South Carolina Trial Law Blog

These tips come courtesy of Larry Bodine. Larry Bodine produces the Law Marketing Portal and also is the author of Larry Bodine’s Professional Marketing Blog. When I asked for some tips, Larry graciously allowed me to reprint an article he had already published on the subject. The original article Marketing a Plaintiff's Personal Injury Practice was originally published in the Law Marketing Portal on May 16, 2004.

Larry produces the Professional Marketing of North America newsletter which you can sign up for here.  Larry has been the  Editor and Publisher of the American Bar Association Journal, the National Law Journal, Lawyers Alert (which was renamed Lawyers Weekly) among other news publications. Here is Larry’s article:

Marketing a Plaintiff's Personal Injury Practice

From: Larry Bodine

What are some good tactics that a plaintiff's personal injury lawyer can use to market his services?

Clearly, he and his firm benefit by having aggressive media relations -- they know that getting on the 6 o'clock news gets them new business. But beyond that -- what works? He describes marketing for plaintiff lawyers as "you need to be there when lighting strikes." Marketing that appeals to a business client doesn't fit because he's seeking consumer clients -- people who have catastrophic injuries.

Any ideas?

From: Nancy L. Myrland

Larry writes: He describes marketing for plaintiff lawyers as "you need to be there when lighting strikes."

As you already know, as with any product or service, being at the right place when the consumer is ready to buy is the key. Therefore, further defining who the customer is for each product or service being sold, then being where that customer lives, works, travels and plays on a continuous basis is the key. Your message can go unheard by your target until that exact moment ("when lightening strikes") when it is needed most.

Given that, an ongoing, unrelenting effort to be in the marketplace at all times is important for product and service-related businesses. Do these people drive by billboards? Yes. Do they take the bus, or at least see buses? Yes. Do they read the local trader-type neighborhood papers, hoping to buy or sell merchandise? Sometimes. Do they open up the Carol Wright and other Advo-type envelopes of coupons which arrive regularly in our mailboxes? Probably. Do they watch TV? Well, what channels do they watch, what programs do they watch? Be there. Do they listen to the radio? Yes, we need to find out where and when and target. Do they go to the movie theaters and watch the trailers? Many do.

...and how could I forget?! A great, noticeable Yellow Pages ad that matches the emotion they are feeling is critical.

I think one of the best marketing tactics for a PI lawyer is an optimized, content-rich Web site in conjunction with an aggressive pay-per-click advertising campaign. It's targeted, cost-effective, lends itself well to tracking and ROI analyses, and best of all, it really works. Our clients have had great success with it.

In these kinds of cases, clients spend (or should spend) a good deal of time seeking out the best lawyer for their injury. They'll want someone with experience in the right areas of the law, a history of large verdicts, and an excellent reputation. This is more information than you can convey in a typical television advertisement or yellow pages listing.

So, with a content rich site (containing detailed information on the law and medicine involved in the case, and a listing of verdicts in similar cases), you will not only rank higher on the search engines, the breadth of your knowledge will impress the potential client. Then, you do pay per click advertising on the types of catastrophic injuries you want to handle to point these potential clients back to your Web site. It's a great strategy.

From: Stewart M. Hirsch

The PI lawyer you reference is right on--looking for other approaches. Marketing, such as good PR--getting on the 6 o'clock news, Yellow Pages and print ads, TV ads and other activities provide name recognition, will result in calls. Also they probably know that joining the state bar's lawyer referral service (if they have one) can help. Every so often a PI lawyer gets a large case from that source.

But when there's a catastrophic injury, consumers are likely to also seek guidance from one or more of their trusted advisors--lawyers, primary care physicians and alternative therapy professionals, accountants, insurance brokers, friends and relatives.

Creating a strong referral network of these advisors will help screen for the type of serious injuries the PI lawyers want to service. Other lawyers, particularly those who have a lot of interaction with clients (estate planning, small business lawyers, real estate, etc.), but don't do PI work can be terrific referral sources.

Lawyers in larger firms with strong relationships with their client contacts also could be good sources of referral. One lawyer in a large firm who responds to the internal firm memo asking "Does anybody know a good..." could be an invaluable resource.

In-house lawyers have tremendous access. When I practiced in in-house legal departments doing corporate and real estate work, I was asked more than a few times for referrals to outside attorneys for PI work for employees or their family members who were injured (and other services too)--people assumed I knew who to go to, and they didn't have anyone else to ask.

Of course, in states that permit it, there's a additional incentive for lawyers to refer PI work to other lawyers--a referral fee. Regardless of whether there's a referral fee offered or accepted, people who refer work to a PI lawyer want to be sure that the victim and his/her family is well-cared for--those referring want to do the right thing. That means that the source of referrals, whether lawyer, doctor, or others, need to know, by both reputation, and often by meeting the PI lawyer or someone in his/her firm, that the PI lawyer is the right person to help their client, relative, co-worker or friend.

So, while the PI lawyer can't always be there 'when lightning strikes', if a trusted source of referral knows the victim or his/her family is 'there', there's a higher likelihood that that the PI lawyer will be connected with the injury victim.

We have a client in North Carolina who not only is on talk radio weekly with his own show, but also has a 30-minute TV program--and they do bring on clients as guests to explain how it feels to encounter and deal with the legal system and injuries. They get cases, significant cases, from both shows.

These practices tend to be driven by referrals from other lawyers. The key is establishing relationships with business lawyers and other PI attorneys who get these cases but cannot handle them. We represent a number of these practices around the country. Videos/DVDs sent to major accident victims also work well for these practices.

Nancy has hit all of the venues that I have seen used. However, I have long thought that eventually some very bright, aggressive PI lawyer is going to spend the money to develop an infomercial where previous clients are interviewed to tell their story and how their law firm/lawyer helped them. An hour long program of this type placed in off-peak time slots (say when you cannot sleep because of the pain from your workplace injury...) would be very effective and captivating. While I am sure this idea is fraught with ethical issues, based on how far PI attorneys have pushed the envelope thus far, infomercials cannot be far behind.

From: Tim A. David

As the former CMO of Jacoby & Meyers and Finkelstein & PARTNERS, two of the biggest and most successful consumer PI law firms in the U.S., I learned that one must first succeed in ones primary media before making expenditures in alternative media. To determine the primary PI media consider a few questions and answers.

Q. First, who calls a PI lawyer from an ad in any media?

A. Someone who doesn't already know a lawyer. By definition, someone who doesn't know a lawyer is: most likely to have a very low income, has never inherited money, has never purchased a home and did not attend college. All these circumstance cause one to meet lawyers. If you know a lawyer, you will call him first, before responding to an ad--even if he's not a PI lawyer (many civilians in lower socio-economic classes don't even know what a personal injury lawyer or a plaintiff is). Also, it's highly probable that they are Hispanic, Black or recent immigrants. These are the demos--with few exceptions.

Q. What media works?

A. Accidents by their nature are random occurring events. You cannot target per se, except to be sure you are in front of the folks most likely to call a PI lawyer (as described above). In the media, always trade Reach for Frequency due to the random nature of accidents. You must reach as many individuals who are the most likely to call as you can.

Potential PI clients don't watch the stock market reports, golf or the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on TV. These folks are, for the most part, still not surfing the web. They do still watch a lot of TV. They are not big on reading. I found after studying tens of thousands of cases, that after referrals from satisfied clients (birds of a feather flock together),the lowest cost per case was TV, followed by Yellow Pages. The Web and PR were never low-cost-per-case producers. Success takes discipline and strict adherence to direct marketing and direct response basics.

Wow. Good stuff, Larry. Thanks for the article. Also, Larry wanted to share with my readers his article on Ten Steps for Marketing Online that he wrote for the Law Marketing Portal.

Sounds like what Tim is saying is that any client who is not a referral is probably not going to be a desirable client. Therefore, unless most of your client base comes from referrals then most of your clients will be undesireable.