When positioned well, thought leadership content has the ability to convert even the most abject naysayer into a beaming new client. There are so many important components of your business development strategy, but thought leadership content is typically undervalued and misunderstood by many law firms.
You have the ability to leverage expertise from industry leaders, putting your law firm at the forefront. There is an opportunity to create insightful and informative content for your audience, and access to several new audiences depending on who you’re collaborating with, and where your content is published. There might even be some hidden SEO benefits too if you share your content to third-party sites. Great thought leadership content has the overarching ability to shape your audience’s thinking, and shape the legal sector as a whole.
Some law firms are leveraging these benefits for their own marketing strategy, improving their lead generation, credibility, and visibility. Here’s a look at the top performing law firms who have unlocked the potential of thought leadership content.
4) Irwin Mitchell
When it comes to legal services, people buy expertise, but they also buy personality and people. Being able to display expertise is hugely important in thought leadership content, but people also want to connect with your content. Irwin Mitchell, a UK based legal firm, are among the best, with their podcast and virtual event series among the most viewed, the most engaging, and the most relatable thought leadership content.
Irwin Mitchell’s social media reach, engagement, and overall thought leadership knowledge, especially when compared to international law firms, has them punching well above their weight. One of the benefits of being a slightly smaller firm is their ability to have a more personable feel when displaying their obvious expertise. The law firm is very consistent with high quality posts across the legal sector, regularly shaping and forecasting legal market best practices with their quarterly ‘powerhouse report’.
3) Taylor Wessing
Taylor Wessing are an international law firm who serve in a whole host of legal sectors, but specialise in particular in technology, media and communication law. They have a particular focus on innovation within people, and within businesses, and they try to integrate this focus within their thought leadership content.
The firm contributes regularly to third party news sites, with articles, podcasts and other information appearing on sources like CNBC, Politico, and Legal Women. They consistently host and attend digital webinars, as well as conventions and conferences internationally, and are committed to creating informative, innovative thought leadership content in the legal sector.
Due to their niche focus on tech, media, and communication law, they have collated more focused expertise internally. By sharing their content freely on third party sites/sources they have leveraged a great deal of credibility and publicity in their field to establish themselves.
2) Ashurst LLP
Ashurst are a multinational law firm, advising corporates, financial institutions, and governance with their 3000+ strong team. They are among the most progressive and innovative law firms and create a whole host of legal thought leadership content revolving around key business issues. Their podcast series features expert guest speakers, unique perspectives, and actionable insights on modern problems, sharing practical tips for business leaders.
Their thought leadership content includes resources for ever changing legal issues surrounding Brexit, data protection, and energy sustainability, amongst more. They host webinars, share training resources, and publish news and insights from internal experts to their thought leadership content hub and across social media.
1) Norton Rose Fulbright
Norton Rose Fulbright is a 3000+ strong international law firm, with specialists in every spectrum of the legal sector. They have a strong focus on thought leadership content within their content strategy, and it reflects their brand values; integrity, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability, among others.
The law firm consistently uploads content in a variety of forms, to provide expertise and training to their clients. Their website hosts a full library of their content, with webinars, both real and virtual events/seminars, podcasts, video interviews, and magazine publications. Just recently, for example, they attended the climate change summit in Glasgow, COP 26. They have created a variety of thought leadership content with several sustainability experts in international law and governance, alongside sustainability and legal leaders at Boeing, Amazon, and Ikea, among others.
Their content is informative, and relatable to their audience and it touches on trending important topics. Norton Rose Fulbright shares content consistently across their social media platforms, as well as through their private online portal, where they have extra VIP content for their clients to learn from. They have leveraged global leadership expertise in multiple sectors, and created a great library of compelling thought leadership content.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for some inspiration for some of your thought leadership content, the above firms definitely punch above their weight. Leveraging expertise of external thought leaders, and having leaders within your firm is hugely important to raising your credibility, your visibility and establishing new lead generation routes to new audiences.
The above firms have an abundance of thought leadership content, and a well thought out strategy. It is important that when you establish your content marketing strategy, you include thought leadership and influencer strategies as a healthy percentage. After-all, who doesn’t want to help shape the present and future of the legal sector?
If you’re interested in finding out more about thought leadership marketing, please contact us here for a free consultation!
