A “marketing funnel” is an often-used term in the marketing world. It is a way to describe the stages of a prospect’s path from his first interaction with a brand to the ultimate goal, gaining the conversion.
As a personal injury attorney, this means you want to move people through your marketing funnel, changing them from prospective clients to actual clients. Understanding your prospective clients’ natural journey (the funnel) can help you acquire the clients you want.
Various stages of the personal injury attorney marketing funnel
There are four stages of the legal marketing funnel.
- To understand the funnel for your personal injury practice, you have to start at the top of the funnel (TOUF). At the top are all the people who are not yet ready to hire you. They’ve been injured in an accident but they aren’t quite ready to make a decision on who to hire. They are researching all of their options and trying to determine what their next steps should be.
- As the prospects travel down to the middle of the funnel (MOFU), they become more and more ready to make a decision to hire an attorney.
- By the time they reach the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), the prospective clients have completed their research on the personal injury attorneys they are considering and are ready to make a decision on which lawyer to contact. At this point there are fewer prospects, but they are the ones who need to hire an attorney now.
- The retention, or delight stage, is the fourth. This is where you focus on engaging past clients in order to promote your reputation and gain referrals.
When you are marketing your personal injury law practice, you need to understand what the prospects are doing at each of the above stages and determine when you can and how you want to make your presence known to them.
Top of the funnel: Provide resources and information
Because the prospective client is still in the research stage, there isn’t much you can do to directly contact them for a consultation. Instead, focus on being a reputable and helpful resource through your various marketing strategies. This can include blog posts, a website, digital advertising, social media presence, e-books, videos and reports.
All of these marketing strategies should address topics, questions and keyword phrases that prospective clients would search for online.
Middle of the Funnel: Building relationships and guiding to best decision
In this stage, prospects have done some research and are trying to decide whether they need legal representation. You can help them make this decision through various types of content. These would include webinars, free consultation, email campaigns, expert guides and white papers.
Bottom of the Funnel: Show why prospects should hire your firm
At this point, prospects have widdled down their choices as to which law firms they want to consult with and you’re on the list. Now is the time for your presence to be known loud and clear.
You need to demonstrate that you are the very best choice. You can do this through testimonials (written or videos), publicize your positive online reviews on your website and social media platforms, publish case studies that the prospects can relate to, advertise your niche, show how you are different from other firms and offer free consultations.
As you move the prospects down the funnel, you have worked on providing them with resources, guidance and offering your firm to help.
Retention and Delight: Choosing to refer
It’s very important that you keep in touch with all former clients. This will show them that you continue to care about them, after their case is settled and that you value their business. You can do this by requesting online reviews and testimonials, sending thank you cards and email newsletters, writing blog articles, and offering promotional items and referral incentives (referrals are the perfect reward for successful funnel handling).
If you have any questions about understanding your personal injury marketing funnel, give us a call at Group Matrix. We can help you with any and all aspects of your marketing campaign.
Group Matrix Blog – August 20, 2018 – by Sharon Bowles
