In today’s competitive environment establishing a strong online presence is crucial for businesses across various industries. For personal injury law firms, these strategies hold particular significance, especially considering the sensitive nature of their client’s experiences.
A recent report revealed that over one-third of legal clients rely on law firm websites when searching for a lawyer. With this statistic in mind, personal injury lawyers must embrace marketing and prioritize their digital presence to effectively connect with those in need.
In this blog, we delve into why marketing is crucial for personal injury law firms and explore how a compelling online presence can positively impact both clients’ lives and the overall success of the firm.
How to Create a Personal Injury Marketing Plan
Before your firm can create a marketing plan, you must understand your target audience’s needs.
For example, clients injured in an accident are likely searching for a firm with experience and proven results handling cases like theirs. Those who suffer personal injuries also seek firms that will provide open communication and can empathize with their situation.
Once you know your audience’s pain points, your next steps should include the following:
- Evaluating your current marketing strategy: Review your current strategy, and assess what is working and what isn’t. For example, if most of your clients find your website via your blog, you may want to spend more of your marketing budget on creating high-quality blog posts.
- Defining your goals: Decide what your firm hopes to accomplish with a marketing plan. Common marketing goals include boosting brand awareness, increasing website traffic, establishing legal industry authority, and generating revenue.
- Establishing a budget: Knowing how much money your firm should spend on marketing can make it easier to create a plan. You’ll need to identify the marketing tactics that will produce the most return on investment for your firm.
- Assessing the competition: By exploring the websites of other personal injury law firms, you can review their successful marketing methods and apply them to your practice. It will also help you get a pulse on the types of services the competition is offering.
- Measuring performance: One way to measure your marketing plan’s performance is to use PracticePanther’s custom tags and reporting features. They allow you to track your marketing campaigns and generate reports to review your firm’s performance.
Hiring a legal marketing consultant may also be beneficial. They can create a strategy to highlight your firm’s strengths and determine how well your marketing plan is working.
10 Personal Injury Marketing Ideas
Some techniques you should consider adding to your firm’s personal injury lawyer marketing strategy include:
- Stay Active on Social Media
Clients may turn to social media to search for a personal injury lawyer. Social media is an effective and fun way to add creativity to your marketing strategy as long as you follow the ethics of social for lawyers.
Your firm can share blogs and comment on policy changes to showcase thought leadership or share company updates. Having a consistent social media presence where you position yourself as an expert will help attract your target audience.
- Test Local Ads
Platforms like Google allow you to place ads targeting your area’s customers. For example, if someone searches for “personal injury lawyer near me” in Google, your firm’s ad will appear at the top of the results page. These ads will help you find qualified leads.
When testing ads, it’s important to track where your leads are coming from. With PracticePanther, you can create custom tags for each of your ad campaigns to track which ad brings in the most quality traffic.
- Optimize Your Website
Your website should contain valuable content and be easy to navigate. Adding whitespace makes your site easier to read. In addition, hyperlinks, bullet points, calls to action, and images can enhance your site’s search engine optimization (SEO).
- Use Automated Intake Forms
Automated intake forms make it easy for customers to contact your firm. With PracticePanther, you can embed intake forms into your website, email signatures, or your firm’s Google My Business page. You can also customize your intake forms to maintain cohesive branding.
- Customize Lead Follow-Up
If you don’t follow up with leads, you may lose potential clients. By automating your lead follow-up, your firm can add new leads from intake forms and receive automatic reminders to send touchpoints to potential clients.
- Write a Blog
Including a blog on your firm’s website can help establish your credibility. You can feature posts about the legal aspects of personal injury cases, common client questions, policy changes, or other relevant topics and discuss ways your firm can help.
- Send an E-Newsletter
Email newsletters allow your current and potential clients to learn more about your firm. You can share information about your staff, case studies, trending topics in the legal industry, and news updates. This type of marketing keeps your firm top of mind for anyone who might require your services in the future.
- Get Peer and Client Reviews
Asking your peers and former clients to review your firm is a great way to attract new customers. Anyone who visits your website can read about your past success stories, building credibility and trust between your firm and potential clients.
- Add Your Personal Injury Firm to Legal Directories
Adding your personal injury firm to legal directories is a valuable, low-cost strategy to enhance your online presence and reach potential clients who rely on these platforms when searching for legal assistance.
Some examples of directories specifically catering to personal injury lawyers include Avvo, FindLaw, Justia, Super Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell.
- Attend Industry Events
Networking is a reliable way to reach new customers and meet your peers. By attending industry events, you can build a network of lawyers in other practice areas who could refer clients to your firm. Consider sponsoring events in your area for additional brand exposure. Sporting events offer excellent opportunities to do this.
Three ABA Rules for Personal Injury Marketing
Law firms must follow a set of marketing guidelines. The American Bar Association (ABA) sets the following rules:
- ABA Model Rule 7.1: A lawyer cannot make false or misleading communication about themselves or the services they provide.
- ABA Model Rule 7.2: Lawyers can share information about their services through any media but cannot call themselves a specialist or compensate someone for recommending their services.
- ABA Model Rule 7.3: In most circumstances, a lawyer cannot solicit professional employment.
Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing Made Easy
Your firm needs to stay competitive to remain profitable. Creating a personal injury lawyer marketing plan allows you to reach the right customers, establish credibility, and promote your brand.
Modern technology can help standardize and simplify the process of reaching potential clients.
With PracticePanther’s legal practice management software, your firm will have the resources to streamline daily operations and grow your business.
