Why Should Law Firms Invest in Content Marketing?

Content marketing is one of the most important tools today for any law firm seeking the best online presence.

87% of business firms say that content marketing helped them achieve their brand awareness goals.

Using content marketing for law firms, you will be able to develop your firm’s brand and position yourself as a benchmark in your area of ​​expertise.

However, it is one of the most competitive sectors on the web. From social media to blogging, it can seem overwhelming to decide where to focus your time and resources for the best results.

This blog will explain how to improve your online visibility with content marketing for law firms and obtain a regular flow of potential customers.

What is Law Firm or Attorney Content Marketing?

In simple terms, law firm content marketing is creating and delivering relevant and consistent content to attract, engage and retain your audience. You need to make sure that the content you create and share closely relates to:

• Your niche or sector
• Your area of expertise
• What your audience needs

This content aims to attract new clients, retain existing ones, and install your firm as an expert in the field.

The best law firm content marketing, whether in the form of blog or website articles, video or audio, focuses on client needs rather than firm preferences.

It consists of creating and distributing valuable content to the target customer free of charge through different channels: social networks, blogs, email marketing, etc.

Rather than traditional advertising campaigns and old-fashioned marketing materials, law firms that consistently produce content that inspires, educates, and entertains their target audience achieve success.

What Are The Advantages Of Content Marketing For Lawyers?

Some of the main advantages it will bring to your business are:

• Positions you as a benchmark in your business niche.
• Increases brand awareness.
• Generates ‘leads’ – people who are interested in your services
• Fosters partnerships with other relevant brands.
• Helps in creating greater networks that offer business opportunities.
• Serves as a determining factor for your clients with respect to your competition.
• Improves the positioning of your website on Google and other search engines.
• Free advertising, through a good positioning in Google.
• Improves your presence on social networks.
• Saves money: it is cheaper and more effective than conventional marketing campaigns.
• Works as an enhancement in communication media to convey messages to your potential and real-time customers.

What Do You Need to Create a Content Marketing Plan For Law Firms?

• Define your goals
• Evaluate your firm’s resources
• Think about the factors that influence your web presence
• Brainstorm on the aspects that you can improve
• An action plan

Step By Step Action Plan To Implement Content Marketing For Attorneys

 

 

 

Below is a step-by-step guide to content marketing that can help your law firm move up on the search engines and attract new clients.

Step 1 Optimize Your Firm’s Website

All of your content marketing efforts will go to waste if your website is not presentable. A slow and poor website instantly creates a bad first impression for someone looking for a lawyer.

So the first step is to have a functional, well-designed website that helps you convert traffic into leads. If people can’t easily navigate your website, due to errors and bugs, they can’t trust that your firm can help them with their specific issues.

As a result, they will close the page directly and not call you for a consultation. And if the website looks bad on mobile and can’t be easily navigated, that’s even worse!

This creates a bad image in the minds of internet users, and it could have a bad impact on the traffic the website receives.

So be sure about…

Easy Navigation

You must make sure that your website is easy to navigate, with a simple interface, placing the most important options for customers at a glance. In this way, they will be more interested in your services.

Mobile Friendliness

Indeed, a large number of visitors use their mobile devices to search for lawyers. Also, Google considers Mobile-First Indexing as a ranking factor for websites since July 2019.

So, if the website is not compatible with viewing on mobile, Google will not show it in results and your visitors will go with someone else.

A responsive site offers navigation ergonomics and a comfortable user experience on all screen sizes. You can test your site for mobile compatibility through the Google Search Console tool.

The Site is Fast

Some plugins may look attractive on your website, but if they are slowing down the loading time, ditch them. The giant Google has shown that more than half of users leave a page that takes more than three seconds to load.

Here are some easy ways to improve the speed of your law firm site:

• Compress files
• Reduce the number of images
• Reduce the weight of JavaScript and CSS codes
• Place JavaScript files at the bottom of the page

Some Other Mandatory Things

Contact information: Phone, Email, address, maps, should be clearly visible so that customers can easily locate the office.

Images of the work team: It is a very good marketing strategy for lawyers since visitors will see who they will be working with.

Updates client testimonials: They serve as proof of your credibility and a deciding factor for your potential clients to choose you over your competitors.

Step 2 Know Your Audience

In the content marketing field, it is critical to transmit the right information to the right people.

So think – Who are your law firm’s ideal clients?

Your legal services aren’t for everyone. Therefore, it is important to know exactly who will search and read the content you produce.

After all, your law firm content needs to educate, engage, and speak the language of your audience. This is how you will build brand awareness through leadership and generate more leads for your firm.

To ensure that your legal content is written for your audience, ask yourself the following questions:

• What challenges are your customers facing?
• What do they care about?
• What are their goals?

You may find different answers to these questions, which means you have different types of customers. And that’s totally normal.

Most companies and big brands have multiple target audiences who might need their product/service.

Categorizing or sorting your customers is a useful tool for writing content in such a scenario.

Collect detailed information about your ideal customers, including their challenges, goals, and demographics. It allows you to easily create personalized content for your different types of customers.

To do this, it will be necessary to conduct customer opinion polls or surveys to know exactly what your customers are looking for.

Remember, when it comes to content, one model does not fit all. Make sure your message is tailored to each audience so it’s reasonable and well placed.

Step 3 Plan Your Editorial Calendar And Start Creating Content

While it’s easy to start creating content and posting it to your channels. However, you soon find yourself struggling to maintain consistency.

So, first, develop a strategy. Having a clearly defined content publishing schedule is essential to any content marketing effort.

Create a content schedule and stick to it. Think about…..

What topics are you going to write on?
You cannot provide solutions for everyone. So, identify the topics you want to be known as an expert on and focus on writing.

What topics to avoid?
It’s also important to know what topics you don’t want to relate to. If you don’t identify these topics, you risk drifting off your path.

How consistently should you generate content?
Regularity is the key to content marketing. Establishing a process and routine for content development and publishing goes a long way in ensuring consistent and continued success.

Who will create content?
The creator can be you, a partner agency, or an outside professional. What’s important is that you set a process that works best for you from a time management perspective.

Pro Tip: Start by creating new content every month and gradually move to twice a month.

Sample Content Calendar:

• Define and develop a topic on Monday
• Draft and finalize by Wednesday
• Publish and distribute on Thursday
• Interact with the public on Friday

Step 4 Create Exceptional Content

As a lawyer, your client expects your advice. Therefore, your website should do the same. Using your own content to convey useful and relevant information makes it a go-to reference.

People looking for information about a new law or addresses of administrative jurisdictions, for example, could find their answer if you create content dealing with this information.

You will need to make your website serve as a relevant resource while making your law firm appear as the subject matter expert. Also, be sure to include a disclaimer stating that the information on the website is not considered legal advice.

3 Ways To Create Creative Law Marketing Content

A blog with legal content does not have to be boring. There are many more creative ways to boost brand recognition, generate ‘engagement’ and more business opportunities.
Below are three innovative strategies for creating authentic and converting (turning visitors into clients) content for law firms.

#1 Appeal to Different Stages Of The Customer Experience

Know your audience. Instead of creating large articles where we address everything, create pieces that are related to each step of the customer journey.

It is known in Marketing as a customer journey map. This customer journey map is divided into 4 phases: Discovery, Acquisition, Purchase, and Retention.

The type of message and approach that we use in our content will be different depending on which one we work with.

The objective with this is to generate content that is interesting to our audience in each of the phases of their process as clients.

Discovery Phase
In this phase, potential clients will have entered our site to search for information relevant to their case. Therefore, we must try to create interesting, stimulating, or exciting content that attracts their attention.

For this, you can try providing advice and recommendations and sharing life experiences. For example, if you are dedicated to Family Law, write articles such as:

• 3 key factors to know if your partner is considering a divorce
• Foster or adopt: 3 families tell you about their experiences

It is eye-catching content related to your niche, but you are not overwhelming the reader with information (if they are on our website, they are probably interested or looking for legal services!)

In other words, this lets your customer know that you understand their problems and that you “speak their language.”

Acquisition Phase
In this phase, people have already interacted with our brand in some way, but they may not be ready to take the plunge.

There can be a thousand reasons: It’s not the right time, I don’t know how much it would cost me, I need more information or references, etc

It is time to create a greater ‘engagement’ with the client. As lawyers, you are probably familiar with the decisive factors that make your clients hire your service.

Now you need to create content that addresses those factors such as cost, reliability, experience, etc.

Purchase Phase
The ‘leads’ are almost ready to buy. So how to take the final step? It’s time for charm and persuasion. And by charm and persuasion, we mean “selling techniques”.

The content we devise for this phase is less emotional and more promotional. Testimonials, case studies, are examples of such content.

It is also essential in this phase to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. For this, we recommend you write not only on your website but to strategically post on other sites as well, such as:

• Online media like well-known blogs
• Specialized forums
• Social media groups
• Any other site where you detect potential customers

The more you write on other sites, the more links will point to your website. As a result, Google will reward you by sending more people interested in your services to your website.

#2 Create “Human” Content Adapted To The Right Moment

The Internet is saturated with articles on Trending topics and click baits. As annoying as they are for us, it is true that we can learn a very valuable lesson from them:

Users like emotional content, that is attractive, controversial or that provokes some kind of feeling or reaction.
Staying on top of trends is the best way to position content at the right time.
Any current events generating a great debate in social networks? This is a good time to offer an attorney’s perspective on the issue.
For example, if celebrities are getting divorced, create a post about “division of assets”.
This ensures that your article will go further and be shared more. And in that path of clicks, you will reach a potential client who will continue browsing our website in search of legal advice.

#3 Applicable Knowledge

The creation of content based on applicable knowledge aims to inspire, instruct, make understand or help the reader.

Imagine the headline “3 Things That Happen if Your Mortgage Has a Lender Protection”
Another headline for the same meaning is “Does Your Mortgage have Lender Protection? This is All You Need to Know”

The difference between the first statement and the second is that the latter challenges the reader much more (with the question) and includes a call to action (what you need to know).
You know that inside there will be specific advice for your situation and, probably, also information on how to hire a service to help you solve it.

Step 5 Create Content For Social Networks

One of the basic pillars of content marketing for lawyers is based on the creation of content on social networks. Because oddly enough, a lawyer also needs a content strategy on social networks.

The social networks that work best for marketing for lawyers are Facebook, Instagram, and now TikTok.

Create content that adds value, teach something that can be useful to your audience and you will see how fast you grow. For example, make reels or TikTox with tricks or legal tips that can help your followers.

Step 6 Promote Your Content

Many law firms think that by posting blog posts or videos, they are doing content marketing. However, in 2022, law firm content marketing is more than just that.
Well, when done right, content marketing generates 3x more leads than blind marketing efforts and costs 62% less. It is extremely true. Content marketing can increase the quantity and quality of your leads and improve the conversion rate.

Know – Where to Publish Content to Promote It

After creating your content, you need to present it to your audience. And just as there are many types of content, there are also many places to post content.

The first choice to post is on your own channels. These spaces are places where you have full control over what and how often you post. It includes your website, legal blog and social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.

Along with the channels you own, you should also reach out to industry-specific magazines, journals, and websites to get your content published on these platforms as well. When distributing content, it’s important to tailor the message to each platform you use.

You can also seek out and contact e influencers in your field to share your content. Your potential customers certainly follow their favorite influencers and trust what they post.

This approach helps you get closer to your target audience, build leadership and brand awareness, and improve your law firm’s SEO ranking without investing much in SEO for lawyers.

Step 7 Reuse The Content With The Most Traffic

It’s very important to keep tracking the results of your campaigns and identify content with higher traffic and a higher engagement rate.

All of this information helps find content to replicate because it’s relevant, engaging, and attracts the right kind of clients to your law firm.

Intelligently reproduce your best existing content by bringing out brand new content:

• A blog post can be converted into an impressive video.
• Two or three infographics can make a long article or even an ebook.
• Reproduce excerpts from a white paper or e-book into multiple blog posts.

You are only limited by your imagination when it comes to content reproduction. You can distribute this content through various channels, from advertisements, social networks or online forums to move it among a suitable audience.

Content Marketing Mistakes Law Firms Make

Most law firms these days understand the importance of content marketing.

However, the challenge most lawyers face is that they often have very little marketing experience, which leads to poorly executed content marketing efforts.

If you want your marketing efforts to pay off, you mustn’t make the mistakes most lawyers make, including:

Not Knowing Their Target

The biggest mistake most lawyers make is that they don’t have a clearly identified target market or ideal client. Lawyers usually have a vague idea of ​​the clients they’d like to work with, but they haven’t spent time getting to know their best client.

The problem is that if you don’t know who your ideal customer is, it’s nearly impossible to know how to frame and pitch your content.

• Are you talking to a business owner, a savvy real estate investor, or a housewife?
• What are the specific needs of each category?
• What problems are they facing?
• What should they know about your expertise?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, it’s worth spending time getting to know your target audience and clarifying these points.

Once you have this information at your fingertips, you can provide content to help them solve these problems. This will showcase your expertise and make you very valuable to potential clients.

Creating Irrelevant Content

Another mistake lawyers make when creating content is that they don’t know what their clients are looking for or what they want to know.

Most attorneys will make assumptions about what information is relevant to their clients, which often leads to a significant miss of the mark.

It is therefore important to learn what information your current customers need. Do some keyword research on Google to see what answers people are looking for.

The key to creating valuable content is understanding exactly what your ideal customer wants to know. What you think they need to know and what they actually want to know are often two very different things.

Also, remember that you’re probably making the wrong assumption about what your customers already know. This can lead to overly complicated or misplaced content.

Collect email addresses, send surveys, and ask for feedback from potential customers to narrow down topics to discuss.

Advertising Themselves

Whether you use blog posts or videos, try not to talk too much about yourself. Demonstrating your experience is good for credibility, but the focus should be on the quality of information your customer is looking for.

That said, the content created should be primarily about your target audience, not about you. Often attorneys will issue a call to action at the end of a blog post, perhaps to learn more about their services.

But the best you can do is offer a free content update to add even more value. For example, perhaps you could insert a link to a related blog or a free guide on a relevant topic.

You can even choose to trade email addresses for this information so you can build a relationship with your prospects via email automation later. Also, don’t invest in law firm PPC campaigns if your website is not well-optmized content. It may bring traffic but not conversions.

Excessive Use of legalese

The number of law firms that use legalese in their blogs and publications is overwhelming. They think that it makes them very competent and therefore credible in the eyes of readers.

But if your customers can’t easily understand the language of your content, they probably won’t continue reading.

And of course, the longer a visitor stays on your website, the more likely they are to contact you. So try to take the time to write your legal content in plain language.

Use legal terminology only when absolutely necessary. If you use it, explain what this term means in simple language that everyone can understand.

Simplicity always helps ease your reader’s confusion and anxiety. Also, speaking the customer’s language makes it easy for them to connect with you.

Remember that good content marketing requires easily and quickly readable content without complications.

Stepping Into Content Creation Without Research

Creating valuable content takes time and effort to ensure that each piece of content you create can last and expand as much as possible.

However, many lawyers fail to see the importance of a content marketing strategy and jump right into creating it, often resulting in their valuable content being lost to the archives over time.

A great content marketing strategy analyzes the type of content you are going to create, ties it to newsworthy events, and allows for greater distribution and reuse of that content.

A well-considered content marketing strategy not only saves you time but often results in a better return on investment for the content you’ve created.

While most attorneys understand the importance of creating great content, few understand how a content marketing strategy can help them get the most out of valuable content.

To get the results you’re looking for, you’ll need strategy and an action plan.

Key Takeaways

Lawyers can use content marketing in different ways to enhance their online presence and thus generate massive ROI.

The key to any successful content marketing strategy is to write for your audience and provide value.

Your client base is often looking for information and education. Make your content the valuable resource that gives them the answers they seek.

It will put them in a position to do business with you in the near future.

A consistent and ongoing content generation goes a long way toward ranking you as an expert in your field. In summary :

• Define your target audience
• Establish an editorial calendar
• Share this content on social networks, such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and SlideShare
• Distribute this content to your network via targeted emails
• Analyze and reuse your best content

Finally, keep in mind that content marketing on behalf of your law firm cannot be a random act. It should be created strategically and with specific goals in advance. Also, good things like establishing a reputation take time. Be patient to see the expected results!