smm's blog

Track All of Your Marketing Efforts

smm — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 18:59:38 +0000

Track All of Your Marketing Efforts

Whether you’re a solo practitioner or an attorney at a nationwide firm, you’re likely using multiple marketing channels to retain more cases. No matter what type of marketing campaigns you implement as a Social Security disability attorney or advocate, tracking the performance metrics of each campaign you run is essential to achieving success.

Consolidate your data

Whether you use a CRM or an Excel file, you should consolidate data from each campaign into one place so you can evaluate your aggregate performance. In doing so, you can organize each marketing source to allow for comparison between them.

For instance, you can devote one Excel column or CRM list to potential clients that originate from your television commercials, another to potential clients that originate from your billboards and so on. By comparing your marketing sources side-by-side, you can quickly pinpoint inefficiencies and evaluate where your firm should focus its resources.

Quantify lead origin

Although some sources like lead generation are tracked by your lead provider, not every channel of new business is easily quantifiable. A significant portion of new clientele is derived from simple word-of-mouth marketing. Thus, it is crucial to denote when a new potential client contacts your firm in response to a former client’s recommendation.

The best way to avoid missing data is to implement specific policy for new client consultation. Part of the protocol for each consultation must include a question about how they heard about your firm or advocacy practice.

Evaluate your marketing sources' success

Some firms that utilize multiple marketing sources may be overwhelmed by the myriad of metrics within all of the data they collect from each channel. While many of the metrics are certainly useful, there is ultimately only one metric that truly matters: cost-per-case.

Cost-per-case (CPC) is the most important metric your firm can monitor because it measures the end result of your efforts. It is also useful because it can be applied to any marketing source you use. To evaluate your firm’s cost-per-case, you simply calculate the amount of money spent on a campaign divided by the number of cases acquired from the campaign. By tracking all of your marketing sources and keeping them in a centralized location for constant monitoring, you can spot trends and discover opportunities for cost savings that you may have missed without taking a closer look.

Say you garner 10 new clients per month through your television commercials. On the other hand, you retain 3 new clients per month through the 30 leads purchased per month from your provider. These television commercials cost you $5,000 per month and 30 leads cost a total of $750 at $25 apiece. Without tracking and evaluating your sources, you might think at a glance that the TV commercials are more effective because of the sheer volume of cases coming in. When you evaluate the CPC of each source, however, you will find that the leads are much more cost-effective.

$5,000/10 = CPC of $500

$750/3 = CPC of $250

Considering new marketing channels?

If you would like to consult with us at eGenerationMarketing and see how you can save money on your marketing budget through the use of Social Security disability, personal injury, workers’ compensation or other legal leads, feel free to give us a call at 617.800.0089.

smm Wed, 06/22/2016 - 14:59

Age is Just a Number: Avoid Heavily Screened Lead Packages

smm — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 15:06:50 +0000

Age is Just a Number: Avoid Heavily Screened Lead Packages

If you are an attorney or advocate who represents claimants before the Social Security Administration, you are probably well aware of how claimants’ ages affect your chances of winning cases. Recent trends in ODAR approval rates have reflected the SSA’s increasing vigilance in restricting benefits to younger claimants.

These trends have prompted many Social Security Disability firms to incorporate more selective marketing approaches. Online lead generation is one of the few avenues in which you can specifically target your desired age range.

Cost-Per-Lead (CPL)

If you purchase leads from eGeneration, you have the ability to configure custom packages to filter claimants based on their age. Although screening out younger claimants can yield more viable cases within your intake, your firm’s cost-per-lead (CPL) must be taken into account when deciding what kind of package to utilize.

When given the option to create a custom lead package, it can be enticing to implement restrictive filters that eliminate any intake outside your ideal criteria. Although rational in theory, this strategy is not the most pragmatic method. Since custom packages are priced upon the percentage of leads that are filtered out, stringent screening can run up the cost. The optimal approach toward any type of marketing is finding a balance between screening and price.

Cost-Per-Case (CPC)

Our ultimate goal at eGeneration is to facilitate the lowest cost-per-case acquisition (CPC) for your firm. While our pay-per-lead service doesn’t require any long-term commitment, we have built long standing client relationships based on our dedicated investment into identifying the most cost-effective package for each firm.

Your cost-per-case acquisition figure is the best metric to use when evaluating your marketing campaigns because it can be applied to any avenue (TV, radio, print, etc.). CPC is found by calculating the amount of money spent on a campaign divided by the number of cases derived from it.

It is vital to factor in how your conversion rate with the leads will influence your CPC. A highly screened package must be accompanied by a high conversion rate in order for you to attain an attractive CPC.

Don't Miss Out On Potential Clients

Another factor to keep in mind when considering age screening your Social Security leads is the risk that you may filter out viable cases. Although it is more likely for the average 60 year old claimant to win benefits than the average 40 year old claimant, do you really want to pay extra money to avoid 40 year old claimants that meet the SSA’s criteria?

Paying a premium to screen out younger claimants can not only run up your budget, it can also funnel viable clients away from your firm and towards others in your market. Adhering to the best practices of target marketing is an easy way to save a potential source of revenue for your firm and remain competitive with the other firms in your city or state.

Intake

As an attorney or advocate with expertise in Social Security Disability law, you already have the most effective screening measure in place. No matter what type of lead package you decide to use, it is your firm’s client preferences that ultimately determine whether you retain a lead. Thus, a prudent approach toward lead package configuration can always be reinforced by the guidelines you provide your staff.

If you have the resources to promptly and persistently follow-up with leads, you won’t need to overcompensate for recent ODAR trends with an excessively screened package. Using the strategies detailed above can still implement sufficient filters while maintaining a feasible cost- per-lead. Understanding the balance between screening and price is the key to maximizing your return on investment with any lead generation products, including eGeneration’s Social Security Disability leads.

If you would like to consult with us at eGeneration and see what kind of SSD lead package we would recommend for your law firm or advocacy practice, feel free to give us a call at 617.800.0089.

smm Tue, 02/23/2016 - 10:06

How to Utilize Personal Injury Leads Most Effectively

smm — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 18:37:13 +0000

How to Utilize Personal Injury Leads Most Effectively

If you are part of a typical Personal Injury law firm, you might not take all case types within the broad and diverse field of Personal Injury. Most practices specifically focus on injuries that would fall under the categories of General Liability and Auto Accident. Thus, most marketing initiatives of these Personal Injury law firms target individuals who have been involved in a vehicle collision and those who have hurt themselves on the premises of another residential or commercial entity.

Such niche targeting can certainly work with billboards, television and radio campaigns. Online lead generation, however, may not be the best conduit to place such heavy emphasis on certain case types. If you purchase leads from an online source, it is most cost-effective to configure your account to accept all types of Personal Injury cases at the standard price than pay extra to screen out certain kinds of injuries. Since General Liability and Auto Accident already comprise the majority of leads you will receive, you can monetize the other cases by referring them to a firm that takes whatever case type you are opposed to representing.

Referrals

Medical Malpractice is a common example of a case type that some attorneys are opposed to representing. The expertise that must accompany litigation in this space is certainly a major reason why firms omit it from their intake. If your firm receives a quality Medical Malpractice lead but you do not want to retain it, you can easily refer it to a firm that specializes in that area of law. Therefore, you can still profit off of leads you receive without deviating from your specialty areas of General Liability and Auto Accident.

Although Medical Malpractice is more common than some of the other ancillary case types in the Personal Injury field, you can still monetize Defective Drug, Product Liability and Wrongful Death leads in the same manner by referring them out to firms that specialize in those areas of law. Law firms value referrals from other attorneys very highly so you should have no problem flipping leads to other practices and yielding returns on them.

Diversify your Online Sources

If you are a well established Personal Injury firm with a steady stream of clients coming to your website, you can still utilize leads from a third party as a supplementary method. Within the competitive world of online legal advertising, SEO and PPC costs are highly volatile and can easily run up your budget if you do not constantly evaluate the data associated with the campaigns. Check out the Digital Marketing Mistakes blog for more information on this aspect of your practice.

Supplementing your intake with exclusive eGeneration leads is a pragmatic way to mitigate the inherent risks involved in your internal lead generation process. While the costs associated with your SEO and PPC campaigns continue to fluctuate, you can hedge your bets with high quality PI leads at a flat rate.

The Bottom Line

The ultimate evaluation of any marketing campaign should be based upon the cost-per-case acquisition. This metric can be applied to any marketing method as you simply calculate the amount of money invested in one source divided by the amount of clients derived from the source. If you think your firm could operate in a more cost-effective manner by acquiring exclusive Personal Injury leads in real time, give us a call at 617.800.0089 to learn more details about our service.

smm Tue, 11/03/2015 - 13:37

Evaluating the Utility of Lead Generation

smm — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 13:59:01 +0000

Evaluating the Utility of Lead Generation

If your firm considers testing out a legal case lead generation service for the first time, there are some critical factors to keep in mind. Perhaps the most important component to comprehend is the significance of sample size. In order to form an adequate evaluation of the service, you must analyze enough volume to reach a palpable conclusion.

Given that 7-10% of Social Security Disability case leads from eGenerationMarketing are expected to yield a pursuable claim, a small sample size can produce drastically different results. You may find that a modest batch of 10 leads failed to generate any pursuable claims. On the other hand, you may determine there to be several solid claims in a separate collection of 10 SSD leads. On an aggregate scale, however, eGenerationMarketing leads have persistently facilitated case acquisition at the expected rate.

What is a Sufficient Sample Size?

In order to make a proper evaluation of lead quality, you should wait until your firm has accrued between 50 and 100 leads. Since we do not require any minimum monthly purchase amount, you can spread your intake over as long as a period as you would like. This aspect of our service allows you to experiment in a fiscally conservative manner. Even if cash flow is a concern, you still have the ability to explore a new internet marketing opportunity with a risk-averse approach.

Implementing a Daily Cap on Lead Intake

Another useful way to optimize your test is to implement a daily cap on lead intake. With this tool, you can ensure you have proper time and resources to follow up with each SSD lead in a prompt and persistent manner. Without a daily cap, you may receive too many leads on a given day if there is high volume in your particular area. Since immediate follow-up is crucial to having success with real-time leads, you want to make sure you or your staff is in a position to handle the allotted volume.

Geographic Targeting

When performing a test, you also want to ascertain the specific territory that will produce the greatest probabilities of both client retention and approval of benefits at the hearing stage. Sole attorneys or advocates are likely to enjoy greater success by honing in on local areas instead of spreading themselves too thin and spanning statewide. Large firms with robust intake infrastructure, on the other hand, are able to handle leads statewide or in multiple states. Such firms are also able to target specific Offices of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR). For a complete guide to average ODAR approval rates, click here: ODAR approval rates. If certain ODARs with high approval ratings are within your proximity, it is certainly useful to target them specifically.

Should Your Firm Test Leads?

As with any marketing investment, an attorney or advocate must consider all factors that affect the performance of a particular campaign. Before testing Social Security Disability legal case leads, an attorney or advocate should make sure their staff is prepared for the necessary follow-up needed to have success with the service. The sole practitioner or firm must also ensure the most advantageous areas are targeted – with regards to relative location and ODAR favorability. Lastly, any type of legal operation should let a large enough sample size accrue before making a decision.

If you think you or your firm is in position to test Social Security Disability leads, give us a call at 617.800.0089.

smm Fri, 08/07/2015 - 09:59

Determining the Optimal Social Security Disability (SSD) Lead Package

smm — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 20:54:06 +0000

Determining the Optimal Social Security Disability (SSD) Lead Package

The ultimate objective in utilizing lead generation is to achieve the lowest cost per case acquired from the campaign. This goal holds true for any type of marketing. The amount of money allocated to the campaign divided by the amount of cases acquired as a result of the investment is the basic formula for finding your cost per case rate.

In determining the best Social Security Disability (SSD) lead package for your particular practice, there are multiple factors to consider. First of all, lead intake and follow-up infrastructure are going to significantly impact the amount of success that you have with any package. Large firms with staff to handle leads in a prompt and persistent manner can acquire cases at a really low rate with standard leads and may not need to implement any screening at all. Sole practitioners, on the other hand, may be better suited to configure a custom package that decreases the amount of time needed to process the pool of claimants.

Along with age, there are four easy ways to screen out individuals that may not be the best fit for your firm. In fact, we offer custom lead packages that can filter out undesirable answers to the following questions:

Are they currently receiving Social Security benefits?
Do they expect to be out of work for at least 12 months?
Do they have an attorney helping them with this case?
Are they receiving treatment from a doctor?

In order to mitigate an increase in rate from a standard package, it may prove beneficial to elect one or two of the qualifying questions to screen out undesirable answers. Filtering out anyone who indicates they are currently receiving benefits is a simple way to narrow down the potential clients. Medical evidence is also critical; many attorneys find success by just taking people who indicate they are receiving treatment from a doctor. The importance of choosing as few filters as possible cannot be overlooked, however. Some individuals may have a solid case but are just looking to switch attorneys. Similarly, many people may very well suffer from a disability but do not currently receive treatment from a doctor. Furthermore, unfavorable answers to each question may depict a lead of low potential before follow-up procedures reveal a misinterpretation by a person with a high probability of winning their case.

Although age is important to the potential of a case, there is a significant statistic to consider. The average age of an individual that completes a free disability case evaluation on one of our websites is 47 years old. Thus, you probably don’t need to narrow down the range much at all to bump up the average into the 50's. With minimal age screening and filtering out one or two of the qualifiers, your practice should acquire cases at an attractive rate.

If you would like to contact eGenerationMarketing, feel free to call us at 617.800.0089 or fill out a request to be contacted. Our team can certainly assist you in determining what lead package is the best fit for your firm. Any size operation, large or small, can utilize lead generation and custom packages to yield an exceptional return on investment and steadily build their disability practice.

smm Tue, 03/17/2015 - 16:54