Increase performance and find “free money” by consistently monitoring your law firm’s key performance indicators
Attorneys continue to report that they are facing a more competitive market each and every year. With mounting influences from both inside (national and global players, Wal-Mart law firms, non-lawyer venture capitalists, tort reform) and outside (driverless cars, new standard safety features, Millennial driving habits) the legal industry, it’s important to know where your firm stands and how that measures over time.
The only way to do that is to create a scorecard that you can compare and contrast month-over-month, year-over-year, etc. This is what we call a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) baseline.
By tracking these specific pieces of data, you can better understand how your firm is performing in a given area or progressing toward a specific objective. This is a necessary first step in turning abstract goals into measurable plans as you cannot measure success without knowing where you started. Furthermore, the metrics empower your firm to make data-driven decisions that can have a dramatic impact on your firm’s bottom line.
Significant and sustainable growth is attainable – even predictable – when there’s a roadmap for getting there. So, if you have not created a KPI baseline for your firm, we encourage you to get started as soon as possible.
Let’s take a closer look at the important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you need to include in your baseline
General Marketing KPIs are an evaluation of how all marketing and advertising strategies are working to produce leads and, ultimately, cases.
Because law firms often engage in multi-channel marketing efforts, and the modern customer journey is a non-linear, multi-touchpoint experience, overall marketing KPIs give insight into the success of your cohesive strategy. Is everything working together to give you the lift you need? Are you getting more leads? Are these leads converting into cases? Leveraging KPI data allows you to accurately (and objectively) assess your cost of investment vs. ROI across television advertising, radio, print, outdoor, digital, event sponsorship and more.
- Cost per Lead (CPL) – measures the effectiveness of your overall marketing and advertising efforts. To calculate, take your total marketing and advertising spend and divide by the number of leads generated over the investment period.
BONUS: TIPS TO HELP INCREASE COST PER LEAD
- Keep score
- Monitor your results – consistently!
- Maintain brand consistency across all adverting and marketing channels
- Evaluate new marketing channels, adjust budget allocation accordingly
- Lead-to-client ratio – this can also be referred to as conversion percentage. First, you will need to define what you consider a “lead” – a call, website contact form, email, referral? All of the above? Once “lead” is defined, take the total number, divide by the number of clients within the same timeframe, and get a better understanding of how many leads you need to be generating to open your desired number of cases.
SEE WHAT COULD HAPPEN IF YOU INCRESED YOUR CONVERSION PERCENATGE BY JUST 2%!
- Cost per Case (CPC) – measures the efficacies of your marketing campaign and conversion. To get this number, take your total marketing spend, divided by opened cases. Remember: cases opened = future cash flow! This is the most important metric.
BONUS: TIPS TO HELP INCREASE COST PER CASE AND CONVERSION
- Consistently monitor intake
- Hire intake personnel with client service backgrounds
- Incent staff for improved metrics/goals met
- Employ mobile intake for deserving cases
- Understand conversion happens in office as well
- Survey past clients
- Get more reviews
Digital Marketing KPIs measure specific data related to your firm’s website. Here are the ones you should be tracking and what their results will tell you. For a more detailed look at what your top performing web pages are telling you – take a look at this post.
- Number of unique visits – how well people are finding you
- Time spent per visit – how well your current content holds visitors’ attention
- Traffic-to-lead ratio – new contact rate
- Landing page conversion rate – are your landing pages getting enough traffic and, if so, is the page converting traffic into leads?
- Mobile traffic conversion – is your site converting visitors to leads on mobile devices as well?
- Website goal completions – how many visitors are signing up for your newsletter or filling out a contact form?
- Search engine rankings – how do you compete with rival firms for keywords and phrases on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.?
It’s never too late to start gathering data and crunching numbers.
We understand this can seem a little overwhelming. If you would like to jump start the process with an evaluation of your website – complete with insight into the digital marketing KPIs listed above – contact us for a free website audit. Or, download this Digital Marketing Glossary to help shorten your learning curve!
Network Affiliates is here to help you achieve your legal marketing goals. Take your law firm to the next level – call 877.709.0633 or contact us online today.