By OppGen

Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing: The Complete Guide

Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing: High Costs and Cutthroat Competition

It is no secret that in terms of marketing, personal injury law firm marketing is one of the most competitive in the United States. This poses a major challenge for attorneys who aim to stand out in a crowded space and build trust among their audience. 

After years of helping personal injury law firms scale their practices successfully and profitably, we have put together a comprehensive guide to provide attorneys with the holistic knowledge to acquire more cases while building their brands for long-term growth. 

To learn more about how our personal injury marketing program works, contact OppGen today.

 

Who is This Guide For? 

This guide serves as a blueprint for marketing for personal injury law firms of any size as well as solo practitioners who are trying to make a bigger impact in their local market. 

Secondly, it will provide deep marketing knowledge for attorneys who are unsure about their current marketing and advertising strategies. 

 

Marketing for Personal Injury: What Will This Guide Cover? 

Our guide will break down the following topics into detail and bring forth an unbiased view of their effectiveness:

1. Paid Advertising vs. SEO & Organic Brand Building

2. Building a Multi-Channel Presence

3. Paid Digital Advertising: Google Ads

4. Paid Digital Advertising: Social Media Ads

5. SEO for Personal Injury Firms

6. Content Marketing for Personal Injury Attorneys

7. Social Media Marketing for Personal Injury Firms

8. PR Strategies for Personal Injury Law Firms

9. What Should You Do Next?

 

Personal Injury Marketing Strategies: Paid Advertising vs. SEO & Organic Brand Building

Before we dive into the basics of what is needed to create an online presence, it is extremely important to understand the differences between paid digital advertising and organic brand building for personal injury law firms. 

Just to clarify, we believe that both are important in the makings of a successful digital marketing strategy. However, depending on levels of marketing investment or operational capabilities, not every law firm or solo practitioner is set up to maximize the benefit from both. Understanding the nuances of each can help prioritize goals and measure impact. 

We will use Google’s search engine as an example of helping us understand the differences between the two. Here are mobile search results for the term personal injury attorney Chicago:

Each screenshot above represents results from up to 3 thumb scrolls on a mobile device. All listings before the map are paid; they include local services ads and search text ads. The map listings are in the closest proximity to the user’s location followed by organic website listings. 

One may think that based on the amount of real estate provided to ads on this search engine results page than focusing on running ads on Google should be a priority. While there is some truth to that, not every law firm or solo practitioner can outright compete with a level of investment other firms are putting into their marketing.

We break down the comparison in this table:

If a law firm has experienced success from investing in paid ads on Google search, it makes sense to continue doing so. For a law firm that does not have a large number of resources to invest upfront, going the organic traffic route with unique, helpful content first and learning about what their audience finds useful is recommended. 

In the law industry, time is considered money, so the big question that we want to evoke an early answer to is:

Do you want to be capital-intensive toward marketing your law firm or time-intensive? 

A capital-intensive strategy would put a major focus on advertising efforts that require less attorney involvement and prioritize those over organic ones whereas a time-intensive strategy would require attorneys to help write effective content, record videos, and provide extremely helpful information on the internet to build credibility and trust. 

We are not suggesting selecting only one strategy since both are important but based on circumstances and your current standing from a digital marketing standpoint, this becomes an important determinant moving forward. 

 

Marketing for Personal Injury Lawyers is About Building a Multi-Channel Presence

 

For attorneys who are just starting to build a brand or launch their practice, the world of digital marketing can seem overwhelming. In this section, we help to break down the 4 main priority assets that can be building blocks to establish your practice online. 

1. Your Personal Injury Firm’s Website

Having a website for your personal injury law firm is a gateway into digital marketing and advertising. It is a major requirement to leverage any form of online marketing such as pay-per-click ads, social media campaigns, and getting organic traffic to your website. 

To begin, there are 3 major components that need to be executed:

 

1. Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is easy and can be bought from a variety of companies, most commonly through GoDaddy, Google Domains, etc. 

 

2. Website Content

This is by far one of the most important parts of your website build. We highly recommend ensuring that your website content meets the criteria of being:

• Unique
• Personalized to your audience and easy to understand
• Highly informative
• Credible

The content for your prospective clients is the basis of differentiating your practice from everyone else online. 

More times than not, we see attorneys use cookie-cutter content that is taken from other websites or competitors. Google’s algorithm is smart enough to pick up on the similarities and may not deem it as special enough to give it any preference when ranking for relevant search terms. 

We have had personal injury attorneys spend days writing their own content because they have the ability to best describe what they do and how they can help people get justice. Many attorneys use marketing companies to build content, and although it can get the job done, it may not always be as high quality compared to when it’s coming directly from the source. 

Even if you choose to hire a company to build content, putting your own spin on it while looking at it from your client’s perspective is extremely important. When we previously asked the question to pick between being capital-intensive versus time-intensive, this is an example of when that comes into play. 

You could spend hours writing your own content and making videos, which could meet the criteria we have mentioned in this section. That would be time-intensive. Or you could hire a marketing company to do so and pay for it, which would be capital-intensive.

Either way, it is crucial that your content is able to make your website visitors clearly understand what you do and how your personal injury law firm can help them. 

 

3. Ease of Use

Apart from having the right information on your website, ensuring that the website is easy to use is critical. A few high-level factors that fall into this category are:

• Website speed
• Mobile experience
• Website functionality and usability
• Design layout

Although these concepts may seem a bit technical on the surface, they can be understood early on when picking a design theme by yourself or when working with a marketing team to prioritize. 

 

2. Google My Business: As a Personal Injury Attorney, Reputation is Everything

Personal injury attorneys are typically focused on serving within a specific area. It is safe to assume that they have a physical location or address associated with their place of work. To be locally relevant, it is extremely important to create a Google My Business listing and add detailed information about your practice. 

This includes:

• Description of your law practice
• Complete address
• Types of cases your law firm can service
• Your service area
• Media assets, such as photos and videos 
• Links to other web properties, such as your website
• Phone number where people can directly reach you 
• Useful or relevant posts in regard to your services

One of the most important components of a Google My Business profile is reviews. If there are any clients whom you have serviced, we highly encourage getting into a habit of having them leave you a review on Google. 

This will not only help with generating more visibility but also provide context for prospects who are evaluating your services against other personal injury attorneys in the local market. 

 

3. Legal Directories

Apart from visitors who come directly to a website or find personal injury practices through a Google search, many do tend to research legal directories. Some common legal directories include:

• FindLaw
• Avvo
• Super Lawyers
• Justia

These directories have both free and paid listing models that attorneys can utilize to build profiles. 

These profiles include specific information about legal practices such as their specialization, list of attorneys, contact information, website URL, and client reviews. 

We believe that these directories are an effective way to build an online presence and generate a certain volume of referral traffic from users who are looking for personal injury attorneys in your area.

 

4. Social Media Profiles

Unlike legal directories where your profile is stagnant, social media tools allow for a more engaging way to build an online presence to market your personal injury law firm. They are free to use and can be quite impactful in reaching large organic audiences if you are providing valuable information. 

Since a victim of a personal injury case can be of any demographic, we believe that being present on the topmost utilized platforms is important. We recommend creating profiles on:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitter

Creating a profile on these platforms is easy, but the key to being recognized on them is to provide as much value as possible through education and engagement. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Post frequently regarding popular topics within the personal injury law segment
• Share client successes to build credibility
• Provide expert opinion on common personal injury cases 
• Give step-by-step guidance on what to do if an unfortunate injury occurs 

Contextualizing each piece of content for each platform will allow for better engagement and lead to a larger audience over time. 

In addition to bringing more awareness to your personal injury law firm, social media profiles provide additional backlinks to your website which also give positive signals to Google’s search ranking algorithm.

 

Paid Digital Advertising to Acquire Personal Injury Cases

We believe that running paid digital ads is one of the fastest ways to acquire cases for personal injury law firms. Given the large investment associated with competing in this space, one has to try their best to not end up with an unprofitable campaign. 

As a personal injury attorney or law firm, educating yourself about digital advertising is important to avoid losing money, regardless of whether you are running the ads yourself or have hired a marketing agency to do so. 

We have broken this section up into 2 parts:

 

Google Ads: Advertising to Potential Clients on Google Search

Being involved in a personal injury accident is an event that’s typically never planned. Due to the nature of how an injury can occur and who it impacts, one may only need to look for legal counsel after an incident. It’s not a subject that’s at the forefront of people’s minds as they go about their day. 

Moving forward with this notion of people only hire personal injury attorneys when they need to is the reason why Google search is one of the most dominant advertising channels to generate cases. When an unfortunate incident that qualifies as a personal injury case affects someone, you want to make sure that your law firm gets visibility on Google searches.  

 

Learning About Ad Formats on Google Search

Here are the main advertising formats on Google search ranked by how they show from the top of the page to the bottom:

 

 Local Services Ads 

Local services ads are one of the latest formats introduced by Google on the search engine results page. Although this format of ads is not available for each and every business type, they are readily available for personal injury attorneys.

They appear on the top of the page on both desktop and mobile devices. Based on our testing of LSAs, they are extremely effective in driving qualified phone calls at an efficient cost compared to other advertising formats. 

To qualify for Local Services Ads, you are required to go through Google’s screening process as well as a background check. Click here to learn more about how they work. If you would like to learn more about the qualification process, please reference this page.

Here are some of the benefits of starting your personal injury practice’s advertising with Local Services Ads:

• Budget-friendly as it does not require a significantly large investment
• Only pay for qualified phone calls while disputing unqualified prospects 
• The user experience does not require a fancy website

Local Services Ads use your law firm’s Google My Business page to derive the content that is shown in the ads. We highly recommend optimizing your GMB page with accurate information and client reviews before getting started with LSAs. 

If you would like to learn more about local services ads for personal injury attorneys, please reference this article. 

 

Text Ads

Text ads are the most common type of ads on Google search. They are distinguished by the ad label before the display URL. To be successful with text ads, it is imperative that your Google Ads campaigns are set up strategically to ensure that they are picking up qualified traffic in the right geography. 

Out of all the formats of ads available on Google search, we have found text ads to be the most expensive with some targeted clicks going as high as $400 for personal injury lawyer–related keywords in certain local markets within the United States. 

Here are simple steps to get you started with Google’s text ads:

• Create a Google Ads account.
• Do competitive research by typing relevant keywords in your local market. Study ads and post-click experiences to understand the landscape.
• Create a list of keywords that your prospects will most likely be searching for.
• Write compelling ad copy that can help your personal injury law firm stand out from the competition.

Although it may seem easy to execute a text ad campaign independently, we highly recommend getting an expert opinion from a Google representative or a marketing partner before investing a large sum of money towards these campaigns. 

 

How to Improve Performance From Google’s Text Ads

If Google’s text ads have already been live for your personal injury law firm, we recommend starting with a few basic optimizations to ensure a higher level of relevance and case acquisition efficiency:

• Sift through search term data to ensure that only relevant search queries are clicking your ads.
• Add unqualified search terms as negatives. 
• Take a thorough look through your advertising copy and see how it can be improved by contextualization, building credibility, and providing clear call to actions. 
• Test multiple bidding strategies such as Target CPA or Maximize Conversions to see which one can result in a higher conversion rate and ultimately a lower cost per conversion. 
• Personalize where your ads are driving traffic to your website, so the experience is more consistent with the user’s intent within the search query. For example, if a user searches car accident attorney, they should ideally be taken to a page that provides information regarding car accidents. 

If your firm has already been running text ads and you are wondering how to improve case sign-up rates and make lead generation efforts more efficient, please do not hesitate to reach out to us for a no-cost audit from our team.

 

Local Map Ads

Proximity is an important factor for users who are looking to find legal representation from a personal injury law firm locally. This is where Google’s map ad listings can be helpful in driving traffic to your firm’s Google My Business profile.

Here is an example of 2 paid map listings for the search term personal injury attorney Chicago. 

 

These placements are part of a Google text ad campaign that we mentioned previously. When a location extension is added to a search text ad campaign, your Google My Business profile has the ability to show up on the map for relevant keywords. 

Prospects who click through to your GMB profile from maps have the ability to call your practice, visit your website, or get directions to your physical location. In our years of managing paid ads campaigns for personal injury attorneys, we have noticed that map ads can be an effective complementary addition to standard search campaigns. 

 

Advertising on Social Media

As people continue to utilize social media as a source of information and spend more time consuming content, it becomes an attractive marketing channel for personal injury attorneys. 

 

Creating Awareness by Educating

In comparison to Google search, social media advertising isn’t necessarily a place where audiences have a high level of intent for seeking out legal counsel in relation to personal injury cases. 

Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok allow for effective tools to educate large groups of people at scale. That is their primary function first and a case generation channel second. 

Each social media platform represents a unique core demographic. Content for every platform has to be contextualized for resonance. However, we have found that the best overarching strategy for every social channel is to:

Provide a large amount of value upfront to your audiences before asking them for anything.

The value that a law firm can provide to audiences in this scenario comes in the form of education. Here are some examples:

• Educating people on what to do if they get injured due to the negligence of someone else. 
• Informing the community on what process to follow if they get injured in a car wreck.
• Providing details on nuances that make personal injury cases valid or invalid. 
• Spreading public service messages regarding high-frequency accident routes on local commutes.

Regardless of the channel you choose to post on, always keeping your community’s well-being in mind is ideal for building an effective ad strategy. People see right through personal injury law firms that are genuinely trying to help them make better decisions in comparison to others that are blatantly asking for their business. 

If you would like to learn how to run effective Facebook ads for your personal injury law firm, we have a detailed article you can reference. 

 

SEO for Personal Injury Law Firms

Simply put, search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process to help a website rank higher for the most relevant search terms. There are many factors that Google’s search algorithm takes into account when ranking websites organically.

In this section, we will be going over them at a high level. 

There are 4 main components we recommend focusing on when thinking of search engine optimization for your personal injury law firm:

 

1. Technical SEO

One of Google’s main priorities is to provide the best user experience possible. They do this by taking into consideration factors such as how quickly and conveniently can users find what they are looking for. When thinking of technical search engine optimizations on your website, consider the following:

• Security — How safe is your website? 
• Speed — How quickly does your website load? 
• Indexability — Can Google thoroughly index every section of your website?
• Ease of use — Can users find what they are looking for conveniently? 

This may seem complicated on the surface, but it doesn’t have to be. We use tools, such as Page Speed Insights and a mobile-friendly test, to understand the opportunities to improve a website. Feel free to run your existing website through those tools and see where improvements can be made. 

Having a technically sound website can be the basis of executing a successful search engine optimization strategy for your personal injury law firm. 

 

2. Local SEO

When a user’s search has any form of local intent, Google takes into consideration proximity indicators to provide the best search results. For example, if the search query typed into Google contains a geographical parameter such as a city or phrase like personal injury law firm near me, the results may be different compared to when the search query is less defined. 

Since personal injury law firms serve clients in their areas of service, it is important to prioritize local ranking factors in their search engine optimization process. These factors may include:

• Google My Business listing with an emphasis on reviews
• On-page content and credibility that is personalized to the local market
• Regional websites or content that may link back to your domain

 

3. On-Page SEO

When trying to rank for relevant keywords, it is fundamental to have content on your personal injury website that provides useful information about your services. This could include content on pages such as:

• Home page — an overall summary of your law firm 
• Services — types of personal injury cases your law firm handles
• Frequently asked questions for common types of case
• Detailed “About” section containing attorney profiles, awards, and achievements
• Helpful content for guiding a personal injury victim through the process of receiving justice in their case
• Simplifying legal jargon so a common person can understand the implications of their case clearly 
• Title tags and meta descriptions for every page on the website
• Interlinking of pages on the website so helpful information can be found easily
• References to credible sources of information if needed 

 

4. Off-Page SEO

Apart from the content you create to represent your law firm, Google takes into consideration how other websites across the web are representing you. 

Off-page search engine optimization for personal injury law firm websites takes into account other web properties that link back to pages on your website. This helps Google’s algorithm understand how credible your website is since other websites would be linking back to yours for important and relevant information. 

Here are some of the ways to get started with off-page optimizations:

• Creating and managing active social media profiles that link back to your website.
• Becoming a thought leader in your field by writing guest blog posts on well-reputed publications. These could link back to your website and Google’s algorithm will pick that up while indexing your website. 
• Getting featured on other blogs or articles across the web for your work in the personal injury law segment.
• Gaining recognition in the personal injury field with awards for exceptional services or winning headline-worthy cases.

Generating backlinks organically by building genuine relationships across online communities is one of the best ways to build credibility with Google. Paying for link placements on websites with low domain authority is not a recommended strategy as those backlinks are not authentic. 

We understand that search engine optimization is an ongoing process that can take months and years to fully develop. Starting with a user-friendly website structure and truly helpful content is one of the easiest ways to make progress for keyword rankings. If you’ve been executing an SEO strategy that is not helping you rank in Google, please do not hesitate to reference Google’s best practices or reach out to us for a complimentary audit. 

 

Content Marketing for Personal Injury Attorneys

Advertising in the personal injury space is competitive but worth it.

Content marketing is another unique and wildly effective marketing strategy for personal injury firms.

• Increased organic visibility for your firm––get your content ranking on Google
• Ability to educate prospects on their unique situation and legal options
• Generate leads with content tailored to specific questions a personal injury victim may have
• Build trust and credibility with potential clients through helpful blogs, articles, videos, infographics, and more
• Boost online presence and referral traffic from other websites that link back to yours

Content marketing complements SEO, social, and paid advertising to generate compounded marketing results while managing (or lowering) total costs over time.

Content marketing is among the most effective strategies for personal injury law firms to attract new clients and engage with your local audience. Here are a few ways you can use content to boost your digital marketing results.

 

1. Share Knowledge on Your Website

People looking for a personal injury lawyer often seek out general advice and answers to their frequently asked questions about their potential personal injury claim or case.

Use FAQs you get from your clients and leads to create a variety of multimedia content you can share on your website — blogs, articles, videos, and infographics.

Using FAQs to create content is a natural way to incorporate commonly searched keywords your prospective local clients are using to search for a personal injury attorney on Google.

This can help you:

• Get your website content and blog ranking
• Get more local market visibility on search engines
• Build trust with your audience
• Drive more qualified search traffic and leads to your firm’s website

Try to create and publish a new blog once per week, or at least two times per month.

 

2. Focus on Local Content

Creating locally focused content is a great way to boost your local search engine presence, and stand out from firms in your area. Write blogs about local events or discreetly promote cases and case successes you’ve handled in your area.

Since injury laws differ from state to state, create content that explicitly addresses the differences, challenges, and opportunities in your state.

 

3. Use Video Marketing

Video is the most engaging, memorable, rampantly consumed, and virally shared online media.

For personal injury firms, videos offer an unprecedented way:

To give potential clients a virtual handshake

• Introduce yourself and the firm
• Showcase your expertise
• Build trust with your viewers
• Generate more, quality leads

Creating videos that explain complex legal concepts in simple terms is a great way to reach more people in your area, and engage with them in a meaningful, memorable way.

Videos are powerful content assets you create once, that can create a lifetime of value, traffic, leads, and potential clients for your PI Firm.

An easy way to get started with video content is to get some inexpensive lighting and a smartphone tripod from Amazon. Shoot a video once per week, using your blog post as an outline for topics to discuss.

Did you know that including a video on your homepage, practice area page, or a landing page can boost conversion rates by up to 80%? – TechSmith

Add that video to the top of the corresponding blog post, on your website. This is a great way to educate your audience, build trust with potential clients, and motivate them to call your firm.

 

4. Utilize Infographics

Infographics are a powerful tool for communicating complex information in an easily digestible format. Your firm can use infographics to explain complex aspects of the personal injury claims or case process, provide resources for personal injury victims, and more.

 

5. Share Your Content on Social Media

Sharing your content on social media is ideal for building your audience on other valuable platforms. Your target audience spends hours of their week browsing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. 

Continue reading to learn more about how you can use social media to grow your business…

 

Social Media Marketing for Personal Injury Firms

Social media marketing is a powerful tool across all legal marketing.

What’s unique about social media is that firms can leverage it to grow visibility on social networks, while actively building relationships with potential clients. 

If you’re investing in content marketing, why wouldn’t you share that content on social media?

Like other marketing channels, social media marketing supports and enhances other marketing efforts by:

• Growing your brand and visibility on platforms your target audience spends hours of their days
• Giving your content marketing assets more visibility on social media
• Driving more traffic to your website from Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

 

Social Media Marketing Ideas for Personal Injury

• Promote your content marketing assets on your social media channels––blogs, infographics, photos, videos, etc. 
• Create and post original content that aligns with your firm’s mission, values, and specialties
• Use targeted hashtags to categorize posts and maximize traffic
• Engage with clients and prospects on social media by responding promptly to comments or messages
• Analyze analytics from each of your channels regularly in order to measure which content and posts are performing best
• Use a social media management software like HootSuite to streamline your social media management, and automate your social posting

 

PR Strategies for Personal Injury Law Firms

 

Building public relations within your community can be a tremendous help in securing a higher level of visibility for your law firm. In the numerous audits we have conducted for personal injury attorneys, we have noticed that there are major opportunities to establish a thoughtful public relations strategy. 

Here are a few simple steps to get you started with a PR strategy:

 

Attorney Referrals for Personal Injury Cases

Due to the technicalities within legal cases, many times people aren’t able to determine what type of legal specialist they need help from for their case. This can lead to a prospect reaching out to an attorney who does not support the type of case they have. 

Building mutually beneficial relationships with attorneys outside of your immediate specialty pays dividends when a situation like that occurs. This can be done by reaching out directly to law firms in your region and setting competitive terms to co-counsel or share a percentage of a settlement with them. 

 

Marketing Ideas: Partner with Local News Outlets

Local news outlets are typically among some of the first on the scene when a newsworthy accident occurs. News channels want to ensure that their coverage of any such incident is accurate and expert opinions are provided to their viewers or readers. 

If incidents that cause injuries, such as car wrecks or construction accidents, take place, a personal injury law firm can help provide expert analysis on what steps the victims can take next to ensure that they receive justice. This type of public relations strategy may give your personal injury law firm a great deal of visibility in your local market and it can cement your firm as a credible source of information in the region. 

Reaching out to as many news outlets as possible and forging a relationship with them is highly beneficial. This can also lead to backlinks if your law firm’s comments are featured on their website.

 

Make an Impact Within the Community

While thinking of creating more awareness for your personal injury law firm, it is highly recommended to be present in helping your local community with their struggles. This creates a feeling of trust and goodwill that can go a long in them considering your law firm if they get into a situation where they could use legal representation. Here are a few ideas on how to get started:

• Help out at the local food bank
• Be part of cleaning drives
• Offer complimentary legal advice to people from underprivileged areas
• Contributing to or fundraising for a local charity 

Although some of these public relations strategies may seem like unconventional marketing, they can make your personal injury law firm stand out from the competition. 

 

What Should You Do Next?

We hope that this marketing guide was helpful. If you have been practicing personal injury law for a few years and are trying to generate more cases, you can use this guide to help establish a bigger footprint in your market. 

If you are starting out as a personal injury attorney and are seeking a partner to help build a marketing roadmap, we can provide a strategy session at no cost to you. 

If there are any questions about the content we have covered in this guide, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. 

By OppGen

30+ Personal Injury Blog Topics That Will Help Future Clients

One of the greatest assets a lawyer in any area of practice can provide is legal advice. This advice helps current clients make decisions that will aid their case and, ideally, get them their desired outcome. Similarly, that advice can be used to help future clients, too, and creating a blog content to share this knowledge with the public can go a long way in doing that.

With personal injury law, there are so many topics that can be of great use to clients and your community. Should you ever run out of ideas for personal injury blog post topics, here are more than 30 to get you started.

Considering there are various subcategories of PI, you as a personal injury attorney can use some of these personal injury blog topics more than once, using a topic for each area your practice covers.

If you don’t have the time to write personal injury blogs for your law firm’s site, we recommend contacting our SEO team, which has an in-house team of content writers.  

 

The Value of Keeping a Personal Injury Law Blog

Maintaining a blog on any website is important. Maintaining a legal blog on your law firm’s website is invaluable. 

Maintaining a legal blog and regularly posting helpful, new content can help you: 

• Rank on Google to get more organic search visibility in your local market
• Drive more, qualified traffic to your website
• Build trust and credibility with your target audience
• Drive new clients to call and contact your firm

Taking the time to write and promote blogs that educate and inform potential clients shows them you’ve got your audience’s best interests at heart. 

What Goes into Good Personal Injury Law Firm Blog Post Ideas?

So what goes into creating helpful, high-quality, performance law firm content?

• Using your blog to explain or distill complex or confusing legal topics.
• Addressing specific client questions and how to navigate or work through them.
• Showing how an attorney (your firm) can help in their situation, claim, or case.
• Providing actionable content that helps potential clients take the first steps in getting help.
• Showcasing the unique value of your personal injury law firm’s values, commitment, and services. 
• Publishing fresh content regularly shows that your firm is engaged and active in the community and online. 
• Creating a strong call to action to contact your firm: “Contact us today,” “free case evaluation,” etc. so your visitors know exactly what to do.

If you can check most of these boxes, your legal blog content can help your firm’s website get more traffic, and turn more of that traffic into calls, contact form submissions, chat submissions, leads, and new clients for your firm. 

 

1. Car Accidents, Workers’ Comp, Medical Malpractice, and More

Personal injury law firms can cover a lot of different subcategories in this practice area: car accidents, motorcycle accidents, workers’ compensation, dog bites and attacks, truck accidents, and more.

Create a blog post for each of these subcategories and explain what goes into each case, what standards clients must meet in order to have a personal injury lawsuit or claim, and any other pertinent information.

 

2. Personal Injury Lawyer FAQs

When communicating with clients, take note of the most common questions they ask and use those questions to create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) blog post.

The great thing about FAQs is that they can be general or specific, so you can easily create multiple FAQs blog posts for different areas of personal injury law. For example, if you’ve worked motorcycle accident cases and workers’ comp cases, you can create an FAQ blog post for each of these personal injury law areas.

Depending on your law firm’s website host, you may even be able to categorize these posts as FAQs, making them easy for prospects and anyone who needs legal advice and/or assistance to find. WordPress-based sites allow you to create different categories and sort blogs in these categories.

 

3. Responses to Client Questions and Comments

Perhaps one of your clients asks a question that hasn’t been asked before, but it’s one that you think may help others in similar cases. Use that question to your advantage.

Depending on the nature of that client’s case, you may be able to include context around the question (i.e., going into the details of this case, naming your client with or using a pseudonym with the client’s permission in either case, explaining why you thought this question was important, etc.) before going into answering it.

In some cases, you may even notice a comment on a particular blog post or social media post. You can also write a blog post responding to these comments or answering questions, even if whoever commented isn’t a client. This is a great way to build trust with prospective clients, who see that you care enough to respond to their comments and questions.

 

4. How to File a Personal Injury Claim

To people outside of the legal profession, filing a claim, and in general, the concept of starting any type of court proceeding, is intimidating.

Help people better understand how filing a claim works and outline the process step by step for potential clients.

 

5. Overview of the Legal Process

For your clients, the personal injury process can be complex and confusing.

If you can explain and simplify the process for them, you’ll have a far greater chance of winning them over. 

If applicable, you can create overview blogs for each type of case you handle. 

 

6. The Personal Injury Litigation Process

Discussing the litigation process and what clients can expect can ease some anxiety, too.

If you also explain what your firm does during this process, prospects are more likely to trust you and reach out to you for help with their case.

 

7. Court Terminology 101

Even though terms like defense, prosecution, and attorney are crystal clear to you, they may not be to prospective clients.

Creating a blog post that explains basic terminology in a way that is understandable to most people can help them make better sense of what goes on in a courtroom. This information may even help them feel more confident about contacting your personal injury law firm.

 

8. Appeals Process for Injury Victims

Not everyone is aware that there is an appeals process, let alone how to start that process. Discussing the appeals process in a blog post can also help people determine whether or not filing an appeal is truly worth the effort.

 

9. Burden of Proof

The burden of proof is not a simple concept to those outside of the legal profession. This personal injury blog topic can be of great use to clients and prospects alike, helping them understand what burden of proof is, what goes into it for each subcategory of personal injury law.

 

10. How to Gather Evidence

The evidence needed varies from case type to case type, so this is a personal injury blog topic that can easily be used for several different areas.

You can explain how clients can gather evidence in a way that is safe and legal. You can also discuss how your firm gathers evidence for each of these case types, giving prospects more insight into your process. Doing so creates transparency and trust, and makes it more likely for prospects to reach out to you for help.

 

11. Types of Damages

Different types of personal injury claims and lawsuits sometimes have different types of damages. Breaking down each type of damage for each type of claim and other information is useful and can also help prospective clients decide whether or not filing a claim is worth their time, especially when taking things like damage caps into consideration.

 

12. When to Settle

Sometimes settling outside of court is the best option for your client’s case.

But how exactly do you know when you should settle and when you shouldn’t?

How should your client gauge this?

Writing a blog post that explains your process of determining when or when not to agree to a settlement helps not only prospects understand your thought process but also decide whether or not they should settle.

 

13. When Small Claims Court is the Best Option

Some cases are best resolved in small claims court. Explain to readers, particularly local ones, what constitutes a small claims case, what the maximum amount they can receive, and what they can do when representing themselves in such a case.

 

14. Who or What Can Be Held Responsible in Personal Injury Cases

In some cases, it’s not always clear who should be held responsible in personal injury cases.

In a blog post, give some examples of when there may be confusion over who or what should be sued or sent a claim.

Don’t stop there, though — give readers a why, explaining why a company should be held responsible instead of a single person. This is also a great place to drop a call to action telling prospects to contact your personal injury law firm to help them determine whom they should be filing a claim against.

 

15. Resources for Injured Clients

This is probably going to be one of the most useful personal injury law blog topics. Not every injured client is going to have the resources to get the care they need, which is why it’s a great idea to create a list of resources for injured clients. This could be anything from affordable healthcare resources to local places to apply for extra financial assistance.

A blog post like this shows you’re willing to go above and beyond for your clients, and that you genuinely care for them and want the best for them in just about every aspect of your life.

 

16. How to Deal with Insurance Companies

In the case of motor accidents, insurance companies play a pretty important role in determining all sorts of things, with the most important of these things being how much money your client should receive from their insurance company.

Insurance companies can be a pain to navigate, so giving people a guide for how to get what they deserve can be incredibly insightful.

This doesn’t have to stop at car insurance, either — you could even put together a guide for navigating medical insurance and its various terminology. 

 

17. Waivers and Contracts

In the event a client has signed a waiver or is under contract, they may believe they cannot file a claim against the entity they signed the waiver or contract for, and so they won’t attempt to file a claim.

But there may be cases in which they may still be able to file a claim or lawsuit even though they signed a waiver or contract. In a blog post, explain the reason(s) why they still could file a suit or claim and give some examples of when and when that isn’t an option.

Don’t forget that call to action, either: remind them to contact your law firm if they aren’t sure, even with the information you shared on this blog.

 

18. Safety Tips

Safety tips make for great evergreen content—timeless content that is always relevant and of interest to readers—and can help prevent future accidents, to some extent. 

 

19. Local Statistics About Accidents and Injuries

Just about every year, your state or local government should put out statistics and numbers covering the number of accidents and injuries reported in certain situations, particularly motor accidents.

This can make for an excellent annual blog post that compares the most recent statistics to last year’s or years prior. In some cases, you may be able to explain why there may be more or fewer accidents. 

Here’s an example. Let’s say the most recent report said there was an increase in motor accidents. Earlier that year, the state’s maximum speed limit was raised from 60 to 70 mph at the start of the year. This could explain why there were more accidents compared to the most recent report.

It’s important to stay up to date with any changes in local and state law for this reason and several others.

 

20. Coverage of Local Accidents and Injuries

It’s always a good idea to keep an ear and eye out for local news about local accidents, injuries caused by negligence and/or carelessness, or mass tort suits.

You can discuss these incidents while also offering legal insights and advice on what you think the people in these situations should do.

 

21. Changes in the Law That are Relevant to Personal Injury Law

If there’s ever a change in the law that could be relevant to personal injury law, write about it and share your thoughts on it. If the damage cap was lowered for certain types of cases, you could discuss the case and the reasoning behind that happening and whether or not you think it’s a good idea and why.

 

22. Your Thoughts on Verdicts and Decisions Made in Your Community

If there’s a local case that’s been talked about a lot or has gotten a lot of coverage, you can certainly write a blog post about your thoughts on the case, its progress, and if there’s been a verdict or decision, discuss whether or not you thought it was the right decision.

Share what you think should have been the outcome. If you had to decide the sentence, what would you go with and why?

 

23. Thoughts on National or International Verdicts

You can apply the same concepts and ideas as mentioned in the above blog topic to cases outside of your community.

 

24. Construction that Affects Community Roads and Local Commutes

Road construction is an annoying but necessary part of keeping the streets, highways, and interstates up to date and safe.

Not everyone is aware of ongoing construction—at least, not until they have to find a different route because they can’t take their usual commute—so if you’re able to, take notice of construction and write a post about it.

You may even be able to interview a worker or the company that’s doing the construction work to get a better idea of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. If not, you may be able to find a press release from the company that has that information, which often includes a date or timeframe of when construction will be completed.

 

25. Consumer Alerts, Warnings, and Product Recalls

It’s important to ensure that the public is aware of product safety recalls, whether it’s for toys, clothes, medications, medical treatments, or just about anything else. Blogging about these recalls and other types of consumer alerts, as well as any mass tort or class action lawsuits, can inform people who may be out of the loop and help them join a mass tort or class action lawsuit if they’ve been affected by a recalled or dangerous product.

 

26. Testimonials, Reviews, and Interviews from Former Clients

There’s no better way to instill trust in prospective clients than utilizing recommendations and reviews from former clients. One of the best ways to do this is to share a testimonial or review, or better yet, sit down and interview former clients about their case, how they were doing before the case, and how they’re doing now.

Don’t forget to ask them about their thoughts on how your firm handled their case and any other details that may be useful for promoting your personal injury law firm.

Creating a simple Q&A format makes it easy to read, and if possible, consider recording (either audio or video) the interview itself and uploading it as part of the blog post.

It’s good to have multiple types of content on a blog post, and interviews are a great way to include these different mediums.

 

27. Discussing Current Case Progress and Updates

This personal injury blog topic may not be an option depending on the case and other factors, but in the instance(s) in which you are able to discuss on-going cases, you might consider writing blog posts updating your case’s progress.

You may be able to do something similar with closed cases, too, in which you share notes you took and take readers step by step through the case’s progress. 

 

28. Your Law Firm’s Case Results

Sharing case results (particularly recent results) can inform prospects about what your firm can do for them. It also shows that you’re actively pursuing cases and closing them.

 

29. Address Different Injury Types and Specific Injuries

There’s immense value in creating blogs that explain specific topics in PI, and explain how nuances in a situation may affect your potential clients’ cases or claims. 

 

30. Additional Information on Your Free Consultation

We all know that a free consultation is a major selling point for PI firms. They get more leads in the door and give your firm the opportunity to qualify them as questionable or promising. You may already have a contact page with “free consultation” written right on it, but it’d also be easy to write a blog explaining the consultation process, why you offer it, how you structure your fees, etc.  

 

How to Get More Content Ideas for Personal Injury Blog Topics

Just to recap some of these great blog ideas: 

• Practice area-specific content
• Personal injury legal terminology 101
• Breaking news (national or local)
• Trending topics in PI (national or local)
• Product recalls that could affect or have caused injuries, health problems, etc.
• Legal questions and FAQ content
  Immediate steps to take after you’ve been injured
• Overview of your legal strategy or goal (general or in specific legal and/or injury circumstances)

“That’s great! But how can I create an ongoing list of personal injury blog post ideas?”

What’s great about PI is you’re at no shortage of personal injury topics and content that can be helpful to potential clients. 

In fact, you can create your own ultimate list of personal injury blog topics easily, with the right help and guidance.

There are plenty of free and inexpensive online tools your firm can use to mine for blog topics online. 

• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Trends
• Google Autocomplete
• Uber Suggest
• KWFinder
• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
• Longtail Pro
• Moz Keyword Explorer
• SpyFu

Let Our Content Marketing and SEO Experts Handle Blogging for Your Firm 

There are so many avenues to explore in the world of personal law blog topics, and this blog post is meant to give you a good starting point.

For more blog topic ideas and legal marketing tips, contact OppGen today.

By OppGen

Social Media Marketing for Attorneys

Law firms struggle to find the right social media marketing strategy to help them expand their reach online and hit their business goals. 

With so many social platforms and so little time, it can be tough to know where to start. To further complicate things, social media marketing is a rapidly evolving digital landscape, and it takes time to grow.

At OppGen, we understand that social media marketing needs to be an integral part of every law firm’s marketing strategy.

Continue reading to learn how to engage your target audience, build your social presence, grow your firm’s business, and how to put your strategic social media marketing campaign on autopilot…

 

Why Should Lawyers Embrace Social Media Marketing?

• Over 4.62 billion people across the world use social media (HootSuite)
• 81% of lawyers have a presence on at least 1 social media platform (ABA)
• 85% of lawyers say social is part of their overall marketing strategy (Attorney at Work)
• 71% of lawyers feel that social media is very responsible for bringing in new clients (Attorney at Work)
• LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform among attorneys (ABA)
• *Stats on how social media impacts consumer behavior and conversions.
• Consumers are 71% more likely to purchase products or services based on social media referrals (Search Engine Watch)

 

So Many Channels, So Little Time

With so many social channels, how do you choose? Take the following considerations into account when choosing which social channels are best for your law firm:

 

Find Where Your Target Audience is At

You need to meet your target audience where they are at. Do some research on what social media platforms your audience spends most of their time on.  

Focus on posting content, engaging, and building your visibility on those platforms. 

Need assistance deciding on the social platforms you should incorporate into your digital strategy? Contact our marketing team at OppGen today to learn more. 

 

Check Out Your Competitors’ Social Media Accounts

Another good way to decide which social media channels to choose is to see where competing law firms are most active. 

Look at their account for ideas on what to post. Pay close attention to which of their posts with the most likes, comments, and shares. 

Ask yourself, “Why are potential clients engaging with this post?”

It also may be a good idea to check out some of the profiles of commenters and followers. Some social media accounts buy fake followers. If you find that more than a few of your competitors’ followers have questionable profiles (i.e., not located in the same area where the law firm is, vague or made-up information), that may be a red flag that they’re short-cutting and short-changing their social media strategy. 

Also, take note of how many total followers they have vs. how much engagement their posts are getting. If you see that a competitor has a ton of followers and very little engagement, there’s a good chance that those followers could either be bought (through social ads) or fake accounts. 

Social media marketing experts say a good engagement rate is between 1% to 5% of a page or business’s total followers. 

 

Consider the Goals of Your Law Firm Marketing Strategy

Ask yourself, “What am I trying to achieve with my social marketing strategy?” 

Your answer can help inform which platforms are better suited for your law firm’s needs. Some platforms are better at building awareness than they are at converting leads.

If you need help with building your brand and visibility on social media, contact our marketing team at OppGen to learn more about the power of social media advertising. 

 

Review Your Available Resources

Some social media platforms, such as YouTube, require familiarity with and access to video editing software. If you do not have the knowledge or experience to create quality content and upload them to those platforms, then you may want to consider outsourcing to a company that does or learning the basics. Our video marketing for lawyers guide is a good place to get started.

If your law firm’s budget doesn’t have room for outsourcing, then reconsider if those platforms are worth including.

 

Drop Platforms That Aren’t Working

Don’t waste your valuable time trying to make every single platform succeed. Even if it seems like your competitors have figured out the secrets of how to go viral on TikTok or Instagram, that doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for you or your law firm.

Instead, invest more resources into social media channels that are working for you.

 

What Are the Best Social Media Platforms for Lawyers?

Some of the top social media platforms for lawyers are:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Twitter
• TikTok

Social media helps your firm create helpful backlinks, which boosts your SEO credibility and can improve your website’s ranking on search engines — much like how adding your firm to relevant directories can. 

Our team has years of experience running successful social media advertising campaigns for our clients. Contact our digital advertising experts today to learn more about leveraging social media for your business. 

 

How to Create a Content Synthesis Strategy

The great news is that you don’t have to create one unique piece of content for each channel. That can get very exhausting and time-consuming.

This is why we recommend a content synthesis (or repurposing) strategy: You take one piece of long-form content (blog or video) and turn it into multiple other pieces of mixed-media content that you can share on your website and social media.

 

Example: Synthesizing and Repurposing Content

Here’s what a content synthesis plus social media marketing strategy looks like in action:

• You write one long-form blog of 1,500-2,000 words.
• You take 3 main topics from that large blog and write three smaller blogs (400-600 words) that go into deeper detail about each of those main topics.
• You write a script and create a video for the long-form blog (4-8 minutes), and each of those 3 smaller blogs (2-3 minutes) that you post to YouTube and share on social media.
• Let’s say each of those 3 smaller blogs each have 3 main discussion points. Create 9 short subtopic videos (30-60 seconds) to share on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Voila! You just created 3 additional blogs, 4 informative long videos, and 9 actionable bite-sized videos to share on social media, all from one long-form blog post.

If you’re still not sure where to start, check out our 27+ ideas for personal injury lawyers blog.

Content marketing is a critical component of social media marketing and SEO. Call our digital marketing experts at OppGen today to learn more about what our award-winning SEO and content marketing team can do for your business.  

 

Tips and Guidelines for Posting Content to Each Channel

Once again, these are guidelines to start with. The most important thing is that you find a posting schedule that you can stick to consistently. 

Below, we’ve posted some recommendations for types of posts, frequency, and optimal days and times. 

 

LinkedIn

• Post Frequency: 1 post per day
• Type and Length of Content: Articles
• Time of Day: 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays

 

Facebook

• Post Frequency: 5 posts per week
• Type and Length of Content: Video, photo, and text
• Time of Day: 1 p.m.-4 p.m. on weekdays

 

Instagram

• Post Frequency: 3-7 posts per week
• Type and Length of Content: Photos and videos with some text
• Time of Day: 6 a.m.-9 a.m., 12 p.m.-2 p.m., and 5 p.m.-6 p.m. on weekdays

 

YouTube

• Post Frequency: 1 video per week (but if you’re starting out and want to build an audience, start with 3 videos a week, then bring it down to 1 per week)
• Type and Length of Content: videos between 6 and 8 minutes long
• Time of Day: 12 p.m.-9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

 

Twitter

• Post Frequency: 3-5 tweets per day
• Type and Length of Content: 120-character tweets
• Time of Day: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on weekdays

 

TikTok

• Post Frequency: 1 TikTok per day
• Type and Length of Content: Video, 15 seconds long (can create longer videos with videos recorded on the app as 15-second segments, up to a maximum of 60 seconds)
• Time of Day: 6 a.m.-10 a.m. and 7 p.m.-11 p.m.

 

Note: Sticking to a posting schedule and frequency that’s sustainable for your firm is more important than targeting the above recommendations.

 

Can I Reshare Previously Posted Content?

Yes, and you should. Often.

Do you think 100% of your audience or target local audience will see your video, blog, or link the first time you post it? Not likely.

Also, you may have a lot of people in your audience see your post at a time it isn’t relevant to them.

“What do you mean?”

Say you’re a personal injury attorney, and you post content to Facebook and Instagram to help your audience navigate the legal process for their car accident injury. There’s a good chance a certain percentage of your audience at any given time won’t have been in a recent car accident. 

However, that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t be in the future. 

 

How to Automate Social Media Marketing for Law Firms

If you’re worried about how much time it’s going to take to keep posting and reposting content, don’t be.

There are some incredible social media tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, SproutSocial, and hundreds of other options on sites like AppSumo that can help you automate your social media marketing.

 

Step-By-Step Guide: Social Media Marketing for Law Firms

1. Invest in a Social Media Automation Platform

To make things easy to post and repost content, invest in a social media automation platform like Hootsuite, SproutSocial, and several others.

AI writing software is also a good investment. It can help you write quick, quippy little social media posts and even rewrite existing ones, so even recycled posts aren’t entirely the same.

 

2. Plan Out Your Content Strategy

By now, you should know which social channels you want to use for your marketing campaign. The type of content these channels use should inform each content piece you create.

For example, LinkedIn is a great platform to post articles because that’s the primary type of content that’s shared there.

Instagram, on the other hand, is mostly photos and videos with some text. So, your content strategy for each channel should reflect that. Have relevant content prepared for each channel as part of your content strategy.

 

3. Synthesize Your Content

Follow the example as shown in the above How to Create a Content Synthesis Strategy section.

Start by writing a single long-form blog, take 3 main ideas and/or topics from that blog, and divide those topics into smaller 400- to 600-word blogs that go more in-depth. You can then post those blogs to your social media accounts.

Find some smaller discussion points from those mini-blogs and use them to create short 30-second videos to share on TikTok and Instagram.

You can return to the original long-form blog and write a script to create videos for YouTube and share those videos to your other social media accounts, too.

One long-form blog can easily help you create 10-12 additional social content pieces.

 

4. Make a Posting Schedule You Can Stick To

Once you’ve created all of the content pieces, it’s time to use the social media automation software to schedule posts.

Some social media automation platforms and software have limits on how far you can schedule posts out or on the number of posts you can have published at once, so make sure you check back in before you reach those limits.

 

Need More Help with Your Social Media Strategy? Contact OppGen Today

Running a social media marketing campaign isn’t for everyone. OppGen Marketing can help you learn more about digital marketing options for your law firm and more. Contact us today for more information.