Recommendations can provide important social proof about your law firm’s successes. They can help potential clients see that you have helped people with similar problems in the past, which can make them more likely to contact your law firm when they’re ready to choose an attorney.
Before you ask potential clients to recommend your law firm, make sure your state’s ethics rules allow you to publish recommendations on your law firm website. Assuming your state allows it, here are five ways to make recommendations a more effective part of your law firm’s online presence.
1. Provide context for recommendations on your law firm website
Potential clients have a hierarchy of needs that affects their decision-making when choosing an attorney. They want to know that you will care about them and their problem and that you will be able to help them find a solution.
Effective recommendations address that hierarchy of needs. Recommendations can help demonstrate that you are passionate about your clients and your work.
This can help potential new clients feel that you’re going to care about them and their case or matter. Recommendations also provide important social proof by demonstrating to potential clients that you have helped people with similar problems in the past. Knowing that you care and that you’re likely to be able to help them with their problem can make them more likely to contact your law firm.
A generic recommendation such as “Joe Smith is a wonderful attorney!” may not help a potential client see what you accomplished, how hard you worked or what type of problem you helped solve.
If you receive a positive but vague recommendation, adding context to it can make the recommendation more engaging. Consider including:
- The type of case or matter
- How your former client felt (Were they scared, overwhelmed or frustrated?)
- What was at stake? Were they in danger of losing their job or their home or custody of their children?
- What you did to help them
- The long-term results of your work (Did they keep their job? Were they able to stay in their home?)
Including these details in recommendations can help potential clients see why you’re the right attorney for them: you’re passionate about your clients and you’ll be able to help them with their problem. Alternatively, if you’ve created a compelling case result on your website that addresses the client’s story, you can add a link to the case result to accompany the recommendation.
2. Make recommendations easy to find on your law firm website
Potential clients can enter your website through almost any page. If they’re considering contacting your firm, they may look at recommendations before they take that step. Make it easy for them to find the recommendations on your website: consider including a link to “Recommendations” or “Testimonials” in your website’s main navigation, as well as linking to recommendations on your attorney bio page(s).
It should also be easy for website visitors to browse through recommendations to find ones that are relevant to their particular situation. The LawLytics system automatically creates a browsable index for all your recommendations, as well as an individual page for each recommendation.
3. Be careful about sending potential clients away from your law firm website
Reviews on third-party websites can provide further social proof of your law firm’s good work. However, attorneys should be cautious about linking to third-party review sites from their law firm’s website.
When a potential client is on your website, they are a captive audience. They only see the information that you choose to publish. It’s likely that you’ve chosen to display only positive reviews on your website, as well as avoiding displaying information about your competitors.
If you link to external review sites, potential clients may be exposed to both positive and negative reviews of your law firm. They may also be exposed to information about your competitors, or any other distractions that could prevent them from contacting your firm.
4. Make it easy for potential clients to take the next step
If a potential client decides to contact your firm after reading the recommendations on your website, make it easy for them to do so. Contact information should be displayed in the header and footer of your website. That way it’s easy to see, no matter which page a potential client is visiting. You may also consider including a contact form anywhere you display recommendations.
5. Use the right tools to cultivate and distribute reviews for your law firm
The LawLytics platform includes a built-in recommendation feature to help you gather and publish engaging recommendations on your law firm website.
