Using Search Marketing to Generate Leads for Law Firms with Michael Alaniz

Law firms are a business that can't create demand, but they have to be available when a prospective client needs their service. If you are a lawyer or own a law firm, how can you make sure you're not neglecting leads? Moreover, how can you convert these leads to your clients? The answer: search marketing.

In this episode of Profit with Law, Local Loop Marketing founder and CEO, Michael Alaniz joins Moshe Amsel to talk about paid search marketing, specifically his work with law firms. He discusses how you can identify if it's good for your business and how they navigate various tools to increase your conversion rate. Their conversation also covers the different platforms they use, expenses, and the conversion process.

If you want to know more about paid search marketing, then this episode is for you.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode

1. Understand the value of search marketing for law firms and similar businesses.
2. Learn how to convert potential leads into clients.
3. Discover the benefits of different ad tools in acquiring leads.

Resources

• The Law Firm Growth Summit is back! February 9-11, 2021, and it will be better than ever! You can purchase tickets today at https://www.lawfirmgrowthsummit.com.
• This episode is sponsored by LawFundAR. The easy and simple way to add payment plans to your practice with no risk to you. Get paid up front and still add the value of payment plan options for your clients. Learn more at lawfundar.com/profitwithlaw.
• Local Loop Marketing
• Profit With Law Ep. 150: To Achieve Success - Spend a Day in Your Client's Shoes with Jim Armstrong
• Smith.ai use code PROFITLAW100 to get 14 days up to 20 calls or chats, CRM Integration, AI Chatbot with White Glove setup and $100 off your first month
• 33 Days to Online Profits by Jim Edwards and Yanik Silver
• CallRail

Episode Highlights

How Michael Started with Search Marketing

• After film school and playing extra roles, Michael realized he may end up in his 50s with his dreams still in his back pocket. To make things happen, he needs to do it himself.
• He spent time reading books and scriptwriting. Michael also read books about marketing, which led him to meet other aspiring marketers.
• From his self-study, Michael realized consumers proactively educate themselves about the services they need by searching online. He wants to bring this to the digital marketing space.
• When he was let go from his sales job, he decided to bet on the concept of bringing online marketing services to professional service providers. Hence, the birth of Local Loop Marketing.

Moshe: “Us entrepreneurs, there's a certain allure, a certain calling that we have that tells us, ‘You know, that's not for me,’ and everyone is different as to why it's not for them, but, ‘That's not for me, and therefore, I'm going to take a bet on myself. And I'm going to take a gamble.’”

• They work with professionals that sell higher-ticket services, which led him to serve law firms.

Is Paid Marketing for You?

• If you’re someone who believes in what you can do, you’re better off betting on yourself.
• Your business is a good fit for paid marketing if your service is so unique that the demand is high or there is still no demand for it.
• If no one is searching for your services proactively, you need interruption marketing — getting in front of your audience when they least expect it.
• YouTube is an excellent platform for interruption marketing.

What Makes Marketing for Law Firms Unique

• A law firm is a business where people are aware of the service, but demand will only come after a catalyst.
• For instance, an individual will only need a child custody attorney after a divorce.
• Lawyers and firms cannot create that demand, but they need to be available when someone is looking for their services.
• Your possible client has to need the service, but you should not have to convince them that they need it.

Michael: “You want to be in the position where we know they need the service. We're not trying to make them believe they need the service because typically, the companies that make you believe you need the service don't end up being the ones that sell it either.”

• If the need is established, (online) search is where you can throw your hat in the selection process. Listen to the episode to hear examples of how Michael's firm can customize your ads for conversion through keywords, your budget, or segmentation!

Investing in Ads: Is It Worth It?

• Ultimately, advertising needs to produce a return on investment. If you want to get more, you have to invest more.
• Investing in search advertising will not take away the business you get from referrals. Conversions from search marketing will add to your client base, which can eventually generate future referrals.
• Michael starts with targeting people who are specifically looking for the services of their clients. They use a search term report to show the client the queries that generated their ad.
• Tune in to the full episode as Michael briefly walks us through Local Loop Marketing’s process.
• After a 3-month basis, Michael encourages their clients to look at the numbers before deciding to keep working with them.

Navigating Through Ad Tools

• The “I found you on the internet” statement is extremely common. The challenge with this is that you do not know from which platform the person came.
• Michael's solution is to use every platform by sending a unique URL to Google, Instagram, or Facebook.

Michael: “Well, CallRail has attribution if you set this up with a piece of code, where I get a report that tells me if the call was generated through Google organic, Google paid, being organic or paid. So that's a big deal, first and foremost. Secondarily is I would challenge the statement that you know, ‘Hey, we want to have our clients remember our phone number’  I don't believe that for anything.”

• For Michael, it’s silly to trade the “I want someone to remember my phone number” for attribution tracking because attribution tracking needs a custom setup in CallRail. Otherwise, it’s just a phone call that came in.

Necessary Marketing Expenses

• In local marketing, they look for firms with at least a million dollars of revenue a year.
• These firms will be spending at least $6,500, inclusive of all paid traffic and services.
• Michael likened the process of profiting with them to a two-part relay race. He will generate opportunities, track them, hand them to firms, and then close the deal. 
• Finally, the firms will ultimately decide whether they want to continue working with Michael.

• To learn about Scorpion marketing and other alternative options for declining to engage in local marketing, tune in to the podcast!

When to Consider Paid Advertising

• The first thing a firm earning less than a million a month needs to do is reach out to an agency.
• Next, you should develop a custom plan based on what you should be doing.
• After laying out the plan, let Michael know what he should be doing first. Set your priorities with him. Only then can everything move forward.

Michael: “And unfortunately, that the problem I found was that, yes, you can do some marketing for like, let's say 500 bucks a month, 1000 a month all and you can do that. But your expectation needs to also be at that level too.”

• Setting goals for a firm makes it okay to build a campaign based on its highest revenue-generating services.

Michael: “So the business owner starts understanding the data that's coming through, but they have now this campaign built out by an agency. That's part of a bigger plan overall. And then as they progress, they can go back to that plan and start building for the things out from that, that's how I would approach it.”

• Listen to the podcast to learn how to save more time for your firm and the strategies behind marketing!

Finding the Right Leads

• For every consultation with two firms, one of them is sure to become a client.
• Some pieces of information are beyond the platform like Google ads, such as high insurance limits.
• There are three solutions to this. The first is to have customers answer some questions on your landing page before they can proceed.
• The second option is to filter clients by making them answer forms that kick them out or route them in immediately.
• Lastly is being available after business hours.

Michael: “And I find that in the CallRail, I would see a lot of calls go to voicemail continually. And I think, ‘Well, we'll never know now if that was going to be a good lead,’ because that person wants to find someone to talk to immediately.”

Getting Involved with Sales Conversations

• One thing Michael looks out for before working with a person is their reviews on Google My Business and any potential red flags they might have.

Michael: “I do fire clients, and I'll fire a handful every year on that basis. And never, it's not something I'm happy to do. But I look at this as it needs to work for me as well.”

• If a client complains about a low ROI, Michael asks them about their sales because Michael can only do so much as far as lead generation is concerned.
• If the client's conversation rate is 20% or lower, then something is wrong with their sales.
• The usual problem with sales comes from the person answering at the front desk. Clients often refuse to fire them, saying they've already been with them for a long time.
• You shouldn’t hire someone specifically for your phone calls.

Michael: “So at the end of the day, you know, just because someone calls you, it's not a done deal yet because they're probably going to talk to somebody else. They've already talked to somebody else. And they're now juxtaposing that experience against those things.”

About Michael

Michael Alaniz is the founder, CEO, and Marketing Director of Local Loop Marketing, a marketing firm that helps businesses and organizations connect with clients. Their systems focus on digital lead acquisition through pay-per-click platforms in Google, Facebook, Bing, and Yahoo. Through Local Loop Marketing, Michael and his team also create custom content and personalized web work.

To learn more about the work they do in their firm, visit their firm's website, or send them an email. You may also reach out to Michael by texting 213-267-1761.

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