If your law firm is contemplating getting into mass tort litigation, choosing the right marketing company is critical to your overall success. Each year, lawyers are spending nearly $850 million in mass tort litigation. So, spending your marketing dollars wisely will yield the best results. By following a few guiding principles, you can make your budget go a long way.
Look for companies that go beyond the campaign
Many companies in the legal marketing industry will promise high-quality leads, but in reality, they are providing a list of potential plaintiffs that are unqualified. Before you decide to hire a legal marketing company, you should ask a few questions to understand what you’re actually buying:
- How are they spending your money?
- What are you getting in return?
- If they are providing leads, are they qualified?
Make sure they have transparency in their pricing. Let’s say you have $25,000 to spend on a marketing campaign. And your goal is to acquire 25 new clients with that budget. Traditional marketing companies may apply that budget to a variety of media channels, but can’t guarantee the spend will help you achieve your end goal of gaining new clients. They may or may not deliver 25 new clients with your $25,000. There’s just no way to tell with this approach.
However, if you work with a legal marketing company that delivers qualified, signed retainers, you know what you’re going to get. In this example, you’ll get your 25 new clients with the $25,000 marketing budget because you’re buying guaranteed results.
Find a partner, not just a lead generator. Ultimately, you want to find a legal marketing company that has the best interest of your firm and the claimant at the forefront. Strive to work with a legal marketing company that has ethical and transparent business practices. One clear way to do that is by partnering with a company that has a co-counsel model.
The co-counsel model uniquely creates alignment of success between the client law firm, litigating and originating firms, and most importantly, the claimant. Everyone benefits from this model, allowing law firm partners to focus on helping mass tort claimants attain justice efficiently, at scale.
Marketing companies with a co-counsel business model have sizable rosters of qualified partner firms to work with—all with proven track records. This symbiotic relationship gives law firms a variety of options in terms of matching claimants to litigating firms based on their claimant’s needs.
Go with a company that has an in-house call center and pre-qualification screening process
Having an in-house call center staffed with highly trained, multilingual individuals who can take calls any time 24/7 ensures potential claimants get the help they are looking for without barriers, providing a positive experience. The agents should have access to advanced technology to help them screen and qualify potential claimants based upon your firm’s custom criteria. This interaction between the caller and the agent sets the tone for the entire process—so they need to walk away with a good feeling about the call.
You should also make sure that any call center is 100% TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) compliant. Otherwise, you leave your firm open to potential penalties, which can be up to $1,500 per phone call or text message.
Additionally, look for marketing companies that use alternative methods to help schedule calls with potential clients at times that are convenient for them – like SMS messaging. Custom SMS messaging can increase the possibility of a potential claimant contacting you because they’re reaching out on their time table.
Make sure they have robust campaign tracking and analytics
If a potential claimant doesn’t sign a retainer on the first call, make sure the legal marketing company has a solid strategy for keeping the claimant in the lead funnel. They should be able to track every potential claimant from when they take action to when they become your client.
The legal marketing company should also be able to relay to your team how the lead was acquired, the method of communication, informative demographic details, and the ability to monitor that potential claimant’s actions throughout the process.
The company should have experience in all facets of digital marketing and understand how it fits into your overall marketing plan and strategy. The rapid adoption of mobile, social, video, and other digital technologies have transformed how law firms are conducting marketing today—and it’s always changing. You need a legal marketing company that uses data-driven decision making to determine when and how to pivot your strategy.
Strive for qualified, signed retainers
Many legal marketing companies have a business model where the law firm provides them with a set budget, and they spend the funds on a variety of marketing channels they think will bring in leads. The challenge with this approach is there’s no way of knowing whether those leads meet your criteria because they don’t go through a pre-qualification process. This delivery model can be quite risky since you have no way of knowing if their media selection and marketing efforts will pay off as expected.
The ultimate goal of your marketing efforts should be a qualified, signed retainer. You want to work with a partner that finds the potential claimant through a robust marketing campaign strategy AND delivers you a signed retainer. Why? This kind of business partner does all of the heavy lifting for you, ensuring you can help the claimant right away. Having a qualified, signed retainer upfront allows you to focus on serving your clients – not on trying to find them.
Find a company that has strong connections with top litigating firms
In the mass tort space, having easy access to top litigating firms is one of the keys to success. If your firm doesn’t litigate mass tort cases, choosing a marketing firm that can connect you with multiple renowned litigating firms specializing in specific mass torts expands your playing field and potential revenue.
So, asking the right questions during the discovery process will help set expectations related to what will be delivered, setting you up for success. Following these recommendations can help take the fear and uncertainty out of moving into the mass tort space. When you find the right mass tort marketing company to work with, you should see a steady flow of qualified claimants coming your way.
If you would like to talk to us about our technology-forward, innovative legal marketing and case acquisition approach, contact us today.
Resources
- Beisner, J. Miller, J., & Schwartz, J. (October 2015). MDL proceedings: Eliminating the chaff. U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform: Washington, D.C. Retrieved from https://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/uploads/sites/1/MDL_Proceedings_web.pdf