Personal Injury Marketing Ideas to Hack Growth in 2024

To get qualified leads, you must invest heavily in personal injury marketing and personal injury lawyer advertising, because personal injury is an extremely competitive industry. In major cities, you can’t turn off the TV for 30 mins or walk down the street without seeing an ad for a personal injury lawyer. Personal Injury lawyers can’t afford to miss any opportunity to stand out in the crowd, including on the internet.

Whether you’re a solo practitioner or one of the “big boys,” digital marketing for personal injury lawyers is no longer the wave of the future it’s the cresting swell of the present and an absolute requirement for any personal injury firm looking to compete in an ever-evolving practice area. Just like legal technology has evolved from paper-based intakes to digital client intake, archaic software to cloud-based matter management software, and Banker boxes to legal cloud storage, marketing too has gone digital.

While the list of reasons your firm should go digital could fill infinite Bankers Boxes, I won’t take up that much of your mental space. Instead, I’ve put together the ultimate guide with personal injury marketing ideas to help you run a successful digital advertising campaign, bringing qualified leads into your firm.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing, also known as internet marketing, is the process of promoting, advertising, and advocating a business and its products or services over digital media. This includes using tools that help drive website traffic, engagement, leads, revenue, and ultimately promote personal injury lawyer SEO.

Digital marketing is a very broad term that includes various marketing strategies such as content marketing, search advertising, search engine optimization, paid media, email marketing, and more

Why should you use digital marketing for personal injury lawyers?

Digital marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy for businesses that are looking to target the modern audience and generate revenue, especially personal injury law firms.

Because, as of Jan 2024, there were?27,100?monthly searches for?Car Accident Lawyers?in the US (by the way, how many of these queries did you get?). If you need a hyperlocal number, there were?1000 searches?for?“Car Accident Lawyer”?in Houston, Texas.

Let’s take a look at search interest in “personal injury lawyer” on google over 12 months.

If you, as a personal injury lawyer, want to generate leads for your practice, then you need to craft your online presence on Google and other media channels like social media, law directories, etc., so that when prospects search for a lawyer, they find you.

As far as digital is concerned, here are a few personal injury lawyers marketing ideas that you can use to generate leads for your personal injury practice.

How to Market a Personal Injury Law Firm and Generate Qualified Leads with Search Engine Advertising

Google search ads are a paid advertising platform that falls under the marketing channel known as pay-per-click (PPC).

PPC marketing involves paying for each click on an ad. It allows you to build a PPC campaign in Google search results. When running a PPC marketing campaign for a personal injury lawyer, you can select keywords relevant to your practice and trigger search ads whenever someone searches for those keywords.

For example, if you choose “Bronx car accident lawyers” as a keyword, your ads will be shown when someone types “Bronx car accident lawyers” into Google.

Here are essential aspects to consider before starting search ad campaigns:

Decide Your Targeting Before Personal Injury Lawyer Advertising

The more focused your paid search campaigns are, the more clicks you generate—leading to more leads and clients. This is why Google search ads have become increasingly popular in the legal industry.

Google allows you to build a highly targeted campaign based on your personal injury attorney marketing strategy. You can target your audience based on demographics (age, gender, etc.), geographic location (country, state, city, county, etc.), device (mobile, desktop, tablet, etc.), and various other targeting options.

For example, you might target people above the age of 25 in Houston and bid higher for those using a mobile device to search for a lawyer.

Stick to the basics initially because it's easy to get lost in the various targeting options Google offers. It's preferable to use manual targeting instead of letting Google decide for you.

Do Your Keyword Research

You should research keywords before starting search ads. The success of your campaign depends on your ability to identify keywords with relevance and intent that match what your target audience uses when searching for your business online.

Narrow down your research to find specific keywords that will drive better results. For example, "Personal injury lawyers" might attract those in research mode, while "car accident lawyers in Houston" might attract those ready to decide immediately. Google’s keyword tool is a good starting point for this research.

Budget and Bidding

First, decide the objective of your campaign to suit your overall personal injury lawyer advertising strategy. Initially, you might focus on getting more clicks and choose the "maximizing clicks" objective.

If your focus is on customer acquisition, you should opt for the "Target Cost per Acquisition" bidding strategy.

If you’re willing to spend time optimizing and want maximum control over the campaign, stick to "Manual CPC bidding." This approach requires effort and research but can drive maximum results.

So, how does this work? Someone types a query into the Google Search box. For every query, you land on a result page that starts with ads closely related to your query. Typically, there are 3 to 4 ads at the top, followed by organic results, and then a few more ads at the bottom.

Google ranks these ads based on various parameters, including keywords, ad relevance, and the amount you’re willing to pay per click. Google uses an auction mechanism to determine ad placement, with the price influenced by who is willing to pay the most for higher ranking ads. The Google keyword tool provides estimated costs per click for different categories, helping you gauge how much your competition is paying. SEMrush can also provide these insights.

The keywords related to personal injury are highly competitive and therefore have a high cost per click.

Real-Time Insights and Optimization

Once you decide on your budget, keywords, and campaign structure, it's time to measure and evaluate the performance of your campaign. Based on the objective you selected, you need to monitor KPIs such as the number of clicks, conversion rates, impressions, and click-through rates.

An important factor here is your “Quality Score.” Focus on creating and testing various ad copies for a set of keywords, then measure which ads perform better. Well-optimized ad copies with higher ad relevance will always give you the best return on investment and reduce your cost per click.

You should also monitor the “Bounce Rates,” “Time Spent,” and “Average Session Duration” on your landing page connected to the search ads. These metrics give you insights into the landing page experience and help you improve it.

Get More Personal Injury Clients with Legal Directories

It may be easy for your friends to find you on Facebook, but is it easy for a plaintiff to find you on the internet without knowing your name? Personal injury attorneys are often busy preparing cases to get their clients the settlements they deserve or looking for new cases.

There are 60,500 searches for car accident lawyers on Google every month. Based on this data, there are three things you can do to grow your lead pipeline:

1. Optimize Your Legal Website for Search Engines: SEO is time-consuming and a long-term strategy.
2. Advertise on Google Search: This CPC model targets specific keywords. However, it can cost a personal injury attorney $140 every time someone searches and clicks on the ad for the keyword “Personal Injury Lawyer near me.”
3. Leverage Personal Injury Legal Directories: Post your profile on directories that already rank for these keywords. This is free on almost all leading directories.

Someone with a huge marketing budget and patience could do all three. However, for solo attorneys and small law firms wanting steady and adequate case inquiries faster, the third option could be perfect.

If you're reading this, chances are you already have a profile on at least one personal injury legal directory or attorney referral network, as do your competitors. Remember, the more websites you are present on, the more chances you have of being visible to prospective clients. Sharing relevant information increases your chances of showing up in searches and being connected to potential clients.

To get more personal injury clients, you need to stand out from the competition in crowded legal directories and convince potential clients that you are the right fit for their case. Here's how to boost your profile on legal directories and stand out from the crowd:

Profile Picture

Invest in a high-quality, professional headshot. Upload the picture in the exact dimension a law directory recommends and name the image using your name and law firm name. Google indexes these and can show them as a result whenever someone searches your name.

Headline

Remember the three pillars of any marketing channel – attract, convince, and convert. Your headline helps you grab the attention of potential clients on these directories and is an essential part of your profile.

Instead of making the headline about yourself, make it about your potential client. Include the keyword that the plaintiff searches the most in the headline if the word limit allows. Keep it short, clear, and creative. If you struggle to come up with one, consider hiring a copywriter.

About You

This section focuses on convincing potential clients. Keep it brief and interesting, and pay attention to keywords that users are searching for. Some directories’ “About Me” sections allow you to use photos, rich media (videos, interactive maps, etc.), and links. Use these features so your audience knows who you are and what it would be like to work with you.

Include years of experience, skills, education, personal injury practice areas, credentials, and awards. Keep it relevant to your audience. Most importantly, talk about the cases you have worked on recently. You don’t have to include all the cases, just a few high-impact, high personal injury claim value cases. Update your profile with recent cases, credentials, and awards every 3-4 months to maintain a high profile search rank.

Upload Videos

Video is worth a thousand pictures; nothing is more convincing than a brand video. Invest in producing a professional video to set yourself apart from the rest. The video should tell a story, focusing on your clients rather than your law firm. Introduce potential clients to your past clients and let them talk about how you helped them get the justice they deserved and win their personal injury claim.

Client testimonials add a human element to your services and help demonstrate the effectiveness of your work.

• Include your name or your law firm’s name and practice area in the title of the video.
• Embed the video from YouTube to track views and other analytics.
• Make the thumbnail engaging
• Include ways to get in touch with you, such as your phone number, address, and email.

Reviews

The importance of reviews cannot be overemphasized. By sharing reviews, you can convert potential clients into leads. Ask your previous clients to leave a helpful review on these directories. The higher your number of reviews, the higher your chances of ranking above your competition. Ask your clients to keep their reviews short and to send you a copy before posting it online.

Accurate Ways to Reach You

Once a potential client decides to contact you, it's crucial to have accurate information so they can easily reach you. Incorrect contact information can result in lost opportunities. It’s unlikely that your potential client will look up the right information elsewhere.

Having accurate contact information helps your broader online footprint, making it easier to find you when they search online. Include contact information such as email, phone, website, and location of all your branches, including Google Maps. Provide your social media handles, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, so they can look you up, which will help establish trust.

Remain at the Top of Your Audience's Mind with Social Media Marketing

Social media impacts almost every aspect of our daily lives – work, politics, breaking news, and more. It’s used globally by companies and consumers and is one of the most effective channels to connect with your target audience. Because of its rapid adaptation in modern culture, social media marketing has become a global phenomenon and an influential part of the marketing strategy for almost every brand and business around the world.

A report from We Are Social says that there are 3.196 billion users active on social media networks, which is 42% of the global population. Moreover, the average American spends approximately 2 hours per day on social media, according to the same report citing the Global Web Index.

As a personal injury lawyer, there are many things you have to do to keep and get new business. One thing you cannot ignore is social media marketing for law firms. Whether or not you are part of the conversation, it’s critical to participate and engage in a meaningful way.

Social media today is used for various reasons: connecting with family and friends, building your network, staying up-to-date with what’s happening in the world, and researching just about anything, including holidays, new products, or personal injury lawyers. According to another Global Web Index report, 42% of people use social media for researching businesses.

Know Your Goals

It’s essential to outline what you want to accomplish with social media before investing your time in social media networks. You may want to attract more clients, build awareness about you or your firm locally, drive people to your website to learn more about your firm, or achieve all these goals. Set up social media dashboards like Hootsuite to monitor search terms, hashtags, and topics that your potential clients are talking about. For example, you may want to know when someone asks a question about an injury due to a dog bite and the claims process; you can do this by following #dogbite or #hazardousworkplace in your city.

Be Seen

Leading social media networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook work on algorithms that typically reward posts or pages based on the amount of engagement, such as likes, shares, or comments. To be seen among the clutter of posts and information, your content must be current, compelling, and engaging. Post something that gets likes and comments to reach more audiences, increasing the chances of more interaction. Then, you can see the analytics to measure the success of each post and your online presence as a whole.

Visual Content

A picture is worth a thousand words, but on social media, it is worth far more. Most social media networks have word limits, so there is only so much you can communicate via text. Images and videos can help overcome those limitations by communicating visually. Social media posts with images, videos, or GIFs tend to get more engagement than text posts. All social media networks have evolved into visual-first platforms.

Facebook encourages video posts and ads, Twitter allows users to upload multiple images, and it has stopped counting media URLs against the character limit. You don’t always need a photoshoot or a graphic designer to create high-quality photos and videos; you can use websites like Shutterstock for stock photographs, illustrations, and videos. As a personal injury lawyer, you can post images and videos educating people about steps potential claimants should take if they are in an accident, how to prevent accidents, and how the legal process works. Informative content helps them in the event of distress.

Law Firm Page

Social media networks like Facebook and LinkedIn help your law firm build awareness, share updates, and strengthen your social media marketing strategy. You can use Facebook and LinkedIn to create the type of page you want. It will allow you to prominently display key snapshots of your law firm, highlight activities and milestones, and publish results of cases you win for your clients. Create a calendar of social media posts that you want to publish at least 30 days in advance to come up with ideas well in advance instead of scrambling for posts on time.

The timeline offers more branding and lead generation options. The large cover image has plenty of real estate for your branding, images, and calls to action to get the attention of your potential clients and get them to your page. Especially on Facebook, comments made on your company page will appear on users’ timelines and be shared with their friends. “Likes” will also appear on their page, keeping your firm in their minds.

Facebook Lists

Facebook lists allow you to organize different topics, influencers, clients, and prospects you may want to follow. You can target a specific segment of your audience by delivering posts to a particular group. You can also track the analytics of each group of people to measure if a particular group is interacting less than another group.

Boost a Post

Start small, let’s say $50 for one of your popular posts, preferably one that links to an action-oriented, information-packed landing page; it could be a blog post too. When we say action-oriented, it means people should provide their email id or other contact details that can become a lead you can nurture. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn make it easy to do. After you publish a post, click the Boost Post button and follow the instructions to customize your target audience, spend, and duration. There are the following ways to choose your audience:

• People who like or follow your page
• People who like your page and their friends
• People you choose through targeting by location, age, gender, interest, and behavior. You can go pretty deep here.

Of course, targeting differs from channel to channel, but you can target the audience you think is a perfect fit.

Tools

Just like legal technology makes lives simpler for personal injury lawyers, many social media management platforms make it easy to manage your different social media accounts. Tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social let you monitor social media posts by keywords, hashtags, and more. They also help you schedule and post content on multiple social media accounts from one dashboard.

Tools like Feedly are an excellent way to categorize the content you want to keep an eye on, helping you stay on top of the trends by knowing what niche influencers are talking about.

Test and Optimize

All social media platforms give you access to analytics, showing how your posts drive engagement. They provide valuable, actionable data and show exactly what is working on every post you publish. This data includes the number of impressions, reach, engagement, clicks (if you are directing them to a blog or a landing page), and the geographic and demographic data of your audience who engage with your post. Experiment with your posts by posting at different times of the day, changing the call to action, modifying the copy, images, and more to figure out what drives the most engagement.

Best Practices for Lead Generation for Your Personal Injury Law Firm

Law school prepares attorneys to think, act, research, and write like an attorney, but once you have your law license and work at a firm, you must also take on additional roles. Marketing strategist is one such role. A proper marketing plan can propel your firm forward, fostering growth and strengthening your reputation among clients and colleagues.

It is essential to take inventory of your marketing strategies and develop new ones. Here, the Capitals Media team provides best practices for lead generation.

Capitals Media helps attorneys serve their clients and maximize their business growth by providing case management software tailored to personal injury firms’ needs.

Create a Content Strategy

As the saying goes, in marketing, “Content is king.” Content refers to materials that your firm publishes for personal injury marketing purposes. This can include a blog on your website, newsletters to clients or subscribers, practice area pages that describe your firm's services, informational videos, and social media marketing.

Creating a content strategy allows you to publish material intentionally to increase engagement and attract more clients. Rather than spending copious amounts of time and money posting anything and everything, consider your target audience and the effectiveness of your efforts.

Why Blog? The Benefits Speak for Themselves

• Traffic Magnet: Blogs draw people to your website, potentially turning them into leads. SEO optimization further boosts your visibility in search results.
• Authority Amplifier: High-quality blog content positions you as a thought leader, building trust and establishing your firm as a reliable resource.
• Client Rapport Builder: Blogs allow you to connect with potential clients on a personal level, addressing their concerns and demonstrating your expertise.
• Lead Generation Powerhouse: Informative and engaging content encourages readers to reach out for consultations, turning curious clicks into valuable leads.

Specific Blog Ideas to Ignite Your Firm’s Growth

1. Highlighting Attorney Experience:
2. Thinking Local:
3. Answering the Unspoken:
4. Google Autocomplete Magic:
5. Tech-Savvy Lawyer Persona:

Bonus Tips

• Collaborate with Other Professionals: Partner with doctors, chiropractors, or physical therapists to co-create informative blog posts.
• Run Contests and Giveaways: Host social media contests or offer free consultations to incentivize audience engagement.
• Track Your Results: Use analytics tools to track your blog’s performance and adapt your content strategy accordingly.

Use an Analytics Report and Dashboard

Utilize an analytics report and dashboard for your website, social media platforms, and law firm to understand how your efforts work together to attract and retain more quality clients. Set goals for your firm or individual team members and track those over time to see if you are progressing. Set review periods to ensure your marketing budget does not become a runaway train with no way to scale it back quickly.

Case management software providers like Capitals Media allow you to generate customizable reports through a legal practice analytics dashboard. You can view vital performance markers by case type, client, team member, and time period to ensure you see the data you need to set and meet your goals.

Learn About Your Clients

Understanding who your clients are and what they are looking for can ensure that you are meeting them where they are with the information they need. Being specific about your ideal client can help you curate a marketing campaign that speaks to them.

Using effective intake software can help you gather critical data about your clients, not just for that specific matter but to develop an overall targeted law firm marketing strategy. This data can help determine if your existing plan is on track. Case management software provider Capitals Media has a unique and intuitive Client Intake Management Software to help you gather all the information you need to run and grow your practice.

Leverage the Power of Web Forms and Chatbots

Web forms and chatbots are powerful web marketing tools. Clients often search for an attorney online and peruse multiple attorneys’ websites before reaching out to schedule a consultation.

Chatbots can engage visitors on your firm’s website, helping them feel seen and valued while increasing the chance they will contact your office. Web forms allow potential clients to engage with your firm without picking up the phone. Both methods are useful for gathering contact information about web visitors and prospective clients without requiring your staff to do anything beyond setting up the service.

Conclusion

Sustainable Personal Injury marketing depends on how many strategic lead generation sources you build. Some sources will give you brand awareness, and some will give you qualified leads.

PPC advertising can be one of your best digital marketing channels irrespective of marketing objective, but only if it is done right and optimized on a daily basis to ensure you get maximum ROI from your advertising dollars. Focusing on legal directories as well as SEO will give its due return in time.

Converting social media presence into a lead generation machine takes time and discipline. Still, by following social media practices, you will become an accomplished social media marketer in no time – the success over social media will translate into your offline business development and your law practice health as well.

Creating a content strategy, utilizing analytics reports and dashboards, and learning about clients are important personal injury law firm marketing best practices to generate leads.

Lastly, building meaningful relationships with individuals who might need your help for themselves or their loved ones is crucial.

Disclaimer: All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners. All company, product, and service names used in this document are for identification purposes only. The use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement. We disclaim proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Any views expressed in this document represent the beliefs and opinions of Capitals Media, whose analysis is based solely on publicly available information. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained herein. Capitals Media expressly disclaims any and all liability based, in whole or in part, on such information, any errors therein or omissions therefrom. Capitals Media also reserves the right to modify or change its views or conclusions at any time in the future without notice.