Brand Awareness Campaigns – Personal Injury Marketing Minute #14

The Personal Injury Marketing Minute episode #14 is part 2 of a mini-series about marketing personal injury law firms. In this podcast, Lindsey shares some tips about selecting a target audience and showing them that you care.

Some of the key takeaways include identify target market, get involved in a target market’s community, show clients what you can do for them and differentiate yourself from competitors.

Listen to all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.

Transcript:

Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I’m your host Lindsey Busfield. When investing in marketing, every personal injury law firm has one big goal in mind to be the first law firm that comes to mind after someone has an injury accident. One of the best ways to accomplish this, is by creating a brand awareness campaign. You might ask, shouldn’t any marketing campaign’s goal be brand awareness? Well, that is a good question. You are probably a good lawyer because you ask such good questions. And yes, marketing is designed to make people aware of your brand. But a brand awareness campaign is designed to accomplish three specific goals. One, make your target market aware of your brand’s name. Two, bring awareness of your offerings. And three, differentiate yourself from your competitors. So let’s break this down a little bit further.

The most painful stab of the knife is when you say, “I’m a partner at XYZ Law Firm.” And the other person says, “Hmm, never heard of them.” And instead you want them to respond, “Wow, isn’t that the personal injury firm that is really popular in the motorcycle community?” Or whatever your target market is. Getting from that first response to the second one is one of the biggest challenges for growing any law firm. There are two brand awareness campaign approaches that are highly effective at doing this though. The first approach is what I call the Coca-Cola approach. Everyone knows Coke. In the South, the word Coke is anonymous with any Cola flavored soda. Even though I try not to keep it in my house, my husband has a guilty, I’m going to go get a Coke face, when he’s about to go run errands.

So how do they manage to weave themselves so seamlessly into the fabric of a consumer’s mind? Well, despite their ubiquitous presence, they continue to advertise like crazy. You see Coke commercials, billboards, magazine ads, and merchandise everywhere. Their marketing strategy is to blast the consumer with their logo and targeted messaging, thus ensuring their brand’s awareness remains consistent. However, they are not blindly throwing their $200 million advertising budget around. They are targeting a consumer market, generally teens and 20 somethings who are establishing their brand loyalty. And then they rebrand often to align with modern visual trends to further make themselves appealing to this demographic. That being said, I am not suggesting that you spend millions on advertising, but a strong advertising based brand awareness campaign does require some financial investment. In order to get in front of perspective clients, you will need to pay to get their attention.

Depending on your geographic region and target market for this particular campaign, different advertising strategies will bring different ROIs. For example, if you’re trying to reach the motorcycle community, radio ads that are generally played in cars might not be the best option. Rather, you might want to place an ad on a billboard along a road that has a high motorcycle accident rate. You might want to couple that with an ad in a local biker magazine. The bottom line is that you need to identify your target market, find out where they are looking, and be there. The second approach to a brand awareness campaign is what I call the Anheuser-Busch approach. In 2020, when the pandemic first hit Anheuser-Busch revamped and dedicated a portion of their manufacturing efforts to make more hand sanitizer.

They enhanced the goodwill of their brand by establishing their commitment to the needs of the community. While you generally can’t revamp what your law firm produces, hopefully being fantastic settlements, you can generate goodwill within the community. Again, it starts by considering your target market. If you want to attract more bicycle accident victims, go to where they are. Participate in their events, sponsor their events. Sponsor their riders. Provide free helmets for their kids, provide branded first aid kits that they can attach to their bikes, that you can get more visibility. But get involved in their community rather than trying to pull them into yours. They don’t want to be there.

The second step to a brand awareness campaign is to make your target audience aware of your offerings. How many calls do you get a day from people who really need a civil lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer, or a worker’s comp lawyer? They don’t understand what services your law firm provides. When, considering your advertising, include more information than XYZ Personal Injury Law Firm. The general public doesn’t usually understand personal injury law, unless they have been impacted by it. While I don’t recommend listing every offering you provide on every ad, use a visual that appeals to, you guessed it, your target market for the particular brand awareness campaign. Want to attract those motorcycle riders? Include a motorcycle image on your ad, or flat out say that you proudly serve the motorcycle community. Show your perspective clients what you can do for them.

Lastly, you need to do more than just exist. You need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. What sets you apart in your client’s eyes? This question goes beyond what you can do better than any other personal injury firm. What matters is what you can do better for your clients than anyone else. Clients will care that you communicate with them more regularly. They’ll care that you have someone on staff who can speak their language. They will care that you are inclusive and welcoming to people of all walks of life. They will care if you show them that you care.

This can translate into bilingual ads, or a text message helpline, or a symbol of affirmation. Think about who you’re targeting? What might be their unique biggest obstacle when they are considering calling a personal injury firm. Let them know that you understand and make accommodations to overcome. In any brand awareness campaign, it always starts with a target audience in mind, then decide how you want to get in front of them in the most cost effective way. Invest your money, invest your time. Bottom line, show you care. If you want some help getting started, or if you have questions, contact me at lindsey @ optimizemyfirm.com. I am happy to bounce ideas and help you get on the right track.