Humanizing Personal Injury Advertising: Insights From Strategic Director Luke Hayes

Incorporating philanthropic stories into brand and digital campaigns enables firms to effectively engage diverse local audiences while building a connection between the community and the individuals they represent.

Disclaimer: The opinions represented here are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent those of their current or former employer.

Luke Hayes possesses extensive experience in digital marketing. Formerly serving as the director of strategy at Witherite Law Group, he’s closely observed the industry’s evolution over several decades, including advancements in SEO, the transformation of paid advertising strategies, and the vital integration of AI into workflows. Tap In Digital interviewed Mr. Hayes to gain insights into his expertise and to uncover valuable lessons for personal injury firms aiming to enhance their marketing initiatives.

Watch the full interview below, or read on for a selection of key takeaways.

Key Takeaways

• Highlight your firm’s community initiatives. Publishing them as stories in every major marketing channel generates trust and authoritative backlinks.

  
  

• Rewrite all client guidance into plain‑language checklists. Pair them with video assets and ensure that they load in under two seconds on mobile.

  
  

• Invite recent clients to narrate their experiences in short‑form video. YouTube Shorts and other content can be authentic social proof.

  
  

• Deploy generative AI tools to summarize content into bullet points. It’s a quick way to save valuable labor hours.

1. Lead With Community‑First Storytelling
   

Hayes emphasizes that building a reputation in personal‑injury law, or in any trust‑based service, starts with showing, not telling, that you care about the people behind the cases. A public‑facing record of giving back isn’t fluff, either; it’s a profit lever. Two‑thirds of global consumers, and 73 % of millennials, will pay more for brands that prove social value. When executives and marketing directors spotlight genuine community service (scholarships, school visits, victim‑support programs), they transform “free PR” into a powerful lead engine. Done well, this approach humanizes the firm, wins local media coverage, and nurtures referral sources that paid ads can’t touch.

Legal is still learning its footprint, figuring out where its audience lives, and how to communicate effectively with them. And it's a two-pronged industry... There's the service side, who is the next legal client that’s going to come in, how to generate those leads, how to bring them in, how to nurture them… [and] there's a lot of philanthropy in the industry. And they don't take advantage of it, or they do a poor job of it… going into schools, helping educate kids about drinking and driving… Share some of that. It shows that you're part of the community, that you're one of them.

Morgan & Morgan’s annual “For the People” Scholarship awards $5,000 to law‑minded students and fuels a steady stream of coverage that keeps the brand top of mind. The firm layers that scholarship into a broader “In the Community” hub spanning hunger‑relief centers and youth programs, reinforcing its For the People positioning beyond billboards. When you integrate cause content with tracked UTMs and schema markup, those pages rank, earn links, and funnel prospects who arrive already trusting the brand.

Ready to translate goodwill into measurable growth? Tap In Digital can architect a community‑first campaign built for lead conversion. Let’s talk.

2. Strip Out the Jargon

   
   

C‑suite leaders and marketing teams often over‑explain legal topics, burying would‑be clients in paragraphs they’ll never read. Hayes says that personal injury marketers need to replace walls of text with checklist-style guidance, plain-language headlines, and scannable visuals, enabling prospects to take the next step in 30 seconds or less.

“Especially online, [law firms] talk about things, and it's too verbose… I don't need seven pages, I'm not going to understand it… It should be more of an immobile approach… When you were a little kid with your parents, what was your fire drill? What did you do in your high school when you had the fire drills? You had ABC, you had to get your stuff and walk down the stairs in an orderly fashion. You need to have something like that, where you’re not talking above people or at them.”

Successful legal creators prove the same lesson: LegalEagle compresses complex doctrine into 10‑minute explainers and has grown to 3.65 million YouTube subscribers and 985 M views. Turn every “After an Accident” page into five bullets; add page‑speed audits (Core Web Vitals affect injury‑firm SEO). Pair each bullet with a 30‑second vertical video so prospects find the same guidance whether they Google or hit YouTube Shorts.

3. Co‑Create Strategy Around Client Stories

Whether you run a 300‑attorney shop or a boutique team of five, the fastest route to relevant digital strategy is letting clients narrate their journeys, then turning those insights into media, FAQs, and productized services. Make “story sessions” a recurring fixture between legal, marketing, and leadership; the anecdotes surface pain points that internal data can’t.

“Always let the people tell their story, learn from the story, and work with them on that relationship to show them, ‘Hey, here are some ways digital really can better your industry, or your workforce, or your product lines.” And that's really where the joy comes from — figuring out that puzzle and helping not only the big businesses, but the small guy… nonprofits… smaller businesses… showing them the ways of the road and building a relationship.”

Schedule monthly “story sessions” with recent clients; record and repurpose their Q&A into FAQ carousels, IG Reels, and Meta Communities. Wyzowl found that 91 % of marketers now rely on video because it outranks every other medium for ROI, meaning your story clips will pull more organic reach than text alone.

4. Deploy AI to Humanize Information

Generative AI copilots can convert police reports, medical records, or case updates into five‑bullet digests that clients read. For C‑suite and practice‑group leaders, that means faster throughput, fewer status‑check calls, and staff time redirected to strategy instead of summarization. Lawyers remain the final reviewers, but AI drafts the first pass in seconds. Hayes says that's a huge boon in an industry where clients click out of complex stories.

“Curating content with AI is going to save you a lot of time. You could get that AI agent to, with the right prompts, translate content so a five-year-old understands it... Put the information that people need in five bullet points. And that's probably all they're able to digest. Think about what they're going through at that time…Current content…It's too much, and it's overwhelming, and you get an abandonment rate of probably 99%.”

For personal‑injury teams, start with medical records and police‑report digests: tools highlighted by the American Bar Association now autogenerate five‑bullet client updates in seconds. Lawyers review, click “approve,” and paralegals move on to higher‑value work instead of hand‑typing summaries.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Hayes makes the roadmap crystal clear for personal injury leaders: broadcast real community impact, package advice in simple formats, hand the mic to satisfied clients, and let AI write the first draft of everything else. Firms that execute see faster intakes, lower bounce, and reclaimed billable hours, while rivals keep churning out seven‑page FAQs no one reads.

Tap  In  Digital specializes in weaving these tactics into growth engines for legal and professional services brands. Ready to accelerate your firm? Let’s tap in.