Marketing for Personal Injury Law Firms
Marketing is an important element in sustaining a successful personal injury law practice. Personal injury lawyer marketing can be divided into three main categories: networking, online marketing and paid advertising.
Networking
Most lawyers at least realize the importance of joining local organizations and clubs to make contact with others in their community. Membership in local chambers of commerce, Lions clubs, Rotary clubs and other groups can help you build a social network of potential clients.
A business card and brochure are essential tools for social marketing and one should always remember to bring these when attending social functions.
When joining organizations, lawyers should try to participate in group projects and activities to show that they are genuinely interested in the group’s causes. Active members are more likely to generate goodwill among other members.
Online Marketing
The web is another area in which personal injury lawyers can market their services. The Internet offers the possibilities of both social networking and paid advertising.
A professional website is the first requirement for effective online marketing. The site should project an image that will inspire confidence and trust in visitors. A search engine optimization (SEO) specialist can tweak pages, so that they perform well for specific keywords. Of prime importance is attracting focused traffic to your site. If you specialize in personal injury, then you do not want visitors seeking help with business law cases. SEO experts seed web pages with appropriate keywords and also help establish a network of inbound text links that appeal to major search engine ranking algorithms.
Once your website is established, efforts should be made to promote the site both online and offline. Make sure that the site URL address is included on all business cards, brochures, forms and correspondence. Include the URL in paid advertising campaigns as well. Online social networking is similar in many ways to offline networking. Never overtly market your services when using online social network platforms as this is considered bad etiquette. Most social media networks allow members to place their business URL on profile pages, so interested friends, fans or followers will be able to click through to your site.
The other beneficial option online is to pay for ad placements. The most popular ad networks for small businesses are contextual services like Google’s AdWords and Chitika. If budgets allow, lawyers may want to hire an ad agency for such paid campaigns.
Paid advertising
Along with online paid advertising, there is always the traditional option of placing ads in print, radio or television media. Paid advertising campaigns are often best managed by a professional advertising firm, if one’s budget allows for this option.
Online marketing can be effective, for example, in reaching highly targeted potential clients, but there may be limitations in reaching people within a small geographic area.
Personal injury lawyers should also be aware of legal restrictions on marketing their services. Such laws will differ from state to state. For example, there may be a time restriction in which personal injury lawyers may not directly solicit business from potential clients. Check with the office of the attorney general for state-specific information on lawyer marketing and solicitation restrictions.