Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing

Let’s assume, based on the vast amount of material available on this topic, that you have a well-designed blog, Facebook page and Twitter account.  You are writing fresh content or repurposing items that are of interest to your customers. Great. But why do you only have 32 Facebook fans, mainly your office staff, family and friends?

Here’s a basic fact we overlook: It doesn’t matter how much time, money or energy you spend on creating your Social Media sites, if no one comes.

“Build it and they will come” is not true with Social Networking. Yes, some people will stumble onto your site though a Google search, but even a very well optimized Social Media site will grow slowly if you rely on SEO alone. Slow growth is not what you need, especially to receive a good return for the time and money you invested.

Here are some pretty typical suggestions on how to increase your “like” rate. If you have not done these already, these should be your top priorities!

1.       Add “Like us” and/or “Follow us” images and links on ALL of your online and printed materials.

2.       Ask questions. Don’t just post statements or articles. People want to be social and chime in with their opinion, so give them plenty of opportunities to do so.

3.       Offer a free report on your Facebook page (make it different than the one on your firm’s website). Use this to capture names and e-mail addresses to use later in e-mail marketing campaigns.

Here are some of additional suggestions to help you design and tailor your Social Networking sites to your firm’s specific audience:

1. Reintroduce yourself to your customer.

Know your customer. Get in their shoes. Ask to interview a few of your loyal clients and really try to understand what goes on in their head.  Throw all of your preconceived notions out the window and study your client like you studied for exams in Law School.

2. Now that you know your client, go where they go.

• If your customers spend a lot of time on Facebook or are tech savvy, try investing in Facebook ads to target that group of customers.
• Comment on other blogs or forums. If you handle a lot of birth defect cases, comment or submit articles to local forums or blogs used by young mothers. Always mention your first name or include your Facebook link (if allowed) at the end of a comment. All comments should add value to the discussion! You can also sponsor free classes for mothers or prepare a baby CPR kit to hand out at local events.
• Have a call to action. Every time someone likes or comments on your post, it will appear on their newsfeed, depending on their number of friends, this could be viewed by 1,000 additional people. Ask for votes, opinions, suggestions, and ask them to share stories.

3.       Add a custom landing pages. Let’s face it, almost every page on Facebook looks the same. The customization features are extremely limited, except when it comes to Fan pages.  This will cost you, but it’s worth it to create a custom landing page that customers will be directed to immediately when they click on your link. Use this custom page to offer your free report, a personal welcome video, referral programs or simply to get people to “like” your page. Once they “like” your page, they will be directed to your wall (the homepage of your Facebook fan site). You can update this area with big cases, important news and articles of interest to your audience. Use this to grab their attention and get them to stay and explore your Facebook page. Once you have them as part of your social network, they’ll visit your website, your blog and eventually your office. Your raving fans will become your raving clients!