legal content marketing

As humanity evolves, development affects every industry, including the legal industry. We’ve left behind the faithful dusty Yellow Pages and embraced the online new beauty. Yet, the way a manufacturing company markets their online content is totally different from how a law firm markets their content. Why? There are issues of ethics, legalese and technicalities to be considered. If you’re marketing legal content for your law firm blog, please ensure the following essentials are part of your strategy.

Content Marketing Within Ethical Boundaries:

The legal profession is one of such professions that come with binding rules against excessive advertising or soliciting. Although most Rules of Professional Conducts (or their equivalent in each country) are liberal when it comes to advertising and soliciting, the case is different with some other ethical issues. Always let fact prevail over exaggerations. A painter or writer could get away with exaggerations, but saying you’re an expert in an area of law while have just two years of experience could mean malpractice.

legal content marketing

Content Marketing with SEO:

Recently, I did an SEO website audit for an intellectual property law firm. I found them at 6th page for “IP Lawyer ***state***”, while for “IP Law Firm ***state***”, I couldn’t find them at all, even after checking up to the 12th page. Clearly, this means the firm needs some work on the SEO front, nevertheless they are doing okay for a 5+ months firm. The above is an example of local SEO, it is more beneficial for firms in highly competitive practice areas. As you write legal content for your law firm blog, format them for SEO. Overtime, your efforts will yield Google first page results. Research has it that with consistent and relevant content, a new blog can achieve that within three months. So, command the content space in your law practice area and get established as an authority with a stamp of approval from Google.

Content Marketing with Responsive Website:

7 in 10 persons access the internet on their mobile rather than a laptop or even a desktop. The way content displays on a laptop is different from the way content displays on a tablet, and still different from how the same content is displayed on a mobile device. To give your audience utmost satisfaction, it’s important you ensure websites are responsive across all devices. It makes for good user experience and also reduces bounce rates. Other things to consider are fast loading speed, legible fonts and navigation.

Content Marketing with Social Media:

You see, majority of people associate a stern looking unsmiling face with law firm and attorneys. Social media is your chance to tell them: “we’re humans too and we sincerely care about your legal needs!” It’s your opportunity to build goodwill and share photographs of social events or volunteer activities. You don’t have to set up camp on all the social media platforms, but ensure you at least have a strong presence on the ones your potential clients spend most of their time. For instance, a family or divorce lawyer/ law firm is likely to find their clients on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. While a corporate lawyer or law firm would find more of their prospective clients on LinkedIn, Google+ or Twitter. These suggestions are not fixed in stone, in fact, I know of a successful divorce attorney with large followers on LinkedIn. Nevertheless, each platform has different methods of engagement. Explore with some trial and error, then follow the ones that work best for you and your audience. You can also promote your blog content using social media.

Content Marketing with Testimonials and Law Firm News:

We all love recommendations, how much more in relation to professional services. Call up old clients who didn’t conveniently forget to pay your fees and ask for a testimonial to be displayed on the firm website. Try as much as possible to use their actual words rather than paraphrasing. Did your law firm just open a new office? Report it on the website. Everyone wants to associate with success. Moreover, the new office might be close to someone who has been searching for lawyers in a particular practice area, close to their location.

Content Marketing With(out) legalese:

Please, leave the legalese in your briefcase. Unless you’re blogging for colleagues or judges, resist the temptation to use legalese. Your content should aim to educate, reassure and then convert to a client. But if the reader has to read your content with a dictionary by the side, then it has failed to educate. Write content that shows empathy. If you’re a divorce attorney, the person reading your content is probably at an emotionally low point in life. Show a little bit of kindness. Be human.

Content Marketing with Analytics:

It is one thing to progress, but how do you know you are progressing forward or progressing backward? Analytics. You do not need to break the banks to get an analytics report. Google analytics is sufficient to provide you with all the metrics and details about your site that let’s you measure your positive or negative progress. Negative analytics are not intended to discourage, but rather show you areas where improvement is needed. Most social media platforms also provide analytics for how posts perform. That can help know the kind of content to produce more of.

Being able to do all these singlehandedly, may seem daunting, that’s why there is the option to hire a Content writer and strategist who knows how to handle all the points mentioned above.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dr YEMI Olagunju says

    Great editor!. She handles editing of Thesis, dissertation with a lot of dexterity. Thanks for being there for those of us in the world of research.

  2. Kingsley Ugochukwu Ani, Esq. says

    Fantastic piece, Faith.

    Points well enumerated and pointed out.

    What most firms fail to understand is simply the fact that they have to define their target audience. A Law firm writing for potential clients should make their blog client-centric and devoid of legal jargons that are meant for those within the same real sphere.

    Thanks for sharing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *