The world of estate planning, probate real estate, and related fields runs mostly on referrals, but is built on client trust. An outdated website with issues like broken contact forms breaks that trust immediately. Having a modern website that you regularly update is the bare minimum a law firm needs to compete today.
By Erik Garcia
Marketing Specialist, Screenfire Marketing
Even in the estate planning world, websites matter. Sure, most of the business comes from referrals, but the relationships are built on trust.
A firm in the estate planning realm came to our agency and shared that a major potential client couldn’t figure out their website’s contact form, and finally resorted to an old-fashioned phone call. “They almost gave up altogether. If someone hadn’t answered in that moment, we never would have secured their business.”
A couple of our digital strategists looked around the site. The contact form wasn’t just hard to use, it was actually broken–sometimes it didn’t load; sometimes it loaded and didn’t fully display; sometimes it appeared to gather a contact, but never stored it in the CMS or alerted the firm.
But the problems didn’t end there. Legacy software hosted the site, causing it to load like it was downloading a file via messenger pigeon. You had to scroll back and forth on a phone to read the text. The site filled with over-wrought geometric forms–a relic of the past, when they cared more about fancy tricks than building for simplicity and clarity. Each of these issues cost them professional validation and trust.
When we suggested a full redesign, the CEO pushed back. “Most of our business comes from referrals anyway. It’s not about our website.”
To convince them, we performed a quick bout of research into local competitors with modern templates and designs. Site speeds were fast and the websites were actually mobile-friendly. Forms efficiently collected contact data and there were clear calls to action on every page of their sites.
We presented this list of issues and argued that in an industry built on trust, anything that affects that trust is a harm. If your website feels ignored, it’s an easy emotional jump for clients to assume you may approach their personal assets the same way.
“Even if someone finds you by referral, they’re going to check out your site,” we noted.
In the end, even the CEO saw the light. We redesigned their site, transferred it to WordPress, created a solid mobile version, and made sure their site speed was accelerated with caching tools and more. We also brought forward some good hidden content, testimonials, and downloadable articles.
A new contact form brought in a couple of major new clients within the first month of the relaunch. Within six months, their site traffic had boomed.
Many in the estate planning, probate real estate, and related fields believe that their websites are “good enough” or “just don’t matter that much in my business.” Perhaps that is true. But good enough can also cost you tremendously… and is good enough ever the standard a professional should work toward? Disconnect your contact form and let’s find out.
Reach out to Screenfire if you’d like a free audit of your website for usability, speed, and design. Contact us today.
