Content marketing is a crucial component of a comprehensive and successful growth plan for expanding a firm’s client base. A well-defined content marketing strategy is essential for building trust and resonating with prospective clients. For a long time, many lawyers — both solo lawyers and those who are embedded in a larger law firm environment — were satisfied with growing their business through in-person networks. Today’s consumer landscape is wildly different than it used to be, however, and digital exposure is increasingly important. This is particularly true when it comes to targeting younger demographics (i.e., Millennials and Gen Z) — that target audience simply isn’t vulnerable to direct television advertising in the same way as previous generations. The legal industry has to change accordingly. Given the changing preferences of a younger target audience, content marketing for lawyers is fundamental to long-term, effective growth for law firms.

Ready to explore your options when it comes to content marketing for lawyers and law firms? Contact Walker Advertising to speak to a member of our team today. You’ll be able to learn more about how content marketing can help you promote your law firms services to a range of clients. We’ll also be able to explain how our network services can empower you to sidestep the hassle of organic growth and gain access to prequalified leads in a range of legal practice areas. Call us to get started with your law firms content marketing efforts so that you can secure more (and better) prospective clients.

That being said, keep reading if you’d like to learn more about content marketing for lawyers and how maximizing your ranking on search engines (through valuable content such as a blog post) can help boost the exposure of your legal practice to prospective clients. We’ll cover some of the law firm content marketing basics that you should know before making any sort of decision about your law firm website, and your law firm’s marketing plans.

Do law firms need marketing?

If you’re focused on growing your legal practice’s client base — and you don’t have any preexisting in-person networks through which you can consistently obtain leads — then yes, you need content marketing. Law firms — and the legal industry as a whole — have adapted to this shift in overall strategy.

In fact, marketing (particularly law firm content marketing, such as optimizing your written content for search engines and social media platforms) is an essential part of any growth strategy. Through content marketing, you can promote your services to millions of potential new clients — and best of all, you can do it on your terms, focusing on the branding and communication style that you feel most accurately represents your firm’s legal services.

How “much” marketing law firms need (i.e., how much resources you have to dedicate to marketing) will depend on the strength of their in-person networks, as well as their growth plans. An effective content marketing strategy for law firms can help you determine the amount of resources needed for marketing. If you’re intending to remain a solo attorney, then you may only have the bandwidth to support six or seven new clients a year. As such, you may only need to access about 20-30 inbound leads on an annual basis to fulfill your “new client” quota. By contrast, if you’re intending to grow your firm and hire more lawyers under you, then your capacity for providing legal services to new clients will be a lot more substantial — you may need 100-120 inbound leads in order to grow as expected.

Are lawyers allowed to advertise?

Yes, lawyers and law firms are allowed to advertise.  That being said, there are many restrictions on law firm content marketing that you may not be fully aware of — and these restrictions vary significantly from state-to-state.  See, the applicable Bar in each state imposes ethics restrictions on legal advertising, marketing, and law firm content that you’ll have to navigate as you promote your legal services to the world at-large.

Examples of advertising restrictions may include a ban on making guarantees in your law firm content regarding whether a potential client will win their case, or even a guarantee regarding the amount that they are likely to receive in compensation.  Some Bar organizations even restrict you from showing money in your advertising content, as it indirectly implies that the would-be client will receive a payout. That being said, these restrictions shouldn’t prevent you from creating engaging content. The key is to spend enough time and resources brainstorming effective content ideas. The difference between a successful piece of content marketing for law firms (and an unsuccessful one) is often based on the quality of the content ideas. Execution is important, of course, but the content ideas themselves must be of sufficient interest to the target audience of potential clients. That’s how effective marketing for law firms is done!

What is a content marketing strategy for lawyers?

Content marketing is an umbrella term under which a great many different marketing strategies fall under (i.e., email marketing, writing a blog post based on smart keyword research, longform social media posts, etc.). More generally, however, content marketing for law firms can be defined as a marketing approach that is focused on the creation of useful/compelling content in various forms — written, visual, or audio — that is intended to reach and engage a potential audience. A well-crafted blog post, for example, can serve multiple functions, such as improving SEO performance through keyword research, interlinking different pages of a website, and being repurposed into other formats like videos or infographics for wider reach.

Not all content marketing is intended to be bottom-of-funnel, and conversion-focused. Some content marketing is broader, and is intended to establish the legitimacy of your legal practice and promote brand awareness among your intended audience. Keyword research is essential for creating content that reaches and engages a potential audience. What you focus on will not only depend on your budget and other resources, but also on the preexisting competition in your niche (i.e., other law firms competing in your practice areas and geographic locale). Your initial keyword research may reveal that longtail keywords are more sensible to start with, for example, while your keyword research later on (when you have more resources at your disposal) may show that you can tackle larger competitors.

Law firm content marketing is often seen as more burdensome than it needs to be. But marketing for law firms doesn’t have to be burdensome. It’s often seen that way because lawyers may be unable to distance themselves from what “they” would like to see in the content — in reality, general audiences are more interested in fundamental, simpler explanations than complex, nuanced explanations with citations and the like. As is often the case, the law firm content that “wins” is a lot easier to read — and less concerned with accounting for every exception — than lawyers realize.

Why should you engage in content marketing?

Law firm content marketing has a number of advantages that make it worth considering for any legal practice looking to grow.  Consider the following reasons for why marketing for law firms is worthwhile. Here’s why you should engage in law firm content marketing as a lawyer:

• Create more brand awareness/online visibility
• Establish legitimacy/authority with potential clients
• Generate a lead funnel through which you can access potential clients with actionable legal claims.  The higher volume of inbound leads that you generate, the more you’ll be empowered to filter through your leads to acquire low-risk, high-reward clients to represent in litigation.
• Boost loyalty in potential clients.  If you offer valuable, relevant, and useful content, then regular readers of your content will be more likely to choose your firm when they have an actionable claim — that’s because you may have already “solved” a question they had at an earlier time. In this sense, law firm content marketing isn’t just a promotional tool, it’s an informational one.

There are different types of content marketing with different advantages and disadvantages

Law firm content marketing types include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Paid written ads online
• Organic written content (i.e., blogs, articles, etc.)
• Paid video ads
• Organic shortform video content (i.e., Instagram reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, etc.)
• Organic longform video content (i.e., YouTube)
• Social media photo posts (i.e., Instagram/Facebook carousel posts)
• Email marketing (i.e., newsletters, etc.)
• And more

For example, consider email marketing. Because social media, content marketing, and other digital marketing options have become more popular (and relevant) in today’s fast-changing digital landscape, many lawyers have ignored the benefits of building a strong mailing list and engaging in an email marketing campaign. Of course, content marketing is critical. Creating engaging content for a law firm website is important for capturing potential clients’ attention and can complement law firm email marketing efforts.

As useful as content marketing and social media marketing is, however, email marketing continues to be a major driver of conversions. Email marketing revenue is projected to grow 227 percent by 2028, and while it may not be as cutting-edge as it used to be, it continues to be a worthwhile strategy to implement for any growing law firm. This is particularly true because email marketing allows law firms to promote their services directly in the inbox of the target audience, unlike content marketing on your law firm’s website. This creates a sense of familiarity that can help secure a conversion. Further, it reduces the resource-burden on the firm, as each post doesn’t have to perform well algorithmically to get eyes on it — once you’ve got someone signed onto your mailing list, you have already “won” their future impressions. Legal content marketing can enhance brand awareness and client engagement, making email marketing even more effective.

Email marketing isn’t uniformly advantageous, however. There are negatives that you have to pay attention to. For example, email marketing is incredibly competitive, so many email users are used to “tuning out” newsletters and marketing emails, making it quite challenging to capture the audience’s attention. Precise spam filters have also made it incredibly difficult to get your newsletters/emails seen by your intended audience. Circumventing spam filters is an art unto itself. Utilizing social media platforms can help promote valuable content and reach a broader audience, complementing your email marketing strategy.

Are there any organic content marketing trends that law firms should be aware of going into 2025?

Content marketing has been changing rapidly over time, as impressions algorithms are updated to be more efficient (and to more effectively reflect shifts in content consumption patterns). As such, it’s important to stay apprised of these changes so that your content marketing efforts are maximized, and not wasted on an incomplete strategy that does not serve your firm’s goals. Creating interconnected law firm content can help in engaging potential clients and building trust within the community.

Recent trends to keep in mind include:

• Creating shareable content is more important than ever. On today’s digital platforms, how much sharing engagement you drive with a piece of content — such as a direct message share on Instagram — is a signal that tells the platform’s algorithm to push the piece of content to broader audiences. Viral content in today’s digital landscape is therefore content that is surprising, controversial, or entertaining enough to earn a “share” engagement. If you’re going to create content that wins, much of your success will depend on the quality of your content ideas.
• Formality is on its way out. Trends indicate that brands are performing worse than ever before online. Consumers are simply tired of being advertised to, and this reflects in their content consumption patterns. For brands to survive and thrive online, they have to de-corporatize their content, and focus on making content where the aesthetic and feel match that of a high-quality, passionate individual creator — not a legal professional looking to sell something to the audience.
• Mixed media works well. If you’re doing a written blog, for example, it will benefit you substantially to embed a video that covers relevant subjects — embedded photos and video content can increase retention, and is favored by search algorithms in the ranking phase. The effect is not necessarily so significant that you should invest resources into creating video content “just” for the purpose of embedding it into a written blog page, but it’s significant enough that you should include a video that you’ve already made (if appropriate for the page, of course).
• Clickable titles matter more than ever before. The content marketing niche is more competitive than ever, and that means that you’re fighting for clicks with other lawyers who are also implementing content marketing best practices. To win, you’ll have to be that much better than your competitors — and to do so, you’ll have to first drive the first clickthrough to your content. Don’t leave the title of your content for last. Ideate a clickable title first before committing to the topic. Optimizing content for search engines can enhance visibility and ranking, ensuring that your law firm content reaches a broader audience.
• Keywords are still important for search engine optimization and for driving organic traffic, but don’t stuff an excess of keywords into the content for the sake of it. In continuance of a longstanding trend, using relevant keywords is necessary for ranking highly, but it’s not “enough” to focus on keywords when it comes to creating winning content.

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 you client base in order to hit your revenue and client growth goals.  Here at Walker Advertising, we can help.  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 leads for various legal claims.

The leads we acquire through our various online marketing efforts — from social media marketing to targeted web ads — 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, you’ll be well-equipped to select the best ones to grow your firm business. In other words: get all the benefits of law firms content marketing (with high quality content) without building out your strategy/implementation from scratch. After all, building an effective marketing channel, and the content creation process as a whole — which includes creating service pages, writing about various legal topics to climb the search engine rankings, and maximizing your Google analytics results — can be challenging.

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, where traditional advertising doesn’t always “cut it,” and where legal content marketing is critical to reaching your target audience. Your law firm’s online presence is key to helping you showcase your legal expertise, attract potential clients, and generate leads from your website traffic.

We look forward to assisting you in building a sound content marketing strategy that doesn’t distract from your core business of providing legal representation.