The Key Factors Of A Successful Legal Content Marketing Plan
Whether you belong to a major firm or a small local one, the key to any successful law firm lies with how you market your services and expertise.
Let’s be real. You didn’t go to Law School and pass the bar to spend your days learning about Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, HTML codes, and Social Media Marketing. However, since you’re here, I’m assuming that you want to get access to simple and practical tools to help you market your practice, and, of course, grow it.
I have great news for you!
The digital space has suffered major shifts over the last year. Since we have access to so much data, we have been able to crack the code of what people want, so that marketing turns into a direct communication with your future clients, telling them exactly what they want to hear.
The best way to explain this so you can have a great idea of how the marketing world has changed is to use Netflix as an example. Do you pay for cable or do you prefer Netflix? Do you like ads or do you prefer to control if you want to see the ads or not? I don’t need to see you to know your answer. I know your answer!
And you’re not alone…
- 91% of people say ads are more intrusive today than 2-3 years ago
- 87% say there are more ads in general than 2-3 years ago
- 79% feel like they’re being tracked by retargeted ads
People feel overwhelmed, interrupted, and stalked by bad digital ads, but they don’t really mind the good ones.
I think I have even better news for you! I don’t believe your law firm marketing needs to use a lot of budget for advertising. I believe that word of mouth is, ultimately, your goal. You’re not up to target the masses so you can be hired as the cheapest. You want people coming to you because they’ve heard that you’re the best. I hope Attorney Komie doesn’t get offended by me saying that lawyers don’t need to advertise! 🙂 By the way, the very first time I saw this ad I had to take a picture and share with my lawyer friends.
Now that you know you’re not paying for a billboard or shooting a video for a commercial that will go on cable tv, I hope you’re happy to learn about content marketing and how can you leverage to grow your law firm.
What Is Content Marketing For Law Firms?
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Consumers are ignoring brands that are interjecting what they want people to hear and see, rather than creating stories consumers want to hear and see themselves.
Rather than one-off ad campaigns and self-centered marketing materials, law firms that produce content that inspires, educates and entertains their target market, while using a consistent, authentic editorial voice, are succeeding in breaking through in today’s crowded marketplace.
The best law firm content marketing — whether in the form of website content, articles, video or audio — focuses on the client’s needs and not the firm’s preferences.
Content Marketing Is Not Just Blogging
Many clients confuse content marketing with blogging. Content marketing is more than just your blog.
A successful law marketing strategy should have the objective of getting an audience to find you when they need you, trust you when they are searching your name, and believe in your expertise when they read about your work. Keep this in mind for each of your law marketing efforts.
The American Bar Association in their Legal Technology Survey Report from 2018 says:
Content marketing can help humanize a lawyer, show that they have a point of view, and give potential clients a taste of what working with a particular lawyer might be like. It is an opportunity to become a trusted authority and a resource for information or perspective on a particular topic. But that content should be original (or have original elements and commentary), relevant, and current.
Does Content Marketing for Law Firms Work?
Here are the facts.
Content marketing for law firms brings in 55% more visitors to your website and 67% more leads.
97% of all law firms fail to deliver personalized legal content marketing to their consumers.
Only 26% of firms maintain a consistent blog, and only a mere 7% of attorneys maintain a blog for professional purposes. With the benefits that content marketing for law firms provides, it’s astounding to see these numbers so low.
Should You Hire A Marketing Agency Or A Legal Content Marketing Expert Instead?
Some law firms are hiring legal content marketing experts to implement their legal marketing strategies. They are moving from hiring an agency that focuses on tactics to generate web traffic, to implement a much “humanized” marketing strategy, scaleable, and with a higher ROI – long term.
Let’s say, for example, you are a divorce attorney and you want to reach your local market. Or you’re a marketing specialist for a law firm and they are asking you to focus in building their law firm reputation. Even when those tasks are different, both will need quality content.
A legal content marketing expert is different than a marketing specialist or a social media specialist because it can take over your content, understanding how to research the terms and concepts that your audience is searching. Imagine that your best paralegal is now a marketing ninja! That’s what some of the successful law firms are doing. I’ve been training some amazing paralegals on SEO, LinkedIn Marketing, and Facebook Advertising for Law Firms and it’s great to see how someone with a real voice can create content that feels like a real conversation.
When you have a legal content marketing expert in your team you can produce rich blog posts that can be shared by major publications and that gives you great visibility.
How Will Your Content Marketing Boost Your Revenue?
Many of the attorneys and law firms that request my Marketing Assessment express their concern about ROI.
I’m sure this is one of your questions as well so let me share some of the key ingredients that will help you translate your law marketing efforts into revenue.
The CMI’s digital content marketing stats show that 72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement. In addition, 72% say it has increased the number of leads. While engagement and leads are not direct indicators of revenue, those 2 metrics are key components of your marketing and sales engine.
You need to be able to have a series of activities that drive you real revenue-generating opportunities, just like you do when you have a tort case!
In a tort case, there are four elements a plaintiff needs to proof: duty, breach of duty, causation, and injury. In a law marketing strategy, I need to be able to track and measure:
- Awareness: followers and subscribers
- Consideration: engaged users and readers
- Trust: user retention
- Response to a call to action: conversions
Considering Hiring A Legal Content Marketing Expert?
If you’re considering hiring a legal content marketing expert for your team, let’s have a conversation. I only commit with lawyers and law firms who want to produce excellent content.
Legal marketing content that stands out, plus
- Meets all the ethical standards
- Edited by professional copywriters
- Generate measurable results
