualified.

A qualified lead is a potential client who matches your ideal client profile in terms of need, budget, timing, and more. For example, if you’re focused on business law, and someone who filled out the “contact us” form on your website owns a small business and is looking for the type of services you provide, that’s a qualified lead.

An unqualified lead is a potential client who does not match your ideal client profile. However, you can’t find out whether a visitor to your website is a qualified or unqualified unless you take steps to figure out which they are—Before you spend time on a free consultation.

It’s possible to collect qualified leads for your law firm through your law firm’s website, saving you time and money. But when it comes to driving visitors to your site in the first place so that you can qualify them, the digital marketing world can be a jungle. You may find yourself wondering: Where do I start? What platform is best? Should I use Facebook or Google?

The answer is both. Facebook and Google are a dynamic duo when it comes to bringing in qualified leads. Here’s how to use them together to generate more qualified leads for your law firm.

1. Install the Facebook Pixel

First, you need to install the Facebook Pixel. The Facebook Pixel is a small piece of code that Facebook generates for you to place in the header of your website. The Pixel will track the visitors on your website. It then sends the data back to Facebook to give you the ability to “retarget” visitors to your website. (More on this later).

Picture this: You are a family law firm. You have a woman on your website looking for a good attorney for her divorce. She loves what she sees, but, soon enough, one of her kids starts crying and she doesn’t get a chance to reach out to you. Normally, this lead would be lost. However, since the Facebook Pixel is installed, you will be able to get back in front of her and give her another chance to get in touch.

2. Set up Google Ads

Once your pixel is set up and firing correctly, it’s time to drive traffic to your website via a Google Search Campaign. If people are searching for terms related to your areas of practice on Google, they’re likely already in the market for your services. For example, if someone is searching for “personal injury lawyer near me,” and you’re a personal injury lawyer, you’ll want to make sure you’re in front of that person in their Google searches.

If you look at the image below, you can see “personal injury lawyer” gets 49,500 searches each month while “auto accident lawyer” gets about 9,900 searches. Those are a lot of potential visitors to your site!

If your campaign is structured correctly, this will place your website at or near the top of Google search results for the searcher to see. (Haven’t created a Google search campaign before? Read this step-by-step guide to get started.)

You might be torn between wanting to run a Google Ad or Facebook Ad first, but remember this: Facebook is not a search engine, but Google is. By using Google as a first option, you are getting in front of the people who are actively searching for a law firm online.

3. Set up a cohesive intake process

The third step, and arguably the most important one for collecting qualified leads, is to make sure you have a strong case management and client intake system set up. A strong system helps your firm create a good experience for new potential clients, and ensures no new contacts fall through the cracks. Clio Grow, which is part of the Clio Suite, is a great option for law firms that want to automate their monotonous tasks and streamline their intake process.

Clio Grow is also great for nurturing leads. With Clio Grow, you can easily engage with your leads, automate repetitive tasks, and be more personable.

When you are running a law firm, you will deal with some very emotional cases. Using Clio Grow to become more personal will show your clients how important their case is to you.

4. Retarget your site visitors

Third, it’s finally time to retarget your website visitors.

Retargeting is a way to get back in front of your website visitors that did not convert into a lead, for example, when they first came to your site via a Google search. Using the Facebook pixel to capitalize on this traffic is the secret to capturing more interest and generating more prequalified leads.

Have you ever visited someone’s website and then all of a sudden you have their ads in your newsfeed? They had a pixel installed and a Facebook retargeting ad going. These types of ads tend to get the most attention at the most affordable cost, when they are structured correctly.

One look, and one click of a well-structured Facebook advertisement, and the woman looking for a divorce attorney is back on your website. You can read about how to create a Facebook ad in Clio’s guide to Facebook advertising for law firms.

Now, you may be thinking “That sounds great! But how do I know these potential clients are ready and willing to hire me?”

The answer is, you pre-qualify them.

5. Pre-qualify new leads

When you pre-qualify your leads, you weed out the people who may not be serious about working with you. One of the main benefits of doing this is that you can spend your time and energy with the leads who are very interested in working with you—thus, increasing your chances of turning potential clients into paying clients.

The best way to do this ask a series of qualifying questions within a lead capture form, a form that you embed on your website to get your website visitor’s contact information. This might look like a “contact us” form, a “request for consultation” form, or something else—just as long as you’re collecting the right information to ensure any potential client is a good fit for your firm.

For example, the intake form on Fresh Legal’s website asks “what city do you live in?” to ensure any potential clients are within the geographical areas they serve.

Fresh Legal Webpage screenshot

For example, your lead capture form should ask the following questions at minimum:

First Name 

Last Name 

E-Mail 

Phone Number

Then, you’ll want to add some questions specific to the types of matters your firm handles. Here are some examples of pre-qualifying questions (please customize them to fit your firm):

Are you currently working with an attorney? (Multiple Choice Answers: Yes, No, Yes but I’m looking to hire someone new) By asking this question, right off the bat you know where they are in the process of selecting a lawyer.

Please tell us about your case. This is crucial. The people who take the time to fill out detailed information are typically the ones that are ready to move forward but are just looking for the right attorney.

If we are a good fit, are you ready to get to work on your case right now? (Yes, No) This is one of the most key qualifying questions you can ask. If someone answers “No”, depending on your practice area, you can add them to your e-mail marketing list and start a nurture sequence of 5-6 e-mails. In these e-mails you will warm them up or “nurture” a lead towards being more likely to hire you with free, useful information related to the type of issue they’re facing.

For example, if you handle divorces, you may want to share checklists of what to do immediately after a separation, guides on how to keep the process as smooth as possible for children involved, or links to the websites of recommended counsellors for those facing especially emotional separations. This will get potential clients to feel more comfortable with you handling their case, and over time, you’ll build trust and turn that “No” into a “Yes”.

To err on the side of caution, consider putting a disclaimer at the bottom of your form stating that the form is for informational use only and does not establish an attorney/client relationship.

Conclusion

When you make the decision to jump into the digital marketing world, it can seem daunting and overwhelming. However, it doesn’t have to be. Using Google and Facebook together positions you to generate qualified leads who are ready to invest in your firm to help them win their case. Don’t forget: setting up an intake system, like the one offered with the Clio Suite, is a vital part of securing those qualified leads. Firms should strive to give the best client experience while continuing to generate quality leads.

How to Generate a Healthy Pipeline of Qualified Leads first appeared on the Clio Blog