Creditors are calling. The business is in jeopardy. The house is in danger of being foreclosed upon, and the car may be repossessed.
Individuals and corporations facing what feels like insurmountable debt need to find a qualified bankruptcy attorney quickly.
Today, people spend time on social media, where they may come across opportunities to solve their problems before they even start searching. In marketing, we refer to this as being “higher up in the funnel.” We want to ensure that, before you begin your search, you’re aware that opportunities are available—that we’re local, we’re here, and we have the experience to help you. The goal of these campaigns is to reach more people in your target market, ensuring they are aware of you when they otherwise wouldn’t be.
In some cases, people miss that opportunity and decide it’s time to find a solution. “I know what I need, and I need to find someone local.” This is a different type of marketing—and it’s another area where Scorpion can help your bankruptcy firm. The $1,000,000 question is...
Will They Find You?
The answer depends on whether you are marketing your bankruptcy law practice and how effectively.
What we see every day is that the most qualified bankruptcy firms aren’t always the ones that show up when people are searching. Just because you’re the best doesn’t mean Google knows that. It takes consistent effort to ensure you're doing everything necessary to appear in search results.
Creating and implementing a bankruptcy law marketing campaign enables bankruptcy law firms and attorneys to be discovered—and hired—by potential clients. A legal marketing campaign is a mini, focused version of an overall legal marketing strategy and plan.
What Do Clients Want to See?
While typical marketing companies may jump straight into tactics, it's important to first understand your clients and ensure your marketing reflects your business. Here are a few key questions to consider:
Who are your clients?
What situation are they in?
Where do they live?
Specifically, where does your revenue come from? You may have an office in Beverly Hills, but where do the majority of your clients live, work, and search? When you evaluate your client base, you’ll likely find that certain areas generate more business than others.
What do you offer that speaks to them?
What can you offer to get them to call?
A free consultation? A comprehensive plan to get out of debt?
It’s crucial that potential clients understand you can help them, that you’ve helped people like them, and that reaching out to you is easy. Speaking to a bankruptcy lawyer can feel uncomfortable, so the more approachable, understanding, and reassuring your content, videos, and messaging are, the better. This isn’t a proud moment for your clients. They need help, and you are their lifeline. Make it easy to be that lifeline.
Since we're discussing bankruptcy marketing campaigns, we can dive into the details of what makes them successful. But above all, remember the fundamentals above.
Tactics may vary from campaign to campaign, but one thing they all have in common is a clear call to action.
In this article, we'll mostly discuss the importance of the call to action in your bankruptcy marketing campaigns.
Create a Call to Action (CTA) to Get Calls
A call to action (CTA) is what you want people to do. We see call to actions all over. The button labeled “Buy Now” in emails from retailers is an obvious one. Text messages from political candidates with a link to “donate now” are another standard CTA. Even phone numbers on attorney billboard ads are CTAs.
For a bankruptcy law firm or attorney marketing campaign, the CTA likely is for potential clients to call or email you as the first step toward retaining your services. There are other CTAs that accomplish other goals but also support the ultimate business development goal.
For example, a bankruptcy attorney may write a blog post on a high-profile bankruptcy matter. The blog post, full of interesting insights and lessons learned for others facing a potential bankruptcy, is both a content marketing and digital marketing tactic. It showcases the attorney’s knowledge, boosts visibility, and drives visitors to the website.
The obvious CTA is asking people to click a link leading to the blog post from a social media post, a marketing email, or a search engine results page. The secondary CTA is for readers to contact the author with a potential matter. (Be sure the attorney author’s name, phone number, and/or email address link appear on the blog post for that CTA!)
The right campaign with the right call to action doesn’t just get you seen, it gets you hired.
Different Types of CTAs
Depending on your marketing goals, a bankruptcy law marketing campaign can be tailored and focused to help meet those objectives. Some other CTAs a bankruptcy law firm or attorney might use include:
- Recruit subscribers to a newsletter or blog
- Increase followers on social media
- Attend a webinar or other event
- Download content, like a white paper or report
- Build an online community with more engagement
- Answer a survey
- Provide a testimonial
CTAs commonly appear as a hyperlink to a form, email field, or specific content on a website; a phone number, or other contact information. Online technology allows for a wealth of CTA tools, including:
- Online chats
- Pop-up windows
- A slide-in that appears when the reader reaches the end of the content
- Eye-catching buttons or boxes on a web page or marketing email
- Contact us forms embedded at the bottom of a web page
Types of Bankruptcy Law Campaigns
Once the CTA type is identified, a campaign is designed to bring that CTA to the target audience. This takes us back to the legal marketing “menu” of activities we previously discussed in “Five Questions to Ask When Creating a Legal Marketing Strategy.” These include, but are not limited to, content marketing, webinars, public relations, advertising, submitting for awards and rankings, networking events, and social media.
For instance, your firm has started writing and posting legal alerts to the firm’s website, which are also sent via email.
The goal is to increase readership through subscriptions to the legal alert email.
Thus, the CTA is designed to have people fill out a form to opt in to receive emails. The campaign would focus on ensuring a link to that form and some catchy, promotional language appears in as many places as possible: social media profiles, social media posts, throughout the website—especially on all the legal alert pages, on the legal alert emails, embedded in firm email signatures, on brochures and handouts, and in advertisements.
Another example of a likely bankruptcy law marketing campaign is to promote a newly hired partner who brings unique experience or a specific practice skill. The goal would be for people to become aware of the partner and, ultimately, seek her legal help. In this case, the CTA may be leading people to the partner’s bio on the firm's website. The campaign tactics here would include a press release (which would also be posted to the website and shared on social media), submitting the attorney for awards, securing speaking engagements, advertising, etc.
Creating a Bankruptcy Law Campaign
Like a large legal marketing strategy, there are certain decisions that must be made in planning a bankruptcy law campaign for it to be effective. They include:
- Deciding what is being promoted
- Determining the CTA
- Identifying the target audience
- Creating a value proposition
- Choosing which marketing tactics make sense for the CTA and to reach the target audience
- A budget
- A team to carry out the campaign
- A timeline
- Ways to measure the campaign’s success
Arguably, one of the biggest challenges is identifying the target audience. This process begins with researching who is filing for bankruptcy. Reports like this from The Balance, which breaks down bankruptcy filer demographics, are a great place to start. For example, knowing that the median age of bankruptcy filers in 2020 was 45 helps determine which social media platforms or publications to target for advertising. Creating a “buyer persona” that includes a typical potential client’s age, location, gender, income, etc., is a good idea.
Ensure the messaging aligns with the target audience’s needs and clearly communicates how the CTA will benefit them.
Scorpion supports bankruptcy law firms’ marketing goals by providing the technological tools that make legal marketing campaigns effective.
