It’s hard to believe that 2019 is already here! With the start of the New Year comes excitement for more clients, firm growth, and a fresh marketing budget. If you’re not sure what new tactics you should invest in, here are some of the biggest trends marketers are focusing on in 2019.

1. Artificial Intelligence

If you’re not thinking about AI, you’re already behind the 8-ball. Artificial intelligence already affects your firm’s organic rankings: RankBrain is currently the third most important ranking signal for Google’s search results pages. RankBrain is an AI learning software that analyzes how users interact with your site on the SERPs. If claimants immediately leave your firm’s site time and time again and instead contact your competitors, you’ll likely lose rankings to other firms in the area.

AI can also help you increase your intake staff efficiency. You can set up a chatbot on your firm’s site to take down simple metrics like a client’s contact information an a brief case description. This frees up more time for your intake staff, or more time for yourself if you’re a solo practitioner. Great AIs won’t even look like you’re speaking to a robot.

2. Personalization

With seemingly endless ways to contact a claimant, personalization is key to getting a response. Some simple ways you can personalize your emails to claimants include, but certainly aren’t limited to:

• Using their names in your email subject line
• Discussing specifics of their claim (their condition/injury, how the application is coming along, etc.)
• The date of their next hearing, if applicable
• Any follow ups on previous discussions you’ve had

While personalization is hard to pull off on a large scale, there are tools online that can help cut down on the writing time. eLuminate, our lead and case management software, allows you to send customized emails to up to 100 claimants at once. You can personalize your messages with the claimants’ first and last names, birth date, court hearing, and more.

3. Automation and Workflow Management

Automation is another timesaving tactic marketers are keeping in mind in 2019. Our earlier chatbot example is a great way you can automate some of the day functions of your firm’s day-to-day life. You can also automate emails to be sent to clients instead of manually pushing them out yourselves. For example, you can send reminders of upcoming hearings the day before the trial to ensure your clients know time and location of their hearing. You can also nudge clients who haven’t returned outstanding paperwork, such as a retainer package. eLuminate has workflow options that allow you to keep connected with your claimants without lifting a finger.

4. Data Analysis

“Big data” is usually cited as the top trend for 2019. Marketers are turning to data more often to determine which channels are truly the most profitable. While your firm may not be spending as high of a budget as an ad agency, you can still use big data to help your firm’s profitability.

One of the most telling metrics a law firm can utilize is cost per case, or CPC. Your CPC is calculated by dividing your total spend on a campaign by the number of new clients you retained directly from that campaign. If you’re spending about 15% of your expected revenue from a won hearing to sign one new client, you have a desirable CPC.

Lead generation yields some of the lowest CPCs in the industry. To learn more about our Social Security disability, personal injury, workers’ comp, or employment law lead pricing and availability, give us a call today at 617.800.0089.