CallRail Integration to Clio Manage (Coming Soon)

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Soon, Clio Manage users will be able to natively integrate CallRail into Clio Manage. I’ll cheers to that!

Currently, you can connect these two systems via Zapier and their APIs. This is certainly better than no connection at all. However, this levels up this integration with a more seamless connecting between these two popular technologies for law firms.

We are a CallRail partner because CallRail is the industry leading call tracking tool. It allows sophisticated law firms and attorneys to make smart business decisions with their marketing investments.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that CallRail has grown into much more than just call tracking. It now offers conversation intelligence to help you gain insights into your calls to improve intake and targeting, third-party form attribution tracking, VOIP services, and even a constantly improving CRM.

Clio Manage, of course, is one of the most popular matter management systems. It was previously known simply as Clio before they purchased Lexicata at the end of 2018.

callrail to clio manage integration announcement

FYI – In the image above you may have noticed you can become part of the beta group for this integration by emailing integrations@callrail.com!

Does CallRail Integrate With Clio Grow?

The short answer is… sort of. You can connect CallRail to Clio Grow’s Lead Inbox using a tool like Zapier.

Are you wondering if CallRail will eventually offer a native integration with Clio Grow? Well, you’re in good company. Unfortunately, this isn’t really up to CallRail…

Those of you who have attended any of our Clio Grow webinars may recall that Clio Grow doesn’t have an open API. This is the limiting factor when it comes to connecting third-party software to this popular legal intake management software.

It even limits the level of “integration” possible between Clio Grow and Clio Manage. Weird, right?

For those interested in learning how to integrate forms with source information into Clio Grow, we’ve got your back.

Find the right IMS for Your Firm

How To Automatically Get Source Information Into Clio Grow From Form Submissions (WordPress)

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Law firms that use Clio Grow as their intake management system may not be aware that it is possible to automatically get source information from form submissions into Clio Grow if you’re using WordPress as your CMS.

The benefit to passing source information into this extremely popular legal intake management software is massive. By doing so, you’re able to accurately understand which of your marketing and advertising channels are driving consultations, and ultimately clients to your firm.

The key here is accuracy. If you’re simply relying on an intake specialist to ask your prospects how they heard about your firm, the response is almost always lackluster. Often, you’ll attribute the lead to “the internet”, “Website” or “Google.”. Sound familiar?

The fact is, The internet is a big place and your website isn’t a true source.

More importantly, your intake specialist doesn’t even get a chance to ask someone who completed a form “How did you hear about us?”

I’ve outlined the technology you’ll need and the steps you’ll have to take to get source information automatically into Clio Grow below.

What Technology You Need To Get Source Information Into Clio Grow

  1. WordPress
  2. Clio Grow (but you knew that already, right?)
  3. Gravity Forms – Elite License required to get the Webhooks add-on
  4. Gravity Form Webhooks Add-On – included in Gravity Forms Elite license
  5. Attributer – Free trial then $49/month

How To Set Up The Technology To Get Source Information Into Clio Grow

  1. Install Gravity Forms on your WordPress Website.
    1. Create a new form with the following visible fields: * Indicates required fields.
      1. First Name*
      2. Last Name*
      3. Email*
      4. Phone*
      5. Tell us about your case
    2. Create the following hidden fields:
      1. Referring URL
      2. Source
      3. Source Drilldown 1
      4. Source Drilldown 2
      5. Source Drilldown 3
      6. Landing Page
      7. Landing Page Group
      8. Inbox Token
    3. I highly recommend enabling and configuring Google’s reCaptcha on your form to cut down on SPAM.
  2. Grab your unique inbox token from Clio Grow
    1. Log in to Clio Grow → Settings → Integrations → Clio Grow Inbox → Copy button next to the Inbox Token
    2. Paste this token in the hidden field you named Inbox Token in 1.b.viii
  3. Sign up for an account with Attributer
    1. Copy and paste the Attributer code on your website. This should ideally be placed in the website <Head> tag.
    2. Add the following default values to the following hidden fields:
      1. Referring URL: {embed_url}
      2. Source: [channel]
      3. Source Drilldown 1: [channeldrilldown1]
      4. Source Drilldown 2: [channeldrilldown2]
      5. Source Drilldown 3: [channeldrilldown3]
      6. Landing Page: [landingpage]
      7. Landing Page Group: [landingpagegroup]
  4. Add New Webhook (gravity forms settings → Webhook → add new)
    1. Name it whatever you’d like. I name mine Webhooks Feed 1
    2. Request URL: https://grow.clio.com/inbox_leads
    3. Request Method: POST
    4. Request Format: JSON
    5. Skip Request Headers
    6. Configure the Request Body section to the following:
      1. Check the Select Fields radio button
      2. Key Value
        from_first Name (First)
        from_last Name (Last)
        from_email Email
        from_phone Phone
        from_message Client Message: “{Tell me about your case::8}” | Referring URL: {Referring URL:11} | Source: {Source:12}: | Source Drilldown 1: {Source Drilldown 1:13} | Source Drilldown 2: {Source Drilldown 2:14} | Source Drilldown 3: {Source Drilldown 3:15} | Landing Page: {Landing Page:16} | Landing Page Group: {Landing Page Group:17}
        referring_url Source
        from_source Referring URL
        inbox_lead_token inbox token
  5. Verify everything is landing in the Clio Grow Inbox it should look like this:
    1. clio grow inbox with source information screenshot

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Process To Create A Contact In Clio Grow From The Inbox

Since Clio Grow does not have an open API, what we did above was pass information from your website form into the Clio Grow’s Inbox. To add a contact you’ll simply navigate to your inbox, click the Add button and then Add Contact. You can also decide to do a Quick Intake if you’d like.

Before we can do this, however, you need to add custom lead sources to your account. Here’s how to do that directly from Clio. The sources you should make are:

  1. Organic Search
  2. Organic Social
  3. Referral
  4. Direct
  5. Paid Search
  6. Display
  7. Email
  8. Paid Social*

I recommend aligning these to what you have set up in Google Analytics. We set up custom channels in our GA accounts which is noted by the *.

Once you have these sources added, you will need to select the correct source from the source drop down field when you add a contact from the Clio Grow inbox. This should match to the source noted at the bottom of the lead in the inbox.

Bonus Points For Connecting Clio Grow To Clio Manage

In Wednesday’s webinar, I’ll explain how to connect Clio Grow to Clio Manage. I’ll also touch on how to pass this source information through to the new Matter in Clio Manage. From there, you can start to understand which sources/channels are driving revenue to your firm. Dare I say ROI?

Helpful Resources:

How To Integrate HubSpot With Clio Manage

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HubSpot recently released an integration with Clio Manage! You can find the integration within HubSpot’s marketplace.

This is fantastic!

For those who aren’t familiar with HubSpot, they are on a mission to help companies simplify their tech stack and become the “Hub” for all of it. No, seriously. All of it.

We are on a mission to help law firms create the right tech stack for their specific needs and processes (or lack thereof).

We are tired of having conversations that start and stop with “Leads look amazing” only to be told that things are anything but amazing from a new matter perspective. It’s 2021. We need to know if those leads are turning into prospects and if those prospects are turning into clients. If they aren’t, we need to know where the holes are so we can fix them. #leakyfunnel

Enter HubSpot!

I’ve used, seen, broken, fixed, and researched A LOT of legal-specific technologies. I’ll soon be publishing a comprehensive comparison of those technologies. The glaring hole I found time and time again was related to intake management. More specifically: accurate source tracking. 

Sure, your legal intake management systems have a spot to capture that intel, but do you even know the difference between Google LSAs, Google PPC, Local Ads, GMB, and organic search? There’s no way a manual data entry of this vital information is accurate to the point where you could make any meaningful marketing decision on it.

Still asking “How did you hear about us?” Stop. Your prospects don’t know the difference between LSAs and Google PPC. Shoot, you may not even know the difference. The difference in economics between those two advertising channels is enormous….

HubSpot has the source tracking (and integration into our beloved tool CallRail) locked down. They also have the pipeline, automation, and user-friendly interface to boot.

We have the experience of how to design HubSpot to fit within all sizes of firms with all levels of complexity with regards to their tools and tech. A perfect pair, really.

Now, HubSpot can feed that data into your matter management system natively, if you’re using Clio Manage…

The integration is new and will no doubt be improved over time. I’ve created a how-to guide below.

Enjoy!

How to Integrate HubSpot with Clio Manage:

1. Purchase HubSpot Operations Hub Starter.

1.a. The default properties available to sync do not include Source information.

2. Create a custom contact field in Clio Manage for Source information:

2.a. Sign in to your Clio Manage Account

2.b. Create a custom contact field in Clio Manage called “Source”

3. Install the Clio Manage Data Sync App in HubSpot:

3.a. Sign into HubSpot

3.b. Navigate to the HubSpot Marketplace icon (the house) and go to the App Marketplace

3.c. Search for Clio Manage and click it

3.d. Hit the Install App button (it’s orange)

4. Connect HubSpot & Clio Manage:

4.a. In HubSpot, go to Settings (gear icon) –> Integrations –> Connected Apps

4.b. Click Clio Manage

4.c. Click Connect

4.d. Walk through the steps – Leave domain set to app. (if you are outside of the US and login to Clio manage using eu.app or ca.app select the appropriate domain)

5. Map and Sync the data between HubSpot and Clio Manage

5.a This is a two-way sync, meaning that you can sync the data from Clio manage to HubSpot and HubSpot to Clio Manage. I recommend changing to the option “No Contacts” under Clio Manage. This will make it so only the data from HubSpot flows to Clio Manage.

5.b. The default mapped fields are fine as they are. However, you’ll need to create another custom map from the Source field in Clio Manage and Original Source* field in HubSpot.

5.c. Save & Sync and you’re done!

*The Original Source property in HubSpot is a default HubSpot field. This means as of writing this blog post you cannot edit the options within this field in HubSpot. It’s also important to understand that if you’ve connected CallRail or another call tracking system, that the sources of those callers are in a separate property, usually called Source. When we configure our clients on HubSpot, we create automation to match the Original Source default HubSpot property to reflect what CallRail puts into the Source field.

Page Indexing Issues being fixed by Google

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UPDATE 4/10/19: Google has announced this issue has been fully resolved.

Last Thursday, webmasters started noticing issues with Google’s indexation of pages throughout the web. Google had been removing pages from their search results for no apparent reason.

Google acknowledged the issue on Saturday, while also incorrectly reporting that the issues had been fixed. They haven’t provided any specific information around what caused the problem in the first place.

google search liaison indexing issue tweets

On Sunday, Danny Sullivan tweeted from the Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) that they are actively working on completely resolving the issue and that it was mostly fixed.

In his tweet, Danny also stated that the problem is solely on Google’s end, however, if there are high-importance pages that you noticed have been de-indexed you can request re-indexing through Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool.

request (re)indexing url inspection tool

John Mueller pointed out that even once the issue has been fixed, webmasters shouldn’t expect that all their website’s pages be added back to Google’s index. Additionally, he stated that “Awesome sites with minimal duplication help us recognize the value of indexing more of your pages.”

john mueller google indexing issues

5 Popular Web Hosting Companies Vulnerable to Simple Takeover Hacks

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Security vulnerabilities are nothing new when it comes to tech. Every day, we are increasingly and often unknowingly putting ourselves at risk for digital intruders. Doorbells, hot tubs, baby monitors, Facebook, Google+ and yes, website hosting companies to name a few. The consequences include potential access to your accounts, sensitive information, or worse.

A recent report by Paulos Yibelo, an experienced security researcher, found that five popular web hosting companies were easily hacked by one or more means:

  1. Bluehost
  2. Dreamhost
  3. HostGator
  4. OVH
  5. iPage

Paulos identified dozens of bugs that vary in severity and allow hackers access to sensitive information, full account takeovers or both.

Given the importance of security, it’s worth noting that the article says the vulnerabilities have been fixed. That said, it may be time to invest in a higher quality hosting company, especially if you use a popular content management system (CMS) like WordPress.

New “Follow” Button For Google Maps

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Currently rolling out only to those using Google Maps for Android, Google is now giving users the ability to “follow” specific businesses as announced on their blog. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before IOS users start seeing this feature as well.

Once a user starts following a business on Google, they start to receive news from that business, like events, offers and other updates. The news, events and updates show up under the “For You” tab within Google Maps.

google maps for you tab example

GMB (Google My Business) Posts Shouldn’t Be Ignored

 

This Google Map update shows that Google is putting more stock into the Google My Business posts and so should your firm.

Prior to this update, users would only find your business’s Google post and Q&A if they actively searched for your business and found the Knowledge Panel or business listing. Now, this information can be actively sent to users that have shown an interest in your services.

We’ll have to see how this unfolds and the implications to your law firm’s marketing strategy as the feature is rolled out.

Interestingly, this update comes at a time when Google+ has been discontinued following a massive data breach and trust in Facebook is at a low.

Call Tracking or No Call Tracking – Choose Wisely

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you're not wrong just not helpful imageWhen a law firm starts an engagement with our marketing agency, we always setup our reporting and infrastructure. This includes call tracking. We communicate the value of this during the “sales” process. I like to think it’s what makes our law firm marketing services more attractive than the competition’s.

Once this setup has been completed, the conversation often goes like this:

Attorney [A]: Hey – why is my number changing on my website?! You guys are sending my business to the wrong attorney!!

Mockingbird [MB]: That’s call tracking working as it should! It allows us to measure which marketing channels are working and which ones are not. We’ve confirmed the numbers are forwarding to your firm. Give it a try!

A: Oh. Well I don’t want it.

MB: You should! Without it, we won’t have useful data to make accurate business decisions with your marketing investment.

A: I’ve had the same phone numbers for years. People have it memorized. Scrap call tracking.

MB: We aren’t willing to fly this plane blind. You’re investing thousands of dollars in PPC and we need to know if it’s working. It’s also vital to lowering your cost per lead and client metrics over time. You should continue to use your direct number on your business cards and give it to new clients during your on-boarding process!

A: What if a client saves a call tracking number?

MB: The number will still work! We encourage you to give your direct number to every new client when they sign with your firm. We only report on first time callers, because we wouldn’t want to miscount existing clients that call back using a tracking number as a new lead.

A: If I decide to leave MB, what happens?

MB: We don’t hold you hostage. We would hate to see you go, however, we setup your tools so that you own them. If you want to stop leveraging CallRail, they can port any phone number out from their system and into your preferred call software.

A: I’ll just ask my clients how they found me.

MB: They will tell you “the internet”. Which isn’t wrong, it’s just not helpful.

A: You’re not going to budge on this are you?

MB: Nope.

Call Tracking – Making Your Law Firm Successful

Our 10 Commandments are displayed proudly on the wall every employee (and visitor) sees them as they enter our office.

#3 is “Don’t Make Clients Happy, Make Them Successful.” Call tracking will help our marketing agency make your law firm successful.

If you don’t like it, there are at least a dozen other law firm marketing agencies that will light your money on fire for you. We’re just not one of them.

How to Properly Add URL Parameters to Facebook Ads

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Tracking the efficacy of your law firm’s marketing and advertising is vital to understanding how well your investments are paying off. Proper UTM codes, a type of URL parameter for Google Analytics, is the first step to accurately tracking campaigns.

How and where you implement these URL parameters varies based on what platform you’re running ads from.

Facebook ads has a “Tracking” section where you can add custom parameters for each of your ads. If configured properly, you can categorize traffic and conversions in the proper marketing channel.

The important thing to remember when implementing these in Facebook is you should NOT include the ‘?’ before these parameters in this section. Facebook automatically amends the destination URL to include the ‘?’ before the parameter you entered.

url parameters facebook

You can find the official Facebook help article here.

URL Building Resources

There are a variety of URL parameter tools that can help you make the UTM codes that interface into Google Analytics.

Is Your Law Firm Domain Registered Through Weebly? That’s a Paddlin’

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Full disclosure: This post is more of a public service announcement than a typical “how to” post on improving your law firm’s online marketing.

Pros and Cons of Using Weebly as your Registrar

Pros: They do all of your DNS configurations for you!

Cons: You’re required to have them do all of you DNS configurations for you.

My Experience Using Weebly’s Support to Update DNS

I recently helped migrate a website from a shared hosting environment on Blue Host to a faster, cleaner hosting environment with WP Engine. A typical WordPress website migration for a site with less than 25 pages takes 2-3 hours. Most of this time is spent backing up, crawling, uploading files and verifying everything made the move without issues.

There are many things that can complicate a migration. If you have an overly complex DNS that isn’t setup well, things get complicated quickly. The likelihood that your DNS setup is configured well is 5%. If you’re domain is registered through Weebly, it’s 0%.

Since Weebly tries to make things as easy on you (the attorney) as possible, they don’t have a typical Cpanel or advanced DNS settings page to create and adjust normal DNS settings like GoDaddy, or Namecheap, or Blue Host, or Host Gator, or…

Unfortunately for my client and to make things worse, his Name Servers were pointed away from Weebly and over to Bluehost. Which is where he had configured his email settings (MX records).

This means that I had to move ALL of his DNS settings away from Blue Host over to Weebly, in addition to moving all of his Website files from Blue Host to the new hosting company: WP Engine.

Because Weebly does all of the DNS changes for you, I had to contact their support to make a whole lot of very important, highly technical DNS changes for me. Yikes.

This also meant that I need to carefully articulate what changes I needs made and when. Ugh.

This also meant that I have to repeat myself multiple times. Doh.

This also meant that I have to work on behalf of my client and not on behalf of me – the guy who knows what he is doing (no offense). Bleh.

This also meant that they need to change the Name Servers BACK to Weebly’s Name Servers, which takes 48 hours to update across the web AFTER they finally make the changes. Boo.

This also meant that I have to verify they don’t mess this up….For the record, they did not mess it up but they took nearly a week to update DNS settings from start to finish.

In short, if you can at all avoid registering your domain through Weebly, I highly recommend doing so. Especially if you think you’ll eventually become large enough to hand this off to your VP of Marketing.

For those of you who need help with this, I’m happy to talk: 206-209-2125.