Over the last few years, digital marketing has become an integral part of running a successful personal injury law firm. What is digital marketing, you ask? Google it…just kidding. Digital marketing is basically any marketing you do over the internet (including mobile devices and apps), e.g., this blog post is digital marketing…how meta! See? It’s everywhere! That’s why, over the next few weeks, we’ll introduce you to the different components of digital marketing for personal injury firms and help you navigate them—so you can gain prospective clients, increase website traffic, lap the competition, and more. Let’s start with social media for personal injury law firms.
Unlike more nebulous ways of marketing on digital platforms (e.g., SEO), you don’t need us to explain how to use social media—after all, you’ve probably received a notification or three from Facebook since you began reading this blog. Instead, we’re here to help you use social media more effectively, because, as you can attest by viewing some of your distant relatives’ feeds, there’s significant room for error.
Here are a few ways that your personal injury firm can use social media to stand out and find new clients, just as easily as you can find cat videos on Instagram (and in the spirit of Twitter, we’ll try our best to keep our tips under 280 characters):
Create content…and lots of it
Content is the key to social media success. Without content, there’d be nothing to post. While that may sound daunting, the good news is that everything is content (tweets, photos, videos, blogs, podcasts, your high school friend’s “interesting” views on politics). The question becomes, how do you stand out among the clutter?
Your first step is determining your target audience (i.e, prospective clients) and then figuring out what they want to hear. Put yourself in their shoes—if you were seeking representation, what would you want to know? If you’re still stuck, here are some tried and true content marketing ideas:
- Share your firm’s victories, awards, community efforts, and proudest moments to instill confidence in prospects and introduce your firm’s culture
- Provide client testimonials and harness the power of word of mouth
- Put together checklists or guides that tell victims what to do in the event of an accident
- Give tours of your office or profiles on your staff to get them acquainted with your firm and display your personality
- Become a go-to source of information by sharing injury, accident, and claim statistics
- Show off your expertise by giving intro advice on various PI topics
Cater your content
Not all prospective clients are the same and neither are all social media platforms. For example, Instagram is best for photos and short videos, whereas YouTube is better for longer-form videos (e.g. instructional); and while Twitter is good for short, punchy info (e.g. stats, announcements), blog posts allow you to dive a bit deeper. Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to be on every new platform—play to your strengths and to what your prospective clients want to hear…then focus on the platforms that compliment that. Let’s say your audience wants an explainer on med mal, you could put a blog on your site, an infographic on Instagram, an interesting stat on Twitter, a link to an article on Facebook, or a tutorial on YouTube …or you could try all 5, if you’re feeling frisky!
Calendar your content
A common gripe about social media is that it takes too much time and requires too much attention—that’s #FALSE. Social media is like any other form of marketing—it allows you to plan months ahead. But, unlike more traditional forms, it gives you the flexibility to get a message to your prospects almost instantaneously. Create a content calendar and plan what you want to say ahead of time. You can use social media scheduling tools to post for you at pre-determined times and still maintain the freedom to post on a whim. Just remember not to overpost; as mentioned above, different platforms have different rules—e.g., it’s acceptable to post several times a day on Twitter, whereas frequent posting on Instagram might turn people off.
Encourage engagement with content
The big advantage of social media is in its name—the social aspect. Social media isn’t a one-way street like most marketing; it allows you to interact with your targets, so it’s important you create content that they’ll want to interact with. Make sure your content is interesting and encourages them to participate in the conversation. In addition, to your own content, seek out online conversations on Personal Injury topics and jump in. You should also be actively responding to questions, compliments, and complaints on your pages…but ignore the trolls; it’s a waste of time and energy.Something that isn’t a waste of your time or energy is checking out the rest of our site so you can learn more about how CloudLex is an all-in-one solution for all your personal injury needs (hey…we told you this blog was digital marketing!). Sign up now for a free demo so we can show you all the ways our next-gen cloud platform can help you attract new clients and grow your bottom line.
