The Best Endorsements Come from Those You Have Helped – Your Clients!
A common mistake we see across the legal marketing industry is lawyers who often times highlight the wrong things – degrees, years in practice, millions recovered for clients, etc.
Yes, all of those things are impressive, and there’s definitely a place for them on your website. But if they’re at the core of your messaging and television marketing campaigns, you may be missing the mark.
Why? Because prospective clients primarily care about what you can do for them. And while your accolades and awards may speak to that, they tend to say more about you than what you do for others.
Your law firm’s messaging needs to resonate with victims, with those in pain, fear and in need of your help.
Authentic client testimonials can do as much for your messaging as any powerfully written marketing copy. They also have the added benefit of allowing your prospective clients to see themselves and hear from people you’ve actually helped.
After all, they engage with your creative content (TV, web, outdoor, etc.) and then decide if you are the person who can help them. What better way to answer that question than with real stories told by real people in situations similar to theirs?
The Power of Life Stories
Since the dawn of human communication, storytelling has served as mankind’s tool of choice for making sense of the world around them. Many communications theorists believe there might be something hard-wired in humanity that makes us responsive to story. That would certainly explain the power of literature, song, and film in culture. Even many sacred religious texts impart their lessons by way of narrative device.
Client testimonials are stories. And, they absolutely can strike a similar chord.
That’s because a client testimonial, when done in a tasteful and respective manner, belongs to perhaps the most powerful literary genre: the story of a life changed.
Whether your clients are drivers suffering from catastrophic trucking injuries, parents caring for negligently injured children, patients facing the horrors of medical malpractice (a fear every patient can connect with on some level), or young people who made a mistake and are being excessively charged by aggressive prosecutors, you – the lawyer – are ultimately a character in a story that people find compelling.
Accidents, injuries, and bad decisions change lives. Skilled attorneys come in and fight to change them back for the better.
Victims looking for a hero can find one in your client testimonials.
Avoiding “Testi-Phony-ials”: What We Mean by “Authentic”
Notice that our headline refers to authentic testimonials. In other words, testimonials that are not:
- Heavily scripted
- Read off a teleprompter
- Excessively polished
- Performed by an actor
- Inclusive of slogans and “marketing speak”
- Low-budget or gimmicky
We’ve all seen them. There are plenty of law firm commercials on the air each and every day featuring interviews with “clients” who do not come across as authentic because of aforementioned reasons.
The irony is that many of these testimonials cost more money to produce – yet deliver lesser outcomes. Why pay for an actor or a low-budget melodrama when raw, candid comments from actual clients would yield better results?
Real people connect to real people. So your testimonials should come from real people. Period.
Without compromising confidentiality or violating ethics rules, of course, you want to provide enough detail for the reader or viewer to tap into the emotion of this success story.
The client’s story should always focus on their experience, from beginning to end, and how their life was forever changed by this experience.
Honor Your Clients
As a lawyer, you do many things for your clients. You protect their rights against violation. You help them get justice. You help them get ahead.
But there’s also an emotional facet to what you do for them. You give a voice to the voiceless.
In the face of injustice from an insurance company, a major employer, or even the government, what else can “the little guy” do but rely on a lawyer for help.
In that sense, attorneys are a kind of empowerment. Authentic testimonials are a great way of educating people about that.
Honor your clients and what your firm represents. Let them tell others what you did for them. No other message can command such power.
Good or Bad? How to Tell the Difference…
How to distinguish an effective law firm testimonial from a dramatization? Watch them side by side! Check out our reel of the good, the bad, and ugly below:
Talk to Our Legal Marketing Experts About How to Get Better Testimonials
Getting great client testimonials might seem like an easy exercise, but it’s something many law firms struggle with. We can help. Network Affiliates is a team of legal marketing professionals who specialize in creative, out-of-the-box branding and messaging that produces actual, measurable results for your law firm’s bottom line.
Reach out and learn more about how we can help you. Call 877.709.0633 or simply fill out our easy online contact form today.