If you’re a bankruptcy attorney looking to generate more clients, or have seen your current marketing efforts falter in today’s declining bankruptcy market, here is a review of the most common methods of generating bankruptcy leads for law firms online and how well they work.

Referrals

Referrals are always the best source for generating bankruptcy leads for law firms. But it takes time to build a client base and depends on building a lot of satisfied clients. Regular communication to former clients will help to remind them of who was responsible for helping them out of their financial pit, and who to refer others in financial distress.

Social media

Social media (such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook) are best used to support your referral efforts, and connect with like-minded people. Social media generally will not drive significant numbers of new bankruptcy leads to you by themselves. Be careful about promoting your law firm to Facebook friends and former clients though — they are not likely to become repeat clients for bankruptcy themselves. Your goal here is simply to remind people already familiar with your law firm to recommend you to others. 

Map listings

This may be the most under-utilized, yet most effective place for generating bankruptcy leads for law firms. All major search engines have free Local Business Listings in which bankruptcy law firms can supply content, contact info, phones, even offers, and then have their information indexed and found by potential bankruptcy clients. It is well worth the effort to get your law firm listed.

User reviews

Today’s internet savvy searchers are often looking for validation of others before making their final decision on which law firm to call. Local Business Listings also usually contain a section for people to leave comments and reviews about the business. Sites such as Yelp and Google+ are full of user reviews as well. Make sure your firm is listed on each of these sites and encourage your clients to post reviews about your firm on them. The more good reviews you have, the more likely people will choose to call your firm.

Alone, these sites will not generate enough bankruptcy leads for law firms to rely solely on this strategy. They are best used in combination with a variety other online efforts to generate bankruptcy leads.

Pay Per Click

Also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), this strategy absolutely works. And absolutely does not work. It all depends on how well it’s done. Many law firms have lost a lot of marketing money with PPC. Well-written ads, placed on solid keywords with a strong landing page and call-to-action can often become the most cost-effective of any single strategy for generating bankruptcy leads for law firms. But beware — even professional marketing agencies and lead generation companies can be off base in their efforts — resulting is hefty upfront expenditures and disappointing results.

SEO 

Search Engine Optimization is the art of working to get sites to rank higher in organic (free) search results for a specific keyword phrase. Concerted efforts by legitimate SEO experts can often help your site’s search engine visibility over time – after 3-6 months – generating more bankruptcy leads for your firm. Their services can cost a few hundred to several thousand dollars per month – so even though the site visitors you eventually may receive are free, the cost of SEO should also be taken into account.   

Directories

In general, people do not go to directories (such as lawyer associations, yellow pages, etc.) to find a bankruptcy attorney. They do, however, sometimes check out attorneys via these sources to determine if they are truly someone they may consider working with. There is value in being listed, but the listings themselves will not single-handedly drive new bankruptcy leads to you without other initiating efforts.

Email

Email is best used to provide reminders and financial tips to former clients that will result in more referrals to you from them. Email blasts to purchased prospect lists rarely generate new bankruptcy leads and are not worth the effort and expense.

Mobile

This may be the fastest growing way of generating bankruptcy leads for law firms. Just since May of 2013, LeadQ has seen Google searches for bankruptcy attorneys on mobile phones increase to 30% or more of all online searches for bankruptcy attorneys. This number is expected to surpass 40% in 2014 in some U.S. markets. Make sure you have a well-optimized mobile site for your bankruptcy firm that is easily found by mobile phone searchers.

Common content website programs

We have never seen a viable version of this strategy for generating bankruptcy clients for law firms. The typical program has a single website with general information about bankruptcy on it, and a lead generation email form for site visitors to request a return call from a bankruptcy attorney in their area. Attorney lead generation companies may charge $50-$100 for leads from a common content site, but may also sell those leads to multiple attorneys. Since the website visitor was simply looking for information (rather than specifically for an attorney at the time), those prospects may not be highly motivated and rarely become paying clients for the attorneys buying those leads. 

Blogging

This is another way to generate bankruptcy leads for law firms (as well as helping your website’s organic ranking), and can generate some success. However, writing regular and relevant blog posts, publishing them, and attracting internet visitors to the blog can be very time intensive. And to be successful, it requires some additional professional coaching and assistance. If you choose to write regular blog posts, be aware of who your audience is (people in financial distress), and promote your blog in places where these people are most likely to find it.

You Tube videos

This strategy sounds great, but rarely works: produce a video of yourself talking about bankruptcy and your firm, then post it on You Tube. While it may give a prospect a better idea of who you area, often times it can also turn away a potential prospect just as easily – especially if the production value, script or your performance is sub-par. In general, people watch videos as how-to’s or for entertainment value, not to search for a bankruptcy attorney. Videos are best posted to You Tube (so they can be found by video searchers) with viewing windows displayed on your law firm’s website.

Your law firm’s website

Of course, your website landing page strategy is just as important as the lead strategies listed above. For more on this area, read our blog article about what works best for law firm websites.

Do it yourself, or hire a marketing or lead generation firm?

That’s the big question facing many small consumer law firms. Initially you may consider marketing your firm yourself.  But in most cases, a specialist in the field of generating bankruptcy leads for law firms, such as LeadQ, can produce a much higher return on expenditures for your firm — and many times more new clients than DIY marketing.

To find out more about how LeadQ’s Pay-Per-Qualified-Inquiry lead generation program can cost-effectively bring your firm new bankruptcy clients, call us at (800) 662-2888.