It’s crucial for attorneys to recognize that the digital transformation extends beyond the confines of legal applications. Many legal professionals have made significant strides in embracing technological advancements to enhance efficiency, streamline operations, and win more cases; bringing more justice to the world than ever before. From case management to research tools, many lawyers have successfully integrated legal tech into their daily routines, revolutionizing the way legal services are delivered.
However, like the legal industry, the marketing and advertising industry has undergone a significant shift – and one that is relevant for attorneys’ to pay attention to. Finding new clients and bringing in new business – in other words, marketing – is an essential part of an attorney’s job, and critical to their success.
New business does not always come knocking on your door
As an attorney you will know that new business does not always just come knocking on your door. It does sometimes, but not always. Just think that only 10-20% of individuals who have experienced significant harm actively go out and look for legal representation. 10-20% percent. That means that 80-90%, or in other words, almost everyone who has suffered harm due to egregious violations, don’t do anything about it. It may be because they are not aware they have been harmed, it may be because they don’t know how to begin looking for legal help, or there may be a different motivation.
A prime example of this is hospitals and telehealth companies sharing private medical data about their patients with third parties such as Google and Meta. And patients have no idea this is happening.
By uncovering legal violations (with the help of Darrow), and marketing to plaintiffs to represent them in these cases, attorneys have an opportunity to find business that would otherwise remain undiscovered. But more than just business, attorneys can bring justice to those who did not even know they needed it – and hold the liable parties accountable. Without the right plaintiffs none of this could happen.
The capabilities of digital marketing
Digital marketing has not only revolutionized the marketing industry, it has actually transformed the industry. That means that it is not a “nice to have,” and those who use it will be more productive than those who don’t. It is essential for businesses who want to achieve real business goals through marketing.
The first thought that springs to mind when you think of digital marketing is the reach. The thought of how many more potential plaintiffs you can reach by advertising on the internet compared to billboards and publications. According to this Statista report on internet usage, the United States is one of the largest online markets in the world, with 307 million Americans using the internet nationwide, and 90% of Americans with access to the internet. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Targeting the right leads
In marketing, and particularly when it comes to plaintiff finding, lawyers know it’s about quality over quantity. And thus, when using digital marketing to find the right plaintiff for your case you want to run a hyper-targeted, direct response online campaign. You want to reach the right audience, and the emphasis lies in targeting specific groups through customizing parameters on digital marketing platforms, using tailored language. While this approach may yield a smaller audience, the potential for high-quality leads for potential plaintiffs, and finding the ideal plaintiff to represent your case is, in fact, substantially greater.
The key platforms for advertising to plaintiffs include Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, Bing, Google, TikTok, Taboola, and Reddit. You can choose to run marketing campaigns on just one of these platforms, or choose to run simultaneous campaigns on more than one platform at once. The key here is to understand which types of audiences use each platform. For example if you are searching for plaintiffs in their 30s or 40s the best place to post an ad (or run a campaign) would be Facebook/Instagram. However if you are searching for a plaintiff in their 20s, TikTok may be a better platform for your campaign. Each platform offers slightly different choices for targeting, allowing ads to target based on factors such as age, gender, location (with varying degrees of specificity), and interests – derived from internet behavior and searches. This precision in targeting ensures that the message reaches the right audience, enhancing the likelihood of finding good quality leads.
Luckily for attorneys, marketing to find potential plaintiffs is as targeted as it gets. Typically you will know that the plaintiffs you are looking for were harmed by a specific product, service, or website, during a specific time frame. At Darrow, we work closely with attorneys we partner with to align on the characteristics for the plaintiffs to target.
Understanding analytics
With digital marketing, comes a digital footprint, and that means data. But not just data – real-time data. Advertising platforms track and measure the performance of digital campaigns to give insight into users’ engagement and the overall effectiveness of the campaign. This means that whoever is running your plaintiff finding campaign, be it an in-house team or a third-party vendor, has full insight into the number of people who have seen the ad, the percentage of those people who actually click on the ad, and the percentage of those people who turn into a lead for your case, or in marketing language, convert.
Tracking the analytics of plaintiff campaigns is important to make sure you are running on the right platform, and targeting using the right parameters. Without doing this you risk wasting money advertising in the wrong place, to the wrong people.
Running a plaintiff finding campaign
So how does a plaintiff finding campaign actually work? To run a plaintiff finding campaign, you will need to create two main assets:
1. The ad itself
This is the first thing your target audience (aka, your potential plaintiffs) will see. The ad plays a critical part in the success of the campaign, because if no one clicks on it, or if the wrong people click on it, we don’t have a plaintiff. The ad needs to both look good so people are drawn to it, and the copy on the ad needs to be clear. The copy for the ad is critical in making sure the right people click on the ad and go through to the next stage of the campaign. Just like targeting according to parameters on the advertising platforms, targeting with the language on the ads is typically easy to do for plaintiff finding campaigns – because we generally know exactly what we’re looking for.
2. A landing page
A landing page is a web page created for a specific purpose. It is where people who click on an ad are directed to. When potential plaintiffs click on the ad (discussed above) you want to send them to a landing page created specifically for the plaintiff finding campaign. The landing page should include more information about the case, in order for potential plaintiff leads to determine whether the case is relevant for them. And importantly, the landing page must have a way for interested potential plaintiffs to leave their details so that you can contact them. The best way to do this is to include a form somewhere on the landing page in which potential plaintiff leads can leave their contact information. When creating the form, think about what information is important for you to collect, making the relevant fields mandatory to complete. Do you want an email address in addition to a phone number, or is just the phone number sufficient?
A top tip for the landing page is to also use it to vet (or qualify – more on this below) potential plaintiff leads. You can do this by including some mandatory questions in the contact information form. That way, when a new lead comes in, your marketing team will already have an idea about whether they are relevant to contact as a potential plaintiff.
Lead qualification
Once you have plaintiff leads from your landing page either you or your marketing team needs to contact them to qualify them, or in other words, check if they could actually be legitimate plaintiffs for your case. The best way to do this is over the phone, by asking a list of questions relevant to the case. At Darrow, we do extensive lead qualification and collect relevant documentation for the case, so that we can pass on legitimate potential plaintiffs, not just leads, to our partner attorney’s to contact.
Marketing for justice
Harnessing the capabilities of digital marketing strategies is not just advantageous, but essential, for law firms seeking to connect with potential plaintiffs. By leveraging highly targeted online campaigns, either in-house or using a third party, legal professionals can effectively amplify their reach, and foster meaningful connections with individuals in need of legal representation. As technology continues to advance, staying abreast of the latest trends and optimizing digital marketing efforts will undoubtedly be the key to finding the right plaintiffs effectively and efficiently, and, more importantly, making a meaningful impact in the pursuit of justice.
Find high quality plaintiffs for your next big case, fast.
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