17 Law Firm Content Marketing Tips
No doubt you’ve heard the term “Content is King”. In an industry that relies on thought leadership, content is a crucial part of any successful law firm’s marketing plan. However, we know that not all content is created equal. How do you craft compelling content that sets your firm apart? We’ve compiled 17 law firm content marketing tips to assist you in creating content that gets results.
Law Firm Content Marketing Tips
1. Create Content Around Clear Business Goals
Experts suggest that every piece of content you develop should have a measurable business goal in mind. Simply getting more views is not a worthwhile goal. For every piece of content, determine which audience you are trying to reach and to what end.
2. Understand Your Audience
Your targets are those who are most likely to engage with your firm. Use your buyer personas based on thorough market research to figure out who is best served by your practice. Make sure your team is referring to these personas when they create material.
3. Plot a Client Journey
Great law firm content marketing can engage readers at every stage of their journey. You want content that can attract new people to your organization, but you also want to reach people who are hesitant to sign a contract as well those that have done business with your firm for years already.
4. Solve Problems for the Reader
Successful content educates and demonstrates your brand’s expertise. Informative, helpful content can establish your firm as a trustworthy source of information and build on that reputation. Every piece of content should at least answer a question, offer useful tips, or share resources. At the same time, include information on your firm and how you can assist and support readers.
5. Use the Pillar-Cluster Method
This model is great for SEO and provides a better user experience for visitors. It centers on creating umbrella pages for larger topics and then linking to cluster pages that all support the subject. Internal linking can connect everything and also signals to Google that they’re related.
6. Take a Deep Dive
In general, longer content performs better than shorter content. This is beneficial for SEO, and also for your reader. If you seek to provide real answers for your audience, you should include everything they’ll need to know in order to solve the problem. The best way to do this is to cover one highly specific topic at a time. Additionally, make sure content only targets one or two keywords – but shares robust information that covers the topic.
7. Use Analytics to Track Performance
Quality content is important, but even really interesting content won’t do much good if it doesn’t help you to gain new clients. Analytics are key for monitoring and tracking, which is essential for knowing what’s working and what’s not. Analytics can also direct your strategy, for example, creating more content around the most popular topics.
8. Keep Content Relevant and Updated
Search engines favor material that is most up-to-date and recent, as long as it’s still relevant. As you create content, Google your topic and look closely at the results. If the keyword + the year shows up in “related searches” results, then search engines consider being up-to-date important.
9. Repurpose Old (but Quality) Content
Don’t let former content go to waste. By adopting a historical optimization strategy, you can make existing content relevant again. If a topic is particularly evergreen, take the time to repurpose the content so that it’s still relevant and easily found online.
10. Repurpose Content to Reach New Audiences
Similar to the point above, finding ways to recycle existing content will make your team more efficient. Using content in multiple ways is a great tactic for reaching new people. For example, a well-performing podcast lends itself to a white paper or live events on social media. Alternatively, if your latest blog performed well, consider making a short video to reach people on a different channel.
11. Keep Your Firm Voice Consistent Across Channels
People should be able to get a feel for your firm’s brand and personality no matter which channel they’re looking at. Content should share similar messaging and common values regardless of where it’s hosted.
12. Personalize Content
People have come to expect that websites will become more and more tailored to them the more they visit. On your website, you have control over what people see based on past behavior. You can use powerful website personalization tools to create dynamic content, or simply add features such as a pop-up that offers specific content. Think about things like which pages visitors have come to, how often, and what actions they’ve taken from there.
13. Use Data to Strengthen Points When Possible
When it comes to law firm content marketing, citing data is a great way to highlight the importance of certain points and create credibility. Data can also provide more insight into why people should read the piece in the first place. Use research that’s as recent as possible, and always use actual data from reputable sources.
14. Publish Unique Research
Original research can prove invaluable. It positions you as more knowledgeable and authoritative, and can answer questions that your audience has. You can do things like conducting surveys or creating polls and assessing the data. You can then refer to the research in other content, or keep it gated as a lead generation tactic.
15. Think Beyond Written Channels
Video is on the rise and needs to be included in your law firm content marketing plan. Rich video, image packs, and other visual elements are increasingly important. Furthermore, things like infographics, interactive charts, and other formats are easy to scan and remember. Podcasting and other audio elements have also become more popular. When you think about creating content, focus on more than articles and blogs.
16. Focus on the User Experience
User experience is a crucial part of law firm content marketing. Even if you have the highest-quality content backed by extensive research, people are going to abandon your site if it’s buggy. Bounce rates are a highly negative factor for search engines. Make sure your site loads quickly, is optimized for mobile, and is easy to navigate with clear, consistent headings.
17. “Remarket” Content
Repurposing content involves taking something that already exists and updating it for other channels. Remarketing is the practice of using previous content to re-engage with people who have interacted with the content before. By intentionally remarketing to people who’ve shown previous interest in the content, you increase your chances of reaching them when they are making decisions.
Takeaway:
Law firm content marketing is a constant in our world. While it evolves every day, the reader will always be at the core. Your content needs to do more than just build trust and generate leads – it needs to serve your target audience and address their challenges. If you focus on that principle, your content will be successful – and so will your larger marketing efforts.
We help legal marketers create content that has a real impact on their bottom line. If you’d like to learn more, contact us today for a free consultation.
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