Page 22 - Los Angeles Vol 5 No 1

Don’t Be a Digital Ambulance Chaser:
The Right Way to Do Location-Based Digital Marketing
BY TOM DESMOND
Ifyou’ve visited an emergency room recently, you might have noticed an advertising trend
that is upsetting some Internet users. Shortly a er or even during the ER visit, you might get ads about personal injury lawyers while you’re sur ng the Internet on your phone. is tactic, called geofencing, is being called out for being akin to “digital ambulance chasing.” And it’s the wrong way to go about getting leads for your law rm. When it comes to location-based digi- tal marketing, there’s a right way and wrong way to nd clients.
What Is Geofencing?
Geofencing uses location to target potential clients for advertisers. Ap- plied to personal injury law rms, this means drawing a digital “fence” or perimeter around certain locations, such as ERs, and targeting ads to peo- ple who enter those fences with their phones on them.
is tactic has been used by retail stores seeking to share deals or cou- pons with customers. For instance, af- ter you enter a sporting goods store— even if you don’t make a purchase there—you might start to see ads for that store or its products.
While geofencing has existed for some time, some privacy experts have begun to question the ethics of using this digital marketing tactic on injury victims in hospitals. at’s not to men- tion the fact that many consumers nd the tactic invasive and even a little dis- turbing.
Although they may hire personal injury lawyers at a later date, people in emergency rooms are generally thinking about the pain they’re in— not the lawyer they’re going to choose to handle their injury lawsuit. When they pull up Facebook or an Internet browser on their phones, the fact that they already have an attorney advertis- ing to them may be a turno .
Geotargeting Can Hurt Your Mar- keting Efforts
While geofencing may initially seem like a great way to gain expo- sure to potential clients, it can hurt your law rm. Many injured people feel that geotargeted ads are invasive, and geofencing might make them less likely to visit your site or seek out your services.
While marketing rms don’t yet have to conform to the federal health privacy guidelines laid out in HIPAA, consumers on the receiving end of geofence ads might feel that their pri- vacy has been invaded. is tactic tar- gets people who are injured or aiding an injured family member, and they might feel that someone is trying to take advantage of and capitalize on their unfortunate situation.
Put simply, you could pay a market- er handsomely for geofencing services only to hurt your rm’s image and be worse o than when you started.
Backlash Against Geofencing
Because geotargeting relies on what many see as a violation of privacy, some lawsuits have been led against mar- keting companies using these tactics.
While geofencing doesn’t violate guidelines like HIPAA, some lawsuits have framed it as a violation of pa- tients’ privacy—a form of digital ha- rassment. ey’re trying to heal, and they might not be looking for a lawyer at that moment. And they might not want law rms and marketers to know they’re ill or injured.
Even if geofencing hasn’t been chal- lenged in your area, it can still hurt your chances for leads. It’s not hard to imagine feeling enraged a er seeing an ad for a law rm while you’re in the ER waiting room worrying about your injured family member.
ese location-based marketing tactics can be unreliable. Some areas have banned the use of geofencing around their hospitals. Attorneys in these areas—and everywhere else, for that matter—should focus on getting leads for their law rms the right way. But how do you do that?
Getting Leads Without Digital Ambulance Chasing
If geofencing is the wrong way to approach location-based digital mar- keting, what is the right way? Rather than shoving an ad for your rm in an injury victim’s face, you’ll want to be highly visible when that potential cli- ent begins searching for the right at- torney.
e key to being visible in that search? A sound, long-term SEO strategy.
By focusing on your website rank- ings, tra c, and leads, you’ll position yourself to be the answer to your po- tential clients’ questions and needs, rather than an invasive digital ambu- lance chaser.
When someone searches a term related to your law rm, such as “Los Angeles car accident lawyer,” you want your site to appear on the rst page of search results in Google. e closer you are to the top rankings, the more likely potential clients are to click on your pages and contact you about their cases.
Ranking for these search terms is vi- tal when it comes to getting leads. But how do you do that? Google consid- ers a multitude of factors in determin- ing the rankings of websites for cer- tain search phrases. You’ll want great content optimized for terms relevant to your location and practice area, a responsive and eye-catching website, and plenty of high-quality backlinks, among many other ranking factors.
Many SEO providers that serve law rms try to take easy routes that might get attention fast. Unfortunately, tac- tics like geofencing rarely attract vi- able clients, and they can present more problems than solutions. So don’t be a digital ambulance chaser—be the at- torney who is there and ready to help when your future client decides it’s time to start searching for a trustwor- thy and experienced law rm.
Tom Desmond co-founded the law rm SEO company ApricotLaw. Since then, he has been helping law rms climb the ranks in Google and capture big leads.
ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · LOS ANGELES · VOL. 5 NO. 1 22