Amid the many so-called marketing “experts” telling you about their attorney lead generation abilities, here are, more importantly, the 7 Deadly Sins that will either sabotage your marketing efforts or cost way too much. Avoid these at all costs:

1. Avoid the wrath of trying to get out of a multi-month marketing contract. Never pay for attorney lead generation services on a multi-month contractual basis. This is a common strategy of SEO companies, directories, and large search marketing companies. They know their program does not often work well and without the contract, you will quickly leave it. Only pay for lead generation if you can opt out at any time you see it’s not working for you.
2. Don’t let companies charge you a greedy “start-up” fee. This is another money-making strategy of many attorney lead generation companies, marketing companies and SEO consultants. They tell you there is a lot of “upfront” work that needs to be done to get your campaign started, and it costs a lot of money. However, there is no guarantee that the work they do upfront will generate any new clients for you. You pay them simply trusting that you will get results – and often times you don’t. Usually, the results you do receive over time still do not adequately cover the start-up fee. Don’t pay one, ever.
3. Don’t be a sloth and work with a company without first researching their background and experience. Attorney lead generation, marketing and SEO companies can be notoriously “fly-by-night”. Don’t work with any company who hasn’t shown a consistent track-record of success. Background information on the company should be easily found with an independent search on the internet. If you can’t find out more about them, stay away.
4. Don’t be a glutton and be taken in by “too good to be true” pitches. Sales people from other attorney lead generation companies solicit our clients all the time. We’ve heard just about every wild sales pitch you can think of. Things like “We’ll get you to be #1 on Google in organic results”, “We’ll bring you hundreds of new clients”, “Our leads are only $15 each”. They are simply hoping to get you to buy into their pitch with false hope. Beware of anything that doesn’t sound realistic.
5. Never buy email leads from a common content lead generation site. Never buy email leads from an attorney lead generation company that sets up a site with common content about a law subject and an email form for people who have questions for an attorney. Receiving lots of these types of leads may sound almost lustful. But people who visit these sites are simply “information gatherers”, they’re not seriously looking specifically to hire a lawyer. They rarely, if ever, convert into paying clients for a law firm.
6. Never buy leads from a company who does not disclose your law firm to their prospects. This lead generation scheme is completely impermissible. These companies are envious of those who are doing it right, and are trying to short-cut the process for their own gain. If a company does not disclose to the lead prospect that the inquiry is going specifically to your law firm, they are in violation of ethics rules for attorney advertising.
7. Don’t spend lots of money to build a website you’ll be proud of without considering how you’re going to get ready-to-buy prospects to find it. We see law firms do this all the time – spend $5,000 or more to ramp up their website with the latest and greatest, using a great design firm or agency. But that’s only part of the lead generation equation. Your site needs to be able to convert visitors into new client inquiries, and you need to get those ready-to-buy prospects to find your site in the first place. Both of these are probably more important than the actual design of the site itself. Neglect those, and you’re simply wasting your money.

Instead, do your background research, and ask the lead generation companies you’re considering to provide referrals of attorneys they’ve worked with. Follow these guidelines eternally, and you’ll be well on your way toward building a profitable lead generation relationship for your firm.