Investing in digital marketing and bilingual PPC is the first step towards increasing your Law Firm’s caseload and maximizing your investment. But are you ready to take the new cases that will come your way?

We keep preaching that investing in bilingual PPC is the best decision you can make for your Law Firm’s growth, even better than investing in SEO as it yields immediate results. In previous articles, we covered several additional steps you need to take to maximize your ROI. Some of them are the value of tracking your calls to action, using landing pages for your traffic coming from PPC and having a click-fraud prevention strategy in place. Today, we’ll look at another critical point for your Law Firm’s success with bilingual PPC, and especially with Google Ads in Spanish; this is your intake process. We’ll start by explaining why it matters, and we’ll give you actionable tips that will help you increase your conversions.

  • Why does intake matter?

Intake matters for every Law Firm, investing in Google Ads or not, that’s out of the question. When a client calls, fills out a form or opens a chatbox, your team should be ready to assist them in a professional and timely manner. The reason why it matters the most is that you, the Attorney, are out there to help people, especially those who need you right at that very moment. The first step towards that goal is your intake process. But that’s not just it; it’s also significant from a business perspective.  Prospective clients research and have access to the internet, so they know that they have plenty of options. If they decide to proceed to a CTA, but they don’t get the response they expect or get no response, they will move to the next law firm ready to assist them.

No matter how this new lead found you, missing out on a potential new case is a big deal, but imagine how worse it can be if you paid for this click. Let’s consider that you are a Personal Injury Attorney in Illinois, and you’re showing Google Ads for the keyword auto accident attorney. The Cost Per Click could be anywhere between $50 and $250. Would you risk missing out on a lead coming from this high intent query that you already paid for?

  • How can you optimize your intake for conversions?
  1. Reply timely. We, at Nanato Media, we have a golden rule for ourselves, pick up the phone by the third ring. And this is what we ask our clients and partners to do as well. It’s not a matter of rings, but a matter of customer satisfaction and chances of dropping a line. Of course, we understand that it’s an ongoing process, and things might take longer at rare events, so when this happens, acknowledge the fact with something short such as “sorry that it rang so long.” Online forms and emails are no different. Be quick and efficient.
  2. Be empathetic, friendly, and good with people. Being alert and fast is not all you need. Your intake personnel has to understand how your prospective clients feel, be engaged, patient, and friendly, providing any necessary information that they are allowed to share. You might miss out on a new case if your intake people don’t manage to create that first bond with the client.
  3. Optimize your online tools. Whether we’re talking about forms or chatboxes, they should be user friendly, ask the necessary information, and don’t require too much effort from the client standpoint.
  4. Talk to your prospective clients in their preferred language. This especially critical for Spanish Law Firm PPC. When searchers click on your Ads, they get redirected to your highly relevant landing page that is built to convert. If your desired conversion is a phone call and you end up getting it, you should assist them in Spanish. How can you achieve it? By having dedicated numbers that ring to native Spanish speaking personnel that can take care of your prospective clients. Let’s go back to another example and imagine a Bankruptcy Attorney showing Ads for chapter 13 in Spanish. Our experience has taught us that if the searcher calls and the line is picked up in English, he might hang up the phone. That means a missed opportunity and a click that you paid for.
  5. Offer electronic signature tools, like DocuSign. That’s of increased value nowadays due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It can help you sign a new client right on the spot, without having to go back and forth, avoiding any unnecessary risks of further research or hesitation.
  6. Mark your leads’ status. You must know every step of the prospective client’s intake process. Either they require a follow-up, they have scheduled an appointment, or they are a signed case, you should be aware of their lifecycle and the moves you’d have to make. Using a CRM tool such as HubSpot can be of great benefit for these tasks.
  7. Track and monitor your intake process. We’ve dedicated a separate blog article to Call and CTA tracking, but we can’t stress enough the importance of going back and reviewing your personnel’s performance. It will allow you to perform internal assessments, fix any pain points, and maximize your conversions and signed cases.

Tip: Even if you end up not signing a prospect who called you or filled a form, keep their details and add them to your potential marketing pipeline. What didn’t convert yesterday could be your best case in the future. We’d suggest sending them a thank you note and keeping them informed with your Law Firm’s newsletter.

It’s time for our main takeaways:

  • The intake process is a vital part of any Law Firm’s success. If you don’t welcome your leads properly and efficiently, you might miss out on opportunities.
  • Ensure that your staff is trained and empathetic.
  • If you invest in Hispanic PPC or handle cases coming from Spanish speaking clients, make sure that you respond to them in their preferred language.
  • Stay up to date with tech-tools such as CRMs or electronic signatures that can make your processes smoother and more efficient.