Well, this is a very big question and one to which the answer has changed considerably during the course of the past ten years. Long ago, I worked for a large law firm that did defendant PI work and I originally did some work for APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) back in 1995. Since then, things have changed considerably – we have seen the rise and fall of the claims farmers, large budget TV campaigns, increased specialisation and consolidation, the removal of public funding and significant changes in the law. There are currently thoughts that even supermarkets might enter the market…
In essence, the same principals of marketing apply although there are issues of particular relevance to PI lawyers. For example, personal injury lawyers who act for individuals must decide on whether they are adopting a direct B2C approach (i.e. marketing to those who have been injured using advertising, media relations etc) or an indirect B2B approach (i.e. through intermediaries and organisations such as insurance panels, charities, health professionals etc) or by outsourcing their marketing entirely and paying claims managers for their flow of instructions.
The PI market is also segmented – from the low value, high volume “trips and slips” and RTA segments demanding highly efficient, automated commodity legal services to the high value, low volume complex catastrophic injury and medical negligence requiring highly experienced and very specialist legal advice. There are an increasing number of specialist niches such as neuro-lawyers, sports injury lawyers and industrial diseases. Deciding on your chosen segments, your position within them and offering a legal service that meets the needs of that market where there are many competitors is challenging.
Unlike many areas of law, where relationship marketing is successful it is much more difficult in a case based environment such as personal injury. If you would like copies of one of the many presentations or articles I have written on the subject of PI marketing, please let me know.
I do not restrict access to the FAQs but I politely request that you let me know by email and acknowledge the source (www.kimtasso.com) if you wish to use the material anywhere.
As always, if there are particular topics you would like me to address in the future, please let me know. You will also find a source of more and up to date information on a broad range of management and marketing issues in the professions by checking out the blog where I also post regular reviews of books that might be helpful.