All of you are looking to generate more phone calls and more leads from your website. But here’s the rub- You can’t begin to measure what you aren’t tracking. The fundamentals of any successful digital marketing campaign begin with setting goals and Key Performance Indicators. (KPIs).
KPIs allow you to determine what metrics define success for your law firm. In order to understand your law firm’s real performance over time you simply must track your website’s data.
Start by setting up clear goals based on your business objectives. Think about what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts and when you want to achieve it. Create. Intentional precise objectives and definitive benchmarks. Once you have these established then you can begin measuring your progress.
Below are 6 of the most important KPIs you should be measuring to determine your law firm website’s effectiveness as well as tips on how to start tracking them. By closely monitoring these KPIs you will be able to see when you need to tweak our website so that you can drive more traffic, maximize engagement and see more cases coming into your firm.
MARKETING KPIs:
The following KPIs will help you make your Website work for you- driving traffic and generating more leads, conversions and cases:
1. Conversion Rate
Your Conversion rate is probably one of the most common KPIs that any business should track. Everyone wants to know how many people become new clients after visiting their website. I use the word “client” loosely here- because conversion doesn’t have to be just about new clients. Conversion can also include getting a website visitor to take the next step and sign up for your newsletter, download an eBook, or fill out a form.
If you see that that you have quite a few new visitors coming to your website, but not taking any action once they get there- then you know you need to take action to increase your conversion rate. At this point you can see that you are doing something right- that is drawing traffic, but that there’s something to tweak once the visitor gets to your website.
Perhaps you need a clearer call to action button. Perhaps you need bolder colors, or less copy- or video testimonials.
But unless you are actively tracking and reviewing your conversion rate, you won’t even be aware of your problem areas. And you can’t fix what you don’t know is broken, can you?
2. Number of Qualified Leads
Some lawyers are easily excited about the wrong things, like number of website visitors. These are commonly referred to as vanity metrics. What you should really want to know is how many of these visitors might s actually hire you. These are the qualified leads that meet the qualification criteria you’ve set.
In order to obtain the number of qualified leads you are receiving; you need to use Customer Relations Management (CRM) software. If you have a CRM Platform in place, then when a user fills out a lead generation form and clicks submit, Google Analytics then transmits that data to your CRM platform. With this important data, you can score and rank your general leads to determine which are qualified leads.
3. Awareness Level
Brand Awareness takes time and builds upon multiple interactions/ contacts that a prospect has with your firm. While it takes time, and certainly doesn’t happen overnight, you need a means by which to know exactly how effective your efforts are at pushing your brand out there.
There are several factors that indicate more people are becoming familiar with your brand. To help you track brand awareness, Google Analytics breaks down site traffic based on source. If you examine these results over time, you will be able to get a sense of the percentages of web visitors who already familiar with your brand by the time they arrive at your site. Once you start tracking your current stat sheet, you can begin working on reaching your website’s traffic based on your results.
4. Bounce Rate
The Bounce Rate means the rate in which a visitor goes to a specific internet page and leaves without doing anything- Although some view the Bounce Rate as a bad thing- the truth is that it is neither good nor bad. Instead, this important KPI lets you know how often visitors stay on the same page from their initial entry. Ideally, you want to strive for a bounce rate of 60 percent or less-
Obviously, you want visitors to your website to stick around, and engage with your site- taking some action – such as calling you to schedule a meeting or at least, raising their hand to obtain a free download in exchange for their email/contact information. When your Bounce Rates are high you know that you need to Tweak something on your Website that will entice the visitor to stick around. Perhaps your page contains irrelevant information, and you need to add an engaging short video- Perhaps you need a clear call to action button – Perhaps you need to make sure your mobile site is optimized and user friendly. Boring content, or slow page loads can often lead to high bounce rates.
The bottom line here is that the Bounce Rate is a KPI that clues you in that you are doing something right in driving traffic to your page but doing something wrong since too many visitors won’t stick around once they get there. Knowledge is power- You can’t fix a problem you don’t know exists. SO, keep your eye on this important KPI.
5. Pages Viewed Per Session
Why would you bother to track the number of pages a visitor views per session on your page/site? This KPI is important because it measures interest and curiosity about your law firm. This idea is that if a visitor is looking through a number of pages, then they are either highly interested and engaged with your content- or that they are searching for something they can’t yet find.
It’s important to evaluate both the pages viewed and the bounce rate together in order to determine what is likely happening with your visitors. A site with a high number of o pages per session, low session duration and a high bounce rater can indicate a user cannot find the relevant information they are looking for. Or a site struggling with low numbers of pages viewed per session, and a low session duration and high bounce rate can also signal low quality content or user engagement.
As with any digital marketing endeavor- you must be continually looking for ways to increase engagement- tweaking your existing efforts as necessary.
6. Average Time on Page
This KPI measures the amount of time a website visitor spends on a specific page. Obviously, you want your visitors to stay on your page as long as possible- engaging in your content, and ultimately deciding they want your law firm to handle their case- The industry standard goal for time on a site is 2-3 minutes, although the longer the better. The average per page time is only 62 seconds!
While 2-3 minutes may not seem like a very long time, it is usually enough time needed to read basic content and interact with a website. The longer the session duration, the greater the likelihood that a user is more engaged with your content. Engagement leads to conversion.
CONCLUSION
If you want to know whether your Online Marketing Efforts are working- you need to track these 6 KPIs regularly. Review them with your SEO Vendor. Otherwise, you are pouring money into Marketing Campaigns without any sense of whether or not your efforts are hitting the mark.
