Armstrong Luty Solicitors

External factors led to the partners of Armstrong Luty Solicitors enlisting the help of Manifest Marketing. Unusual in that they specialise exclusively in Personal Injury work, the client explained that with changes in the law ending the unpopular practise of claims companies ‘ambulance chasing’ to sell clients to solicitors, the larger PI firms are instead channeling funds to TV campaigns beyond the reach of their small rural practice.

Our approach is to highlight what makes Armstrong Luty different from those firms. Having been established since 1995, the practice has an excellent reputation in the PI sector and as such their expertise is called upon by other solicitors as well as private clients, but the size of the firm limits the workload to a local geographical radius.

Old signage

We turned ‘local’ into a USP, coupled with flagging up the key difference between Armstrong Luty and their national competitors; the fact that one of the two partners, founder Andrew Armstrong or Nicholas Luty, meets and handles every client personally.The existing branding was very staid, even dull, and smacked of an old fashioned market town practice rather than the highly respected experts in their field that Armstrong Luty Solicitors have become. A refreshed image was desperately needed before we could start marketing the firm, and so we set about creating a brand.

We briefed a designer to create a logo which gave a visual clue as to the client’s particular specialism. A medical theme was engendered with the use of cool clinical colours, blue and white replacing the former green and cream colour theme. The use of an ECG trace design suggests accident or illness without going as far as using red A&E symbolism which might have smacked of ambulance chasing; an impression we all want to avoid. Armstrong Luty are about being there for clients that need them; not hounding them down.

Featuring the logo and fresh typeface, a new outdoor sign was commissioned to sit within the existing cast iron framework on their Otley Street premises.

New signage

We wanted a strapline to encapsulate the USPs, and came up with your local experts for just compensation. Our client particularly liked the emphasis on just, designed to highlight both the exclusive specialism of the practice while also emphasising that the partners seek due justice for those who have suffered as a result of another’s negligence.

A strong visual image was needed to catch the eye and reflect the USPs. Always reluctant to use stock imagery for primary branding, we discussed the brief with a photographer and arranged a shoot. The main promotional image was taken in a client’s home, featuring our solicitor discussing his case with his client. Again, we wanted to steer clear of gory images of injuries, crashed cars or other disturbing pictures. Instead we have a shot featuring a client sometime after his accident with a prosthetic leg, in animated discussion with his local solicitor in his own home surroundings. It’s a warm and positive image despite the clearly serious nature of his case. Then we added an overlay text Talk to us face to face about your injury or illness.

Once we had the key branding components we began work on commissioning a new website design brief. We made sure the Home page had a reassuring introduction, a clear list of USPs highlighting the advantages of appointing Armstrong Luty, and a few examples of likely scenarios that clients could identify with quickly and easily linking through to more details. Jane drafted the copy with an emphasis on ‘plain English’, in an empathic and reassuring style. The footer was designed to highlight the geographical scope of the firm which helps with search engine optimisation without unnecessarily cluttering the prime content. Like all good websites, this one is organic with scope for adding new content in terms of types of claim, case studies and testimonials as we get material from our clients, subject to the sensitive nature of their business.

Our re-designed website for the client which now generates business.

With the website live at http://www.armstronglutysolicitors.co.uk/ we were ready to start a press campaign to attract some attention. We spread the modest budget over a four week period in the local paper and that of satellite towns within a 20 mile radius including those across the border in bandit country (otherwise known as Lancashire). The 10 x 3 colour advert was just large enough to feature the striking new human interest image to capture the eye and we positioned the advert on pages where relevant accident news is reported.

Following the theme of the photography, when it came to commissioning a corporate video for the website we wanted the emphasis to be on introducing Andrew, Nick and their Claims Investigator Philip Jackson as the people whose expertise clients can depend upon. Our film crew and producer worked to a limited budget to capture the ethos of the practice and the process of obtaining compensation for clients.

Chloe meanwhile organised a QR code and as our social media expert created Facebook and Twitter accounts for the practice. She provided training in the concepts and mechanics while helping to identify appropriate content for posting with due respect for the sensitivity that is so crucial in the context of the client’s work.

The same constraint affects our scope for driving PR for the practice and we work with the partners to find appropriate stories to release and opportunities to highlight the services of the firm.

Not all Armstrong Luty Solicitors clients are digitally savvy, so it was important to produce some form of physical collateral. The client requested new plastic business cards and we had a six page leaflet printed introducing the services of the practice. We worked with the partners to identify suitable distribution for this information.

Integrated marketing strategies such as we have had the opportunity to manage for Armstrong Luty are always a pleasure to implement, allowing us the creative scope to really make a difference. Perhaps we can work some magic for your business too?