Generating qualified leads is a vital activity for mass tort practices, and it is also one of the most difficult tasks. Part of the struggle lies in the competition pool created by the superabundance of law firms. Evolving legal consumer demands have also contributed to making lead generation more competitive and more expensive.
Firms can take advantage of multiple lead generation tactics, but the best way to produce a huge number of leads is to combine tactics. Depending on the type of mass tort and the demand for leads, you may find that not all channels provide the same value. Four tactics that have proven successful for mass tort lead generation are SEO, content marketing, SEM, and digital display ads.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term that relates to increasing the quantity of website visitor traffic through valuable content to augment search engine page ranking. Website searches are intensely competitive when it comes to legal terminology. Visualize a funnel as the buyer’s journey, from a potential lead at the top to paying client at the bottom. The top of the funnel leads result from the most easily accessed, affordable, but relevant legal search terms. The search terms that attract leads at the bottom of the sales funnel are closer to their culmination of the buyer’s journey. Search terms that reach leads at that lower level are highly relevant, difficult to access, and most expensive. As an example, the most generic search term, “lawyer,” is one of Google’s more expensive keywords at $54.86. A search for the phrase “talcum powder cases” is illustrative. The goal is to have your firm appear as one of the first three search engine results. The phrase “talcum powder cases” brings up news articles and general law search sites in the top results. To increase your firm’s visibility, you need to use search terms that attract potential leads at the bottom of that sales funnel. A highly relevant, more specific search term is “Johnson & Johnson baby powder litigation” because you echo that phrase in your website content. Because more law firms compete using this search term, it will cost more money to bid on that term on Google Ads or similar search engine services. If you want to use only SEO for lead generation, consider hiring an SEO agency that specializes in vertical lead generation for the law industry. Alternatively, you can use less competitive search terms that attract leads higher in the sales funnel if you combine your search activities with inbound marketing.Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a proven way to attract more potential leads to your website. Inbound means tailoring valuable content and other items of interest specifically to your website’s visitors, suggesting the firm can solve their problems. Many potential leads are not even aware they may qualify as plaintiffs in mass tort litigation, so less competition emanates from other law firms. Inbound marketing can help potential leads see that their injuries qualify for a mass tort lawsuit. In addition, inbound marketing lends your firm credibility as an educational resource for mass tort litigation. To broadcast your content to the widest audience, you need to incorporate SEO or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).Search Engine Marketing with Retargeting
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a strategy that uses paid advertisements to make your website conspicuous in web search engine results. Historically, SEM referred to both paid and unpaid search activities. Today, SEM refers to search paid advertising. The more competition that exists for the search terms you want, the higher the price you must bid for a potential lead that clicks on your ad. That’s why using less competitive terms combined with relevant inbound marketing is a wise strategy. Adding retargeting to your SEM search redirects an individual who clicks on your ad to a landing page. The landing page stores a tracking pixel, also called a cookie, on the individual’s web browser. When that person again surfs the web, the cookie shows them ads based on the pages they visited on your website to tempt them back to your site. When you want to improve your lead conversion rate, just generating more traffic isn’t necessarily the answer. Retargeting doesn’t add new visitors. Retargeting helps you re-engage visitors after they leave your site and increases the chances you will convert them into leads.YouTube Video Pre-Rolls
Video pre-rolls are video ads that play seconds before a video that a viewer selects to play. If you’re not sure YouTube video pre-rolls are an excellent marketing concept, the following statistics may help change your mind:- As of December 13, 2017, the total number of people who watched YouTube was 1,300,000,000
- The number of YouTube visitors each day was 300 million
- YouTube reaches more viewers age 18-49 than any cable network in the U.S.
