There is stiff competition among personal injury law firms. Whether your business is competing at the local, state, or national level, you need to constantly make sure your marketing strategies are following best practices to ensure you reach as many potential customers as possible.
Personal injury law firm marketing is complex, but we can break it down into manageable steps.
The importance of a solid marketing strategy
A reputable and visible online presence can benefit a law firm in many ways. Not only can you carve out a space for yourself in a niche market, but you can also increase lead generation and overall profits.
Although there are different outlets through which lawyers can get clients, such as referrals and face-to-face visits, the majority of people looking for legal advice or representation in 2022 simply plug their query into Google and check the search engine for guide them to who can best help them. .
When you optimize your law firm’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you can differentiate yourself from other personal injury law firms in your competitive areas.
The Economics of Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing
Launching a law firm marketing strategy can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if you’re starting from scratch. Whether you handle the tasks yourself or outsource to a digital marketing company, you need to plan for creating and maintaining your website, use some form of paid advertising, and incorporate regular use of social media into your marketing strategy.
There is no one-size-fits-all budget when it comes to attorney marketing. However, to get an idea of what might be reasonable, calculate what it takes to get a single, successful case. Consider how many customers you need to have in a year to improve conversion rates and ensure your business is profitable. Once you have an idea of what you need to spend to make a profit, you can start to write the strategies to do so.
How to get started with marketing a personal injury law firm
When it comes to getting started with law firm marketing, you first need to assess the state of your law firm. For example, you may be just starting out and looking to build an online presence quickly.
Your business may also be well established but lose customers, which will cause a change in the way you manage your online marketing.
Regardless of the situation, there are two concepts you need to keep in mind before implementing new strategies: your target audience and your consumer appeal.
Who is your target audience?
Have you ever wondered what makes a potential client “ideal” for your law firm?
While you know there’s a chance you won’t or can’t accept every case that comes through your door, having a concrete concept of your target audience will help you narrow down your marketing strategies and produce content that responds to their needs. common questions and encourage visitors to reach out. for more information.
When creating an ideal customer profile, consider factors such as age, geography, economic status, education level, career history, types of accidents or injuries, etc.
What makes your company stand out?
With so many personal injury lawyers in the United States, standing out from the rest can be a challenge.
However, remember that you have unique experiences in the field of personal injury law that set you apart from other attorneys.
If you don’t know where to start to determine what makes your law firm stand out, simply start with a list of your education, experience and credentials. From there, you can determine why you are the best choice for your target customers.
Law firm marketing strategy versus plan
In order to create a cohesive and comprehensive law firm presence online, you need to develop both a law firm marketing strategy and plan.
A strategy sets out elements such as your marketing objectives, target audience, services offered and core message. In contrast, your marketing plan specifies the actions you can take to achieve your marketing goals and the types of marketing you want to use, such as SEO or social media marketing.
Law firm marketing strategy
A concise marketing strategy begins with an executive summary that outlines the following categories:
Marketing objectives. Your marketing goals should align with your company’s business goals. Work with your marketing department or specialists to ensure alignment occurs.
Target audience. From our discussion above, you know how crucial it is to define your target audience. When it comes to using this information to inform your marketing tactics, you’ll include it in your strategy outline.
Marketing analysis. Conducting a marketing analysis includes the people, companies or organizations who are your current and potential customers. Remember to capture a clear picture of the size of your law firm based on your practice areas and geographic location.
Competitive analysis. Another aspect of your marketing strategy is competitor analysis. To beat your competitors, you need to understand what strategies they are implementing. You can use tools like Google Analytics to get a better idea of what your competition is doing.
Services offered. Even if you already know what areas of law you practice, it’s still a good idea to describe the legal services you provide in your marketing strategy document. This can inform your future content strategy.
Basic message What do you want your target audience to know about your law firm? If you haven’t yet developed a core marketing message, take a look at your law firm’s mission statement. The two messages will likely be similar, if not the same.
Law firm marketing plan
Once you understand how you want to improve your law firm’s online presence, it’s time to start designing a detailed plan. Doing so can not only save you time and effort, but it can also make it clear to your employees who is responsible for what. Elements of a marketing plan for a personal injury law firm include the following:
goals To see the success of your marketing plan, you need to set quantifiable goals. Some of the goals of your marketing strategy may overlap or inform the goals of your plan. Make sure your goals are measurable so you can track your progress as you reach milestones.
Financial investment. Your plan should include an estimate of how much you plan to budget and spend on marketing your law firm. There is no right or wrong answer to determining what to invest, and this number is likely to change over time.
Marketing activities. Marketing activities include content development, advertising, social media, email marketing and more. You want to implement a number of activities to increase your chances of achieving your goals and increasing your online presence.
Execute your law firm’s marketing tactics
By following the instructions above and developing a marketing strategy and plan, you can start planning your launch. You can choose to implement different tactics on a scheduled basis, or you can launch them all at once. Either way, the execution of your tactics will include three main elements: SEO, content production, and advertising.
Your website should be easy to use. You can check out the latest SEO best practices to learn how to improve the user experience. Page loading speed and functionality are often at the top of the list. The longer it takes for your website to load, the more opportunity there is for a potential customer to go elsewhere.
When it comes to content production, you’ll want to make sure you have comprehensive practice area pages for the areas you provide legal services. Remember to include keywords that potential customers are likely to search for. You should also have a regularly updated blog that provides easy-to-digest information on frequently asked questions, relevant legal changes, and other topics of interest.
When it comes to advertising, you can implement various strategies. You can choose to start using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising through Google Ads. You also have the option to advertise on social media platforms such as Facebook. Regardless of where you choose to advertise, remember to evaluate your results regularly so you know you’re getting the most bang for your buck.
Annette Choti graduated from law school 20 years ago and is now the CEO and owner of Law Quilla legal digital marketing agency focused on small law firms and sole traders. Law Quill is the only legal digital marketing agency that offers unique SEO-optimized content, pre-packaged content and courses for lawyers to learn SEO themselves through Law Quill Academy. Annette I used to do professional theater and comedy, which isn’t that different from the legal field if we’re all being honest. Annette can be found in LinkedIn oh annette@lawquill.com.
