How many lead sources do you need? If you’re wondering how many lead sources you need, then you’re asking a great question!
And although there is no right answer, there are definitely two wrong answers.
What are the wrong answers?
1) zero
2) one
Yeap, that’s it. If you have zero, or only one source of leads, then you’re walking a risky path for your law firm. A single lead source can be shut down at any moment, and getting a new one started takes time. And practice. And optimization.
Every Firm Needs Multiple Channels for New Client Acquisition
Every firm should have two or more sources for new client acquisition. And the more the better (within reason). It’s imperative to keep this sales machine in full swing, even if you don’t currently need lots of new business.
Of course, the amount of inflow you need depends on your current caseload. If your caseload is thin, then you should be testing many sources. And conversely, if you’re already swamped than you’ll pursue a more measured approach.
But the key is, no matter your current level of busy, keep your pipeline active. Things can change quickly, and no one has the proverbial silver ball to know when that might happen.
So future proofing is the name of of the game.
Why Multiple Lead Sources?
If you’ve been in the market for legal leads for a while, then you know things can get volatile. You can be fat and happy going great guns for years, and then one day your lead provider can bring bad news.
And bad news can come in different forms, and some examples might include:
- Facebook shut down your ad account – man, we’re really sorry.
- The cost of advertising on “XYZ platform” has become cost prohibitive so we’re pulling the plug unless you’re willing to pay 3.5X.
- YouTube changed its advertising guidelines and they no longer accept advertising content related to XYZ niche.
- Wow, we took a monster hit on organic rankings due to Google’s June 202X core update, and the organic well just ran dry.
And some of these are admittedly long shots, but they can happen. And when they do, you can caught flat footed if you haven’t properly diversified your lead sources.
Multiple Lines In the Water
But if you always have at least two lines in the water, then you are mitigating your risk against these potential problems.
For example, if you have experience running Google Ads, then you know it takes 2-3 months to initially optimize an account. So even if you’re not seeing a need for Google Ads at the moment, it makes sense to get your account set up, running ads, and optimizing on a very low budget.
Then, if you hit a slow patch you have this account in your back pocket. It’s already optimized and ready for action! You just turn on the spigot and scale the account. You already know the key metrics it’s performing at:
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Cost per conversion
- Conversion rate %
And for the most part, these metrics will be pretty linear. So as you scale your ad spend, you should see a commensurate increase in performance until you hit some very high ad spend numbers.
So let’s say you’re only spending $200 per month and getting a few conversions. You’re keeping your powder dry, but also keeping things optimized and ready. So when you suddenly increase the budget to $3000 per month, you’ll see a commensurate increase in performance.
Multiple Platforms Ready and Optimized
So it makes sense to have a number of platforms warmed up, tested, optimized, and ready. And yes, things do change on these platforms which affects future performance, but you’ll still be light years ahead as opposed to starting cold.
How many lead sources do you need? Well that depends on a number of factors such as your firm’s size and current capacity, but you need at least two. And more if possible.
At LegalLeads Digital, we work on multiple platforms and always have alternative sources at the ready. Contact us today to learn more about keeping your pipeline full.
