Yelp. Whether you love them or hate them you’ve at least heard of them, and you’ve likely used their website or app to find a good sushi joint in your neighborhood.
There have been over 10mm downloads of the Yelp app in the Google Play store and it’s the 32nd most popular website in America according to Alexa.com. To top it off, Yelp’s data is relied on heavily by Apple Maps (see image to the right).
Between it’s massive app user base, website traffic, and integration with Apple Maps, Yelp is a compelling advertising platform. It’s no wonder that law firms have begun to test whether Yelp Advertisements can be an effective way to attract new clients.
For the remainder of this post we will explore the question, should law firms expect a positive return on a Yelp advertising investment?
Specifically, we’ll look at the fundamental features and functionality of Yelp’s ad products, and we’ll dive into two real world case studies from lawyers we’ve talked to who’ve advertised on Yelp. Let’s go!
Ads are displayed across Yelp’s platforms; desktop website, mobile website, and mobile app. With regards to placement within their platform, Yelp explains:
“Yelp Ads appear in a variety of places including on relevant search result pages and competitor business pages.” – Yelp Advertising
In a nutshell, if you buy ad space on Yelp, your ad will show in one of these two places:
Nope. The Yelp advertising platform does not allow you to target your ads to users based on specific relevancy indicators, such as keyword search or demographics. The process for signing up is pretty simple though. You sign into your account, select your monthly budget, and you’re done. This is an easy process but is it effective?
I’m of the opinion Yelp’s inability to allow marketers to target a more relevant audience makes their advertising platform less effective overall. Any marketer worth her salt will tell you that the ability to target a relevant audience is crucial to effective marketing.
For example, if Sally logs on to Yelp to search for a lawyer to help her with a child custody matter, and she instead is served ads for lawyers who primarily handle personal injury, she is not likely to engage with the ad.
The take away here is that because Yelp does not offer any sort of targeting functionality, it’s impossible to know whether your ad is reaching a relevant audience more often than not.
Now that we’ve established the basics of Yelp’s ad platform, let’s look a couple of case studies and feedback from actual law firms who’ve advertised on Yelp.
As legal marketers we are constantly testing and trying new advertising methods. High keyword rankings and lots of free Google search traffic is cool, but the reality is that we care most about helping our clients sign more cases.
If after testing we find that a certain advertising platform or channel is ineffective, we abandon it. If we find another that is particularly effective, we invest heavily in it. In this example, we were testing Yelp Ads for a Denver based attorney who handles personal injury and traffic cases.
We decided to start off small with a $250 budget. Typically 1 out of every 5 contacts might turn into a case for this attorney so we are shooting to get at least 5 contacts (not clicks) a month. These clicks tend to end up around $10 per click in Denver. Now let’s look at the results.
This is a small sample size but the numbers don’t look promising. Considering the issues that I pointed out above, specifically in an industry that has a general categorization and then sub categories (practice areas), there are some flaws in the system. I plan on keeping this test running for a bit longer and adding more data but so far it’s not helping sign cases.
Another flaw of course is that this is a pay per click product which means I will always pay for these clicks. Some months could potentially be better than others.
For this particular client I am going to suggest that they focus more on building up their Yelp reviews, to see whether that increases click through rates (CTR) and conversions.
This case study is from Jared Staver from the Staver Law Group.
Jared reached out to me while I was searching for more info on attorneys who have had actual experience using Yelp to advertise their law firm. He’s been advertising with Yelp and considers the results lack luster.
The Staver Law Group is a Chicago based law firm with a monthly budget of $500 per month for Yelp paid clicks. Because the firm places a premium on the ability to track where their leads come from (which all businesses should), they use tracking phone numbers, live chats, and contact forms to determine the lead conversion source.
“We are tracking goal conversion for phone calls, live chats, contact forms and emails and for last quarter there were 7 conversions from Yelp. This brings the cost per conversion to $196 per contact. This number alone isn’t too bad for a personal injury lawyer, but it’s not too good either. The appeal of being at a $12.50 per click costs diminishes quite a bit when the conversion rate is only 6%. What this means is that these aren’t really people needing help in our area of practice viewing our profile on Yelp. Of the 7 contacts we’ve received from Yelp, none of them have been cases we would handle. Even though our paid ads with Yelp are only showing up for personal injury, so far it seems people are calling for other reasons or to solicit the firm.” – Jared Staver
Jared seems to agree with my point that Yelp provide a lower conversion rate because of the inability to target relevant users. More importantly, he provides another case study of a monthly budget that did not convert clicks into clients.
“We advertised on Yelp for a short period of time hoping to generate leads for our firm before pulling out. The traffic quality was not great and we were able to get more qualified leads from Google and Bing/Yahoo! PPC efforts on the paid side. When people are searching for a lawyer, they’re more likely to do an organic search on Google as opposed to going to Yelp. We were able to gauge the traffic and conversion data in our analytics before making the decision quickly to move in another direction.” – Christian Denmon from DemonLaw.com
From the data I have the answer is clearly a no talking to these attorneys and other attorneys. As I have written about before, I see Yelp helping your law firm in three different ways, none of which include paid advertising.
If your firm’s Yelp listing is optimized and you have strong reviews you can possibly get some conversions that way. In the meantime, don’t waste your money on Yelp advertising.
Do you have a similar or different experience? I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.
Growing your law firm is one of the hardest jobs you have whether your law firm is big or small. Without proper processes and procedures geared towards actively seeking out referral business you may not be getting much of it at all. That’s why today I wanted to share with you five quick steps you can implement today to start setting yourself up for success by getting case referrals from clients.
This isn’t just an online process. It really starts with the grassroots of your firms culture. If you want to be a great law firm you have to do great things and showcase that with every client interaction. Without a marketing system set for the purpose of law firm goals your marketing efforts will be short sided. Training might take some time, but I guarantee if you implement these steps you’ll see an increase in referrals for your firm.
This may seem pretty basic but you have to remember that people can’t read minds. They called you looking for a good law firm and decided to hire you among other attorneys. Show them the level of service they deserve and tell them that “We want to be your law firm”.
Letting them know this not only makes them feel special, it will resonate directly with your clients. They will know that you’re truly here to help and when it comes time for a lawyer in the future they will think of you. Don’t be deterred by your practice area if you’re a single practice firm. You’re their lawyer. If they call you with another matter in the future, help them, and refer them to someone else that can help. This is also a great way to build referral relationships with other lawyers and gain additional referral fees.
During the client relationship it’s a great idea to check in on your clients proactively from time to time. When you do this get their honest feedback about how everything is going. If there is a problem you can fix it. At the first interaction you should specifically tell them that you want a review at the end of the service. This will make it much easier to get the review at the end of the client interaction. Keep reminding them throughout the process.
For some reason I know many attorneys who are literally afraid to use email newsletters. This mindset needs to die. Email marketing is the second most effective form of advertising. Just because a client decided to hire before doesn’t mean they’re going to remember you after a month. All a newsletter is doing is reminding them that you’re around. We have found several successful tips for email newsletters that work great.
Iv’e written about the importance of books in many other posts before, but you really need to write one, get it printed, and give them away to new clients. If you’re in the personal injury space it could be something like “Top Mistakes Personal Injury Cases Fail” or something a little more informative and less dramatic.
Mailing a new client your book is just another impression and reminder that you care. Send a personal note with the book that tells your client “We want to you BE YOUR law firm”.
If you already have a strong client email database you’ll likely see results from your first email blast. Some of the other steps will take longer to implement and see results, which is a good thing. The most successful attorneys don’t use reactive marketing where they’re thinking “I need more cases today!”. Instead the most successful attorneys use big picture long term strategies. Implementing and being consistent with this strategy will give you more case referrals and help establish your firm as a prestigious and caring firm.
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to build links and citations that will really move the needle for our clients, both in terms of keyword rankings and on-and-offline reputation.
This past Labor Day we helped Sutliff & Stout, a personal injury & accident law firm in Austin, Texas, create and execute a campaign to attract local media attention.
Watch the video on Fox7Austin.com
We wanted to come up with a campaign that would not only gain the attention of local media outlets, but also display the firm’s is commitment to making the Austin community safer. What we came up with was the No DWI Free Cab Ride Program.
What if I told you that an SEO company could get your firm a 2 minute piece on the local news, while improving your search engine rankings and your online reputation? If that kind of marketing interests you, let’s talk.
Is your online marketing strategy actually in line with your law firm’s goals? If one of your online marketing goals is to get more clients and sign more cases you need to start thinking outside of your website and conduct a visibility study.
What is a visibility study? A strong visibility study will correctly identify the actual places you need to rank in the search results which will provide you the most benefit. For example, if you’re tracking common keywords to rank for like Personal Injury Attorney, or Houston Bankruptcy Lawyer, etc., you know that you want your website to rank for those keywords,but with the search engine’s continual updates, are you actually ranking in the right place? Let’s look at some history here to add a bit of context.
While there have been many significant Google updates over the years one of the most significant that affected local businesses was the Pigeon update in July 2014. Seemingly overnight this update rolled out and affected the ways that local law firms were published online forever.
Previously where the first page of Google might have been littered with small law firm websites, the bigger websites such as Findlaw, Avvo, and Yelp rose to the top of the lists overnight. Since this was also an algorithmic change, we also saw the search results fluctuate greatly. If you were in the seven pack back then you may have moved around or may have disappeared off the map (literally).
After this update we quickly found out that the local signals became more closely entwined with traditional organic signals such as link equity. This is what caused these huge monster sites such as the Findlaw Directory, AVVO, and Yelp to start ranking more prominently in many geographic areas. With these changes we saw a lot of fluctuations.
The implications of these changes actually affected many law firms. Firms who relied mostly on organic and local SEO traffic for signing cases. Law firms who didn’t have solid marketing plans, reputation management, brands, or other case generation methods were in a bit more trouble. Yet those who had listings on authority websites such as Yelp & Avvo might have seen less of a dip or even a rise in some cases.
These were of course further enhanced after the Snack pack update in August 2015 which reduced the number of local results from seven to three.
The purpose of conducting a visibility study is to take a real world data driven approach that ensures you’re showing up everywhere you need to be that will give you the highest conversion rate with the best quality leads.
If you’re already tracking your conversions at a granular level and monitoring metrics such as case values by referral source, then you can use this data in an even more powerful way.
Now that you understand the importance of this exercise, it’s time to get to work. The good news is that this is an easy process. While you can take a shortcut and just do a sampling of your keyword you’re going to be the best off if you take a comprehensive approach.
I also prepared an easy to use Google Docs Spreadsheet which you can use here.
To get your own copy simply go to File > Make A Copy (This will allow you to have your own version to edit). This is pretty straight forward so you can record the information any way that you want.
What To Do After You Have Completed The Visibility Study
Once you have completed the visibility study you have ACTUAL DATA to drive your decisions instead of decisions based off of incorrect emotions.
Now that you know where you need to be listed you need to act on this data. Create a list of the top places you need to be listed and develop a strategy to have strong placement on each of them. If it’s a very prominent listing it may make sense to pay the listing fee.
Keep in mind the additional benefits of being listed on directories and other websites that are not yours. If potential clients are visiting them and see you it’s a touch point. If they click the back button from there and go somewhere else to find you they will be more likely to click on your results. Make an impression, get listed where you need to be, and start enjoying the benefits of signing more cases with an increased reputation.
NOTE: This technique will only work if the Analytics account in question is still active, or has been deleted for less than 30 days.
One of the biggest frustrations we (and any other web-based company for that matter) have when starting with a new client is missing Google Analytics data. For whatever the reason, the client’s prior SEO/Web Development/Who Knows What company has decided they felt slighted by the client not renewing a contract and moving on, and went forward with deleting the Analytics data.
PS: This is pure evil.
Below is a real screenshot of a recent email I sent to a client’s former SEO company. Now I could have been a little nicer, or begged for it in a nice way, but I think I did a decent job in being polite and simply asking for the data. Also, I have blurred out the contacts, but my Photoshop skills aren’t expert, so please forgive me if certain portions weren’t completely blurred out. Here is the email thread:
Oh no! That is super unfortunate! That must have been just an oversight on your behalf, Mr. Super Ethical Project Manager. And he wished me a great day too, so he can’t be all that bad!
But I wasn’t satisfied, and was determined to get that data.
Now let’s skip ahead to the end, just for ease of reading. After I successfully reclaimed the Google Analytics (which is explained later) that our client rightfully should have access to, I noticed a very interesting tidbit of information. Here is a screenshot of the Google Analytics “Change History:”
That is crazy! The Almighty Project Manager must have accidentally deleted the account right after I sent him an email asking for access. Silly guy, he must have done that before he checked his email. Here is the timestamp of my email asking for access:
Wow, he deleted it 52 minutes after I sent that email! Ugh, he really should have desktop notifications in order to receive important emails in a timely manner. Oh well, maybe technology just isn’t his thing. I forgive you for this oversight.
Anyway, moving on the the important question… How exactly did I reclaim the data?
Here are the step-by-step instructions to getting back what is yours (even if a former SEO agency accidentally and in no-way intentionally deleted your data):
In order to place this phone call and get support, you must have an AdWords account set up. This isn’t optional, and you will need it just to get through to support. It doesn’t even have to be for the property in question, simply any will do (even ask a friend to “borrow” their account). If using a different AdWords account, simply refer to the property you are trying to access as a client’s property.
Make sure you have easy access to all the information you need to properly describe the problem. In this instance, the information I needed was:
– AdWords Account Number
– AdWords Account Associated Email
– UA-Tracking Code Currently On The Site (The One You Need Access To)
– UA-Tracking Code Of A Different Analytics Account (That Will Be Used In The Future For The Domain In Question)
– Email Associated With Above Analytics Account
– FTP Access Of The Site (To Be Used In Verification)
The United States support number is 1-866-2GOOGLE (1-866-246-6453). For any other support numbers, the list can be viewed here.
This is probably the most important step. In a previous job, I remember how frustrated a co-worker would get with asking Google for help. He really never got anywhere, and would never get help, even with the simplest of questions. The problem: He sounded like a complete jerk on the phone.
There is an important thing to remember when dealing with Google support: they know they have the power, and can choose to help you or not. You wouldn’t be calling them if you didn’t need their help or expertise. So just be nice and ask how their day is, alright?!
It may take a couple times to explain exactly what you need, but in the most cliche phrase of this post, “explain it to them like you would your grandma.” Remember, they get hundreds of calls a day from people asking questions pretty similar to yours. However, similar doesn’t mean exactly the same. Each situation is completely different. So if you’re very careful in explanation, they’ll eventually get a grasp of what you need.
If you’ve made it this far, that means you had all the info you needed, explained your problem, and weren’t a complete jerk. Congratulations! Now if we could just get that Fantastic Jedi Project Manager from earlier to get on the same page, the world would be better.
Your support agent will send you an email similar to this:
Once you receive that, the person on the other end has two days to respond and add your new email to the Analytics account. 97% of the time, they won’t respond, and you’ll have to complete the verification. Also, it is important to note that 36% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Here’s how that analytics.txt file needs to be formatted on your website (that you will upload through FTP access):
Once that is done, reply to the email you received from AdWords, and they’ll take care of the rest.
Once someone is working to help you, they are amazing at sending emails and phone calls to keep in constant communication and update you. Make sure you always respond, and stay grateful they entire time!
If you’re lucky (and you will be, I believe in you), you’ll receive an email like this:
Congratulations, you did it! Now, the next time you have Mr. Self-Proclaimed Powerful Former Project Manager deleting Analytics data, you can get it back.
Best of luck to all of you! Let me know if you had any success or further questions in the comments!
Google shocked the world last week when they mixed up how local results are displayed in search results. Local queries that used to return result pages containing up to seven businesses were replaced with the new three pack format that you can see in the example below:
Before this update your business could have easily shown on the first page of Google’s localized results if you ranked within the top 7 results, which gave more visibility to lower-ranking businesses. But now the 7 pack is gone!
This was not an algorithmic change, which means that if you previously ranked in the #1 position you will continue to rank in the #1 position. If you noticed a change in your local rankings it was not because of this update. This update seems to have only affected the display and the feature removal, a change which we’ll discuss a bit further down.
Now that this update has happened, if you want to control the first page you need to be in the top three results.
Being listed in the top three should be a clear priority for your organization, but there were other implications that came along with this change as well.
One of the biggest implications of this change is the fact that local results went from 7 to 3 listings. However, there were also some other major changes with this update.
If you were a big fan of Google+ and spent a long time optimizing your Google My Business Profile you will notice that there is no longer a link to your Google+ business page in search results. You will also note the removal of the phone number from the visible listing.
In fact, on desktop searches there are four places for a user to click, which will yield different results. Let’s start by taking a look at a listing and defining the different click areas.
In the above graphic I have defined three areas. This is what I call them and where they lead to:
With all of these changes to local listings and so many more variables we decided to conduct a click test study to find out where potential website visitors are going to be clicking now. Will users even click the local result box? If so, where in the box will they click?
To start getting some data in about how this will affect user behavior we ran a click test study where we recorded 200 different responses from a test audience. This data acts as a gateway to future, more sophisticated studies we will be doing on this.
In this survey we wanted to make the user feel like they were on an actual Google search results page when conducting the test. We took a screenshot of a search result for “Bay Area Employment Lawyer”. We kept in the paid results, one organic result on top as well as the new local pack.
My hypothesis was that, due to the new placement and re-organization of these results, less users would click on your listing and be directed to your website with one click.
The results were much more intriguing than I had originally thought. This was likely due to our inclusion of one organic listing in the result. Here is what we found:
You can see the results in the click test heat map below:
Now lets do a deeper dive into the local clicks. Previously, when users clicked on your business name in the older style of search results, they were directed to your website. This is no longer the case.
8 total clicked on the map: This means that 18% of users were taken to map results where they could see a list of businesses.
20 total clicked on the listings names: This means that 46% of users were taken to the business listing pages.
12 total clicked on the the website buttons: As you can see in the image below, only 12 clicks went directly to the firm’s website. This means that only 27% of the local clicks went to the website.
One thing to keep in mind is that even though the 3 pack is out and live across the search ecosystem, the way it displays varies. In many cases there may be paid results first and then the local results.
In other situations like the example we tested, there was one organic listing above the local listings. This is significant because in this test, Organic was the clear leader with the #1 organic result generating 39.5% of total clicks.
While 39.5% of the click-throughs on the organic result went to the firm’s website directly, only 6% of the local clicks resulted in one click visits to the firm’s website.
This is just the first of many tests to come. But I would say there are a few takeaways you should focus on.
When potential clients are searching for an attorney they typically get a mix of local law firm results as well as attorney directories such as Lawyers.com or Martindale.com. Although they have never been the most effective lead source for my clients, they should also not be ignored as it increases trust in your firm.
I have talked about this many times in the past as it’s a method of Barnacle SEO. If your website ranks high in the SERP’s but you also rank high on attorney profiles you will likely capture some of that business as well. One of the ways you can increase this rating and your overall impression online is to have great ratings from clients and attorneys alike.
That is why the Martindale-Hubbell owned Lawyers.com offers Peer Reviews and Client Reviews. Peer reviews are other endorsements from attorney’s you have worked with while the client reviews are going to be from clients who have actually used your services in the past. If you have ever tried to get a client review you know that they’re difficult to get. On the other hand its usually a bit easier to get an endorsement from another attorney. That is unless of course you are trying this process on a Martindale owned property.
In my opinion the UI for this platform isn’t very easy and asking someone to leave you an endorsement when it’s not easy is unlikely of ever materializing. In addition to this there are several other major reasons you need to know about that can cause issues. These include:
The good news is that if you meet this criteria you can use the guide below to get through this with less pain.
Before we get started it’s a good idea to write down a list of 18 attorneys you are willing to nominate. This way you can submit the information all at the same time. Now lets get started.
Step 1: Login to the back end of your company profile
Since Martindale.com / Lawyers.com is powered by firm profiles with attorneys assigned to them you will need to get the login for the firm you’re associated with. Once you have that information you can login here: https://csc.lawyers.com
Step 2: Once you’re logged in visit Ratings > Peer Review (As Shown Below)
Step 3: Select an Attorney
From this screen you should see a list of attorneys. Select the checkbox to the left of the attorney you want to get peer reviews from.
Step 4: Select the “Manage References” button at the top
Step 5: Select the “Nominate Peer” option & Fill it Out
To nominate an attorney you will need to select the Nominate Peer option. From here a window will open up that will ask the attorney’s personal information including first name, last name, reference type, city, state, and country. Once you have this information inputted submit it by hitting search. If the match it found it will allow you to add it to the list.
Step 6: Add 17 More
Yep this screen kind of sucks. You will need to have at least 18 references to submit the information and complete the process.
Step 7: Submit Peer References
Once you have gone through this tedious process and have met all 18 you can finally hit the awesome “Submit Peer References” button. Phew. You’re done… for now…
Step 8: Hurry Up and Wait
To keep their “higher standard”, Martindale will review these individually and take out any that do not meet their internal qualifications. Additionally not everyone you submitted might actually leave you a review.
If you’re unsuccessful after the first found they offer a secondary round where you will have to identify 10 new prospects to send the requests to. The good news is that after you have done this and the reviews are approved you will get a screen like the one below:
Although the process is a bit difficult it will be well worth your time. In addition to gaining a higher reputation and positioning on Lawyers.com you will also have a higher reputation when clients are looking for you.
This is not a picture of our focus group. However, it looked at lot like this…minus the delicious Chick-fil-a. In hindsight, we really should have had Chick-fil-a.
Hint: You should go with number 2.
It’s not easy to increase your website’s exposure to a point where it receives loads of relevant traffic. However, maximizing the rate at which your website inspires the visitors it does receive to call or email your firm is not difficult; especially when you use real feedback about your website to make strategic content and design choices.
That’s right, I’m talking about conducting a focus group on your law firm’s website.
In this post, I detail the process that the marketing team at Estey & Bomberger and I used to focus group their website. What’s really cool about this is that I was actually able to learn, from trial attorneys who use focus groups to prepare for trial, how to maximize the positive impact of this process!
By implementing the lessons that we learned during the focus group (which cost less than $1k and took 3 hours), we were able to increase the website’s conversion rate by 200%!
Setting goals is important (radical opinion, I know). The first step in the focus group process is to clearly define what you hope to achieve. Our goals were:
One of the keys to an effective focus group is selecting non-biased participants who represent your website’s real audience to some degree. This is why we took out a Craigslist ad rather than simply asking a group of friends and family for feedback.
By offering each participant $75 in compensation, we were able to get 12 people from the community (the precise community we are targeting) to come into the office for a 3-hour focus group. Here is exactly how we advertised the focus group:
$75.00 PAID FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION in a focus group where you will evaluate our firm’s new website. The focus group will be held from 12:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on 16, December, 2013, at our local law office:
Estey & Bomberger, LLP
2869 India St
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 873-4498
Please send your resume and your contact information for consideration.
SEO Tip: If you hold the focus group at your office, you can add your name, address, and phone number to the listing, which is a positive local ranking signal.
Ok, we have our audience now it’s time to prepare for them.
Here’s a checklist of what you’ll need:
2. A room that can accommodate everyone. The room we used was maybe 500 square feet, and we had fold-up chairs for people to sit in.
Optional Equipment
4. Video equipment. This is in case you really want to get serious and film the session.
One of the lessons that attorneys taught me was to begin with a broad discussion. We chose to prompt the group to discuss how they would (or, had in the past) approach searching for an attorney. You cannot be shy about leading the discussion, so if public speaking isn’t your thing, let someone else handle it. Here are some of the questions we asked:
And so on. I found the group discussion to be even more valuable than the specific feedback about our actual website. This information really does transcend online marketing, as it can provide insight that will help you understand your clients better, and help you improve your business.
OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE: The efficacy of this portion of the focus group is entirely dependent on your ability to get people talking freely about their opinions, thoughts, and feelings. Don’t screw it up by asking questions that lead them to a specific answer. For example:
Do you like blue-dominant websites, or grey-dominant websites?
BOOOOOO! This is not a good question, as it leads the members of the group into answering in a way that might not reflect their actual opinions. A better way to phrase this questions might be:
Can you discuss how colors play a role in your impression of a website?
This leaves the discussion entirely up to the opinions and feelings of your audience, and the responses you get will be far more insightful and genuine. It will also spark discuss among the group, which is precisely the point.
The best way to maximize the value of your focus group is to ask questions in the right way, regardless of what the question is.
The next portion is where you’ll need to ask the participants to break out the laptops, and browse the site.
We provided each participant with a scenario, for example:
“You’ve recently been involved in an auto accident for which you were not at fault. You sustained a broken femur and also severe burns. You’re looking for information to help you decide whether you need to hire an attorney. Go!”
Important: I thought we should provide the participants with a survey to answer while they browsed the site. The attorneys squashed this immediately.
When you give someone a sheet of paper with a bunch of questions like, “On a scale from 1-10, rate the aesthetic appeal of the site,” you limit participants’ responses. Even if you do get some sort of consensus, what have you really learned other than “my site looks really good”, or “my site looks really bad”, or “my site either looks really good or really bad, depending on individual preference”? You can’t use any of that information in a meaningful way.
Instead, we asked each participant to make notes as they went through the site. We prompted the group as follows:
“As you navigate through the site, please make sure to jot down notes about anything that you like or dislike, any functionality problems you notice, anything about the site that frustrates you, etc. If you have a feeling or opinion about something, please write it down!”
The insights and feedback that we obtained as a result of using this approach were invaluable. Not only did we get general opinions like, “I wish there were links to sites where the firm has been reviewed”, we also got awesome functionality feedback like “I searched for [XYZ] within the site, but the search results were not relevant” and “there is a broken link on the ‘About Us’ page”.
We finished up our focus group by bringing the participants back together for another group discussion, as they were now actually acquainted with the site and could give specific feedback based on their experiences. Again, I’m not going to tell you what to ask the group, but rather stress once more the importance of how you phrase the questions that you do ask. Here are some examples of discussion starters:
As with the initial group discussion, be sure that someone is either recording or taking good notes during the wrap-up discussion.
2. The video testimonials mean much more to the potential clients then the written testimonials. We should make an effort to rearrange our video testimonial page so that our most credible and interesting videos are at the top.
3. We should make more of an effort to get videos from our existing clients given the weight potential clients give to those videos. We should also make more of an effort to have our existing clients or past clients put reviews on the third-party review sites; Yelp then Google appear to be the two most important.
4. Even though it seems that no fee unless we win is self-explanatory, we should link from these words to a page that explains our contingency fee policy.
5. We should put any of our positive third-party reviews (from sites such as Yelp) on our site.
6. Each one of our injury pages (practice areas) should have a video testimonial on it for that type of case.
7. On our results page, we should have a detailed description of each one of our cases that is interesting and engaging because it is clear that people would like to read about those cases rather than just see names and amounts.
8. The three most important criteria that potential clients looked for in reviews were whether: (1) we were easy to deal with, (2) accessible, and (3) responsive. We should keep this information in mind when speaking with people to do our potential testimonial videos or when speaking with clients about putting reviews on Yelp or Google.
9. On our ‘Awards’ page, we should highlight the awards and accomplishments that the focus group put the most stock into. They ranked the awards from most important to least important are as follows: (1) Trial Attorney of the Year, (2) AAA rating from the State Bar, (3) Avvo rating of 10, (4) Top 100 Trial Attorneys (this should read “Top 100 National Trial Attorney List”), (5) Super Lawyers. They did not appear to be familiar with other rankings, such as AV Rating, ABOTA, etc. We may want to include our BBB rating from the Better Business Bureau.
10. When taking firm pictures, we should always be smiling so that we look engaging rather than serious.
11. We should do more videos for our site that speak generally about what we do and why we are different than our competition.
12. We should have a page that lets potential clients know what to expect if they hire us to handle their case.
13. After someone submits a case evaluation form, they should get a message saying thank you and that we will reply within 24 hours.
14. We may want to consider taking the music off the video testimonials because it appears to cheesy.
Conducting a focus group on your law firm website will help you make more effective changes than will guessing or relying solely on competitive analysis. The efficacy of your focus group depends entirely on your ability to ask questions in the right way, generating spirited and honest discussion among the group’s participants.
As most attorneys know, getting clients to leave reviews of your firm on sites like Google+ and Yelp is difficult. Be sure to follow-up with the focus group participants and ask that they leave a review of the firm based on their experience during the focus group.
Image credits:
Flick User MikeSchinkel
Fickr User Sean MacEntee