Considering Exiting a Scorpion Contract? Here’s What You Need to Know…

When choosing a law firm marketing agency, you don’t want to hire one that isn’t growing your legal practice. So, it only makes sense to move from one agency to another, as you want what’s best for your business.

But canceling your contract and finding a new agency isn’t simple if you signed up with Scorpion. Reports state that it makes getting out of your contract difficult.

This article discusses why that’s the case based on customer experiences. It’ll also talk about how you can successfully terminate your Scorpion contract with help from another agency.

Let’s begin.

Why a Scorpion Contract May Not Make Sense For Your Law Firm?

Scorpion has been a very divisive marketing agency, according to customer reviews. While the agency may have done wonders for others, some recommend people to stay away from it. Below are some of the reasons:

Leads from PPC Campaigns Can Also Be Subpar

On Reddit, a Scorpion customer complained about getting irrelevant leads via pay-per-click (PPC). Callers ask for free consultations and pro-bono, which the customer doesn’t offer.

To make matters worse, Scorpion didn’t explain the quality of leads. The agency doesn’t even share its paid ads process, which could help explain the situation. So, not only is Scorpion’s PPC campaign ineffective. Its customer support is severely lacking as well.

The Agency May Deliver Poor Quality Backlinks

The same customer’s site has been ranking for terms like “free consult” and “cheap divorce.” Again, these are services their business doesn’t offer. After some digging, the customer found irrelevant backlinks pointing to their website. There’s a good chance Scorpion built these links for them.

Let’s entertain the idea that Scorpion didn’t build these links. The fact that the client found these links while working with the agency is still not a good sign. Scorpion should have built better backlinks to overcome these bad links.

Owns All the Assets They Build for You

This is a huge flag when hiring a marketing agency. Scorpion uses a proprietary content management system (CMS) for managing your website files. Terminating your contract with Scorpion means you can no longer access your website. That also means you may need help to secure its domain, content, and design.

There’s still a chance to gain access to your site if you decide to cancel your Scorpion contract. But you’ll have to fight tooth and nail for this. Previous customers had this issue with Scorpion. The agency left a bad impression on customers that they needed to share it with others.

How Can an Attorney Decide If They Should Stay With Scorpion?

To be clear, Scorpion has helped other attorneys’ marketing campaigns through the years. Let’s say you’ve been getting a significant ROI for the agency’s efforts. You’re also okay with giving Scorpion control over your website and marketing campaigns. In both accounts, stay with Scorpion.

Exiting Scorpion Contract Can be Challenging. Here’s Why…

Conversely, cancel your Scorpion contract if you spend more money than you earn. However, the agency will make exiting from your contract difficult for you.

For one, Scorpion may hold your account hostage. Since it uses its proprietary CMS to host and manage your website, it can prevent you from accessing it. As a result, you may not get your website’s content, design, and domain back. This is true, especially if Scorpion created and registered them for you.

Even if you stay as a Scorpion client, you don’t have access to your marketing data. A G2 review confirms this:

Also, there’s no guarantee law firms can recover their website if they leave Scorpion. This makes the process of moving to another agency a hassle for them. As a result, small businesses stay with Scorpion, even if it means not getting ROI from the agency’s efforts.

Made Up Your Mind? Here’s How to Exit a Scorpion Contract…

Before cutting ties with Scorpion, read the fine print in the signed contract. Its terms and agreements may be vague and don’t reveal all the information. Get clarification from Scorpion about the fine print to determine your next steps. Reviewing the contract also lets you assess potential costs before terminating the contract. This helps you plan before making a move.

With that out of the way, here are things you must do to cancel your Scorpion contract properly.

Find Out if You Own Any of Your Website, Analytics, PPC Account, Etc…

You should still have access to properties you signed up for prior to working with Scorpion. An example is when you signed up for the domain long ago. You should be able to use it on your new website upon exiting your Scorpion contract.

However, it depends on your arrangements with Scorpion on these properties. Your hands are tied if you migrated and gave ownership of your website to Scorpion in the contract.

Scorpion houses its clients’ PPC accounts in-house as well. That means you won’t have access to all its data after terminating your contract with the agency. But there’s a chance you can recover some of your accounts if you keep asking the agency.

Talk With Marketing Agencies That Offer Relevant Services

Research other marketing agencies that you can replace Scorpion with. Find an agency with a track record of producing highly qualified leads. Choose one that also shares website and marketing accounts with you.

To do this, make a shortlist of agencies you will choose from. Type “marketing agency” and your practice area and location on Google.

To narrow your search, check out what customers say about each agency. A rule of thumb is to avoid agencies with overwhelmingly negative reviews. But be cautious of those even with positive reviews. Scorpion has positive testimonials at G2, but their services may have turned out poorly for you.

At the very least, read the reviews to help you filter bad agencies from potential ones.

Vet’em All and Discuss How They Will Handle The Transition

Upon compiling a shortlist, reach out to each agency. Most provide their phone number you can call for your inquiries.

The first thing to ask agencies is if they worked with ex-Scorpion clients. Find out how the agency handled the migration from Scorpion. Also, inquire about what to expect during the process. Examples include the success rate and costs for the migration. This lets you find a marketing agency to help you exit your Scorpion contract seamlessly.

Settle With an Agency That Can Handle Your Marketing Needs: End-to-End

Once that’s settled, find out the services the agency offers. Let’s say you want a company that does a variety of marketing tactics guaranteed to attract warm leads. Contact the agencies on your list and ask how they can help with your marketing needs.

To make the selection process easier for you, look no further than On the Map Marketing. Our PPC advertising can generate instant leads from Google search based on your ad spend. We also do paid social media ads to help you reach out to your audience on LinkedIn and Facebook.

For those wanting to grow their organic traffic, our SEO services are for you. We research keywords and build relevant backlinks to optimize your site. Also, our content writing efforts can create high-quality content for your business. All these help you build trust with your audience and increase your organic rankings.

We can apply the tactics above if you’re targeting multiple cities or practice areas. Diversifying your marketing efforts makes finding your business easier for your target audience.

Finally, our website design offerings observe the best design practices and methods. They help improve user experience, allowing higher engagement with your site visitors. They also make your website load more efficiently for increased Google rankings.

Frequently Asked Questions About Moving a Lawyer Website From Scorpion to On The Map Marketing (OTM)

Will I lose my law firm website’s current rankings on migration?

You shouldn’t lose your website’s keyword rankings on Google if you migrate it correctly.

Our development team will make sure to migrate the URLs exactly as they are on Scorpion’s site. This way, each page currently in the website index appears on your new website. As a result, your site won’t experience a rankings fluctuation. In fact, your site may even increase its organic rankings due to the migration!

If I migrate, will OTM own my law firm’s website? What’s the cost of such a migration?

You will fully own the migrated website from Scorpion for you as long as you own the domain. If Scorpion purchased the domain for you, you don’t own the site. That also means we can’t migrate your site away from Scorpion using the same domain.

The cost is similar to building a website, ranging from $5k to $10k+. It will depend on the number of pages your site has. The more pages your site has, the higher the migration costs.

The website design takes up most of the migration expense. First, we move your small business site to our recommended CMS (WordPress). You then can go through a brand new site redesign or replicate your current Scorpion site design. The latter is more convenient since Scorpion’s CMS is compatible with WordPress.

We also ensure you keep your current Google rankings so you don’t lose your organic traffic. If you wish to get us for your SEO needs, we can offer you a discount for both services to lower your costs.

Can I work with Scorpion and OTM at the same time?

Technically, you can work with us and Scorpion. Some clients hired us to review Scorpion’s work and provide them with recommendations. Others got our link building services while Scorpion handles the rest. However, the scope of work we can do with Scorpion depends on your contract with the agency.

Can you move your PPC account away from Scorpion?

Yes, you can migrate your PPC account from Scorpion. But the agency won’t make the process easy based on our experience. We helped an ex-Scorpion customer for three months get their PPC accounts from the agency. We secured the client’s local service ads (LSA) account from Scorpion. But despite a lot of back and forth, we could not get their Google Ads account. The agency only sent a few ad copies and keywords, which isn’t enough data to continue the campaign.

Nonetheless, this wasn’t a problem for us at On The Map. Within 2 ½ weeks, we are close to optimizing the client’s PPC campaign to the level Scorpion was at. It took us three times faster to achieve the result Scorpion did with the client’s PPC!

Has OTM done any migrations from Scorpion in the past? How long do they typically take?

Yes, we have. We migrated the site of Handsford McDaniel LLC from Scorpion before. Below is a screenshot of what the website looked like a year ago:

Here’s how the site looks now after migrating to our services:

From the screenshot above, the site now features a video about the law firm that visitors can play and watch. It also shows a live chat so visitors can ask questions and expect answers soon. We made other site design changes to increase its engagement and generate more leads.

The time it takes to make changes to a site developed by Scorpion can take two months.

Will you save me money moving away from Scorpion PPC or other marketing services?

Absolutely! Our experience lets us provide companies with the most from their marketing ROI. We first create a custom strategy based on the service you signed up for us and your website needs. Upon execution, we track the results and tweak the campaigns as necessary. By constantly improving your marketing performance, we can help you get better leads.

Unlike Scorpion, we provide lawyers access to their marketing campaign data and results. From here, ask questions about the campaign performance and our tactics. You can even suggest how we can improve the campaign. This helps us align our marketing efforts to acquire more clients.