Montana Law Firm Marketing Case Study
Buxbaum Daue
With over 40 years of individual experience and 22 years of collaborative practice, their legacy of substantial settlements and compassionate guidance promises not only legal expertise but also a path to healing and empowerment. Whether facing medical malpractice or personal injury they are sure to illuminate the way to redemption.
Introduction: an outdated law firm website = poor quality leads
Buxbaum Daue came to us with a problem. Their website was outdated and indistinguishable from their competitors, their paralegals were spending 20+ hours a week qualifying the leads they were getting (the majority were unqualified), and they felt the messaging on the site was unclear.
We sat down looked at these problems and had to decide a few things:
What were the pain points we were aiming to solve?
- The client was getting leads but they didn’t match their criteria.
- The site wasn’t responsive, causing user frustration.
- The branding was old and clunky giving an unprofessional appearance.
- Uncertain what was working.
- Not sure if any leads were coming from the website.
What were the causes of their pain?
- Buyer personas were clear, but messaging and journey were too vague.
- Branding wasn’t giving a professional appearance.
- SEO was minimal and not targeted.
- Uneducated buyer was wasting paralegals’ time.
What were the final goals we were hoping to achieve?
- Increase the quality of leads-remember they didn’t need more leads.
- Create a website they could have pride in.
- Build visual authority with better branding, certifications, and awards.
- Improve user experience on the site.
The Plan : make a better impression
With the answers to these questions we were able to develop a strategic plan.
Full competitive analysis.
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Strategy Analysis for social media clean-up, consolidation of URLs, SEO/keyword targeting, content plan, branding, and sales enablement strategy.
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Buyer’s journey build out.
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Brand revisit.
Things we knew we wanted to address and include.
We wanted to emphasize their compassion as “experienced” or “aggressive” lawyers abound in the industry. They aren’t aggressive in their defense but they are tireless in their efforts. They’re your advocate on every case and out for your best interest.
We want to include “A Settlement that Matters” because oftentimes with medical malpractice cases, it’s not money that’s the driving factor. Clients want to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again. Doug & Craig have had laws changed to help prevent future problems. The settlement may include regulation changes aside from financial compensation.
Ann & Laurie are just as big of a part of the process as Craig & Doug so we included a “legal team that cares” as their caring nature is what puts people at ease that they’re making the right choice.
Metrics and benchmarks we used to establish the success of the redesign:
- Quality of leads reported
- Conversion rate
- Web traffic
- Most visited pages
- Engagement rate
- User experience recordings
- Feedback from clients
Research : Where are the marketing opportunities?
Competitive Analysis
Buxbaum Daue receive a lot of referrals from other lawyers so competitor review was not a large emphasis for them but it did influence design expectations for respect and authority building.
Client Interviews
We interviewed existing clients to determine why they like working with Buxbaum Daue and why they chose them – feedback was generally that they felt heard, respected, and never talked down on.
We then used these interviews to help develop a core message that reflected the benefits of Buxbaum Daue’s legal team.
Previously had no core message.
New core message based on client interviews:
Compassionate, Tireless Advocates On Every Case. A Settlement That Matters. A Legal Team That Cares.
Data Analysis
- We did keyword research for long-tail targeted search phrases.
- We installed data tracking software such as Hotjar to start gauging user interactions on pages.
- We assessed page performance and optimized pages with added content to help better educate their visitors so they know if they had a case.
Design decisions based on the research:
- Tone, voice, and messaging were of major focus.
- Include photos of real employees to humanize the business.
- Consistent branding – fonts, colors, layout, language.
- Improvements to the contact form that ask more in-depth questions to help the clients self-qualify before submitting information.
Design and Implementation
Old Website:
Implementation
- Added more targeted pages for keyword optimization.
- Improved buyer’s journey with educational content.
- Tested the responsiveness of the site with mobile and tablet testing.
- Branding considerations to reflect a calm professional tone.
- Optimized site speed.
Challenges we faced during implementation.
We needed to be careful with working for various sections to ensure we were not making promises, giving legal advice, or discouraging anyone from reaching out.
We did not want to reduce the number of leads they were receiving by making the request to talk too complicated. However, we did want to ease the amount of work the paralegals needed to do during the initial chat.
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We added all necessary fields to the contact form to flesh out the most minimal information that was needed without making the form too cumbersome to fill out.
Marketing Results!
User/Stakeholder Feedback:
- Maintained lead volume while improving lead quality.
- Stakeholders mentioned they are happy with the quality of leads that are coming through. They have not seen a decline in leads but have found that they’re spending less time having to filter through their information to get the basics for determining if they have a case.
Better educated buyer= happier team + easier sales process.
How the Design Impacted the Goal:
- Strengthened brand authority with consistency, messaging, tone, and imagery.
- Improve user experience with a streamlined solutions menu, reducing confusion and narrowing the funnel according to specific buyer personas.
- Great feedback from clients on how much they like the site’s content and layout.
Conclusion: So, what did we learn?
Important takeaways:
Leads are not always the motivating factor for someone looking for a marketing strategy. We often get people looking to boost their recruitment, determine why traffic isn’t converting, or see why they keep getting leads that just aren’t right for them. It’s vital to have your messaging and buyer’s journey align with who you’re actually targeting. It can have a big impact on other areas of your business by making some tweaks and adjustments to how you’re presenting your business online.
Lessons learned:
It’s important to really listen to your client’s goals. There is no one-size-fits-all program when it comes to marketing. Businesses are in different development stages, different maturity levels, and have different expectations for growth. Setting the right objectives is vital for a successful marketing relationship.
Future plans:
- Continued refinement of user experience.
- Always adding new and interesting content to the site to help inform and educate our buyers.
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