Ditch Old-School Advertising and Embrace Creative Strategies to Attract More Business—Like Personal Injury Lawyers Do

Ditch Old-School Advertising and Embrace Creative Strategies to Attract More Business—Like Personal Injury Lawyers Do

Every small-business owner has a lot to learn from changes in the ways that personal injury lawyers now advertise their services. There was a time when attorneys only advertised in the phone book. They networked with their peers, and they hoped for word-of-mouth referrals, but advertising by professionals was considered unseemly in those days.

Does any of this sound familiar to you as a business owner? Do you hesitate to promote yourself or your business because you don’t want to seem immodest or overbearing? If so, you can take a lesson from personal injury lawyers, whose advertising methods have undergone a dramatic shift in recent years.

These days law firms have ditched old school methods of advertising and embraced technology, sports marketing, and more.

Big and flashy billboards for personal injury lawyers seem to be increasing in number, and attorneys now purchase television spots with sports teams and even promote themselves on city benches. Nowadays, it’s hard to go anywhere without seeing an ad from at least one firm. Industry experts predict the trend is only going to grow.

The reasons have to do with the fact that the personal injury industry is growing at a rapid rate. According to a 2009 report by Statistics Canada, the personal injury industry in Canada alone is worth an estimated $19.8 billion. When you consider the fact that a single case has the ability to bring in a multi-million dollar settlement, it should come as no surprise that firms are not only willing but eager put so much of their resources into marketing efforts. The competition is fierce and new marketing tactics are emerging daily.

All of this is a big change from the past, when law firms would advertise only in the Yellow Pages. Lawyers would make sure to maintain good relations with other lawyers and medical professionals to help garner support, but advertising was kept to a minimum.

Today, though, law firms take out ads in radio and television where they speak passionately about helping those who have been hurt. They sponsor sporting and community events to keep their firms’ names before the public.

As we mentioned earlier, they embrace technology, too, They focus on developing winning websites, then they seek to increase their search engine optimization so they can compete to have one of the top spots in Google searches. They use Google Adwords to lucrative effect. In fact, law firm marketing has evolved to the point that some firms require an entire marketing department to manage their promotional efforts.

All of these innovations are made possible because of changes in the law in several countries, beginning in the late 1970s. Lawmakers argued at the time that it was against the public’s interest to deny consumers information, and the courts eventually agreed.

These days, the general guidelines for advertising by personal injury lawyers are similar to the guidelines for other businesses. That is, advertisements cannot be misleading, confusing, or deceptive and must be in the best interests of the public.

“When we started we were one of the first players,” said Jeremy Diamond, a personal injury attorney in Toronto. “We’ve learned that people see through inauthentic advertisements so we’ve always aimed to be honest about our experience and expertise.”

Even if you’re not a personal injury lawyer, you, too, can keep up with the changing times and find creative ways to promote your business both online and off. You might not have the funds for keeping up with all of the methods mentioned here, and you might not need an entire marketing department in order to effectively promote your products and services. However, you can shed your shy ways and attract more business your way by following the lead of personal injury lawyers.

And meanwhile, don’t forget that you, too, must be honest and transparent in your promotional efforts, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because by doing so, you will be building trust with your customers and clients.

source http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2017/04/30/ditch-old-school-advertising-embrace-creative-strategies-attract-business-like-personal-injury-lawyers/