For this personal injury lawyer, the key to getting noticed is finding your niche and investing in content
By Jim James, Founder EASTWEST PR and Host of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur.
Jonathan Rosenfeld has a personal injury law practice called Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC. He has recovered over $250 million for his clients, and at the moment, he's got about 4,000 plus files open in America. In the recent episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur, he talked about how he built such a wonderful and magnetic brand for his practice.
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A Tough Market
The market that Jonathan is in is tough and very competitive. If you look at the cost per click on Google, most legal terms — specifically personal injury terms — are some of the most expensive terms on the internet. There's a lot of money and effort getting thrown into this space.
What he’s always tried to do is to stay half a step ahead of people. And often, that basically means carving out your niche online.
For him, the number one thing when it comes to getting his business noticed is content creation. When he says content creation, he’s not necessarily talking about creating content that sells. He’s talking about creating content that actually solves a problem or answers a question for a prospective client.
Today, people have become much more sophisticated than we give them credit for. By the time someone picks up the phone or fills out a form for a contact, they've already done quite a bit of research on a particular topic.
Jonathan wants to educate people on the subject of personal injury. If someone was in an auto accident and they've got questions about the insurance involved or their injuries — if they've got questions about the value of their case — he wants to give them information on all those different angles. He wants them informed.
People often don’t remember the person trying to sell them everything. Based on his experience, people are calling him because they keep seeing his information on every search they are doing. They want to reach out to him because he seems very knowledgeable about the topic they are searching for.
Speed is Key
When people have been injured, they’re ringing up in a state of distress and panic. This is why speed is the key.
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No one can plan for an accident or an injury involving themselves or their loved one. And Jonathan and his team recognise that. They know that their potential client’s mind is racing. They’ve got questions about their injuries and the financial aspect if they're unable to work/ They’ve got questions about how to deal with the insurance companies.
There are many different aspects to these cases that move so quickly. He realised that they had to answer these questions because if they didn’t, they would go to the person down the street.
When someone contacts his office, they are available 24/7. Obviously, they do sleep periodically, but they will respond very quickly because they know that time is of the essence in terms of answering their questions, but also in terms of knowing that it's a new client.
They’re also available on weekends because people get in accidents on weekends.
If they respond within a few minutes, their rate of signing the case increases drastically more than if they wait. So if someone contacts them at six or seven o'clock at night, and they don't respond to that case until the next morning, more often than not, that case will be gone; someone else will get that case.
In his office, they have a team of intake people who take live calls almost 24 hours a day. They will do triage on the case: They will get some information and take it to attorneys for them to review and go through cases.
They also have contact forms. When people are in the hospital or someplace, they may not be able to make a phone call or text. In those situations, they could be more comfortable filling out a contact form.
They also have a live chat feature where people can talk with a live person via chat. This is something that people have increasingly become comfortable doing.
But regardless if you're comfortable or uncomfortable doing a contact one way or another, they want to be available to people in a manner they are comfortable with. They try to tailor to everyone's level of technology and how they like to communicate. For example, some people don't like to talk on the phone. They just want a text.
Managing Contacts and Cases
Their management of contacts depends on how people contact them. Some of it, they actually input directly into their case management software.
For example, if they contact them via phone, that phone call with the client's name, telephone number, email address, physical address, and case type will go into a case management system right away. Even if it’s a case that they do not accept, they also have that data.
If someone contacts them later, they can track how that person got to their office. Often, they get referrals from old clients, and they can also track that.
Image from Freepik
Jonathan personally loves having data. He loves having that ability to track things, and it's really crucial as a business owner to track where your business is coming from so you can know what’s working and what’s not.
At Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, they use Captorra. It’s a legal platform that feeds into a case management system. If someone contacts them and they sign the case up, they use another platform that transfers that to a case management system.
Over the past years, the legal sphere has gotten very sophisticated from a technical perspective. And it’s made their lives easier.
When dealing with these serious accident cases, you must do things the right way. This is why all these improvements have been really very helpful.
Content that Caters to Potential Clients’ Demands
Before Jonathan studied law and passed the bar, he majored in Journalism.
As he emphasised, things are always constantly evolving online. There's no such thing as being stagnant or complacent regarding websites and online marketing.
He knows there can be a huge disconnect between what business owners think their customers may be looking for and what they actually are looking for. You have to develop content that satisfies what people are looking for online.
He locates that in different ways. One is if you do a Google search, depending on the terms and location, it will show the section “People also ask.” You can take that information as a marketer or business owner, and you can develop content around that.
The other thing is he uses a subscription service called Atrust, which takes the term search to the next level. It’ll show you the keyword search volume for a particular term or phrase, and you can also see who’s ranking for that term or phrase. Though it takes some legwork, you can further look and see how long your competitors are writing content. Is it 500 words, or is it 5,000 words?
This is how he develops content initially. But the truth is that his strategy is constantly getting changed and tweaked. And whilst that changes, the need to educate rather than to sell is the consistent, long-term trend.
Image from Freepik
As he stated, people today are much more sophisticated than many people give them credit for. When someone contacts Jonathan’s office, they’ve already typically researched their particular case. They’ve researched their injuries. They’ve looked for information about the case value. Perhaps, the insurance companies are already involved.
Now, it’s so easy for people to go out and just pick up their phone and start searching. This has really changed the dynamic because some 10 years ago, he would still be educating someone about their rights. He’s not saying that it doesn’t happen anymore, but today, a lot of times when someone comes to his office, they already know quite a bit about their situation and their rights.
He still has to present that to them, and he still has to educate them about their rights and their options, but people today have become much more sophisticated. As a business owner, you have to realise that and start preparing information that is structured in that way.
As for the format of content, you have to have video, text, and image (On his website, you can see a YouTube video where he talks about being an injury lawyer).
People today expect to see videos, they expect to see graphics, they expect everything. They’ve been accustomed to getting on Amazon, for example, and seeing product pictures and reviews. So if you’re a business owner, you must cater to that need.
Is everyone going to look at your video? No. Is everyone going to look at your graphics and spend time reviewing the graphic that you spent a lot of time and money preparing? No. Is everyone going to read every word on your fantastic webpage you spent hours and hours doing? No. However, it’s the combination of these things that’s going to help.
Having all these different elements on the page or your website also builds trust with your prospective client. And that goes a long way, not even necessarily towards selling them, but it goes a long way towards converting them. They’re compelled to contact you because they feel that you have done the work and are clearly serious about the topic.
How much content is enough depends on your business, the vertical, and what your competitors are doing. For instance, if you’re selling shoes and going against Zappos, you will be hard-pressed to compete with them. You're probably never going to create the content that a mega brand like that can do, but you can do videos about what differentiates you (e.g., you’re selling special running shoes).
Keep in mind that it’s a constant process that you just have to invest time in in the long term. It’s not like when your phone starts and stops ringing, and that’s already the beginning and end point.
A Win-Win Situation
In the US, when you are in the legal world, you are allowed to give and take referrals and give and take referral fees.
For example, Jonathan has content about rear-end car accidents on his website. He practices in Illinois, and he’s licensed there. If someone contacts him from a different state because they saw that content, Jonathan can send the case to other attorneys whom he has relationships with. Similarly, those attorneys can also refer to him their cases.
There are plenty of very skilled, smart, and capable attorneys. Some of them don't have time. They aren’t interested in looking at the marketing side of things. If he can refer the cases to them, it's a win-win situation for everyone.
It's also a win for the client because, at the end of the day, although Jonathan’s a business owner, his job and success depend on his reputation and his success with clients.
So, first and foremost, he wants his clients to get the most capable person he knows can help them.
If he refers that person, it’s also great from a business standpoint because he receives a referral fee. The person who's handling the case also makes money. It’s really a win-win situation for all.
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For the unnoticed entrepreneurs, Jonathan’s advice is to be consistent and keep going.
He’s talked with people — attorneys and non-attorneys — who have started a website or blog. They’ve spent time doing it, yet they’ve never gotten any contacts. However, the truth is that for most people who have experienced success, it's not the first time they’ve had success.
It’s about the constant tinkering and constant grinding. Their business's long-term viability depends on how they're consistently putting the energy out there. Just keep going, be persistent, and some things will happen.
This article is based on a transcript from my podcast The UnNoticed Entrepreneur, you can listen here.
Cover image by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels
