If you’ve been looking to create winning law firm content as part of your online marketing efforts, then you may be somewhat confused as to where to begin — after all, there are a number of different strategies and approaches to effective marketing in today’s changing digital landscape, and it’s not always clear (for an outsider to the industry) what will work, and what won’t. Sure, a robust content strategy and creating content tailored to specific legal practice areas is essential for effective marketing — but what does that entail, exactly?

Don’t worry, we’re here to help.

Here at Walker Advertising, our team can clarify this confusing and often murky marketing environment, and help you identify the best solutions for maximizing your firm’s marketing efforts going forward. Contact us today to get started by talking to an experienced member of our team.

Of course, if you’d like to learn more about the basics of law firm content writing — what it entails and how to make it competitive — then keep reading! We’ll cover some of the important foundational elements that you should know.

Why should you use content writing to drive prospective clients to your law firm?

Content writing for your law firm’s website should be one of the foundations of your online marketing efforts. There are a number of advantages to organic content marketing in the form of content writing — but in the most fundamental sense, SEO-optimized content writing can attract potential clients by improving search engine rankings, getting your firm’s web pages ranked in high-volume searches conducted by prospective clients, thus generating leads regularly (and passively) through your content.

As you effectively develop and upload a suite of content for your law firm’s website, you’ll find that you receive a large number of inbound leads that could turn into real clients through which to grow your firm’s business. This is increasingly important in today’s marketing landscape, as Millenials, Gen Z, and others are no longer as easily targetable through traditional media, such as TV advertising. To “win” these you’ll have to engage in online marketing efforts, the core of which lies in content writing.

Beyond the core consequence of organic content driving inbound leads, content writing has the following impacts:

• Demonstrates expertise and authority. Quality content writing — written by and/or evaluated for compliance by a qualified attorney — can showcase your expertise and authority as a firm. Be factually accurate, and use specific examples and explanations that indicate your proficiency with a given legal area. Try to avoid generic content that the individual is likely to find elsewhere on the internet. By referencing your specific experiences as an attorney (anonymized, of course), you can draw the reader in and convince them that your authority in that domain is sufficient for them to engage your services without concern.
• Builds trust between the prospective client and your firm. Content writing is an opportunity to showcase just how professional you and your firm are. While simplified language can work to soften the harshness of “legalese,” you should have a friendly, but professional tone when it comes to the overall writing — prospective clients make snap decisions about whether to call in for a consultation based on the trust you cultivate subconsciously through your writing. So be careful to use a professional style!
• Solves a problem for the prospective client, thus priming them to work with your firm as opposed to your competitors. Content writing is so fundamental that plenty of competitor firms are engaging in this type of marketing effort as well. To rise above the competition, you should work hard to “solve a problem” for the prospective client. Don’t just write about car accident compensation — talk about how to calculate losses and talk about what challenges and opportunities they might encounter as they attempt to assert their damages claim in a legal dispute. By being specific and solving their particular problems/concerns, you are drawing in the reader so that they feel you are already invested in “their” dispute.

How do I find the right topics to write about to build an audience?

When it comes to writing winning law firm content, knowing “what” to write about is perhaps the most significant challenge — if you write topics that are overly competitive, or for which there is not enough search volume, for example, then you are likely to find that you don’t rank high enough in search, or that you simply aren’t receiving enough traffic to the web page in question.  Identifying topic opportunities in your niche is therefore a critical skill in effective online legal marketing.

Of course, there are a number of different ways to determine the best topics (i.e., the topics that are relevant and for which there are sufficient opportunities to “win” in search ranking) to write about as a law firm.  Consider the following:

Figuring out the target audience

Compared to most consumer-facing brands, a law firm’s content strategy doesn’t necessarily have to identify very specific sub-categories of audiences. If your firm primarily represents plaintiffs in serious employment-related disputes (i.e., discrimination lawsuits), then your target audience would potentially encompass anyone who is employed and could therefore be exposed to an adverse employment action.

Naturally, there may be other demographic segments that you’d like to target within that group, such as Hispanic men or Black women, or physically disabled individuals. That being said, a broader approach — as opposed to a more specific, targeted approach — is likely to work perfectly well for most firms. Customer personas are only particularly relevant Insofar as your firm has a brand (i.e., your firm primarily targets the Latino community in your state) that would benefit from more niche audience segmenting and specialized targeting. It is also important to avoid legal jargon to ensure that the content is clear and engaging for the target audience.

Comprehensive keyword research

Keyword research is fundamental to creating winning law firm content. Various tools for keyword research exist, each with different advantages and disadvantages — some allow you to use AI to identify niche keywords that have opportunities for ranking, while others allow you to predict keyword trends by season and thereby attack opportunities (to create content) before they become too competitive.

In essence, however, keyword research tools of all kinds let you look through relevant keywords for your topics and determine: 1) what sort of search volume to expect for that keyword; 2) what sort of competition to expect for that keyword; 3) what set of keywords will be necessary to optimize the content so that it has a better chance of ranking high in a Google search.

Most keyword research tools will also let you sort keywords based on your target demographic, and will even group together keywords and compare them against your current site content so that you can avoid making content that will compete with itself on search. This is critical once you have developed enough content for your law firm website, as you could be cannibalizing your own efforts — keyword research is therefore a major aspect of content marketing planning into the future. Effective keyword research helps in optimizing content for search engines, improving your online visibility, and attracting more clients through search engine optimization.

What content readability and reach-related standards should I adhere to when writing a blog post?

Though identifying the right legal topics to write about in a blog post is an important step towards creating winning law firm content for your website, there are certain readability standards that you should adhere to to ensure that the content itself does not “lose” the audience that you worked so hard to promote to (and risk boring or confusing them). What readability aspects should you pay special attention to when you create content?

Showcasing legal expertise is crucial for creating authoritative and engaging content that resonates with your audience and establishes your firm’s authority.

Consider the following:

• Simplicity and clarity. Though you want to ensure that your content comes across as authoritative, don’t lean too heavily on “legalese” or other confusing language that readers might not fully understand. Try to simplify your language to a degree, and limit your use of highly-specific terminology. Of course, the occasional use of an arcane legal term is totally alright, but you should define the term as soon as you use it (so as to avoid any further confusion). Technical additions like mouse-over callouts can help you deliver definitions and other clarifications to the audience in a way that feels more natural.
• Well-supported by the data. Google encourages and rewards the use of citations and links to relevant data/research in your content. This helps to ensure that your content is seen as trustworthy, which is a content consideration that Google assigns a great deal of importance to. That being said, when writing online marketing content, be careful not to be too scholarly with your citations — don’t cite excessively, and try to avoid in-depth footnotes. Dense, scholarly content is likely to perform poorly with most general audiences (i.e., potential clients).
• Solution-oriented. Your legal writing content should not merely serve as a reference point or encyclopedic repository of knowledge. It should encourage and guide the reader so that they can take action. Solution-oriented writing is key, as it lets your law firm website visitor know — consciously and subconsciously — that your firm is here to provide actionable assistance.
• SEO-optimized. Optimizing your content for Google’s search algorithms will ensure that it has a chance at ranking highly on search results for audiences looking for certain keywords relevant to the content. Proper SEO optimization strategies involve more than just keyword stuffing, however — they involve careful implementation of effective titles, meta descriptions, article organization, backlinking, images/video, and page-load-speed optimization, among many other aspects.

Where to Promote Winning Law Firm Content

After you’ve published content on your law firm website, you may need to promote it on other channels — this has become increasingly important in today’s digital landscape, where internet user engagement has converged on fewer (but more prominent) sites collating content from elsewhere. Promoting content on law firm websites and having an effective content marketing strategy is crucial for visibility. Channels for promoting your firm’s web content include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Social media.  Over the last decade-and-a-half, much of the internet’s attention has shifted from individual websites to social media platforms.  Building out your law firm’s social media profiles is therefore critical to sustainable success when it comes to online content marketing.  Once you’ve built out your profiles (and cultivated an audience), make sure to post links back to your relevant site content — this will help to drive growth and engage interested users who may just be potential clients.
• Content aggregator sites.  Sites like Reddit continue to be prominent in this new digital landscape.  These content aggregators not only serve as a useful place for connecting potential clients with your site links but are also an excellent place to engage with communities of readers (in the comments).  If your team has the time and resources, you may be able to identify and convert lead opportunities in the comment sections of your posts (and other posts)!
• Email marketing/newsletters.  Email marketing has been deprioritized or even ignored in recent years, but in truth, the email marketing industry continues to grow rapidly.  There are two main challenges to email and newsletter marketing these days: 1) spam filters are incredibly comprehensive, preventing a lot of content from reaching the target audience’s inbox, and 2) target audiences are so used to avoiding email marketing campaigns that they will not necessarily bother to engage your content at even a surface level before deleting it or hiding it from their inbox.
• Google paid ads.  If you have the advertising budget, pushing your best-performing content on Google search ads can be an excellent way to capture potential clients that might not otherwise find your law firm website.  Generic keywords in the legal industry can be quite expensive, so you’ll want to identify long-tail opportunities to take advantage of a cheaper rate and less competition.

Contact Walker Advertising for Helping Growing Your Firm’s Client Base

Whether you’re a solo lawyer or are part of a larger firm with plans for expansion, it’s important to grow your client base in order to hit your revenue and growth goals. Here at Walker Advertising, we can help with optimizing your law firm’s website and marketing for law firms. We operate a number of popular attorney networks — including our Los Defensores and 1-800-THE-LAW2 brands — through which firms are able to access potential clients who bring to bear various legal claims.

The leads we acquire through our various online marketing efforts — from social media marketing to targeted web ads via search engines — have been pre-qualified by our team so that you aren’t hassled by a flood of leads that are simply not relevant or actionable for your purposes. By accessing these quality leads (i.e., potential clients), you’ll be well-equipped to select the best ones to grow your firm business.

Contact Walker Advertising today to connect to a member of our team who can explain how our legal networks can help your firm business thrive in this ever-changing digital marketing landscape.

We look forward to assisting you in accessing the right potential clients for your firm.