Creditors are calling. The business is in jeopardy. The house is in danger of being foreclosed and the car repossessed.
Individuals and corporations facing what feels like insurmountable debt need to find a qualified bankruptcy attorney quickly.
Will they find you?
The answer depends on if you are marketing your bankruptcy law practice and how effectively.
Creating and implementing a bankruptcy law marketing campaign allows bankruptcy law firms and attorneys the opportunity to be found — and hired — by potential clients. A legal marketing campaign is a mini, focused version of an overall legal marketing strategy and plan. The tactics used in marketing campaigns vary, but the one thing they all have in common is a call to action.
Create a Call to Action to Get Calls
A call to action (CTA) is what you want people to do. We see CTAs all over. The button that says “buy now” in emails from retailers is an obvious one. Text messages from political candidates with a link to “donate now” is another common CTA. Even phone numbers on attorney billboard ads are CTAs.
For a bankruptcy law firm or attorney marketing campaign, it’s likely the CTA is for potential clients to call or email you as a first step toward retaining you. 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!)
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, webinar, 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 get more readers through subscriptions to the legal alert email. Thus, the CTA is to have people fill out a form opting in to receive the 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, call on her for 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 advertise in. Creating a “buyer persona” that includes a typical potential client’s age, location, gender, income, etc. is a good idea.
Be sure the messaging reflects the target audience’s needs and how the CTA will benefit them!
Scorpion supports bankruptcy law firms’ marketing goals by providing the technological tools that make legal marketing campaigns effective.
