Whether a person is a victim of medical malpractice, involved in an accident, or if a defective product causes injury or harm, personal injury lawyers can provide invaluable assistance. They represent individuals seeking compensation for physical or psychological damage caused by negligence or misconduct, making a significant difference in their lives.

However, those seeking legal services have many options. In 2023, there were approximately 93,000 to 135,000 personal injury lawyers among the 449,630 law firms in the US. This competitive landscape underscores the need for effective marketing strategies to stand out.

What is Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing?

Personal injury lawyer marketing plays a crucial role in a competitive legal landscape. It encompasses a law firm’s strategies and tactics for promoting its services to potential clients. These strategies are essential for reaching out to individuals who may have suffered injuries due to accidents, medical malpractice, or other incidents requiring legal representation.

Legal marketing campaigns often aim to attract clients and establish trust and credibility within the community. These qualities are crucial in personal injury law, where clients rely on their lawyers during challenging times.

• Raise Awareness: This involves creating visibility through various marketing channels such as advertising, branding, and online presence.
• Differentiate from Competitors: In a competitive legal landscape, personal injury law firms must differentiate themselves from competitors. Marketing strategies often highlight the firm’s unique value proposition, such as specialized expertise, personalized service, or a track record of successful case outcomes.
• Generate Leads: Attract individuals seeking legal representation, which may involve targeting specific demographics through advertising campaigns, content marketing, and referral programs.
• Converting leads into clients: This requires more than just attracting potential clients. It necessitates effective communication, relationship-building, and valuable information and resources for potential clients. This approach is crucial in convincing them to choose the firm for their legal needs.

Strategies for Personal Injury Lawyer Advertising

Regular advertising is vital for personal injury lawyers to stay top-of-mind for individuals who may require legal assistance in the future. It not only maintains brand visibility but also helps establish credibility. When someone needs a personal injury lawyer, they are more likely to consider those whose services they are already familiar with. Advertising also enables personal injury lawyers to extend their reach beyond referrals. By utilizing various advertising channels, such as TV, radio, online, and print media, lawyers can reach a broader audience and increase their chances of connecting with potential clients.

On average, legal firms invest 49% of their yearly budget on marketing. Let’s break that down. Law firms spend:

• 19% of marketing budgets on print and billboard ads
• 17% to TV advertising
• 14% to podcast/radio commercials
• 10% to other initiatives

Now, let’s dive deeper into these tactics to see their effectiveness and how a law firm should allocate its marketing and advertising budget.

Print & Billboard Ads

Billboards and print ads are law firms’ most popular marketing tactics and

can be practical tools for increasing brand visibility, reaching a local audience, and establishing credibility. However, their effectiveness may vary depending on placement, design, messaging, and integration with other marketing efforts.

It’s important to note that billboards and print ads can be practical components of a marketing strategy. Still, they are often more effective with other marketing channels discussed next.

Local Television Advertising

Local television advertising is essential for regional injury law firms. These channels typically cover news, sports, weather, entertainment, and other programming and offer a few different advertising formats to reach the local community. These include the traditional 15 to 30-second commercials, and advertisers can air these ads during programs that attract their target audience or when viewership is high.

Advertisers can sponsor-specific programs or events, like live sports, or appear on Lifestyle shows with sponsored content to offer a more in-depth look at the firm than would be possible in a 15 or 30-second spot.

These strategies help increase brand visibility and association with popular content. They can also help personal injury lawyers benefit from the halo effect, in which trust in local TV content extends to brands and helps build confidence in regional markets. Viewers often trust news sources, so when they see a lawyer’s advertisement during a news program, they may be more inclined to trust that lawyer with their case.

Streaming Television Advertising

Streaming television advertising, or Over-the-Top (OTT) or Connected TV (CTV), offers personal injury lawyers several advantages. It provides the same benefits as broadcast TV but with the added advantage of advanced targeting, extended reach, unduplicated audience, and measurable results. These benefits can significantly enhance a law firm’s marketing efforts.

• Advanced Targeting: Capture audiences that can’t be reached through broadcast alone—like cord-cutters, cord-nevers, and those who watch on gaming consoles or through streaming sticks, CTVs, or laptops. With streaming TV advertising, law firms can also narrow target audiences based on DMA or geography, from regions and states to ZIP codes, consumer trends such as interests, intenders, in-market shoppers, and more.
• Extended Reach: When added to a broadcast TV campaign, streaming lets law firms expand their reach to capture audiences that can’t be reached through broadcast alone—like cord-cutters, cord-nevers, and those who watch on gaming consoles or through streaming sticks, CTVs, or laptops.
• Unduplicated Audience: When adding a second platform to a campaign, there may be worry that an ad is being shown to the same audience, fearing burnout. On average, our friends at PREMION deliver 85% unduplicated reach – meaning only 15% of the CTV and OTT viewers also saw the ad on linear TV.
• Measurable Results: Linear and streaming TV ad campaign results are now measurable with a tool like TEGNA Attribution. This measurement tool allows our partners to measure the effectiveness of their TV and OTT campaigns by connecting viewing behaviors to engagement metrics, such as website visits, app downloads, and more.

Video Advertising

Video advertising is a vital part of an effective content marketing strategy and can be used to achieve various marketing objectives as part of a larger strategy. For example, video creation can be relatively low-cost, utilizing a phone and free video editing apps. Videos like these can also appear on several channels, including broadcast and streaming TV, as well as digital channels like YouTube, social media sites, and other websites via contextual or native advertising.

Combine the Power of Digital and TV

Combining broadcast, streaming, and digital for a cross-channel marketing campaign allows law firms to reach a wider audience, target specific demographics, increase brand awareness, adapt to consumer behavior, optimize campaign performance, maintain message consistency, and capture audience attention in today’s multi-channel media landscape.

• Maximizing Reach: By combining broadcast, streaming, and digital platforms, law firms can maximize their reach and ensure that a diverse audience and potential clients see their messaging.
• Adapting to Consumer Behavior: Today, content consumption is across various platforms and devices. With a cross-channel strategy, law firms can meet consumers where they are and adapt to changing media consumption habits.
• Capturing Audience Attention: Different platforms offer unique opportunities to capture audience attention. Broadcast TV allows for high-impact, visually engaging ads, while streaming and digital platforms provide interactive and personalized advertising experiences. Leveraging the strengths of each platform when advertising your law firm can create more engaging and memorable ad campaigns.

Why Is Injury Lawyer Advertising Important?

Legal advertising is vital in improving access to legal services, educating the public, and empowering victims. It’s also essential in achieving several marketing goals and brand KPIs, including:

Attract New Customers

By increasing brand visibility and awareness, advertising helps personal injury lawyers attract new clients seeking legal representation.

Build Brand Loyalty

Consistent advertising fosters trust and loyalty among existing clients, encouraging repeat business and referrals. This is especially important since, according to Harvard Business Review, generating a new customer can be 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.

Enhance Brand Equity

A strong brand presence and reputation can differentiate a law firm from competitors and increase its perceived value in the marketplace.

Measure Success

Advertising allows firms to track the success of their marketing efforts, enabling data-driven decision-making and optimization.

Great Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing Examples from TEGNA

TEGNA’s advertising partners have demonstrated innovative and effective marketing strategies tailored to the personal injury law sector. They leverage various advertising channels to connect with their target audience and drive business growth.

The Super Lawyer, Reginald Greene

Why it Works: The Super Lawyer, Reginald Greene, teamed with the marketing experts at TEGNA’s WXIA to create an ad that grabs attention, elicits emotion, and includes the firm’s track record of wins by showcasing client testimonials.

The Legal Lowdown

Why it Works: Legal ads aren’t limited to traditional ads. Appearing on a Lifestyle show – such as TEGNA’s First Coast Living, seen in the example below – offers the chance to collaborate with local news teams and go more in-depth to educate and bring awareness to audiences on everything a firm specializes in.

Injury Law – John Foy

Why it Works: Jon Foy is another example of a firm teaming with a local news station to help build its credibility and showcase its expertise in the local community for client acquisition.

Boost Your Injury Lawyer Advertising with TEGNA

By embracing the power of visual storytelling, legal professionals can improve awareness, establish credibility, and differentiate themselves in a competitive landscape. With the right strategies and a comprehensive approach, video marketing for lawyers can become a cornerstone of a successful legal marketing campaign.

At TEGNA, we have legal marketing experts at our 64 local TV news stations in 51 markets who can help you build a great campaign to bring in new clients and grow your business. With broadcast TV, streaming, and digital advertising options available with TEGNA, you’ll have plenty of valuable ways to stay top of mind when clients need legal advice. Contact us today to learn how we can help elevate your law firm’s marketing strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Best Advertisement for a Lawyer?

The best advertisement for a lawyer depends on various factors, including the target audience, budget, and geographic location. A combination of TV, digital, and word-of-mouth advertising often yields optimal results.

How Much do Lawyers Spend on Advertising?

On average, legal firms invest approximately 49% of their yearly budget on marketing, with allocations varying based on firm size and marketing objectives.

What Does PILMMA Stand For?

PILMMA stands for the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association, an organization dedicated to providing resources and support for personal injury lawyers to enhance their marketing and management skills.

When Did Lawyers Start Advertising on TV?

The landmark 1977 case of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona marked the beginning of lawyers’ ability to advertise their services on TV, revolutionizing legal marketing practices.