How To Create A High Converting Website For Your Law Firm (case studies inside)

Recently, we wrote an article about why your law firm may not need a website.

The truth is, unless you have a website that follows a very specific set of rules, there is no point in spending the money on one.

Did you know that when a prospect lands on your website, they ask a specific series of questions, in a specific order?

If you were to give the correct answer to each one of those questions, in the correct order, you’d get an appointment.

By carefully mapping out the average thought process of the visitors to thousands of attorney websites, you’re able to create a story that speaks directly to your prospects.

This guide will explain that story to you, and you’ll discover how you can use it to guide visitors. You’ll nudge them in the direction you want them to go. Every single statement, button, and even the colors have been carefully planned out to do one thing – turn visitors into appointments.

Unfortunately, your average web designer is not aware of this.

Let’s get started.

Step #1: Your Website Header

Your website’s header is the first part a visitor sees when they come to your site.

Eye tracking research has shown that their eyes follow a path from the upper left, to the upper right, and then diagonally down to the bottom left.

We can use this information to position specific messages and elements in the way that we KNOW their eyes are going to move.

For example, by minimizing the menu section, and replacing some of that space with a telephone number and a benefit statement, you can drastically increase the number of calls you get to your law firm.

First, let’s take a look at the three questions the average visitor asks when they hit the homepage of your website.

• What do you offer?
• How does it solve my problem?
• How do I get it?

Let’s go through the process.

What do you offer?

State what you offer in the clearest possible way. There’s no need to be fancy yet. Simply tell them exactly what they are going to get once they hire you.

Example: A Criminal Defense Attorney

How does it solve my problem?

Now that the prospect knows what you offer, they need to understand how it solves their problem. We need a short statement.

Example: You’ll have someone in your corner to fight your case.

How Do I Get It?

The prospect knows what you offer, how that offer solves their problem, and now we simply need to tell them exactly how they get it.

Example:
Call us on xxx-xxx-xxx
Can’t call? Click here to fill out this form.

Step #2: Refining Your Website Header For Maximum Conversions

If we combine all of the elements from the three questions, we get the following header:

Get a Criminal Defense Attorney

You’ll have someone in your corner to fight your case.

Call us on xxx-xxx-xxx

Look at the headline and see if you can add any of the following elements to improve it.

Do you have room to add anything to make it clearer?

Can you make them get the result faster?

Can you convey that it is easy and simple?

Let’s look at an example of this process in action.

Rapidly Get a Las Vegas Based Criminal Defense Attorney

If you have been charged with a crime you’ll need a fast acting attorney who has been landing courtroom victories since 2009

We cover DUI, Domestic Abuse, Appeals & Other Criminal Charges

Call us on xxx-xxx-xxx

• Is this header clearer? Yes, it tells the prospect exactly what they are getting while clarifying the practice areas.
• Does it convey speed? Yes, we’re convey that the process is rapid, and they are a fast-acting attorney.
• Does it convey ease? No, it doesn’t. So perhaps that is something we need to adjust.

Keep going through this process until you end up with 3-5 different headers to choose from.

Let’s take a look at the final header in the example I revealed earlier.

The prospect knows what they are getting. They know how to get it. And they know that it is an effortless and quick process to hire this attorney. All within 2-3 seconds.

Step #3: The Stakes Of Not Hiring Your Law Firm

The next section of your homepage is referred to as The Stakes. Basically, you’re going to tell the prospect what’s at stake if they don’t hire you.

We’re going to do this by answering three questions:

1. What problem is your prospect facing?
2. How is that problem making them feel?
3. Why is that just plain wrong?

Let’s answer these questions together.

The problem:They have been charged with a crime.

How it makes them feel:They feel overwhelmed and intimidated by the prosecutor and police.

Why that’s wrong:

• The client has rights they are not aware of.
• This can lead to a punishment that does not fit the crime.
• The prosecutor and police are incentivized to take the client down.

Now we have everything we need to put together a quick message that’ll remind them of what’s at stake if you don’t hire you.

Here’s an example of what that looks like.

Quick tip: Use the Problem Discovery framework to uncover a wide range of desires your prospects are feeling. This helps you to come up with multiple talking points on your site.

The ‘Why Method’

This is an incredibly simple, yet effective, method for discovering why your prospects are taking the actions they are taking. It works, by asking a series of ‘why’ to get the bottom of their desires. Here’s an example:

1. Why does a client hire you for personal injury?
   1. Because I listen. I hear their problems and I have their best interest at heart.

2. Why does that specifically make them decide to hire you?
   1. Because most attorneys are more concerned about X, and by listening I achieve Y.

3. Why is that important for their outcome?
   1. Well, it means we fight tooth and nail and don’t give up.

Every answer we’ve given is another point you can drive home on your website. In this example we only answered three ‘why’ questions. Usually, we will answer 8 to 10 and give ourselves multiple answers for each. This will typically give you 30+ angles to use on your sales material.

If you want to stop reading and simply hire a team to create a high converting website for you, then click here to schedule an appointment.

Step #4: What happens when the prospect calls your law firm?

One of the biggest reasons for procrastination is the unknown. If prospects are unsure of what’s about to happen next, they will put off their decision until they do a little more research.

We’re going to help them eliminate that unknown with a little system called Process Discovery. This system aims to answer the following questions in order.

1. What will happen once I get in touch?
2. Will you take care of me?
3. What will I find out?
4. Will you pressure me to become a client?

By answering those fourquestions, we’ve eliminated 80-90% of the immediate unknown. Follow these steps.

Step 1: Set the scene. The prospect needs to tell you what’s going on. They need to feel like you’ll listen to their problem.

Step 2: Let them know you’ll take care of things from now on and give them clarity.

Step 3: The payoff. Tell them what they want to hear. Something that makes them curious, like compensation.

Step 4: The no-risk, no-pressure decision.

Here’s an example.

Step #5: Add case studies or reviews to demonstrate who you’ve helped before

If the prospect keeps scrolling after knowing exactly what you do, how you can help them, and what’s going to happen once they call, there’s only one thing left on their mind.

Who else have they helped? Are those people really like me?

This is a perfect place to add your social proof. There are three forms of proof we can add to this section:

1. Reviews (preferably from Google)
2. Written case studies.
3. Video case studies.

Each one of those forms of proof are powerful. However, the one that gets the most traction is video. Video gets a much more emotional response. If you want to talk about getting professional video testimonials for your website, then let us know.

Otherwise, a number of written case studies or reviews will do the trick. Reviews are simple, because you just take what you already have. Case studies require a little bit of thought.

1. What was the situation before they hired you?
2. What happened when they hired you?
3. What was the end result and how do they feel about it?

Here is an example of a designed section with reviews.

Consider adding high quality video to your website. According to research, prospects are 85% more likely to become a client after watching a video about you. Feel free to talk to us about the kinds of videos that work best for attorneys.Or simply read this article on the subject.

Step #6: Call to actions that’ll turn website visitors into leads

Call to actions will be peppered throughout your homepage. Every single time you ask a visitor to become a lead, there is a small chance they’ll say yes.

They need to take up the entire screen and contain a lot of space around the text and buttons.

Every single call to action needs to contain four elements:

1. A big call out at the top.
2. A sub headline that identifies their problem.
3. The button that encourages them to call.
4. The option to fill out a form.

It is critical that you give themtwo options. Sometimes people are simply not in a position to call you and want to fill out the form.

The button color needs to use the complementary opposite color of the brand. It needs to be big and obvious.

You can do this by using a color wheel. For example, if your primary color is read, the opposite complementary color should be a shade of green.

As you can see in the example below, the green really stands out and draws in the eye.

One single glance at the call to action should be enough for the visitor to know exactly what to do. If it takes more than 2-3 seconds to figure it out, then it’s too complicated.

The big call out at the top and the sub-headline can use the Problem Discovery framework to tap into the desires of the prospect. Let’s take a look at another example.

The content on your homepage should follow this order

After running over 5,000 marketing tests over a ten-year period. This is the most effective arrangement of content for your homepage.

1. Menu – with a call to action in the top right-hand corner.
2. Header – with a static image and call to action.
3. The Stakes – with a call to action and clear visual.
4. Video – if you have one, place it here.
5. Call to action one – pick the first call to action from your list of three.
6. The Process – visually demonstrate the steps they will go through.
7. Review/Case studies – use a physical slider to demonstrate you have more than what’s visible in this section.
8. Call to action two – Use a different call to action here.
9. Contact form area – Simple, but big contact form with all your contact details on the side.
10. Footer.

The other pages

Your homepage is by far the most important. All the other pages are simply there to support the content on the homepage.

Do not waste the time or money on creating an incredibly elaborate website with tons of links and places to explore. Keep it simple. Here is a list of the pages you need.

Proof page

This is a page full of your reviews and case studies. Follow the same principles for the header, write a proof preamble to remain compliant with the bar rules, and plenty of call to actions.

About us page

This page can be about the attorneys. Write a short bio for each of them with a picture. Make sure you add call to actions below the content.

Practice areas page

The layout should contain a header, content headline, content intro, how it works section, a call to action, and a FAQ area.

FAQ page

Write out the most frequently asked questions and answer them in detail.

Contact us page

This page should be incredibly simple. It must contain your address, a form, and your phone number. If you want to be fancy you can include a link to Google maps with directions.

Want us to create a high converting website for your law firm?

We’re ready to deploy all these strategies and create a website for you. Call 480-525-7361 or schedule an appoint online here.

How long will it take?

We don’t leave anything to chance. The process for creating a high converting website for an attorney like you is thoroughly mapped out.

There are a total of 48 tasks that need to be executed to finish your website. Each of those tasks have been broken down into a series of subtasks. This allows us to maintain quality so that we can deploy a finely tuned website every time.

What does the process look like?

If you have any questions whatsoever then get in touch.