Law firms leaders and legal marketing mavens know how important it is to make every marketing effort count but often struggle to wrap their arms around how to evaluate their efficacy. I know I’ve been on the receiving end of serious (and legitimate) pushback from attorneys on this subject throughout my career.
Do any of these retorts sound familiar? “My relationship with that person is what brought in the business,” and “I get all of my business from referrals.”
Fun fact: They’re right!!
I will never argue with an attorney who says their relationships drive their book of business. But it’s my job as a strategic marketer to help keep each of the attorneys I work with top of mind for their clients and potential referral sources. And this is where lead scoring comes into play.
Lead scoring is a method used to evaluate and rank potential clients based on their interactions with your firm’s marketing efforts. This systematic approach helps make your marketing more efficient and effective. But lead scoring isn’t just about bringing in new clients; it’s also a powerful tool for maintaining and strengthening existing relationships. By using a lead scoring model, attorneys can track interactions with current clients and referral sources, ensuring they stay engaged and valued.
Building a Lead Scoring Model
A lead scoring model should be tailored to your firm’s specific goals and target clients. Crafting that model involves a few key steps:
- Identifying Key Metrics: Figure out what actions indicate a lead’s interest. This could be things like visiting your website, downloading resources, or attending a webinar.
- Assigning Scores: Give points to each action based on its importance. For example, visiting your website might be worth 5 points, while attending a webinar could be worth 20 points.
- Setting Thresholds: Define what score qualifies a lead. This helps you focus on the connections with the highest potential, whether it be for new or expanded business or the potential to refer you to a prospective/ client.
- Integrating with firm systems: Make sure your lead scoring system works with essential technologies such as your CRM to keep track of leads and their interactions.
What to Include In Your Firm’s Model
The key metrics and related scores are generally similar across law firms. A lead scoring model for your firm should assign points to various interactions with clients and referral sources to provide a quantitative measure of engagement and interest. Key components of the model could include:
- Email Engagement: Points for opening and clicking on newsletters or updates.
- Website Activity: Points for visiting specific pages or downloading resources.
- Event Participation: Higher points for attending webinars, seminars, or firm-hosted events.
- Direct Interactions: Points for phone calls, meetings, or personal emails.
- Social Media Interactions: Points for likes, shares, comments, and direct messages.
- 1:1 Emails: Higher points for direct email interactions.
- Meetings: Higher points for scheduling and attending meetings.
- Continuing Legal Education: Points for program attendance.
This model can be customized to fit your firm’s specific practices or strategic focus by adjusting the point values or adding criteria relevant to your firm’s unique client base and marketing strategies. For example, a firm focusing on corporate clients might prioritize interactions related to industry-specific webinars or whitepapers, while a firm with a strong referral network might emphasize personal follow-ups and networking events. The key is to continually refine the model based on which interactions most accurately predict valuable client relationships and business opportunities.
Essentially, you are deciding which activities provide the best return on investment when it comes to new business generation and client expansion. It’s important to understand that perfect cannot be the enemy of good here. This is an iterative process that requires testing, evaluation, refinement, and repetition to understand which activities drive results.
A Note on Privacy Concerns and the Importance of Contact Opt-In
Privacy best practices and contact consent are key components to effectively implementing a lead scoring model, as it involves collecting and analyzing personal data. Ensuring that all contacts have explicitly opted in to receive communications and have their data tracked is essential. This complies with legal regulations like the GDPR and CCPA and fosters trust and transparency. Ethical data collection practices require clear consent forms and privacy policies, informing contacts about how their information will be used and allowing them to opt-out at any time. All marketing communications should also adhere to professional ethics rules in your state regarding non-solicitation. Law firms can build stronger, more trustworthy relationships with their clients and leads by prioritizing privacy and consent.
Concerned about gaining buy-in internally? Check out “Turning Naysayers into “Yay”-Sayers” for our guide to overcoming lead scoring objections.
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