Everything’s online these days. Your doctors? Online. Your food shop? Online. Your daily dose of existential dread? Online! And your law firm is no exception. It’s essential that every law firm steps into the 21st century and gets a handle on its content marketing strategy. Often overlooked by more traditional firms, content marketing for law firms is a vital step in any kind of digital marketing effort.
The more reluctant among us might assume a content strategy is a nice-to-have, but not necessarily essential. However, producing high-quality content plays a huge part in building trust with new audiences and succeeding in the long haul.
Content marketing attracts legal clients by demonstrating knowledge, expertise, and thought leadership in your niche. Not only that, content brings plenty of benefits to SEO and your social media marketing. Once you’re creating good quality content that’s aimed at your target audience, you’ll be attracting profitable, desirable business that wins client loyalty and spreads brand awareness.
What is a content marketing strategy for law firms?
A content strategy is a plan that outlines how your law firm will use content (audio, visual, and/or written) to achieve your goals. A successful content strategy will attract your target audience at every stage of the funnel and keep them engaged long after delivery.
But how do you create a successful content strategy? Before you even dive in, make sure you consider these questions:
1. Ideally, who’s going to be looking at your content?
Just as your law firm might have more than one type of customer, your content strategy can cater to more than one type of user. Using a variety of content topics, types and platforms will help you deliver content that’s tailored to each audience.
2. What pain points will you be addressing?
Each target audience will have a few pain points that your firm will be looking to address. As such, your content should educate your audience and ease their pain points as they begin to identify and address them.
3. What’s your USP?
USP (or Unique Selling Point) makes your firm stand out from your competitors. To prove why you’re worth investing in, you need to prove why your firm is worth paying attention to – and then shout about it in your content. Maybe your unique selling point is that your law firm has been established for decades. Or, alternatively, you might have a fun, unique brand voice that makes you stand out from your stuffy competitors.
4. What type of content will you create?
When deciding what format your content will take, you first need to consider where your target audience already lives online. You don’t want to waste time creating content that either won’t reach your audience or capture their attention, after all. Conduct some thorough audience research and find out which platform they’re most likely to occupy, and you can work out which format performs best on that platform. For example, short-form copy performs best on Twitter.
5. What platform will you publish to?
Just as you can create different types of content, you’ll also have various platforms you can publish to, from your own website to the latest social media network.
This is where your audience research comes into play. Do they prefer watching snappy short-form videos? Or are they more comfortable with a classic long-form article? If short-form videos are their thing, then it’s to TikTok or Facebook. If articles are a bit more their speed, then it’s LinkedIn and your blog.
6. How are you keeping track of your content creation?
You’re basically raring to go with your content marketing for law firms, but there’s one last thing to sort: your content management. It’s essential to get this straight so your firm isn’t left floundering. Make sure you establish:
- Who’s creating the content
- Which platform the content is being published on
- What day and time it’s going up
This is all pretty simple in a small team. You may even just be a team of 1! But when your firm starts to grow, your marketing team may grow too, and that’s then the trouble starts to brew.
You’ll want to avoid clutter by managing content from a topic standpoint — which will be outlined when you establish your content marketing strategy. When you’re planning a content editorial calendar around topics (or content pillars,) you can easily visualize your law firm’s message and assert yourself as an authority in your niche over time.
It can feel overwhelming to tackle your firm’s content marketing efforts all on your own. If you’re looking for help creating a strategy that sells, get in touch today to organise your free consultation with one of our digital marketing consultants or head over to our dedicated social media marketing for law firms page to discover the services we can offer to take your firm to the next level.
