More business with less insurance claims

Did you know that claim volume is shrinking considerably each year? Improved automobile safety standards, risk management practices, hospital policies, new technologies and boots with better soles mean less injuries, lower severity injuries and consequently reduced overall litigation market revenues. This industry trend, while great for society will inevitably affect the bottom lines of plaintiff's lawyers, defense lawyers and industry vendors. As a result, a number of law firms or companies that are in business today will not be in business this time next year. Even if your firm is not among the casualties, you may very well see dramatically reduced profit margins, or work longer hours to achieve the same results.

While the change will inevitably impact the industry, it doesn't have to impact your firm.

This blog will provide you with FREE marketing and business strategies for your law firm or company that will help you stay ahead of the curve and in business for a long time. I have accumulated this knowledge by spending the last 10+ years researching and marketing to litigation firms and working with litigation firm vendors and have learned how top organizations get there and stay there. I have also spent countless hours researching the Web, reading marketing and business books and newsletters on innovative marketing and operational strategies that have made Fortune 500 companies successful and applying this knowledge to gain competitive edge in a small to mid size business environment.

Sorry about the dramatic first paragraph, but it was necessary to illustrate my first marketing tip.

Tip: When communicating to clients or prospects verbally or through marketing messaging, it's not just what you say, it's how you say it.

FREE and FEAR.

In the paragraphs above, I invoked these 2 very basic, but incredibly effective marketing tools to get and keep your interest. If you look on the Internet, there are millions of examples of companies offering free services to get your interest, knowing they will benefit from their relationship with you long term by offering value today in exchange for the chance to gain your trust. Yahoo is a well-known example of this. They provide free e-mail, calendars, customizable content, games, etc... knowing that the relationship will result in later revenue from premium mail services, web hosting, advertising, etc...

As a plaintiff's lawyer taking a case on contingency, offering a FREE consultation explicitly is a must in all communications. One should not assume that the claimant knows this. It's easy to lose focus on other messaging differentiators and forget this critical element.

Most defense law firms looking to grow their business rely heavily on relationships, speaking opportunities and similar face to face tactics to generate a majority of their new business. However, in such a competitive space, where most firms are offering comparable services, sometimes at fixed prices set by insurance companies and using similar marketing tactics, why not try something different? Consider inviting clients and prospects to a free periodic webinar that highlights legal trends in your area of expertise. Most insurance company decision makers are used to interacting with vendors via the web and are likely to be open to getting valuable information from you. This is a good excuse to pick up the telephone, introduce yourself to the decision maker and offer them something you know will be valuable to them, while positioning yourself as a subject matter expert in a particular area of law. (It also shows that you are technologically progressive).

Litigation vendors, you also have numerous of opportunities to use FREE in your marketing. Free trial of a case management system, free demo CD, waiver of an application or other fee for a first financial service customer, free tie just for getting measured for a suit - you catch my drift...

Ok, now for my favorite FEAR. Good marketers know that appealing to emotion sells and arguably, no emotion sells like fear. If you can pinpoint a customer's fear and address this fear with your service, you will considerably improve your results. Think of some recent tv ads for cars that highlight special financing, or car features and contrast these to ads where a car is pummelled only for the driver to remain unscathed. Which of these do you remember most vividly today? Easy one, right? Another brilliant example is IBM's "No one ever got fired for buying IBM" campaign.

The same marketing principles apply to your business. As a plaintiff's lawyer, think of your prospective client's fears. What is even stronger than an ad for a law firm showing high verdicts and strong subject matter expertise? How about, one that addresses the fear of picking the wrong law firm and possibly losing the case, or achieving a poor outcome? Top marketers will elicit this fear, then put the prospect at ease by using testimonials and proven results to highlight why their firm is the first choice - right before offering a FREE consultation. Of course, it goes without saying that delivering a stronger communication should never cause an ad to cross the line into the realm of blurry ethical practices.

In a defense firm setting, it pays to understand your client or prospect and their unique fears. Listening to and understanding to the specific pain points of your clients and prospects is key. A barrier to working with your firm may be the fear that the in house employee will be the one making the decision to switch firms and doesn't want to risk getting burned in the event a case does not go as expected. If this is the case, maybe it pays to earn your client's trust by explicitly asking for smaller, low severity cases first, where you can demonstrate your capabilities and put the client at ease.

For litigation vendors, consider the impact on your lawyer client's referrals when using the wrong structured settlement company, a situation where the wrong recommendation of a medical expert proves disastrous, purchasing technology only to discover that the support fees are not reasonable, or the risk of using a search engine optimization company that does not have the expertise to deliver return on the client's dollars.

You may not remember much of what you read in this blog in a week, but I can bet that you will certainly recall that the claim industry is shrinking and that you can return to this blog for free marketing advice that you can apply to your litigation or litigation vendor business. Always consider how any marketing communications can be strengthened to invoke stronger emotions and think about creative ways to use a variety of "free" marketing tactics toward profitable outcomes, when you are courting a client and looking to develop trust.

I hope you found the tip interesting and relevant to your specific business and I will continue to share marketing and business insight, as it applies to the litigation industry. This post just scratches the surface and I hope to eventually start responding to specific questions and have litigation industry leaders share their business insights that can help you succeed. Please feel free to e-mail me to share feedback or suggest discussion topics.

During the next post, I plan to explain what I know about the shrinking claim industry, how I know this and share some interesting things you may not know regarding insurance companies.