How to Use Digital Analytics to Inform Your Law Firm’s Content Marketing Strategy

Law firm marketers know that data-driven marketing is the most effective type, but it’s not always easy to tie data into content. Content marketing is more of a creative endeavor – but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the statistics and facts that you have access to in a way that improves your content strategy. When you let your audience’s behaviors and preferences drive your content marketing strategy, you’ll drive more interest (and traffic) to your blogs, elevate your thought leadership position, and potentially convert more clients. Here are some ways that legal marketers can use various analytics tools, including Google Analytics, to inform their law firm’s content marketing strategy. 

Part I: Quantitative Analytics

These are key performance indicators (KPIs) that deal with actual reporting you can pull from a resource. Google Analytics is free, simple, and most commonly used for web monitoring, so we are going to mention their reporting specifically. You can use other tools such as Adobe Analytics, etc. 

Blog Conversions:

Ideally you have goals set up in Google Analytics already. These will help you track results. Most likely, your goals are things like downloads or lead generation. You can set up this tracking using advanced segments. For example, if one of your keywords is “Personal Injury Lawyer New York”, make sure that the blogs you crafted targeting those words actually drive conversions on your website (such as a white paper download). 

High Traffic but Low Conversions:

A good way to find conversion rate optimization (CRO) gaps is to locate items with high traffic but low engagement. To do this, you can go to Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages and then leverage the comparison feature on the right hand side of the screen. Then choose Goal Conversion Rate (or Bounce Rate) from the drop down menu to get the information. 

Content Gaps (based on user search data):

Site search behavior is incredibly helpful. Using this list will give you ideas on what your visitors are searching for. Sometimes you can get ideas you hadn’t even thought of. For example, if you target keywords like “Minneapolis family law” but search shows people actually look for “Minneapolis divorce laws” – then you know it’s worth creating some marketing content on that topic. For more tips, check out our blog post: How to Use Data to Determine Your Law Firm’s Blog Topics.

SEO Opportunities:

It’s important to plan content strategy around search volume and intent. Begin with the terms you see experience a high search volume and plan to create pages that can capture those searches. To find this information quickly, go to your highest traffic month, choose the organic traffic option, and view the keywords and search information. 

Blog Engagement:

You can use Google’s Scroll Depth Tracking to see how far people read on your law firm’s blogs. View that information with bounce rate and time on page to get a real feel for content marketing engagement and where you can improve. 

Timing of Blog Publishing:

The time that you post and promote content makes a difference. You can better understand this by creating a custom report. Specifically, go into customer reports, and choose the “flat table” option. Add dimensions “Day of Week Name” and “Hour,” and then add relevant metrics. Then export to excel and create a quick pivot table. 

SEO Site Improvements:

It’s helpful to know if changes you’re making on the site actually make a difference. Try using the Mark Edmondson’s GA Effect dashboard. Just enter your variables and timeframe and the tool will help determine the probability of the change happening by chance. 

Part II: Qualitative Analytics

Just as important as quantitative analytics are the qualitative kind when it comes to your law firm’s content marketing strategy. These analytics will help you with topic ideas and understanding visitor sentiment. 

Feedback Loops:

To listen in on conversations and help form and iterate content, try joining or starting a community. Consider a Facebook or LinkedIn group to facilitate conversations. Use this forum to ask for opinions about content that you’ve created or want to create. 

Real-Time Visitor Insights:

You can use an on-site polling tool (such as Qualaroo) to ask questions of your visitors. Think very carefully about which questions you want to ask – you need to have clear intentions. You can discover anything from what industry visitors are coming from to their current challenges to what they are hoping to learn by reading your law firm’s content.

Usability Issues:

User experience makes a real difference in your digital success. You can use general feedback forms or user testing. Try a tool especially made for obtaining user feedback like Hotjar. User testing is a science, so if you want to go this route, consider partnering with a professional. 

Takeaway

There’s no reason for content to be distanced from business metrics, and using data does not negate your ability to use creativity. To make the most of your law firm’s content marketing strategy, leverage these reports and Google Analytics features. Making data-driven decisions will help you to generate more applicable content, create better engagement and generate more leads. 

Do you need assistance in building an impactful and data-driven content strategy for your law firm? We help firms step up their digital efforts and create content that resonates. Reach out to us today for a consultation.