Competition is fierce between law firms specializing in personal injury. Whether your business competes locally, regionally, or nationally, you need to constantly ensure that your marketing strategies follow 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 place for yourself in a niche market, but you can also increase lead generation and overall profits.
Although there are various outlets through which lawyers can obtain clients, such as referrals and walk-ins, the majority of people are looking for legal advice or representation in 2022, just plug their query into Google and look to the search engine to guide them to who can best help. .
When you optimize your law firm’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you can stand out from other personal injury law firms in your areas of competition.
The Economics of Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing
Getting started with a law firm marketing strategy can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if you’re starting from scratch. Whether you take care of the tasks yourself or outsource them to a digital marketing company, you need to plan the creation and maintenance of your website, use some form of paid advertising, and incorporate regular use of media. social in your marketing strategy.
There is no single marketing budget for law firms. However, to get an idea of what may 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 keep your business profitable. Once you have an idea of what you need to spend to make a profit, you can start writing the strategies to get there.
Getting Started with Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing
In terms of getting started with law firm marketing, you must first assess the status of your law firm. For example, maybe you’re just starting out and looking to quickly build an online presence. Your business may also be well established but losing customers, leading to a change in the way you handle your online marketing. Regardless of the situation, there are two concepts you need to consider before implementing new strategies, including your target audience and your consumer appeal.
Who is your target audience?
Have you ever thought about what makes a potential client “ideal” for your law firm? While you know you may not or may not be able to take every case that comes through your door, having a concrete concept of your target audience will help you refine your marketing strategies and produce content that responds. to common questions and encourages visitors to reach out. for more information. When creating an ideal customer profile, consider factors such as age, geography, economic status, level of education, career path, types of accidents or injuries, etc. .
What sets your law firm apart?
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 personal injury law experiences that set you apart from other lawyers. If you’re not sure where to start to determine what sets your law firm apart, simply start with a list of your education, experience, and credentials. From there, you can determine why you are the best option for your target customers.
Law firm marketing strategy versus plan
In order to create a consistent and comprehensive online law firm presence, you need to develop both a law firm marketing strategy and plan. A strategy establishes things like your marketing goals, target audience, services offered, and main message. In contrast, your marketing plan specifies the actions you can take to achieve your marketing goals and the types of marketing you plan to use, such as SEO or social media marketing.
Law firm marketing strategy
A succinct 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.
- Target audience. Based on our discussion above, you know how crucial defining your target audience is. When it comes to using this information to inform your marketing tactics, you will include it in your strategy plan.
- Marketing analysis. Performing a marketing analysis includes the people, companies or organizations that 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 the competition 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 competitors are doing.
Offered services. Although you already know what areas of law you practice in, it’s always a good idea to outline the legal services you provide in your marketing strategy document. This can inform your future content strategy. - Central message. What do you want your target audience to know about your law firm? If you haven’t yet developed a basic marketing message, take a look at your law firm’s mission statement. The two messages will likely be similar, if not identical.
Law Firm Marketing Plan
Once you’ve figured out how you want to improve your law firm’s online presence, it’s time to start putting together a detailed plan. This can not only save you time and effort, but it can also make it clear to your employees who is responsible for what. The elements of a personal injury law firm marketing plan include the following:
- Goals. In order to see the success of your marketing plan, you need to set quantifiable goals. Some of your marketing strategy goals may overlap or inform your plan goals. Make sure your goals are measurable, so you can track their 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 for determining what to invest, and this number will likely change over time.
- Marketing activities. Marketing activities include content development, advertising, social media, email marketing, etc. You will want to implement a number of activities to increase your chances of achieving your goals and growing your online presence.
Executing Your Law Firm’s Marketing Tactics
If you follow the tips above and develop a marketing strategy and plan, you can start planning for its launch. You can choose to deploy different tactics on a planned basis, or you can launch it all at once. Either way, executing your tactics will include three main components: SEO, content production, and advertising.
Your website should be user-friendly. You can check out the latest SEO best practices to learn how to improve user experience. Page load speed and functionality are often at the top of the list. The longer your website takes to load, the more opportunities there are for a potential customer to go elsewhere.
In terms of content production, you’ll want to make sure you have comprehensive practice area pages for the areas in which you provide legal services. Don’t forget 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 legislative changes, and other topics of interest.
In terms of advertising, you can implement a number of strategies. You can choose to start using pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements via Google Ads. You also have the option of advertising on social media platforms like Facebook. No matter where you choose to advertise, remember to regularly evaluate the results, so you know you’re getting the most for the money you’re spending.
Annette Choti, Esq. graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is the founder of pen of law, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small law firms and independent law firms. Annette wrote the bestselling book Click Magnet: The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing for Law Firmsand hosts the podcast Legal Marketing Fair. She is a sought after CLE speaker and speaker in the United States and Canada. Annette has done professional theater and comedy, which isn’t all that different from the legal field if we’re all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at Annette@lawquill.com.
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