Legal Marketing & PR

83% of Websites Influence Lead Generation for Service Providers

By Larry Bodine

From Hubspot: When it comes to lead generation for your services, your website may impact your ability to generate new leads more than you think. Of the more than 200 buyers surveyed—from companies of all sizes—83% report that a service provider's website holds at least 'some influence' over their decision to engage in initial discussions.

According to the survey, this is a significant increase compared to 2005, when 69% of buyers assigned websites at least 'some influence' over this decision. Furthermore, the number of people who say websites have "a great deal of influence" rose to 28% compared with 16% in 2005.

Think of your website as the hub for your marketing and thought leadership activities. No matter what lead generation tactics you employ, a prospective client is going to visit your website during the decision-making process to retain you. It is the place they go to learn about your services, register for events, read articles, watch videos, sign up for a newsletter, download a white paper, etc. It is where they go to form an initial impression of you.

Remember to put the three things on your site that executive and general counsel look for:

1. Industries.  List the industries in which your firm has most of its clients, and describe your familiarity with those industries.
2. Representative clients. Yes, you must email them to ask for permission, but a longtime, happy client will most certainly agree.  Do not worry that your competitors will "poach" these clients.  You are the one with the close relationship.  Meanwhile, prospective clients will want to know "whom you swim with" -- a Fortune 500 company or the corner 7-11.
3. Case histories.  You do need to prove that you've actually settled a lawsuit or closed a deal. Jones Day has built their site around short vignettes of their experience -- and it's very effective. Simply tell a short business story about your client: (a) the name of the company (b) the business obstacle or dispute they faced (c) the dollars at stake (d) and what business result you achieved. 

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on April 02, 2010 (boomark / email).