Most bankruptcy lead generation programs actually fail to generate enough new clients for law firms and lawyers to justify the marketing expense. But by following these “insider” guidelines, it is possible to avoid the typical money-wasting mistakes – and instead operate a highly-profitable bankruptcy lead generation campaign for your firm.

The two primary bankruptcy lead generation models that waste your money

1. 1. Pay-Per-Click marketing or SEO for your own website.
   This model, which you can do yourself or is commonly done by firms such as Yodel and ReachLocal, is where Pay Per Click text ads (such as Adwords) are placed on the first page of search results to reach people searching on law-topic-related keyword phrases. Or, a company charges you to get your firm’s website ranked high in Google’s organic listings. Visitors click a listing on their search results page and go to the firm’s website. You can either pay for Adwords yourself, or pay a company to run a program for you. The problem with most of these campaigns is that there is no guarantee that you’ll end up with any new clients. You often just spend a lot on marketing without seeing new clients as a result.
2. 2. Generic website that sends you email bankruptcy leads.
   This model, used by Total Attorneys, uses a common website that discusses legal issues and asks site visitors to submit an email request to be contacted by a local attorney. Law firms pay for the email leads they receive and then have to try to reach the people who inquire. The problem with this model is that visitors to the generic site tend to be information gatherers, not prospects that are highly motivated to hire a law firm. They are also often difficult to reach. Our clients who have used this model in the past report that very few of these bankruptcy leads for attorneys convert into actual clients.  Absolutely avoid this model at all costs.

    

Secrets to doing it right without wasting your money

1. 1. Find potential bankruptcy clients at the time they’re ready to hire a law firm.
   Pay Per Click programs can work well at this – but the key is separating the info gatherers from those internet searchers who are actually ready to hire a law firm. Only select keywords that are most likely to convert into paying clients, not every bankruptcy-related keyword in the book. Use text ads that attract “ready to hire” searchers rather than info gatherers. Promote an offer in your text ad rather than just information.
2. 2. Convince bankruptcy prospects to choose your law firm to call rather than one of your competitors.
   Online searchers will also be viewing the sites of your competitors. Most online marketing campaigns send internet searchers directly to the law firm’s existing site (designed to convey general information about a number of topics for a wide variety of site visitors). In most cases, that site does not provide the visitor specific reasons to choose your firm over your competitors. Instead, post a landing page micro site that gives reasons to choose your law firm and promotes a special offer.
3. 3. Make contact immediately with the prospect.
   Potential bankruptcy clients should be able to call your law firm and speak with you or a receptionist directly. Don’t let callers go into voice mail that gets checked once a day or worse, every several days. The longer it takes for you to speak with a potential client after he or she first inquiries, the more likely it is that the person has contacted another firm instead. With the bankruptcy lead generation for law firms that we provide, if a call from a potential new client is not answered, the caller is routed to a campaign-specific voice mail system that records the caller’s message, transcribes it, and then instantly sends that message via text and email directly to you – so you can return the call immediately, before the prospect talks to someone else.
4. 4. Track your inquiries, and only pay for the qualified prospects that can hire your firm.
   Many marketing companies, including us – Legal LeadQ – use unique phone numbers on their bankruptcy lead generation campaigns to track incoming phone leads generated from the campaign. But if the calls that are tracked are not viable new clients for your firm, then you’re still spending money and receiving little new business in return. We actually listen to recordings of every call our lead generation campaigns produce to determine which ones are the qualified new prospects. And then we only charge for the viable new client calls you received. This way, you never spend money that doesn’t produce actionable results. If your bankruptcy lead generation company, or marketing agency, is still charging for their services rather than only what their services produce, you’re likely overpaying considerably.
5. 5. Monitor the pace of incoming bankruptcy prospects and control the pace to only the number of new clients your law firm can handle.
   Since we listen to every incoming inquiry, monitoring and qualifying leads throughout the day, we can also change the pace in which a law firm receives incoming new bankruptcy clients, ramping it up, or scaling it back as needed. Most of the lawyers that we work with receive 5-10 new clients per week cost-effectively from our bankruptcy lead generation program.