Marketing practices are constantly evolving, and as a law firm, you’re probably always searching for new and innovative ways to reach prospective clients. One strategy that has taken the marketing world by storm in recent years is content marketing, which focuses on providing compelling content through a variety of digital channels.
Could content marketing be a vital component of your law firm’s marketing strategy?
Let’s look at what content marketing is and how you can use it to drive sales and build brand loyalty.
What is content marketing?
At its core, content marketing is about providing valuable information to your desired audience in a way that engages them with your brand. It’s not about pushing a product or service, but creating a relationship with customers by providing them with content that educates, entertains, or inspires.
For the legal industry, content marketing can be especially advantageous because of the complexity of legal matters.
More and more consumers are conducting online searches to find out about legal services, and by creating and sharing valuable content that informs, educates, and entertains your target audience, you can establish your law firm as a trusted authority in your practice area and attract a steady stream of high-quality leads.
What is “content” in content marketing?
In the world of content marketing, “content” refers to all of the written material that is designed to influence your audience. This includes your website, promotional emails, social media, blog posts, and more.
Many businesses overlook longer forms of content like blogs and ebooks because they aren’t sure it’s effective or don’t know where to start.
The good news? It is effective—and is easier than you think.
Three things you need to do before you create your content marketing strategy
Content marketing can be highly valuable for law firms, but to get the most return on your investment, start by doing your strategic homework. Follow these three steps to gather the information you need for an impactful content marketing plan.
1. Know your audience
Start by defining your target audience. Imagine your ideal clients. Who are they? What are their needs? What is their age, gender, location, income or educational level, and social or cultural environment?
Developing client personas based on the information you collect can create a picture of your ideal readers and what they want to read. Note that the research you do may fall into different buckets, and that’s okay. Content marketing is most effective when you establish clear messaging that speaks directly to your target audience.
2. Identify pain points
Now consider the problems that your desired audience faces. Identify common pain points and challenges that your readers face, and what kinds of solutions you can offer them.
Doing this will help you pinpoint:
- What topics will resonate most with them
- Which content formats are most useful
- How to position your services for your audience
It’s important to get specific with this information. Don’t think just about what legal services you offer, but how you work with your clients. For example, if you want to work with clients who are looking for a less stressful divorce experience, you can use your content marketing strategy to emphasize the value of mediation.
3. Provide value
Content marketing isn’t about securing conversions immediately. It’s about building trust and relationships between your audience and your brand through content like industry insights, useful tips and advice, and answering common questions.
The exact format of that valuable content should be calibrated to your audience. If your target audience is in a younger, social-first demographic, design for Instagram and Facebook. If your audience exists in a B2B space, build your content strategy around email newsletters and LinkedIn. In short: make sure your valuable content shows up where your audience is.
Tips for content marketing success
Succeeding in content marketing requires more than just creating great content. It also involves developing a comprehensive strategy and leveraging various channels to promote your content effectively.
Focus on quality over quantity
While you may want to produce as much content as possible, in reality, the quality of the content is much more important than the quantity. A well-written piece of copy that speaks directly to your audience is much more effective than a long, mediocre piece that is more fluff than substance.
Quality copywriting is engaging and memorable and can help create a lasting impression and enforce brand recognition for your law firm.
Quality content can also save you money, especially if you are paying a copywriter. High-quality copy is more likely to convert leads, leading to increased revenue and a higher return on investment.
Measure and refine
It’s important to measure the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts regularly. Use analytics tools to track your website traffic, engagement rates, and conversions. This can allow you to refine your content strategy and optimize for better performance. You can also do keyword research for your articles to make sure you optimize them to show up when someone is searching for law firm content.
Think beyond initial touch content
Most leads require multiple points of contact before they become a paying client. By looking beyond their initial contact with your content, your strategy is more likely to be successful.
For example, if your firm creates a blog post about a specific topic, think beyond the initial article and consider what other information your target audience might be interested in after reading the blog post. You might consider:
- Sending content to your leads based on their interests when they subscribed to your list.
- Offering free downloads of content your clients and potential clients find valuable.
- Providing more detailed information like white papers or case studies.
- Creating an informational or introductory video.
- Take excerpts from your content to include in social media posts or email marketing.
By providing a series of different content, you can create an entire sales funnel to present a cohesive brand message and develop the trust of your audience.
Great content checklist for law firms
Even with a good content marketing strategy, not all content is created equal—and poorly written and designed content can damage relationships with leads and clients. To ensure your content is high quality, it should tick the following boxes.
Feature a user-centered design
Before all else, make sure your content focuses on the questions, concerns, and needs of your readers. In digital marketing, it can be easy to lose sight of the end goal: providing value to your readers.
Offer a unique perspective
To stand out from the competition, offer a unique perspective. Share your personal experiences, insights, and opinions to provide a fresh and engaging approach. You can also invite other experts to provide guest content to give your readers the chance to hear a different viewpoint.
Incorporate different forms of media
In addition to great writing on topics that matter to your audience, you’ll want to incorporate visuals such as images, infographics, and videos to make your content more engaging and easier to understand. Consider creating audio content such as podcasts. Think about the ways that your desired audience prefers to consume information.
Allow for action
Provide practical and actionable advice that your readers can use to improve their lives or businesses. Include step-by-step instructions, checklists, and templates to help your readers implement your advice.
Blog articles should include a call to action (CTA) to encourage readers to contact your law firm for more information or direct them to another business-boosting activity like downloading an ebook or subscribing to your email list.
Overall, providing value to your readers requires a deep understanding of their needs and interests. By creating content that educates, solves problems, offers a unique perspective, and engages with your audience, you can build a loyal following and establish yourself as a trusted authority in your niche.
Deliver consistently
Consistency is crucial to the success of your content marketing efforts. You need to create a schedule that outlines when and how often you will publish content. This will help you build a loyal audience that expects and anticipates your content.
Build trust with your target audience with support from content marketing profesionals
Writing content and coming up with an informed digital marketing strategy can be time-consuming for law firms.
And just as you are experienced in your practice areas, there are experts on content marketing and strategy. Content marketing agencies can help you build a customized content marketing strategy, from identifying your target audience to drafting and revising your content, planning your calendar, automating your marketing, and more.
If you’re ready to grow your law firm, schedule a call with our team at FocusWorks so we can help you stand out from the crowd with your content marketing strategy.
