Podcast Ep. 129: Something from Nothing: How to Build a Content Marketing Machine for a Law Firm When You’re The Team

In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 Podcast, Dan Brian, a digital marketing guru, shares his best tips and tools to build a strong content marketing machine for law firms and how to include attorneys in the writing process. The entire content marketing process can seem overwhelming, particularly for lean marketing teams that are strapped for resources and time. Tune in to learn the specific strategies and tools that can help turn your law firm into a lean, mean, content creation machine.

Dan Brian is a Digital Marketing Director for Riddle & Brantley, a mid-size personal injury law firm in North Carolina. He has 15+ years in digital marketing experience working in agencies and startups in roles like CMO, digital strategist, and account planner. He is also the founder and CEO of his side project, Marketing for Justice, an online education program for legal marketers. Connect with Dan Brian on LinkedIn.

Podcast Show Notes

How do you involve attorneys in content development without grinding the process to a halt?

As far as getting attorneys involved, the best thing to do is really strike a balance.  They’re obviously the content experts, they know the industry, they know the issues that they’re dealing with, they know the pain points of clients probably better than anyone in the firm and so capturing their voice and their expertise is something that you always want to do right by. Just involving them and hearing them out, and you know understanding the perspective that they’re bringing.

One important aspect is the interview. Either in person or over email, I’ll do an interview to just kind of lay out the point of the blog posts that we’re trying to capture. I’ll have them list five to seven bullet points that they think are most important for communicating to a potential client about a particular issue. It really does not have to be time intensive on the attorneys part. The best thing a legal marketer can do is make it as easy and convenient. Then, I’ll have a freelance writer going behind them and write what I call the “fluff.”

How do you get the most “mileage” out of a piece of content?

One of the biggest lessons I learned when I was working in the startup world is that in order to get the most mileage out of every piece of content, you really have to be recycling that content. You shouldn’t share the same exact piece of content, but you can share that piece of content with a different message. You know, in a different way, or with a different graphics, different hashtags or a different video supporting it – but always, continuing to link to the same blog post. You definitely have to get creative and recycle your content in a way that’s appropriate, but I guarantee you so few people especially when it comes to organic social media promotion are going to know the difference. 

In terms of blog strategy, how do you come up with the topics, you know what is your approach to blog strategy?

When you’re putting together a blog strategy or a content strategy of any kind, you really have to think about and what are the potential clients actually interested in and what are the kinds of things they’re already reading or watching on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. What are the kinds of things that you know are getting them to click and you know 9 times out of 10 probably more than that it’s not going to be attorney awards or case results. 

We really try to focus on a blog strategy that focuses on knowing what the company encompasses. For example, for a personal injury firm in particular, dangerous drugs that may be the subject of ongoing litigation or defective medical devices. Those are ways that you can position yourself as a credible voice on subjects that are actually interesting to your audience. 

What are some tools you would recommend legal marketers consider for content marketing?

These are two great tools I think every legal marketer should have. They’re easy to use and are great for content!

Canva: A great tool for beginners that lets you create graphics for social media, publications, and print in an accessible way. You can design simple graphics and they have great templates to get you started. You can also do a lot with video and animation there as well.

MeetEdgar: A social media management system that allows you to upload all of your social media posts into a categorized library. When you have filled up your library, you go to the calendar and tell Edgar to randomly pick an item from a category in your library, and post it to all the top social media networks.

Takeaway

You can totally “punch above your weight” in content marketing as a legal marketer for a small or mid-size law firm by recycling content and leveraging affordable tools for automated publishing. Moreover, it’s critical for the attorneys and marketing teams to be aligned and work closely to ensure that the marketing engine is firing on all cylinders.

Are you lacking the time and resources to keep up with a consistent law firm blog? We’ve got the largest cadre of legal writers and journalists in the industry, helping to take your idea and write the content as if you had the time to write it yourself. Let our experienced content professionals help you tell your story. Contact us today for a consultation.