Should You Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Law Firm?

Customers are savvy; they know services are being marketed to them, especially online. Despite this, consumers look for legal firms with a strong online presence to seek legal advice. It is a no-brainer; content marketing and promotions for legal services are common today but your audience daily comes across hundreds of such promotional content without clicking.  

That’s where law firms need a compelling content marketing approach to create relevant content and distribute it smartly to show expertise. When done correctly, content marketing for a law firm generates 4x leads. Clearly defined content is the smartest way for legal firms to retain leads and turn clicks into action. 

Now, the question is, how do you plan a content marketing strategy for a law firm to get those results? If you’re not sure, we’ve got it for you. Here’s everything you need to increase traffic and win more leads.

Benefits of Content Marketing for Law Firms

Content marketing for law firms is a way to hit professional goals and drive more traffic for your offerings. If content marketing is done correctly, it helps you with the following:

• Drive organic traffic through SEO-optimized content
• Generate backlinks to bring maximum leads. 
• Better engagement 
• Establish expertise and leadership
• Build online community
• Improve visibility on search engine 

Sharing useful information in the form of blogs, articles, newsfeeds, and others to potential customers helps to stand out in the crowded market. Also, Google ranks sites relevant to the customer’s problems with defined solutions. If your content speaks perfectly, targets clients’ questions, and addresses them appropriately, it helps nurture a bond between customers and your firm.

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Law Firm

Now that you know the benefits of content marketing strategy, it’s time to create compelling content marketing tactics to deliver valuable content.

• Defining Your Goals and Objectives

Legal firms aim to create brand awareness, expand market reach, and search engine visibility. Before you make an investment in content marketing for a law firm, ask questions to yourself. What is your ultimate goal in content marketing? Do you want to generate leads? Do you want to invest in content marketing to improve brand awareness? The answer to the above questions helps to find out clear goals.

Your goals of content marketing should be SMART

S- Specific 

M- Measurable and responsive 

A- Attainable

R- Reliable and relevant 

T-Time bound 

For instance, if you’re aiming to boost traffic, invest in useful and relevant content. You can achieve goals faster if you know whom you want to target. 

• Identifying Your Target Audience and Their Needs

When you are clear about goals, it’s high time to identify the targeted audience. Remember, legal content is about educating the audience about legal rights, current solutions for legal problems, ongoing legal affairs, and more. That’s where you need to ask some questions to know your audience better-

• What are the current challenges audiences are facing?
• What are their goals?
• What are the most common legal issues they care about?
• Do they face legal issues somehow?

Understanding a buyer’s persona is an impactful tool for defining content marketing strategies for law firms. By getting answers to the above-listed questions, you’ll be able to know who your audience is and how you can target them.

• Choosing The Right Content Types And Formats

Now that you know the targeted audience, you have to choose the right content type and format. For instance, some audiences like to read long blogs and articles. But some prefer to listen to audio notes and podcasts and watch visual content. Hence, by providing the relevant type of content, you’ll be able to catch the audience’s attention. 

You can also use mix-and-match content if you need clarification on what type of content provides better engagement.

• Developing A Content Calendar And Distribution Plan

When you gain some insight into the target audience, content type, and how to distribute content, you need a calendar to stay streamlined. Develop an editorial calendar or a content calendar. This helps to mark all your content for each month. The calendar helps to categorize the top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and bottom of the funnel. You can use Google Calendar to distribute plans evenly. 

Types of Content That Work for Law Firms

Generally, the audience reads the content of law firms to get some advice about legal matters. This is the only thing they can offer to the readers and listeners. As a law firm, you can leverage the following type of content:

• Blog Posts 

A blog post is a great way to publish informative content. Legal firms can also use blog posts to address questions of the targeted audience, including medical law, injury claims, personal legal matters, and more.

• Case Studies 

Case studies are often popular amongst legal firms. This helps to tell about real-life cases and stories. It’s a good way to showcase your expertise in particular matters. Case studies often show past client records, which further helps to build trust.

• Legal News 

Legal news is often popular amongst law firms. It helps to inform the audience about current legal issues and matters discussed worldwide. 

• How to Type and Tutorials

Audiences love solutions, and they mostly search for how-to-type tutorials. For instance, what things should I consider while handling legal property disputes? Providing a stepwise guide is very useful in catching the audience’s attention. 

• Podcasts 

Today people have a hectic schedule and don’t want to spend time reading content. That is where you can use audio content to target the audience. Podcasts are an excellent way to provide the best solutions to your audience in audio format.

• Videos Content

Like podcasts, visual content is also an effective way to target audiences and turn them into leads. According to a report, nearly 74% of marketers incorporate visual content in their content marketing strategy to cater to eyeballs.

Distribution and Promotion of Your Content

Content marketing for law firms is incomplete without distribution on relevant platforms. To maximize your reach, leverage omnichannel marketing. Start publishing over websites, social media, and third-party websites.

Here are some platforms where you can share content such as:

• Blogspot.com
• Facebook.
• Email list.
• Instagram.
• LinkedIn.
• Twitter.
• Reddit.
• Pinterest.
• YouTube.
• Third-party sites.
• Social blogs (like Medium.com).

You can also distribute content plans according to your competitors. Most content distribution relies on building legal backlinks for internal linking and external websites. You can also use paid advertisements to improve your traffic. Pay-per-click ads, Google ads, Facebook ads, and Instagram ads are impactful in distributing your content.

Measuring the Success of Your Content Marketing Strategy

Content promotion and posting content are the first thing, but it only makes sense if you know whether content drives results. After all, the ultimate goal is to generate leads and solid ROI from a content marketing strategy for a law firm.

Measure results, Google Analytics, is beneficial for tracking a website’s performance, bounce rate, sources of traffic, and goal completion. It also helps to define whether the content is providing results. Likewise, social media platforms also provide tools to track engagement, clicks, likes, and more. To measure the effects of content marketing, you can look at these parameters-

• Goal completions.
• Social media shares.
• Website bounce rate.
• Social media clicks.
• Downloads.
• Email clicks.
• New subscribers.
• Phone calls.
• Form fills.

Based on the data, you can plan your content marketing strategy for better results.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Unlike other business firms, law firms have restrictions on content marketing for law firms. You should be aware of these pitfalls to avoid while marketing your content.

• An outdated website. Make sure to keep your website organized, aligned, and SEO optimized. 
• Avoid posting direct testimonials or cases of clients. If you are posting case studies, be sure not to mention direct names and solutions.
• Always watch competitors and what they are doing to the target audience.
• Never ignore customers’ queries in comment boxes or on social media. Try to be answerable as much as possible to build trust. 
• Do not overreact to negative comments. Avoid them or answer politely; answering in a harsh tone may haul your image.

Bottom Line 

Content marketing for law firms is the most intuitive tool to increase visibility and customer reach. Law firms can leverage mix-and-match content, including blogs, articles, video content, and webinars, to address audience queries. Try to provide them with answers in all possible ways to build trust between audiences.

We hope the above strategy helps to market your content effectively. A good content marketing strategy also works for posting on social media platforms. If you’re wondering why is it needed, check out our blog- Social Media Marketing for Lawyers: How to Build a Strong Online Presence?