Most Personal Injury Lawyers only speak to accident victims in their TV commercials. But did you know that you should be capturing the attention of other Attorneys, Doctors, as well as Insurance Adjusters at the same time?
One of the most powerful ways to differentiate yourself from other attorneys and capture the attention of your audience is through piercing messaging. Whether TV, radio, online ads — yes, even social blogging — your strategic messaging can be your strongest weapon in winning the marketing trenches. However many attorneys fall short by authoring and delivering a one-dimensional message for a one-dimensional target group.
For example, when an attorney in a TV commercial reads those hollow and homogenized words to the camera, “Have you been hurt in an accident? Then call me, Attorney John Smith….”, he is speaking to a niche audience of accident victims. However John Smith has completely missed the mark on appealing to the two other vital audience groups that reside on his radar: 1) Industry Referral Sources (Doctors and other Attorneys) and 2) Insurance Adjusters.
Doctors & Attorneys – Peer Perception is Crucial
As you most certainly well know, the intake pipeline of a Personal Injury Attorney is a constant struggle of quantity versus quality. And whereas marketing sources tend to garner more volume of inquiries and intakes, referrals from Doctors and Attorneys represent more high quality stature of cases. And yet every time John Smith goes on TV and compromises his image with a run-of-the-mill message, he is also negatively affecting the perception from his peers. It is absolutely vital for Attorneys to appeal to their potential referral sources indirectly through all of their marketing. They need to evoke a feeling of trust, authority, credibility, and protection. These key emotions are integral to an attorney’s perceived core traits because they are the same values that a referral source has in the cross-hairs when making a referral. These referrals are their patients, their clients; and Doctors and Attorneys want them to be guided and protected just like they would provide themselves – after all, at the end of the day, their name and reputation is ultimately at stake. For these reasons, Personal Injury Attorneys need to consider the secondary perceptions that they are conveying when appealing to the primary target audience of accident victims.
Insurance Adjusters – Don’t Suffer From a Hurt Reputation
It is well known within the industry that many insurance adjusters adjust their initial settlement offers not on the plaintiff’s injuries, policy limits, or degree of negligence, but rather on the name of the Plaintiff’s Attorney. (Adjusters know full well who will go to trial…versus who is just “practicing” Law.) Personal Injury Attorneys with a solid, feisty, and fighting reputation usually get the attention—and the ascension—from insurance adjusters. And this need for a robust reputation is equally as important when it comes to the marketing perception that adjusters have of their Attorney counterparts—whether in reality the Attorney has never even set foot in the courtroom.
Because of these dynamics, it is vital for Attorneys to consider the tricky target audience of Insurance Adjusters at all stages of the marketing chain. It is imperative that your messaging have a certain stinging quality. Translated this can involve using unique phrasing, pushing the linguistic boundaries, or implementing a particularly unique style of delivery. For example, with TV commercials the goal is simple: a powerful presence on cable equates to a powerful presence in the courtroom (or during a deposition). Staying disciplined to all of these elements will ensure a grounded and powerful perception that gives adjusters just cause to think twice before low-balling.
For more information on how to build your Personal Injury practice through powerful legal marketing, email me at chris@atenadvertising.com to arrange a quick, convenient meeting at your office.
