An Introduction to the Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing Process

If you're looking for personal injury attorney marketing ideas, it is important to first note that lead generation is changing quickly in our world, in particular with the advance of technology. If we have learned one thing from the coronavirus pandemic is that technology is more and more important for businesses and those who do not stay current are going to be left behind.  This will undoubtedly be a challenge for all businesses, including personal injury law firms.  But what are the current personal injury lawyer lead generation techniques and how successful are they

What are some expected personal injury online conversion statistics?

Did you know that 79% of lead generation activities never result in a sale? When it comes to personal injury attorney marketing on Google, the statistics are even worse as only 4.35% of Google Adwords campaigns result in a client conversion.  The cost to advertise on Google for the term “personal injury lawyer near me” can range from anywhere from $70 - $180 depending on where you are located in the United States.  Using a blended search term strategy, the average cost per click for personal injury law firms is $6.75 on Google and can be as low as $1.32 using Facebook Ads.

 

1. How much does it cost a personal injury law firm for marketing to acquire a personal injury client on Google? 

When it comes to online marketing for your personal injury practice, and assuming using the search terms above on Google, your law firm may be spending on marketing somewhere between $1,609 and $4,137 per injury client conversion on Google (granted that range will vary depending on the search term and advertising platform used). Not cheap in a highly competitive space.  The “pay per click” strategy also does nothing to filter the quality of leads, as you are paying an advertising fee regardless of who clicks on your link (including if they are not even a potential client!).  

This is what a lot of law firms have access to now, but very much a flawed and inefficient marketing system for personal injury law firms. Don’t worry, there is something better and Adidem is getting the word out!

 

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With that said, let’s take a look at where law firm lead generation has been (and where it is will likely continue to be in some capacity).

2. How does the current age of personal injury law firm partners impact lead generation strategies?

First, law firms are traditionally a slow adopter of technology.  After Microsoft word had been used by businesses for decades, some law firms were still using “word perfect” (who has even heard of that anymore?).  There are two primary drivers for this.  

1. Lawyers traditionally didn’t need much technology to serve their clients, just generate documents through precedents, advocate and give advice.  Nothing to it!

2. Typically, decision-makers at the firm are the most senior lawyers (senior = more years called to the bar).  That means the people making the decisions for the firm are those that had traditionally not been overly exposed to technology, may not be current with technology and did not need to rely on technology to become successful.

The result? Law firms have been traditionally slow to utilize legal technology.  Given the lack of market interest, there have traditionally been a smaller group of legal technology companies.  That is changing, and changing fast.

 

 

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller you’re part of the road”

 

So what about upcoming decision-makers?  Typically a lawyer becomes a partner after he or she has been successfully practicing for 6-10 years.  That means attorneys who graduated post-2010 have become or will become partners in their personal injury firms. Just become a partner does not mean you are immediately a decision-maker, but in very short order you will have decision-makers at law firms who have not only grown up with technology being an integral part of their lives, they have personally experienced and see the value of technology in everything thing they do.

What does this mean for personal injury technology?  The more decision-makers that are familiar and demand technology, the legal technology market will be ripe to explode.  This includes personal injury firm digital marketing strategies.

 

 

3. What is the traditional personal injury lawyer marketing plan?  How did personal injury law firms traditionally generate client leads? 

Yes, these are traditional personal injury marketing efforts, but albeit traditional, they still work.  Before the advent of SEO and social media marketing, a personal injury law firm would generate business through:

• Word of mouth.  Prepare a high level of client service and get referrals through your community.  There is no marketing replacement for high-quality personal injury legal services, 

• Community networking.  This involves lawyers getting out and meeting other industry participants, including doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists, insurance companies, etc. 

• Building a brand. A brand that has a strong reputation and staying power will ultimately drive business.  The longer your business has worked in the industry and the longer you have been successful in the community, the more work that will come to you by virtue of that reputation!

• Community advertising. Billboards, radio, TV and newspaper advertising has traditionally been used by many personal injury lawyers.  But that has changed and changed big-time.

4. Tried and Tested Online Technology Personal Injury Attorney Lead Generation Tactics

Traditional marketing approaches are difficult.

It can take years and years of practice before a personal injury attorney was able to develop a stable and successful business. Then the market began to change, and online advertising and search engine optimization (SEO). These techniques also presented new opportunities for lawyers, including opportunities to be quickly connected with new clients without the need for any of the traditional marketing techniques above.  We'll be brief, as we assume most of our audience is very familiar with each of these techniques.

• Google SEO. Build a website, and customize it for search engine optimization. Launch your website and see how it competes against others in your industry on Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo.

• Google Ads.  SEO is difficult, and Google realized there is a more profitable way for companies to appear at the top of the page.  

• Facebook Ads.  Same theme as Google.  Large audiences, and the ability to customize advertisements to the users and present your firm to potential clients.  Your only competition is the cost of marketing compared to your competitors and the strength of your advertising campaign. 

• Legal directories. A "Yellowpages" dedicated to personal injury lawyers.  Want to learn more about legal directories? Find our blog article here.

5. What trends are occurring in other industries that may show where lead generation in the legal market is going?

Ok, we've been there/done the SEO and Ad Campaigns.

To understand where the legal industry may be going, one can look to lead generation techniques in other industries.  So what is the current trend?   Online marketplaces are the current trend.  A one-stop shop where the customer doesn't need to search for the service, the service is presented to the customer. 

Technology is supposed to be convenient.  A good online marketplace is exactly that.  Take the stress away from the hiring decision, and bring the information the customer needs to make an informed decision. Let's see some other industries and assess whether these trends could demonstrate where the legal industry could be going. 

• Consumer Retail:  Look no further to how Amazon has changed the retail space by (i) creating an online marketplace, but also (ii) creating a value proposition for customers with same-day delivery and low prices.  Amazon’s retail marketplace has forever changed the way we show for everyday items.  Can there be any similarities here to the legal profession?  Is there a way to create a marketplace with two unique value propositions for both lawyers and clients?  We think so.

• Contractors:  Looking for a contractor for a repair in your home or a home renovation project?  Enter information about your project and get free estimates/quotes from the Trustedpros marketplace of trade contractors.  There are now multiple sites that provide similar services throughout the US.  Why shouldn’t the legal industry be the same way?  We agree (see below).

• Online Consultants: Fiverr has been tremendously successful bringing a community of computer programmers, video editors, website designers and other consultants from around the world.  This online marketplace gives you quotes from all types of service providers, along with reviews to help you make an informed decision with respect to who to hire for your project. 

• Real Estate:  Honestdoor is less a marketplace of professionals, but more of a site to provide you with information about your next real estate purchase or sale.  It brings all the market data available to a realtor directly to you.  Value proposition?  Helping you make a more informed decision when it comes to a real estate purchase. 

• Online Images: Looking for a designer for your online images, icons or otherwise?  Look no further than Creativemarket. Same concept as Fiverr, just for creative designers.

• Local vendors and handmade goods:  Look no further than the online marketplace created by ETSY.  The marketplace gives you access to local artisans and product providers from all over the world, all in one convenient place.

6. Where is personal injury attorney lead generation going?  How to get personal injury clients in 2021 and beyond?

To improve injury attorney lead generation, you need to provide a better service to personal injury clients. There are multiple sites that allow you to connect with a lawyer and purport to provide a marketplace of lawyers (including legal directories), but none of these sites provide information comparing lawyers or give you a comparison of other market options. 

These current sites do not provide customers with a value proposition beyond a consolidated marketplace of some legal professionals (often who are directly hired by the website). While a nice service no doubt, individuals looking for a lawyer still are missing an important value proposition to the customer.

Where is the information the customer needs to compare lawyers or to provide the customer with confidence that the person he/she is looking to hire has the experience or offers the right value to the customer?  Adidem seeks to solve this for personal injury clients.

 

 

 

7. How does Adidem help with quality lead generation for personal injury lawyers and help attorneys get personal injury clients?

Our solution is simple when it comes to quality personal injury lead generation for attorneys. Provide a unique and fantastic service to potential clients, and quality leads will follow. At Adidem, we use software to simplify the process to hire a personal injury lawyer and to provide the personal injury client with the relevant information he or she needs to help decide which is the best personal injury lawyer to hire.

This is important, as Adidem:

• can provide a client with access to the broader legal market in your city without needing to contact all those lawyers;

• allows any lawyer with an opportunity to offer their services for a claim; allows a client to obtain preliminary information with respect to his/her claim to determine which lawyer he/she may want to hire (potential time to resolve the claim, the estimated cost to hire the lawyer and the potential value of the claim); and

• makes lawyers compete for the clients' work. We also allow any lawyer to sign-up to use Adidem. No restrictions, no-sign-up fee and no exclusivity with any particular firm or lawyer. Rather than you having to look for the right lawyer, we bring the legal market to you. 

At Adidem, our value proposition to clients is to provide a marketplace of qualified legal professionals and information to help the client decide who may be the right lawyer to hire for their claim. By providing an increased value proposition to clients, Adidem turns into a fantastic lead generation platform for law firms.  Not only does Adidem provide a lead generation platform, through our online personal injury questionnaire, but Adidem has also already helped the lawyers conduct an initial consultation with respect to the claim further reducing the time and costs for lawyers to generate quality leads and personal injury clients.

 

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