How to Use Your COVID-19 Downtime To Help Your Law Firm Grow

Written by

There’s no doubt about it, we’re all having to change our daily routines because of COVID-19. Many law firms are finding themselves with more downtime than they’re used to, and that can be very scary as a small business owner.

We’ve been talking to our clients a lot lately about whether they should be pausing all advertising, switching focus on their current marketing projects, and even helping them learn new tools and technology to help them work remotely.

Since no one knows when things will start going back to normal, here’s a list of things you, as an attorney or an employee at a law firm, can do to help your business for the long-haul:

  1. Write New Content: You know that content you’ve been meaning to write over the past six months, or even six years? Now is a great time to revisit that list and start churning out your new practice types or sub categories. If you have the flexibility to add new practice types that might help your business now (think bankruptcy, divorce, wills & trusts), create content on those and add them to your website.
  2. Audit Your Site: Not sure if you need new content? Take a look at what you have on your website. If you’ve been in business for a while, there’s a good chance you have some outdated or irrelevant content on your site. Figure out what’s most important to your business and what you want your potential clients to be able to find, or not find.
  3. Audit Your Own Intake Process: If you’ve utilized CallRail’s recording capabilities, now is a great time to go back and listen to how your staff handles your inbound calls. If you don’t record calls, go through your front desk’s process or list of questions they use to qualify a new lead. Are there things missing from the list? Things that could be added?
  4. Work on Your Social Media Presence: With so many people at home and on their computers, you should come up with other ways to get in front of people. While social sites may not be the best converting marketing channel, it does help with your local brand exposure. It’s also a great way to build trust with members of your community. We’ve already seen a lot of really great stories come out over the past couple of weeks of local businesses helping their community through these hard times.
  5. Get Involved: If you’re able, use your legal expertise to help those who have legal questions. If you’re an employment attorney, many people are unsure if they qualify for unemployment. Even if you can’t help the person now, they may need your services in the future and will turn to you.
  6. Go Digital: For those of you still using snail mail and handwritten documents, switch over to something like DocuSign. Move all of your files off of your hard drive and on to the cloud. You can also embrace video conferencing and invest in a good webcam and microphone.
  7. Email Campaigns: Use that long list of emails you have from people filling out your website’s contact form and create drip email campaigns to hit people now while they’re doing research on potential lawyers.
  8. Create a Marketing Plan: For some, marketing is one of the last things you think about when it come to your business. Think about where you’d like to be in the next year, 5 years, or 10 years, and start planning what you need to do to get there. There’s also a lot of really great blog content out there that’s designed specifically for lawyers and their marketing…hint, hint.
  9. Watch Webinars: Use this time to learn something that can help your business later on. There are plenty of tools and marketing agencies putting on more webinars than normal.
  10. Attend a Virtual Conference: A lot of conferences have had to move to a virtual platform, including ours, but are still covering the same topics they would have at their physical events. Instead of paying a couple thousand dollars to attend a conference far away, spend a few hundred to get the same great information, but from the comfort of your own home.

Even though things are uncertain at the moment, you can use this time to do all the things you never had time to do before, and set yourself up for success once everything blows over.

If you’re interested in getting an experts opinion on how you should be handling your law firm’s business and marketing, give us a call.

 

 

Tools We Love: CallRail

Written by

Call tracking has become a standard for anyone who’s focused on measuring the success of their website. There are plenty of tools out there that offer call tracking, but we’ve fallen in love with CallRail, and have stayed in love for many years now.

Over time, CallRail has added features and improved how effectively it tracks an individual’s call history.

What does it do?

Instead of showing your real business phone number, you can use a tracking number in places that a potential customer or client will see. If you choose to add tracking numbers to your website, CallRail will dynamically swap your real number with your chosen tracking number(s).

How does it work?

Within CallRail, you can either port (move) numbers you already own or create new numbers to use as your tracking numbers. These numbers can be displayed on your website, within ad copy, on billboards, or anywhere else you might want your number displayed.

When someone calls one of these tracking numbers, the information from that call is stored in your CallRail dashboard. The caller won’t notice that they’ve called a tracking number, and neither will the person answering your main line.

Implementation

For number swapping on your site, you’ll want to install CallRail’s script directly onto your website (we suggest using Google Tag Manager to do this).

You’ll also want to connect Google Analytics and Google Ads to CallRail in order to link your data together.

CallRail Integrations

Setting up Tracking Numbers

If you’re running Google Ads, you should have at least two tracking numbers, one for mobile, the other for desktop. You’ll use both of these as extensions for your ads.

A good rule of thumb is to place a tracking number on any marketing or advertising you’re paying for. If you have a TV commercial, make a tracking number specific to that. If you still advertise in a phonebook, have a tracking number for that as well.

This is the best way to figure out which campaigns are driving leads, and from those, clients.

Keyword Pools are the best way to track calls that happen on your website. A keyword pool is essentially a bunch of numbers that are available to show on your website at any given time. If you have 5 people viewing your site at the same time, each will see a different number and their visit will be tracked individually. It doesn’t matter where the user came from (Organic, Direct, etc.); each person will be tracked accordingly in your CallRail dashboard. This eliminates the need for individual tracking numbers by channel source.

CallRail Tracking

Form Captures

CallRail can also track the form submissions on your site. This is great for calculating ROI on forms, all in one easy place. You can easily search for a signed clients name, see their form submission, and see how they got to the site in that visit.

Call Recording

CallRail has an opt in feature to record calls on the tracking number level. If you wanted to only record calls from one of your numbers, you can do that. You can also customize the message that plays to the caller that alerts them they are being recorded.

If you suspect there’s an issue with your intake process, call recording is the best way to pinpoint the problem. It’s also a great way to track the quality of your leads. You might find that one of your advertising channels is only bringing in callers who can’t afford your services, who are outside of your service area, or the wrong kind of practice type.

Call Log

In the call log, you’ll be able to see all of the calls that have happened on all of your tracking numbers. You can switch to specific time periods, look at only specific tracking number, sources, and a number of other things.

You can also mark-up calls with notes about the call, or whether it was a good lead or a bad lead.

Callrail Call Log

Call Attribution

The call attribution tab has the best breakdown of how many calls you had by channel for a given time period, as well as how many were first-time calls. It’s important to know how many first-time calls you’ve had in comparison to your total call volume. At Mockingbird, we only report on first-time calls because we’re trying to track new business, not current clients or people who have contacted you previously.

CallRail Call Attribution

 

CallRail has a ton of amazing features that haven’t been covered here, and they’re constantly improving the tools they offer. As an official CallRail partner, feel free to contact Mockingbird if you have any questions. We’d love to help get you started with CallRail and improve your current tracking setup.

How to Fix Your Website When Your Agency Isn’t Around

Written by

If your agency dropped off the face of the earth, would you know what tools and logins you need in order to troubleshoot a problem on your website?

If you answered yes, great job!

If you answered no (no shame), here are the most important logins and troubleshooting starting points:

Logins:

  1. Website access – you should have full administrative access to your own website. This allows you to add, update, and delete content. It also allows you to manage users, which is very important for when you want to axe your vendors.
  2. Registrar – this is where you purchased your domain. Often times, your DNS is managed here.
    • DNS (Domain Name System) – where you connect your domain with certain pieces of information, like an IP Address that displays your website on your domain, or an MX record that connects your email with your domain name.
  3. Host – this is where your website’s information is stored, where you can make redirects for pages within your website, and make backups of your site.

*Helpful hint: sometimes your registrar and your host are the same company.

Troubleshooting:

Most big and scary website issues can be solved if you have access to the three tools above. Once you have access to these, you also have access to the support teams for each company. When in doubt, contact support. Most of the time, they’ll be able to pinpoint the problem, and then walk you through the steps to fix it, or even fix it for you.

Helpful Troubleshooting Tips:

  1. Make sure you’re using the automatic backup function through your host. We like WPEngine because they do site backups every night. If something breaks on your site, the easiest way to get things back up and running is to restore a backup from when your site was last functioning correctly.
  2. Take a screenshot of your DNS records any time you’re about to make an update. If you make a mistake, you can easily revert back to your old settings.

Most Common Reasons Your Site Goes “Down”:

  1. Your website hosting server has changed and your IP Address is different. If this has happened, you’ll need to update the “A Record” within your DNS to the new IP address. There are ways to avoid this, like using a nameserver to link your domain and your website, but that’s a lesson for another day.
  2. There’s a big red security warning. This is most likely due to an SSL issue. If it is an SSL issue, check with your website host to make sure your subscription is up-to-date. Another reason could be that you’ve added a file or an image that is not secure to a page on your site. The worst case scenario is that your site was hacked. But talking to the support team at your website hosting provider will help you solve the problem.
  3. Your domain is for sale because you didn’t renew. Always set your domain to automatically renew so you never lose your domain. If you do forget to renew, login to your registrar and immediately purchase your domain, before someone else does.

This list is far from comprehensive, but these initial steps and tips should provide you with the knowledge and confidence to resolve the majority of unanticipated website issues.

How to Claim and Create your Apple Map Listing

Written by

I recently visited a client of mine and tried to use my iPhone to pull up directions to their office. Despite looking for them directly by name, I couldn’t find their listing. This can be frustrating for anyone trying to visit your office, and could potentially cost you business. But fear not, the fix is very simple and takes less than ten minutes.

  1. If you have an Apple ID, use that to login here: https://mapsconnect.apple.com/. If you don’t have an Apple ID, you can create one on the same page.
  2. Click the “Add Place” link. Enter your business name and location.
  3. If nothing shows in your search, create your listing and fill out as much information as possible.
  4. If you do have a listing, click into the profile and “Claim this place.” Update and add any relevant business information.
  5. Verify through a phone call. *NOTE: your listing will not be visible on Apple Maps until you’ve finished verifying.

Here’s what your finished product will look like:

Apple Maps

As you can see, Apple Maps also pulls information from Yelp, like your reviews and photos. So, make sure you add your Facebook, Yelp, and Twitter accounts, if you have them.

Not only is it important to have an Apple Maps listing for your potential clients to find you and share important details about your business, but this is also the information that’s shared when someone does a voice search using Siri.

Creative Ways to Increase Positive Reviews

Written by

Getting clients to leave reviews is tough, so I’ve complied a list of some creative ways my clients have attempted to increase their positive review count. Below are five techniques clients have used to generate additional testimonials:

  1. Create a bound book of written reviews

    This particular firm receives a lot of hand-written thank you’s from their past clients and wanted to showcase them in their office for future clients to read. They also have their clients fill out a form during their final meeting, reviewing their experience with the attorney and paralegals.

  2. Use QR codes

    I recently had a law firm come to me with this idea. This is a great option for those who are asking for client reviews while the client is in the office. Creating QR codes is very simple, I used this tool. Simply choose the site you’d like to link the QR code to, and use the image wherever you’d like.

  3. Give advice on cases that don’t require legal help, ask for a review in exchange

    This was actually a really great idea that came from Conrad. A firm I work with gets a lot of phone calls from a page on their site that covers a practice area that doesn’t require legal representation. Instead of removing the page to stop the barrage of phone calls, he answers their questions and asks them to let him know how their case ends. After that, he asks for a review.

  4. Create an incentive program for employees

    If you have a lot of attorneys and paralegals who are responsible for getting reviews, this is a good option. Ask each employee to get 5 positive reviews every quarter. If they succeed they get an extra vacation day, a catered lunch, or a gift card.

  5. Use automated text messages

    This works better for case types that are more transactional. Companies like BirdEye and Gather Up (formerly Get Five Stars) are good options for this. Essentially, once the case has concluded, the client receives a text message asking to rate their experience.

Asking for reviews can feel intrusive to some, but it’s extremely important for SEO. If you and a competitor have very similar Google My Business profiles, the one with the most reviews will usually win out in local search results.

No matter your firm’s size, location, or practice area, choose a review strategy and stick with it!

Don’t Turn a Blind Eye to How Your Phone is Answered

Written by

Almost every law firm has a dedicated person answering their main phone line, but not many are regularly auditing their calls. The initial touchpoint for a potential client is a crucial step in whether or not they’ll hire you, so why wouldn’t you put the same time, money, and effort into intake training as you do for the marketing that drives those calls to you in the first place?

As a marketer, it’s my job to drive calls to your office. What happens when they contact you is completely in the hands of your intake team.

I’ve had multiple conversations with clients who believe their intake process is superb, only to call in myself and have a less than favorable experience with their gatekeeper. If I have a bad experience, potential clients are also having a bad experience, which means they’re probably not going to hire you.

There are a few options, depending on how involved you’d like to be, in the auditing/training of your intake team:

  1. You can mystery shop your own office and create a script off of your findings
  2. You can use your marketing agency to mystery shop or listen to your recorded phone calls and give feedback
  3. You can hire an intake specialist to coach you on how to properly answer your phone and capture more leads

Which ever method you choose, continue to be involved with your intake team. Your intake team is the first personal connection made on behalf of your firm, make sure it’s a good one.

Lawyers of Distinction’s New Top Dog

Written by

Mockingbird Marketing is pleased to announce that Lucy Davis of Seattle, Washington has been accepted as a member of Lawyers of Distinction. Lawyers of Distinction limits its membership to the top 10% of attorneys in the United States, and accepts only those who pass their objective evaluation of an attorney’s reputation, experience, license, qualifications, and disciplinary history. Through their vigorous research, Lawyers of Distinction has chosen to bestow this remarkable honor on our dear friend, Lucy.

Lucy Davis is a highly experienced and compassionate personal injury attorney at Davis Law Group in Seattle, WA. With many years of close client relationships, Ms. Davis takes a different approach to advocating for innocent victims of negligent crimes.

Ms. Davis is a member of the King County Bark Association and the American Kennel Club. She is also a strong supporter of the Courthouse Dogs Foundation.

In her spare time, Ms. Davis likes to take long walks and spend time with her family. During the summer months, she spends her time outdoors, either bike riding or boating around Lake Union and Lake Washington. Naturally, Ms. Davis is a die-hard UW Huskies fan, and enjoys attending the Dawg Wagon tailgate party.

Ms. Davis received her Bachelor’s degree from Springfield University, and her Juris Dogtor from Manhattan Law School in New York.

On behalf of Mockingbird Marketing, we want to congratulate all of the skilled attorneys who have been awarded the distinction of being in the top 10% of attorneys in 2017. We can’t wait to see the great things that 2018 brings, especially for Lawyers of Distinction.

*Disclaimer: Lucy is not a lawyer, but she really did win this award. This post is satirical and meant to be humorous. If you’re in for even more of a laugh, take a look at Lucy’s marvelous acceptance speech.

How to Utilize Ad Extensions in the Legal Industry

Written by

One of the easiest ways to enhance your Google AdWords search ads is to implement Ad Extensions. AdWords offers quite a few types of extensions, but some of them just don’t make sense in the legal industry. In this post, I’ll go through the different types of extensions, what they look like, and which are my personal favorite.

Types of AdWords Ad Extensions:

  • Sitelink Extensions
  • Call Extensions
  • Location Extensions
  • Callout Extensions
  • Structured Snippet Extensions
  • Review Extensions
  • Message Extensions
  • Affiliate Location Extensions
  • Price Extensions
  • App Extensions

Sitelink Extensions:

These are essentially extra pages on your site that someone can visit directly from your ad in search results. You can choose which links you’d like to show up for specific campaigns or ad groups, which gives you the option to link the most relevant pages for that specific subject.

How this works for Legal:

Say you’re an attorney who practices both criminal and family law. You don’t want your DUI page showing up alongside your Divorce ad, so make sure you choose the correct level of placement.

AdWords Sitelink Extensions

Call Extensions:

This adds your phone number to your ad. Mobile and desktop versions will have slightly different functionality since you can make a call directly from the mobile ad.

How this works for legal:

This gives your potential clients a direct line of communication to your office without ever having to visit your website. This is a great option for those who already know they need a lawyer, or those who would rather talk to a real person to get answers about their specific case.

Pro Tip:

Add two call tracking numbers, one for desktop and one for mobile, in order to track visitors who never actually visited your website.

 AdWords Call Extensions

Location Extensions:

A location extension is a direct link to your Google My Business page (make sure your name, address, and phone number is correct!). What’s great about these is that not only can you get your address in your ad, but this also makes it possible for you to show up as an ad in Google Maps.

How this works for legal:

A lot of people choose attorneys based on location. This extension allows you to be more visible for “near me” searches.

AdWords Location Extension

Callout Extensions:

Callout extensions are essentially short, call to action statements.

How this works for legal:

If you offer free consultations, are a certified specialist, or accept calls 24/7, this is the place to share it.

AdWords Callout Extensions

Structured Snippet Extensions:

These are types of products or services you offer.

How this works for legal:

This is where you can specify the types of law you practice, or break out sub-practice areas. Ex: Child Custody, Child Support, and Divorce.

AdWords Structured Snippet Extensions

Review Extensions:

These are short reviews of your business, found on external sites. These are not automatically pulled from those sites, so you can choose which reviews you submit.

How this works for legal:

Reviews are an important part of any business, but are especially important in gaining new legal clients.

Special Note:

Of the available review extensions, these are the hardest to get approved, making them my personal favorite. If you’d like to learn my tips and tricks for getting reviews approved, join me for a webinar on September 13th! You can find more information and register here.

AdWords Review Extension

Message Extensions:

These are similar to call extensions, but for text messaging.

How this works for legal:

First, if you’re not open to receiving text messages, this isn’t a review extension you should use, and most potential legal clients won’t contact via text in the first place. But, if you’ve found this to be different for your practice, make sure you’re connecting a number that can receive text messages, or you’re using a call tracking service like CallRail that allows text messaging.

AdWords Mobile Extensions
Examples of multiple AdWords mobile ad extensions.

Affiliate Location Extensions:

This type of extension is only available to retail chains. They show searchers nearby locations of your retail store.

How this works for legal:

It doesn’t. At least not yet. Once this extension is available to smaller, non-retail businesses, law offices with multiple locations will be able to benefit from this really cool feature.

Price Extensions:

Price extensions give you up to eight cards to share prices for specific services.

How this works for legal:

We don’t use price extensions for legal because most practices don’t have set prices for multiple services. This may be an option for some attorneys who have standardized services.

App Extensions:

This extension gives you the option to link to your mobile app.

How this works for legal:

Since most attorneys don’t have an app for their services, this extension doesn’t really apply.

How Voice Search May Be Hurting Your Advertising

Written by

In the past six months, virtual assistants have become the newest must-have tech device.  Virtual assistants have been around for the past couple of years, but Amazon and Google have taken it to the next level. You can now ask a small speaker in your home to play music, write a to-do list, and search the internet for a restaurants’ phone number. I have yet to hop on the AI bandwagon, but my dad is still amazed that Alexa can play the Magnum P.I. theme song.

While these devices make life a little easier, they can also be hurting your advertising costs, and even inflating your leads. Since there’s no screen to view your search results, your assistant will choose what they believe the best answer is. If it’s the correct answer, then great! If not, you may end up calling a business you didn’t intend to.

I was recently looking through the search terms report in AdWords for a client, and stumbled upon a series of voice searches:

“Okay Google I need probate attorneys in the state of Kentucky USA not Oklahoma anywhere else”

“Okay Google maybe you don’t understand I’m trying to reach probate attorneys in Kentucky Kentucky”

I think it’s pretty safe to say that this was the same searcher looking for an attorney in Kentucky, not Oklahoma where my client practices. But because Google thought this query best matched our call-only ads, the helpful assistant placed a call to their office. Twice.

At least the second search was only half the price of the first…

So with the increased use of virtual assistants, your ad managers need to be vigilant in monitoring the types of searches you’re paying for, and what changes they can make to ensure you’re only paying for searches that are relevant to your business.