Let me know if this is a problem that your law firm website is facing: there’s hundreds of people visiting your website, but no one’s scheduling consultations. 

Well, there’s three reasons why that could be happening:

• Your next steps aren’t clear.
• The forms on your page are too complicated to fill out.
• The entire process is too difficult for your visitors to finish.

Fortunately, I can help you solve all three of these problems. In this blog post, I’ll break down what an intake funnel is, why it improves conversion rates, common mistakes to avoid, and the essential stages of creating one. 

What is a Client Intake Funnel?

A client intake funnel is the process of guiding potential clients from their first visit to scheduling a consultation.

This is a step in digital marketing that’s often overlooked by businesses. Even if potential clients are interested in taking the next step and doing business with you, if the onboarding process is difficult or confusing, they’ll go elsewhere. 

The right intake funnel makes the best use of the client’s time and your time. It helps you capture more qualified leads, streamlines communication between you and potential clients, and improves client acquisition.

Why Every Law Firm Needs an Intake Funnel

Every law firm can benefit from having a client intake funnel. Without one, your potential clients will be confused about what steps to take to book a consultation and what to expect moving forward. 

The intake funnel lays out explicitly what next steps the client should take, and makes it painless for the client to do so. Before you even meet with someone, you can structure the process to learn more about their legal situation.

This saves you additional administrative time and improves the client’s experience. Instead of spending time learning this information during the consultation, you can spend that time asking more in-depth questions to your client and offering more solutions. 

The intake funnel can also help you qualify leads before the consultation. It can help you filter out which leads are a good or bad fit.

6 Stages of a High-Converting Law Firm Intake Funnel

Because there are so many benefits that come with an intake funnel, you want to create the right one for your website.

Here are six practical steps you can take to create the best high-converting intake funnel for your law firm.

Drive Traffic to Targeted Landing Pages 

The first step you want to take is to drive traffic to specific landing pages.

You can use different methods like paid advertising, local SEO or referrals to boost traffic to your pages. 

To take advantage of SEO, you want to optimize your practice area pages and landing pages as much as possible. 

To optimize your pages, make sure that each page has:

• A clear, benefit-driven headline
• A practice area focus
• Trust signals, or social proof
• Client testimonials
• A strong call-to-action (CTA).

Common Mistake: Many law firms fail to optimize their website pages for mobile optimization. 

In addition to revamping your website copy, you want to make sure that each of your pages are tested for mobile optimization. Nine times out of ten, your leads are using their mobile phones to search for legal services.

And nothing is more frustrating than clicking on a page that’s taking forever to load or has a contact form that’s poorly displayed. 

Poor mobile optimization also affects your SEO. Websites with faster, accessible pages are able to rank higher on search results pages. 

A bad mobile experience can not only cost your website a spot on the first results page – it can also cause your leads to leave your website and work with another law firm. 

Capture Lead Information

Next, you want to create a form that captures the right information from your leads. 

Common Mistake: When it comes to creating forms, lawyers require their leads to answer too many questions. 

No one is going to share their life story just to schedule a consultation with you. Use your consultation to answer more in-depth questions from your clients. 

For the basics, keep it to information such as:

• The person’s name
• Their email address
• Their phone number
• The practice area they need
• A brief description of their legal issue.

And that’s it. Any other additional information you’ll need can be discovered in the next step: qualifying prospects. 

Qualify Prospects

Not every lead will turn into a client. That’s why you want to take the time to qualify all prospects. 

Common Mistake: Many law firms don’t take the time to properly qualify leads. 

As a result, they waste time on consultations with unqualified leads. Sending out follow-up emails allows you to gather the right information and determine whether the prospect is a good fit to work with. 

Does this have to be a long, drawn-out process? No. One of the best ways that you can do this is by sending a follow-up email. 

In this follow-up email, you can require the leads to answer questions like:

• What type of legal issue are they facing?
• When did the issue happen?
• Is there a pending deadline?
• Have they reached out to other attorneys regarding this issue?

The answers to these questions will help you assess whether to move forward with the prospect. 

Schedule Consultations Automatically

Next, you want to use automation tools that allow you to automatically schedule consultations. 

Common Mistake: Many law firms lose so many potential clients by not following up as soon as possible. 

As much as you want to believe that your lead is waiting for you, they’re not. Chances are they’ve probably reached out to several law firms before filling out your contact form. 

To avoid missing out on new clients, you can use calendar integration software and automated reminders. These tools allow you to confirm consultations without constantly going back and forth with your prospects.

Your prospects will also be satisfied knowing that their forms have been acknowledged and that they have not been forgotten. 

Nurture Leads with Follow-Up Automation 

In addition to consultations, you can use automation to remain in constant communication with your prospects. 

Common Mistake: Law firms fail to nurture qualified leads once a consultation has been scheduled. 

Following up is very important in the legal process. Many prospects don’t hire an attorney right away. It could take them weeks from their initial email to work with an attorney. 

And in the meantime, you can use your automation tools to provide value to your prospects. 

Email sequences can be used to:

• Confirm consultations
• Educate prospects on their legal issue
• Answer common legal questions
• Share client success stories.

An email sequence is a great way to stay on your prospect’s mind without spamming them.

Streamline Client Onboarding

The last stage involves streamlining the client onboarding process. 

You want to make every step of the onboarding process effortless for your prospect. They are still new to the legal system and may have questions surrounding the process, what documents to include, and so on. 

Use this time to follow up with your client through a welcome packet. Your welcome packet could contain:

• Office policies 
• Communication expectations
• Billing procedures 
• Frequently asked questions
• Document collection
• The next steps in the legal process.

This will help reduce the client’s confusion and improve their experience. 

Final Thoughts

A successful intake funnel has so many benefits for your law firm.

It can help drive more traffic to your website while attracting more high-quality leads. It can help increase conversion rates while saving you time and money. 

Most importantly, it improves the client’s onboarding process and overall experience. 

The best thing you can do is make it easy for your prospects to take the next step. 

Request a Quote

If you need a legal copywriter to help with improving your website’s intake funnel, click below to request a quote.