The legal industry often gets stereotyped as being strict, stuffy and boring. With this in mind, law firms often struggle to create content that both adheres to industry guidelines and is compelling enough to entice potential clients to hire them. After all, there are only so many ways to add an interesting spin to law firm content, right?
The good news is, contrary to what many lawyers and marketers believe, there are, in fact, many ways to create engaging content for law firms. All it takes is the right strategy, a bit of creativity and a thorough understanding of one’s target audience.
Here’s how to use content marketing without being boring:
1. Ask the user.
The best way to generate fresh, engaging content ideas is to ask your clients (and potential clients) what they want to read. Use Google Forms to create a survey to send to your readers and past clients. Include questions like:
• What questions do you have about [legal topic] (e.g., divorce)?
• What are the three biggest struggles you have when it comes to [legal issue]?
• Where do you go to find law-related content online?
• What kind of content would you like to see on a website?
Their answers to these questions will help you generate some interesting content ideas that you know your audience wants to read. Then, you can plug these topics into your law firm’s new and improved content strategy.
2. Build a content marketing strategy.
The content marketing industry is said to be worth $412 billion by 2021 and has been experiencing an annual growth rate of 16%. This shows us that not only is content marketing important, but it’s becoming more important year over year.
You can build your own content marketing strategy by first getting intentional about why you are creating content. To do that, be sure to answer these questions:
• What’s the immediate goal?
• What’s the end goal?
• Which channels will you be posting content on?
• How often will you be posting content?
• What action do you want readers to take?
• What types of content will you be creating?
• Are you going to create content in-house or hire an agency?
Once you have a plan, it will be easier to create effective content and stick to a consistent posting schedule. Having a strategy will put you leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors.
3. Write for the reader, then for Google.
One of the main reasons your law firm should be creating and publishing content is to attract new visitors to your website. SEO content helps you draw traffic from search engines — namely, Google.
Don’t make the mistake of writing content with the sole purpose of generating organic traffic. Ultimately, you want readers to turn into paying clients. Therefore, you should create interesting and thorough content that provides value to readers, then optimize it according to SEO best practices.
4. Tell a story and connect.
To avoid creating content that bores your readers’ socks off, try connecting the legal topic to a real-life story or example. Legal content can be a bit confusing and dry if the real-world application isn’t made clear.
Tell a story to connect how the main topic relates to how the reader lives their everyday life, or how you’ve helped a past client overcome obstacles. Try to make connections between the often complex legal issues and how it applies to your readers or the general public.
5. Mix it up with media.
Keep people reading with content that’s both interesting and visually appealing. Add in high-quality photography, graphics, videos and even GIFs to grab the reader’s attention. Not only does adding media often make your content more engaging, but it can increase the chances that readers will share your content on social media, helping you reach a wider audience.
6. Create a consistent posting schedule.
One of the goals of your content marketing strategy is to get your law firm in front of as many potential clients as possible. To broaden your reach and generate more traffic from search engines, you’ll want to be creating content on a consistent basis.
One of our law firms went from nearly zero traffic to approximately 100,000 visitors per month by consistently posting 25 new pieces of content per month.
Create a content calendar that you can stick to. Having a plan will make it easier for you to stay on top of content creation and do your part in attracting potential clients to your website.
7. Stay on top of trends.
Trending news stories can be a great source of creative content ideas. If something is trending, that means users are actively searching for more information about that topic. You can get in on the action and grab some of that content for yourself.
Write a blog post that relates to a recent news story and how it fits in with a relevant legal issue or law. Then describe how the story and law apply to your readers. Share the post on social media to get people buzzing.
8. Keep what works, nix what doesn’t.
Your content marketing strategy is just that — a strategy. That means you want to follow the data and continue with the strategies that are working and nix those that aren’t working.
Use Google Analytics to track traffic numbers on your website. If one type of content is performing particularly well, you may want to create more content like that. If some content is getting zero traffic, this may be a sign that your readers just aren’t interested.
Is it time to step up your law firm’s content marketing strategy? Start creating content that users want to read and lay out a plan to get more traffic, better leads and more clients.
