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Marketing is essential to growing any business, and a personal injury law practice is no exception. With countless law firms vying for the attention of potential clients, it’s essential to adopt effective strategies that set your practice apart. 

According to Ibis World, there are 50,693 personal injury lawyer businesses in the US as of 2023, up by 0.1 percent from the prior year. The key to thriving in this field lies in connecting with those needing legal assistance and building a solid reputation. 

This article will explore five impactful strategies tailored to marketing your personal injury law practice. These strategies encompass both digital and traditional approaches, offering a comprehensive guide to enhancing your practice’s visibility and attracting the clientele you aim to serve. 

Five Steps to a Thriving Practice

As practitioners of a noble profession, lawyers, for a time, were prohibited from advertising their services. The shift came in the 1970s when the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977), decided that lawyers, like other professionals, have First Amendment rights to advertise their services. 

However, the advertising must adhere to ethical standards, such as avoiding false or misleading statements. The regulations allowing lawyers to advertise can vary by state, as each state’s bar association establishes its own rules regarding lawyer advertising and marketing. 

Today, personal injury lawyers can employ a mix of traditional and modern marketing methods, such as the following:

1. Build an impressive online presence

Investing in a professional and user-friendly website is the first step toward building a worthwhile online presence. This will serve as the virtual front door of your practice. Keep it attractive, easy to navigate, and loaded with valuable information about your services, legal expertise, and the types of personal injury cases you work with.

Another crucial step is optimizing your website for search engines. This involves implementing relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and title tags to increase your visibility on search engine results pages. It also ensures that potential clients searching for personal injury legal services can easily find your website.

Utilizing informative content to showcase your expertise is another way to impress existing and potential clients online. Start a blog where you discuss various legal topics, offer advice, and share real case studies. This establishes you as a knowledgeable authority and assists potential clients in understanding complex legal matters.

To have a real relationship with your audience, interact with them on social media. Keep your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles active by sharing informative content, and take every opportunity to highlight your firm’s personality.

Lastly, create videos that simplify legal terms, explain the claims process, or provide accident-handling tips. Putting up videos on your website and social media platforms can enhance user engagement and comprehension. In 2023, 91 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool. Hubspot says this is an all-time high since they started watching this data.

2. Invest in content marketing 

Content marketing allows you to establish authority, connect with your audience, and attract potential clients. Begin by knowing your target audience and their needs. Understand the legal questions, concerns, and challenges they face related to personal injury cases. This forms the foundation for creating valuable and relevant content.

Blogs and informative videos are two content formats you can use to market your practice. You can also create infographics or start a podcast that caters to different learning preferences and maximizes your reach. Share real case studies showcasing successful outcomes for your clients. These stories highlight your ability to deliver results and build confidence among potential clients.

You can promote your content not only on your website or social media but also by joining online forums to share your insights and engage with your audience. Additionally, you can build an email list of interested clients and send regular newsletters to keep your firm top of mind. Share updates about recent case successes, legal news, and informative articles to showcase your expertise and remind clients of your services.

3. Encourage online reviews and testimonials

Seventy-six percent of consumers usually read online reviews when looking for something they need online. That includes personal injury legal services. Encouraging online reviews and testimonials fosters the growth of your personal injury law practice in a more direct manner. It begins with your practice or firm delivering exceptional service to your clients. 

Positive experiences naturally lead to glowing reviews. Ensure clear communication, empathy, and top-notch legal representation throughout their cases. Do not hesitate to request reviews from satisfied clients, but do it politely. After successfully concluding a case, send personalized follow-up emails or messages expressing gratitude for their trust and asking them to share their experience.

You can streamline the review process by providing direct links to your profiles on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and legal directories. The key is making it as convenient for clients to leave feedback as possible. 

To showcase a diverse range of positive experiences, display existing reviews prominently on your website with a dedicated page for client testimonials. This technique establishes social proof of your expertise and the positive outcomes you’ve achieved.

As always, connect with your audience by responding graciously to their positive or negative reviews. This demonstrates your commitment to client satisfaction and enhances your practice’s reputation. 

You can even incentivize reviews with small gestures of appreciation, like discounts on future services or legal resources.

4. Widen your network 

Establishing and nurturing relationships within the legal and related industries can yield manifold benefits contributing to your practice’s expansion and success. For one, a broad professional network opens the door to valuable referrals. 

Collaborating with fellow attorneys, medical professionals, insurance agents, and other stakeholders in the legal ecosystem can lead to a steady stream of clients referred to your practice. These referrals are often prequalified and more likely to convert into clients, saving time and effort in the client acquisition process.

Moreover, networking provides opportunities for knowledge exchange and continuous learning. Engaging with peers lets you stay updated on the latest legal trends, strategies, and case law, enhancing your expertise and enabling you to offer informed advice to your clients.

Attending legal seminars, workshops, and networking events also enhances your visibility and credibility within the legal community. As you share your insights, participate in discussions, and establish yourself as a knowledgeable practitioner, your reputation grows, positioning you as a go-to authority in the field.

Ultimately, the relationships you cultivate through networking contribute to the growth of your personal injury law practice. It helps expand your client base, enrich your legal knowledge, and enhance your standing in the legal community.

5. Leverage local SEO and Google My Business 

Image by Henry Perks at Unsplash

In a field where clients often seek local legal services, optimizing your online presence for local searches can significantly enhance your practice’s visibility and attract relevant clients. Local SEO involves designing or structuring your website for local searches. 

Incorporating location-specific keywords, updating meta descriptions, and creating location-focused content increases the likelihood of appearing in search results of people looking for personal injury legal services. This ensures that your practice is easily discoverable by those seeking local representation. 

Google My Business (GMB) is a powerful tool that directly impacts local search visibility. Creating and optimizing your GMB profile allows you to showcase essential information, such as your contact details, location, opening hours, and client reviews. A well-maintained GMB profile provides convenient information to potential clients and boosts your credibility and trustworthiness.

When potential clients look for personal injury lawyers near them, a well-optimized GMB profile increases the likelihood of your practice appearing in the coveted “local pack” of search results. This prominent placement can lead to higher click-through rates, website visits, and, ultimately, an influx of potential clients reaching out to your practice.

Bonus strategy: Get involved in your community 

Establishing a meaningful presence within your local community shows that you are committed to making a positive impact and contributes to building trust and credibility among potential clients. By sponsoring and participating in local events, volunteering with community organizations, and aligning your practice with charitable initiatives, you showcase your practice’s genuine concern for the well-being of your community.

Community involvement also offers unique opportunities for face-to-face interactions. This allows you to establish personal connections and directly engage with potential clients, enabling them to see the real person behind the legal expertise. This personal touch humanizes your practice and creates a lasting impression.

Furthermore, being actively involved in your community increases brand awareness. As your name becomes familiar through your participation in events and activities, individuals are more likely to remember and recommend your practice when they or someone they know requires legal assistance.

Step Up Your Marketing for Your Personal Injury Law Practice 

Around 20 to 50 million people encounter accidents globally each year, and that’s only for road incidents. This statistic provides perspective on the possibilities of your horizon as a personal injury law expert. Not to mention, personal injury law has become a fiercely competitive profession nowadays.

In any case, implementing a diverse range of strategies can help you propel the growth of your practice, especially the six discussed above. From crafting an impressive online presence to fostering community involvement, each approach is vital in achieving prominence and putting you on the roadmap to success.

The post 5 Key Strategies To Effectively Market Your Personal Injury Law Practice appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Most people get information about companies, products, and services online, so SEO should be a crucial part of the marketing strategy of any law firm aiming to attract new clients. When potential clients want to work with a local law firm, they enter phrases like “law firm near me” on a search engine and click on the results displayed. SEO makes relevant companies appear in the search results. People hardly look past the first page of a Google search, so law firms should strive to have their website displayed on the first search result page.

Search engine optimization also ensures that a law firm’s website is displayed to the right people when they search. A Floridian seeing a law firm from Illinois during a Google search is unlikely to click on it because it is outside their locality. With local SEO, law firms can target specific keywords and phrases so people in the area will see their website and potentially become clients.

Law firms can use SEO to build their brand and establish themselves as a leader in the legal industry. Increasing their brand visibility makes them seem more credible, boosting their chances of attracting new clients. 

Firms need to optimize their website to maintain their high search ranking constantly. This is because other firms are fighting for the same spots. Law firms can perform their SEO practices themselves or work with a reputable SEO agency like dNOVO Group. Search engine optimization can be complicated and time-consuming, so firms can only handle it effectively with in-house staff with the needed expertise.

SEO agencies have teams of experts that specialize in improving a website’s ranking. Many factors determine how high a company’s website ranks, and these experts know how to approach them. Working with such agencies will save time and provide all the needed skills at a fraction of the cost of hiring SEO experts on a full-time basis. Visit this website to get started with an agency like dNOVO Group.

Working with SEO agencies with experience promoting law firms is best because they sometimes require a different approach than most other businesses. Law SEO companies understand these unique needs and can take care of them.

Endnote

Law firms need SEO if they want to rise above their competition. Taking steps like creating content around their legal services, reducing the size of images, and putting relevant keywords in the titles of the articles on their website will increase their search engine ranking. When they get more visibility, their site will get more clicks and new clients,  increasing their revenue. Law firms should constantly monitor their SEO performance to avoid falling behind their competition.

The post Why Law Firms Need SEO appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

1. Stand Out With Three Trending Technologies

There are three technological trends that lawyers can capitalize on instantly. They include:

1. Auto-Responding Functions

Attorneys don’t have the time to sit and monitor the responses they receive from online forms. However, what will make your legal practice stand out immediately is the speed at which you respond to these requests and queries. The fastest way to do this is by utilizing an auto-responder. With this at your disposal, visitors to your website will be impressed that they received a response within minutes of sending the completed form.

2. Provide Mobile Access

The numbers are there. Research conducted by Pew Internet shows that 64% of American adults own a smartphone and that little handheld device gets a lot more action than the average desktop computer these days. It means that to reach this large segment of potential clients, your website has to be accessible from mobile devices. With a mobile-friendly website, visitors can see and use your website with a smartphone or tablet without a problem.

3. Give Something Away

The internet has conditioned people to expect something for nothing. Lawyers can get in on this trend by simply offering something of value in exchange for users providing their contact information. What you give them is up to you, but you could provide a free program, attendance at a webinar, a downloadable white paper, a newsletter, a gift card to a popular online retailer, or whatever. Giving something away will gain you exposure.

2. Show Up Where Client Search

There was a time before the internet took over the world when you could find lawyers in different ways. Clients referred to phone books, an advertising medium, asked friends, neighbors, and family for suggestions. Even coworkers were considered a good source of this kind of information. We all know someone who has had contact with a lawyer at one time or other in their lives. In today’s world, Google is the go-to place and if you expect people to find you online, your website will need some tweaking. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies are what will get traffic moving towards your website. Check out this guide for some SEO tactics you can add yourself, or you can just hire an SEO service to give your website the help it needs to have Google notice it and offer it up as a search result. 

3. Consider PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising

PPC is an effective marketing tool where you only pay for the number of times the banner or link gets clicks. Typically, users only click on the ads they intend to investigate further which means traffic that funnels to your website or landing page from PPC is targeted traffic. This type of traffic often leads to conversions and that is what makes PPC so cost-effective. Leads and new clients come from PPC campaigns. However, for this to be useful for a legal practice, it has to be targeted at a demographic-specific to the needs of a particular law firm. For example, lawyers who specialize in small claims should market directly to that type of potential client rather than using a broad brush approach to attract any type of client.

4. Launch A Blog

Blogging may sound like a lot of work, but it does pay serious dividends when you execute it properly. Here’s where digital marketing with blogging will push your legal firm over the edge: it brings you in touch with locals who are likely to use your service. This happens purely from regular blogging about topics relevant to your legal practice. Oh, and by blogging in a conversational tone that makes you sound unlike a lawyer but approachable as a friend with legal know-how. When you publish regular blogs that offer solid solutions and advice, you become a local authority that visitors to your website will find to be trustworthy and legitimate. When the time comes, followers will automatically go to you when they require legal services based on the relationship you have built with them online.

5. Cross-Promote On Other Platforms

The best way to create full penetration of the internet is to use all the social media platforms you can manage effectively. These different platforms are populated by people looking for your services and may not find them any other way online if you don’t reach out and establish a presence in places other than with a website. For example, having a Google My Business Page is important. But so is having profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more. When you use these other social media channels, you can cross-promote your newest blog post, giveaway, free white paper, webinar, and so much more. These sources all work together to pull in extra traffic and introduce your services to potential clients.

Final Thoughts

Technology gives lawyers a valuable tool to reach new clients because, in today’s competitive, high-tech world, traditional means are no longer as effective as they once were. To be successful with current marketing tools, it is important to know which ones are best and how they should be used. The five marketing tips noted above will give you a good jump on your competition and bring you exposure that would not otherwise be realized without employing them. For your law firm to dominate the local market, you have to turn to technology to get the message out to potential clients in a way that gets noticed and reaches the places you’re desired demographic spends time online. By doing this, your client base will increase and your legal services will be in greater demand than before.

The post 5 Marketing Tips For Lawyers In 2022 appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

With legal services being one of the most competitive industries, as well as one of the most heavily scrutinized ones by Google, marketing can be an immensely frustrating experience. Yet with the right strategy, the right tactics, and most importantly the right mindset, it can also be the bridge between where your firm is today and where you want it to be. To help you address and embrace these challenges head on, we’d like to provide you with strategies and ideas to develop business, build a referral base, and grow your firm.

Have a Plan

Marketing will be just one of the many job descriptions that attorneys have, and could be considered a major part of modern business development. The traditional decision process for finding an attorney has changed, with more and more clients taking their research online each year. In addition to this, the tactics used by the rainmakers of old may still work for them (and their clients), but for the hungry young associate, it’s hard to take actionable advice from someone who closes most deals on the golf course and couldn’t remember his or her LinkedIn password, much less how to add useful information to their profile.

Luckily, the internet has made it easier to drive interest in your services, so long as the work that you do is effective, actionable, and time-bound. Knowing that marketing is not your only role, you need to make sure that any marketing activity brings you closer to your clients.This is why you need to have a plan to turn your marketing into business development:

1. Look at Your Current Activities: This requires an honest assessment of current and former activities, including how much time you spend on them and how many of those actually have provided you a client or referral source.
2. Set Goals: Next, draft a written marketing and business development plan for the next 12 months with achievable weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals, along with the necessary steps to achieve each.
3. Act on Your Goals with Big and Small Initiatives: Finally, set aside a fixed amount of time each day to work on marketing and business development, focusing on shifting business development from “necessary task” to “essential part of your practice.” This could be as little as twenty minutes a day spent accomplishing simple tasks like setting up a lunch meeting or coffee with a potential client, commenting on a LinkedIn post, or forwarding an article of interest to a colleague/potential referral source, or you could allot or more time spent writing an article for your local newspaper or professional blog.

Understand your Legal Consumer: Buyer Personas

In marketing, a “buyer persona” is a semi-fictional profile of your potential customer based on market research and your knowledge of your existing client base. This includes target demographic data aid consumer’s likely needs, and their goals and challenges in meeting those needs. By grouping your potential customers into these generalized personas, it makes it easier for you to tailor your messaging and communications for them, and will make it easier to remember the human element of law and differentiate yourself from other law firms.

Example

For example, an estate planning attorney could be writing for John Smith, 53, skilled union laborer, whose biggest fears include how he will be able to afford end of life expenses leave a nest egg, and prevent fighting amongst his three children over how to split up assets. While somewhat tech-savvy, he prefers face-to-face communication and sitting down to read the paper every morning before work.

Develop a multitude of these personas, and during planning, schedule business development activities around each of these.

Consider running a speaking engagement for John’s union or writing articles on “financial fears for pensioned employees” to reach this persona.

Developing a Buyer Persona with HubSpot Persona Templates

As an agency who provides HubSpot support services and has a few inbound and content marketing certified individuals, our team is well-versed in buyer personas, and recommends you look into the buyer persona templates offered by HubSpot: Buyer Persona Templates.

Establish Your Brand

With your plan in place and your target clients identified, it’s time to turn your attention inward, namely asking yourself, “how do I look?” Business development experts at law firms of all sizes know that hiring is done on a “hire the lawyer, not the firm” basis, and for solo practices especially, these clients are hiring both.

The Honest, Useful Bio

Where should you begin? Look no further than your bio. To most clients, your lawyer bio is a collection of past employment, accomplishments, schooling, and clerkships listed neatly on the about page of your website. While all of this is important, the average legal consumer is rarely versed in this year’s law school rankings and doesn’t know what a judicial clerk does. It’s likely you’ve seen this diagram, and can laugh about it because it’s true:

Important concepts to consider are as follows:

• Talk about why you got into practicing law
• Add to that by talking about why you chose your specialty
• Who you help
• Who you have helped
• How you help them.

Your potential clients are seeking a lawyer out of need, and are looking for someone who can empathetically listen to their concerns, confidently answer their questions, and who can demonstrate that they have a passion for helping people in the client’s position.

Show Some Empathy

For instance, a recent article on the Rainmaker blog profiled Otis Landerholm of Landerholm Immigration, A.P.C. and his journey toward profitability at a small firm. While much of the article focuses on the business itself, it also allowed Landerholm to share his story on how he found his way into immigration law.  It also provided the opportunity to share his expertise by telling a story about a very complex immigration case that he won for a client.

Landerholm’s interview is just one example of how firms can build their brand to demonstrate passion and expertise, display the human behind the shingle, and ultimately land more clients.

Making It All Work

Successful business leaders know that often, the best plans need to shift, pivot, or completely change in order to be successful. With this in mind, if you begin to see diminishing returns from one tactic, another must rise to take its place. Always be measuring the effectiveness of methods, testing new ways to improve your business development, and focusing on the end result: Firm growth, profitability, and the life of which you dreamed when you decided to go to law school.

If you need help bringing in new clients, we’d love to help. Read our guide to building and launching a successful law firm website, and get in contact with us to learn more.

The post Three Strategies for Law Firms Looking To Make Marketing Work in 2017 appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

To that end, following are 5 best practices for developing and managing a law firm website that is focused on lead generation: web platform, SEO, content, contact information, and social media.

1. Choose the Right Web Platform

Most law firms do not require complex functionality like e-commerce or a client portal. But all websites in 2017 should be mobile or responsive (easily viewed on a smartphone), and have a user-friendly content management system (CMS), allowing designated staff to edit the website. WordPress is the most popular platform because it addresses both these requirements, while being cost effective. Check out some of the prepackaged law firm theme options here:  https://themeforest.net/tags/lawyer.

Beside platform, make sure that your law firm website has Google Analytics code so you can measure all that traffic the results from our next topic, SEO.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Local SEO

Most website platforms have plug-ins or widgets that help the user “install” required information to achieve natural, organic or free search engine traffic, also called search engine optimization (SEO). Proper SEO determines your website rank or authority on a search engine results page (SERP). Of course, most users only click-through on the top 1-3 search positions. And because law and legal keywords are extremely competitive, these top positions can be difficult to achieve. That said, legal and all websites require the following on-page SEO:

• Page Titles (keyword rich, 60 characters)
• Meta descriptions (keyword rich, 150 characters)
• Alt or image tags (keyword rich)
• Sitemaps and XML Sitemap Submission
• Redirects/301 Redirect (www.domain.com redirect to domain.com)
• URL structure (keyword rich, dashes between words)

As mentioned, most platforms have plugins to assist with above. Otherwise, a qualified consultant can be hired. Beside the above on-page SEO, off-page “link-building” is still important. Guest blogging and directory submission are key tactics.

Local SEO, or “Local Citations” is a process of submitting your contact information to local directories, while ensuring consistency of name, address, and phone number (NAP). Which directories? Check out this blog: Local Search for Small Law Firms: 25+ Places to Get Your Firm Listed.

 3. Website Content

Did you know that attorney profiles are often the most visited pages on a firm’s website? As much as 56% of visitors to a law firm’s website will visit the attorney profiles (Above The Law). To capitalize on this interest, make sure each attorney profile has:

• Practice areas
• Professional headshot
• Unique differentiator
• Newsworthy legal issues you’ve resolved
• Experience and education

Qualifications and education are important to prospective clients, but remember it is also important that they like you! Consider adding a level of personalization to build a connection with clients.

It is important that prospective clients know what you can do for them. Have a page on your website that lists your top practice areas, which can link to individual pages for sub practice areas or further information. Consider linking to attorney profiles that specialize in each practice area to aid in the hiring process.

In addition to helping visitors find the information they need, practice area pages can provide an SEO benefit for your website. Many visitors who find your website through a search engine will be searching for practice area + location (ex: real estate law firm Chicago). Having practice area pages can help you get found in search engines.

Having a blog on your website is a great way to position you or your firm as a subject matter expert on legal issues. Beyond credibility, blogging has SEO benefits and helps prospective clients find your website on search engines. TIP: Maintain a blog frequency of 6 or more blogs per month. Here are examples of content ideas for lawyers who blog.

Recommendations from third parties are often more trusted than from the source itself. Build trust and credibility by adding client testimonials, awards and recognitions to your website. You can even embed or link to reviews on third party sites (e.g. Yelp or Google) as an additional source.

4. Contact Information

This may seem very obvious, but you’d be surprised how many websites don’t have contact information easily accessible. Here are some tips to consider:

• Add a phone number in the header of your website so it appears on every page
• As we mentioned before, many of your visitors will be on their mobile device, so consider making phone numbers on your website click-to-call links to streamline the process for mobile users
• Include a link to a contact page in your primary navigation. Your contact page should include a general inquiry form
• Include email addresses or a phone number for individual attorneys on their profile page (discussed below)

Beside contact information, create registration pages to capture prospective client information. To ensure registrations, offer useful or education information, and use a simple form with only a few required fields.

5. Social Media

If your target is business clients, LinkedIn will likely be your most important social media network. Establish a LinkedIn personal profile, Company page, and possibly a Group. Post updates to your company page and profile, and participate in relevant groups. YouTube has a lot of search authority, so write a keyword-rich description, and create a short overview video, and videos for key practice areas.

Many lawyers and potential clients use Twitter to listen in to and join conversations, share news, and build influence. Create a Twitter handle (profile) for your firm, yourself, or both; start following relevant profiles; share news with your followers; and build out your name on the site.

While you may think that Facebook is questionable for your practice, it is still important to at least create a page for your business. Facebook is one of the top ten ‘local citations,’ and will, at a minimum, improve your search authority locally. Knowing this, some consumer-facing attorneys can have success on Facebook, both by sharing news and through advertising.

There are good reasons to still use Google+ or Google My Business (which integrates with Google Maps). For more information on claiming your business on Google My Business and establishing a presence on YouTube through your Google+ Page, as well as other social media tips for lawyers, read this guide to social media optimization for lawyers.

Achieve Law Firm Website Excellence

Today law firms of all sizes can develop and manage a website optimized for search authority and lead generation. The playing field is level by incorporating the 5 best practices for developing and managing a law firm website: web platform, SEO, content, contact information, and social media.

Legal Services Link is another important piece of a establishing an effective online presence. Your Legal Services Link profile can link to your website, delivering search authority and referral traffic. You can also post an article to your Legal Services Link profile to demonstrate your expertise (see link building above).

Not a Legal Service Link member?  Simply sign up at Legal Services Link and let clients and legal assignments come to you. Easily connect and communicate directly with clients at a click of a button.

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