Chloe Wingate
It can be difficult knowing how to approach marketing when your law firm deals with sensitive practice areas, such as medical negligence or family law. After all, bold, sales-driven campaigns are not appropriate and are even likely to cause offence if the aim is to show prospects that you can handle their sensitive matters with tact and care.
Show your empathy
Tone is vital: you need to make it clear that you are a trustworthy firm with genuine empathy for your clients and the situations they are dealing with. This can be achieved by using marketing tactics that reassure the client of your experience and the positive impact you have had on the lives of those you have helped.
Client testimonials are an excellent way of doing this; by turning legal cases into human interest stories, you can communicate with your prospects on a softer and more emotional level. A client testimonial allows your client to share how they felt throughout their case and how you supported them at a time when when they felt the most vulnerable.
Demonstrate your expertise
A great way of more subtly demonstrating your expertise in a particular practice area is through sharing information. You could write an informative blog, share recent cases with your comments, or highlight news stories that may be of interest to your audience. Even though you are not always directly talking about and selling your own firm’s experience, showing that you are engaged in the news flow around your practice area sends a clear message to prospects that you know what you’re talking about.
Video marketing
If you are looking to market a sensitive practice area, this could be the perfect time for you to start using videos – an increasingly popular method of marketing not just in the legal industry but across all sectors.
For law firms, videos are an opportunity to explain legal processes in a more human way, connecting with your audience on a more personal level than a text article is capable of. There is a wide range of approaches you could take – you could do a simple Q&A video to demystify jargon that could feel alienating to a new client, or walk viewers through the legal process from a client’s perspective so they understand what will happen at every stage of their case. For a warmer, more conversational tone, you could even film interviews in which the legal professionals on your team talk about themselves and what they do. However you decide to proceed, video offers you the chance to humanise your firm and give clients a feel for who you are and how you work.
Softly, softly
Take time to consider the wording of your call to action (CTA). If, for example, you share a video introducing the viewer to your Medical Negligence department, you might adopt a gentler tone in your CTA by inviting prospects to contact you for a free initial, no-obligation chat. This might help those who are tentative to feel empowered to make the first contact, knowing that you are not trying to take advantage of them financially.
Talk to us
TOMD has over 20 years’ experience working with law firms working in sensitive practice areas, supporting them with marketing campaigns that show the human side of their business. Why not speak to us about how we can help you? Please email info@tomd.co.uk.