In 2018, American law firms spent an average of $19,000 on marketing for every $1 million they took in in revenue.
For lawyers and law firms trying to establish themselves as the best option for new clients in their area, a clever legal content marketing strategy is fast becoming a necessity. It's not enough to set aside a certain percentage of your time or your budget for content marketing purposes; you need to think carefully about how best to employ those resources.
What Is Legal Content Marketing?
Content marketing (marketing with content) has become something of a buzzword among online growth specialists in recent years. For lawyers, this content should be used to showcase your legal expertise and commitment to helping clients.
Blogs
Content can take many forms. For law firms, written blogs are often the best option.
A lot of law firms publish "evergreen" blog content about their practice area (like, for example, "What to Do When You're Charged With a DUI"). The biggest selling point of this type of post is that it remains relevant for years. These kinds of articles can also be used to discuss the central functions of your practice in detail, which helps prospective clients to understand exactly what they might need from you.
Another approach is to post updates about your recent case wins or general legal news. These kinds of posts lose their relevance more quickly, but they show readers that you have your finger on the pulse. Additionally, there's never any shortage of current events in the world of law, so you won't run out of things to post about.
Of course, there's no reason you can't cover evergreen topics and news in the same blog. Any approach is acceptable as long as your content informs the reader and showcases your industry knowledge and expertise.
Social Media Posts
No content marketing strategy is complete nowadays without social media posting. Even if you only use your social profiles as a launchpad for long-form content, their potential is too great to ignore.
The average citizen of the world spent 144 minutes a day on social media sites in 2019. If you're trying to build your brand and gain exposure, regular social media posting will eventually yield dividends.
Another factor to consider is the potential for content repurposing. There's nothing to say you can't divide a 1,000-word blog post into 6-8 LinkedIn or Facebook posts. If you have the resources to add visuals, you could also reshape your blogs into videos for TikTok or Instagram Reels. This approach gives every piece of content you write multiple chances to build your brand and create leads.
Remember, however, that while linking your video or blog content to social media might get you more engagement, your conversion rate from those extra clicks may be proportionately less than from search engine visits. That's because visitors from social media don't arrive on your blog by searching for the specific term you're writing about, as search engine visitors do.
Video Content
Until relatively recently, content marketing with video was the preserve of tech firms and large multinationals. However, the increasing ubiquity of high-quality cameras and affordable editing software has made video content part of the everyday, for both creators and consumers.
Industry statistics bear this out; in 2020, 85% of businesses used video content in their marketing efforts.
The law is, by nature, a serious business, so you may feel that flashy graphic design isn't what you need to build your brand. However, video drives engagement, and attorneys are starting to pop up on platforms like TikTok and Instagram in greater numbers. Remember, you don't need to be a gifted editor to make good videos; informative spoken content can help to advertise your professionalism. It never hurts to show prospective clients that you're a strong verbal communicator.
How to Market Your Law Firm Properly
When you first approach legal content marketing, there can be a lot to digest. Creating effective posts that convert readers into clients is not as simple as writing a generic legal blog every so often.
However, if you can find a formula that works and commit to it, the potential rewards are highly lucrative. On average, companies with blogs generate 67% more leads every month than those who don't.
Remember, the people who end up on your blog through organic search are usually there because they're looking for legal services like yours. If you can convert even a small percentage of those extra clicks into new clients, the resulting growth could be considerable.
The six points below are the most important things to keep in mind if you're new to legal content marketing.
1. Keep It Simple
Lawyers spend a lot of their working lives dealing with complex language. Statutes and case judgments aren't written with the casual reader in mind.
However, this kind of verbiage won't get you far in content marketing. Good blog content is designed to cast as wide a net as possible. Your potential clients may not be native English speakers; throwing around a lot of legal jargon is likely to alienate them.
Keep your sentences and paragraphs short, and try to replace any difficult words with simpler alternatives. Your goal is to get readers to the bottom of your posts with a better knowledge of the topic than they started with.
There is a balance to be struck here, however. If you oversimplify your writing, you'll take from its value and make yourself look unprofessional. Getting this right can be very tricky (especially when dealing with more intricate topics) which is why hiring a writer is often a good idea.
2. Use the Right Keywords for Legal SEO
SEO is the science of writing web content so that it appears closer to the top of search engine results lists. Because Google keeps its search algorithm a closely guarded secret, no one is exactly sure how to achieve this. However, years of expert analysis have left us with some clues.
Firstly, you need to use the right keywords. This is how search engines know what your content is about, so it's a crucial first step toward exposing your blog to potential clients.
While exact-match keywords are no longer the bread and butter of SEO, keyword usage is still a big consideration. If you're writing an article about, say, the amendment of wills, you'll want to use terms like "estate planning" and "changing your will" liberally, especially in introductions, conclusions, and headings.
However, you need to be careful. "Keyword stuffing" is a black-hat SEO technique that involves using a keyword as often as possible to improve rankings, typically with little regard for the quality of content. Search engines used to reward this, but they've become more sophisticated in recent times, and will now actively punish websites for stuffing. Therefore, you should only use a keyword up to a point at which it still looks natural in your blog and doesn't interfere with the communication of your message.
Optimizing your content for search can be something of a headache. However, since just over half of website clicks now come from search engines, it's not something you can afford to ignore.
3. Use the Right Tone
Getting the tone right on a legal content marketing blog can be more difficult than you might think. Effective marketing blogs communicate legal concepts in a different way than trial lawyers before a judge.
While this isn't true of everyone, many of the people who take to a search engine looking for legal help are doing so in a worried state. They may have suffered an injury, been charged with a crime, or been involved in a property dispute.
Part of what these people are looking for is reassurance, and you can give this to them. Of course, you can't just tell them everything will be all right, but you can show them that you're a competent and approachable attorney who is equipped to help them in any way possible. With this in mind, your tone needs to be conversational rather than officious and abstract.
Even the readers who are entirely calm and collected while looking at your content are not legal experts. They're not looking to be blown away by your brilliance in the field of legal writing. They just want to know more about whatever search term they typed into Google.
Equally, however, you need to maintain an air of professionalism. You must remind readers that you are an experienced and capable attorney, not a freshman law student. While effective communication is your overarching goal, you should always make sure to refer back to the relevant legal principles.
4. Build Authority With a Solid Linking Strategy
When it comes to law firm SEO, keywords will always be your first consideration. However, links are also hugely important.
By including embedded outbound links to reputable third-party websites, you're showing search engines that your content is well-researched and trustworthy. Modern search engines are smart enough to differentiate between good and bad sources; therefore, ".gov" and ".edu" websites are your best friends when writing legal blogs.
If other websites link back to yours, that will also boost your SEO. Pages that link to your website are known as backlinks, and the more of them you accumulate, the better. Of course, this isn't as easy to pull off as adding links on your own pages; you can't force another website to refer to your content. There are, however, proven backlink-building approaches you can use, such as guest posting.
Internal linking (linking between different posts on your own site) is important as well. It builds your readership by getting visitors to look at two or more of your posts, rather than only one. It also demonstrates to search engines that different pieces on your blog are related to one another, making your website look authoritative and ultimately boosting your rankings.
5. Make It Interesting
This is another struggle many lawyers have when it comes to penning marketing content. You might love the intricacies of the law and the complexity that comes with them; the average reader, however, is likely to find highly technical content boring. Such content therefore has no place on your firm's blog.
The best way to make marketing content interesting for readers is to use real-world examples that are relevant to your audience. If, for example, you're a personal injury specialist, it's a good idea to blog about the cases you win and the amounts received by plaintiffs. For someone who's just suffered an injury themselves, a large dollar amount is going to catch their eye.
Of course, this may not work for every lawyer. Luckily, the law provides an endless supply of interesting stories to tell. You shouldn't have any problem engaging readers with legal blogs, as long as you find the right voice in which to communicate your message.
6. Use Social Media to Interact
Comments sections, whether on your social media pages or directly under your blog, provide a valuable means of building a rapport with readers and showing potential clients that you're interested in what they have to say.
Social media is also useful for building your audience. While search engines attract most of the attention when it comes to garnering clicks, social platforms provide an accessible means of getting eyes on your content, especially if you're new to blogging.
I use LinkedIn for content sharing, as it targets other professionals. While not as many people will see you on their news feeds, the people that do come across your posts are more likely to click on them.
The downside of social media engagement, compared to organic search, is that you're not necessarily getting readers who are actively looking for the service you're offering. However, increased exposure for your business is never bad news.
The Bottom Line
Whether to attract more Google searchers or just to keep pace with competitors, content marketing is increasingly becoming a necessity for law firms. It advertises your areas of operation and establishes you as an expert in these areas.
If you need me to expand or refine your blog presence (or get you started from scratch) get in contact today. I can provide a quote once I know more about your specific legal content marketing requirements.
Comments