A website can have a variety of purposes. For most lawyers, that purpose is more of an online brochure than anything else. But the smart move is to always bear in mind that your website is for marketing your practice. And for any marketing website, the goal should be the collection of data to increase your prospect database.
Here are 6 tactics from Craig Huey, publisher of the industry newsletter, Direct Response, and president of Creative Direct Marketing Group (CDMG), to help you increase your database from your website.
1. On the upper-right-hand corner of your home page, provide an easily identifiable section to collect your prospects’ email addresses.
2. Give prospects a reason that it’s in their best interest to provide you with their email address. There are several ways of doing this, such as offering them a free ezine or hardcopy newsletter, a special report, a special discount or a special insider update. You need to offer something that makes them want to give you their email address, otherwise they simply won’t.
3. Use the same email-collecting strategy on every other page, again placing it in the upper-right-hand corner.
4. Use the email collection concept on the right-hand sidebar.
5. You might also consider using an Order Form in Navigation (OFIN). This is what I have been using for clients instead of pop-ups. They are not blocked by pop-up blockers and they are typically placed around the navigation.
6. Also, you can create an Order Form in Editorial (OFIE), which is also designed to pop-up, but in fact has the same benefits as the OFIN
