When people first seek the assistance of an attorney, potential clients look online for answers specific to their questions. That’s the reason why legal firms’ content marketing is an essential component of any complete law firm outreach plan. Here in this post, you will have a complete step-by-step content marketing guide for law firms.
Lawyer content marketing lets you engage with your targeted audience through an efficient, budget-friendly, cost-effective, and quantifiable method that is cost-effective, affordable, and quantifiable. It can help you, position lawyers, as experts they are by providing valuable information that will naturally improve your ranking on search engines such as Google.
Through learning more about the content of law and sharing that knowledge to create and implement a strategy that will build ongoing growth for your legal firm in the course.
What Is Content Marketing?
The concept of content marketing refers to a technique used by professionals to produce and distribute valuable pertinent information to a group of people. It is used to get more customers. It usually involves collaboration with editors and writers to create videos, articles, and social media posts as well as other content that can be made accessible to viewers for no cost.
The concept behind the notion of content marketing to law firms is that if you offer important information that prospective clients are looking to know, they’ll have a greater chance to get in touch with you when it’s time to find a lawyer. If your content is created using search engine optimization as an objective, the content can make it simpler for clients to locate your legal services.
Why Use Content Marketing?
It may at first appear like you’re offering valuable information at no cost. However, that’s not the case -it’s an investment strategy to improve your profit margins. By using this strategy, used by the top digital marketing experts, you’re able to enter the buying cycle that has four stages, without having to make a convincing pitch that could cause people to leave.
Contact clients: Before anyone contacts you to request assistance, you need to inform them of your company. In this phase of the buying cycle clients realize that they’ve got problems, however, they’re not certain if they can get help from anyone who could solve their issue.
Assistance by conducting research: Clients will naturally look into what lawyers have knowledge in the area in their particular case. They’re doing their own research and you can assist. Consider it as an advance to the phone call.
Customers recognize the value you bring. When you’ve helped them gain clarity or gain knowledge about their situation your company will be pushed up the ranks on their lists when they’re deciding whom to work with.
They’re in the market to make a complimentary consultation known as a “call to action” or CTA to encourage customers to take action. When you’ve finished your content, you can encourage your readers to pick up the phone. It’s possible to entice them by offering the opportunity to have a complimentary 30-minute phone call with your attorney. If it’s a great fit and you’ll get an additional client.
What is the best way to use content marketing in lawyers’ work? If you adhere to the procedure of creating a complete marketing strategy, you’ll be in a position to determine ROI. If your efforts aren’t getting appreciated, it’s possible to alter the plan to one that gets noticed.
Benefits of Content Marketing for Law Firms
There are numerous reasons legal firms’ marketing strategies contain content-based solutions. Content marketing’s benefits include:
- Your company’s image is known to the type of customers you wish to attract
- Organic web traffic is growing instead of via paid ads
- Greater trust and credibility in the community
- Improved customer relations
- Client onboarding and retention have increased
Legal marketing content requires time. You’ll need to allow for at least nine months before you anticipate a significant return. With the assistance of experts in the field, the legal team will not need to do additional work in the course of the strategy. Additionally, professional writers can create top-quality content that yields outcomes.
How to Create a Law Firm Content Marketing Strategy
Take these steps when you’re ready to develop your content strategy to support the growth of your law firm:
1. Articulate What Sets You Apart
The first step in developing the content for marketing law firms is to come up with the reasons why your clients should be working with your lawyer instead of other lawyers in your area.
The first step is to ask, “What makes you first, better, or different?”
Examine your competition and your market to determine what other companies are positioning their value. Examine your values and past. Make a list of short and long-term business objectives. Write down a brief list that makes your brand’s branding and message crystal clear.
2. Identify Your Audience
Who do you want to reach through your content? The more precise you define your group, the more successful your approach will be. Begin by gathering data on your current client list. Think about developing a questionnaire or conducting interviews with clients to identify trends and similarities.
It can also help determine who your intended audience is not. Beyond the basic geographical range as well as household income and gender. Think about the interests, issues, and careers of your ideal customers. Keep your target audience in mind when creating your content marketing materials.
3. Create a Budget
Professionals in marketing suggest that you allocate between 25 to thirty percent of your total marketing budget for content marketing.
You can typically pay to place ads in newspapers and legal journals as well as on radio and billboards. But content marketing at law firms is distinct. The budget will be spent on hiring producers and writers to write blog content and then you’ll be able to publish it at no cost. You’ll need to pay for:
- The compensation of the creator of content
- Editorial work is done by the editors and other experts
- Images, video, or audio elements
- Any other work outsourced
4. Set Measurable Goals for Success
Once you have a clear understanding of the cost of production then you can determine your return on investment. Keep in mind that you might need to purchase equipment and software to produce content. Additionally, you might consider investing in paid advertising to improve the distribution of content.
Your content marketing plan should contain metrics that are logical to you in terms of measuring. You must ensure that your goals are SMART, which means:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
For instance, you could monitor the number of visits to your site over the period of six months following your content marketing campaign’s launch. It is possible to create a questionnaire to find out how your new customers came across your site and monitor the number who read your blogs prior to making a time to schedule a consultation.
5. Plan a Realistic Strategy
It is possible to publish content across a variety of platforms, so you need to be aware and focused when you are doing your content marketing strategy for law firms. Begin by understanding the various types of content you can select:
Blogs
An article is a piece of writing that typically is between 500 to 2000 words. It provides immediate solutions to issues that your clients want to solve. Get your legal team involved in identifying the most frequently asked questions from clients who are currently or prospectively You can then create the list of blog topics that are specifically targeted to your target audience.
Utilize an SEO keyword search tool to ensure that your blog posts rank highly in Google as well as other engines.
White Papers and Ebooks
Like white papers, blogs and e-books contain written material. But, they’re longer and offer more detailed details. They can range from five to 100 pages of information, and all are at no cost.
Sometimes, they are utilized as a part of a marketing funnel to establish lasting relationships with your customers. Be sure to include pertinent keywords in these documents, too.
Videos
While written content is the most commonly used content on a law firm’s site, video content is a different option. You can upload them to platforms such as YouTube and include them on your site. By writing a script attorneys can communicate details via short videos which also give the person who is watching.
Social Media
In the realm of social media, marketing content for law firms needs additional planning. It is vital to safeguard the integrity and credibility of the legal profession with all content posted on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Blogs are able to serve two purposes when they are shared on social media platforms, and infographics can be useful to followers on social media.
6. Delegate the Work
Lawyers are skilled writers, however, legal writing differs significantly from the type of content you’ll require. Every day people are required to understand blogs and other forms of content to promote their business. In addition, your legal team’s objective is to billable hours. The majority of law firms employ freelance writers with experience writing blogs and other pieces of content.
Partnering with an agency will give you access to premium and original content that’s optimized for SEO and is targeted to those who are looking to work with your lawyers. By delegating legal writing tasks to a team of experts, your staff can concentrate on other aspects of the business.
In most cases, freelance writers are hired as ghostwriters. That means you can write whatever you like to your byline. It is quicker for the attorney to look over the blog after it has been completed than to make one completely from scratch.
7. Make a Calendar
You should publish relevant regular content to ensure maximum effectiveness. Blogs or posts that are not regularly updated won’t establish trust. Be prepared to post fresh content every week, and more frequently if it’s possible.
To do this, you need to create a spreadsheet for any marketing strategies document. Add columns to:
- Blog topics
- SEO keywords
- Length
- Writer
- Writing/editing deadline
- Deadline for review in-house
- Posting address (for websites and social media)
- Post date
It’s not an easy task to develop a plan but it’s definitely worth it. It won’t be a time to search to come up with a new content idea in the final minute.
8. Reevaluate the Plan Regularly
Plans for outreach — particularly ones that contain the use of the content for marketing in law firms should be constantly updated. When the measures you’ve decided to gauge aren’t meeting your objectives, you can alter the strategy and test a new approach. Plan time to review your strategy each quarter.
Keep your intended clients at the forefront of every discussion about content marketing campaigns. Be sure to answer any questions that your potential client might be asking. So, you can build the relationships necessary to convince your client to contact you to schedule a consultation for free. Pinterest can be a great source of ideas for blog posts that are legal.
Ideas for Law Content
Begin by asking your internal legal team the most common questions that people are asked to answer when they create content subjects. Next, take a look at blogs that have been published by your competitors to determine whether they’ve missed anything.
Here are 10 additional ideas for content ideas to encourage you:
- Legal advice shared by lawyers that highlight your expertise
- Examine recent changes to the law
- Define how court proceedings function.
- Dispel common myths
- Do not forget to share personal stories of your lawyers
- Offer case studies of recent victories either inside or outside of the courtroom
- Give a common legal approach without giving away too much, of course.
- Consider the season, for example, providing statistics to help customers remain safe and stay clear of DUIs during the holidays.
- Legal journals or review books articles
- Make announcements about special events, such as open houses or webinars with informational content
Legal Marketing Next Steps
To develop and implement a strategy that is successful that includes legal content marketing it is essential to set an appointment to discuss the plan with your team of leaders. Begin by gathering a small group of people to discuss what sets your company apart, what you would like to achieve as a client and a list of suggestions for creating content.
To aid your marketing team To assist your team in analyzing the competition, look up the competitors. Take notes of their content that you find particularly educational or enjoyable. Pay attention to the tone of voice to determine whether they’re speaking directly to the same audience. For instance, articles that are brimming with acronyms and jargon aren’t appropriate for the majority of people.
Create a document that you can share with the other partners, and make sure that everyone agrees to the plans. Include a calendar spreadsheet so everyone is aware of when information on certain legal issues will be released.
Create the Most Effective Law Firm Content
After that, it’s time to begin writing.
To cut down on time and cost by working in-house, consider an experienced writing company in the field of law. Many content writers provide content writing services which include the writing of blog posts white papers, e-books, and white papers as well as other copywriting requirements. This could take the stress off your legal team and increase the return on investment when you are able to attract new customers.
If you are publishing content, you should ask your lawyers to post relevant articles on their own social media accounts. Local newspapers or the Chamber of Commerce might wish to promote your blog also. With a completely legal strategy for content and experts who can create captivating content, you’re on the way to expanding your business while attracting the appropriate customers.
