The Lawyer’s Quick Guide to Great Content Marketing

Writing and disseminating great content on your website and throughout your social media platforms gives you an excellent opportunity to reach more prospects than ever.  Unfortunately, there are many other lawyers out there trying to do the same thing.

How do you differentiate yourself? How do you attract attention to your posts and website?  You need engaging organic (original) content that attracts your audience.  But what makes content exciting or effective in reaching prospects? Here are some pointers to help you get started:

1. Put yourself in your ideal client or prospect’s mind and aim to write about what interests them, rather than what interests you. You are NOT your ideal client.
2. Ask yourself what keeps them up at night? What are their concerns worries, and fears? Write copy that addresses these questions.
3. Ask yourself what are some of the top myths many of your client have about the legal system and how cases work? Dispel these myths.
4. Ask yourself what are the top 10 mistakes many clients make? Address them.
5. Ask yourself what are the top 10 or more questions clients typically ask? Answer those questions.
6. Keep the writing simple- Aim for a 6^th grade reading level style rather than a college essay style. You can use software such as hemingwayapp.com to check your content and see if it fits into these parameters. While you may be tempted to write in a more legalese style, remember that your objective is reaching your ideal client rather than reaching an avatar of yourself.
7. Short or long is fine. There are mixed schools of thought as to the ideal length for online content.  Truthfully, if it is good, your reader will take the time to read it- whether it is 70 words, 700 words or 1700.  You can create short reports or long e-books.  The choice is yours.
8. Be systematic- and post regularly. To build a following online, and to aid in your Google rankings, you need to post blogs regularly- at least once every week or two. To make sure you follow through, carve out an hour or so each week, mark it on your calendar and make yourself write. We all make time for what is important to us.
9. Use bullet points, bold headings, and visuals to attract and engage with easily digestible material.
10. Be Conversational- and don’t be restrained by traditional grammar rules and formality. Engaging Content is about attracting interest and building relationship.  Your writing should read like a conversation to a prospective client- as if they were sitting right there beside you in your conference room.
11. Use infographics, charts, and pictures. Studies repeatedly show these visuals attract attention and engagement greater than words alone.
12. USE VIDEOS– You can easily turn your written reports, blogs, articles or other written content into videos. Studies show that the open rate for websites, posts, and emails are ALL higher when video is involved.  (Plus- you can create a YouTube channel with all the videos that you create) FYI- make SURE you create thumbnails for every video. (Otherwise, you may end up looking ridiculous, caught in mid-expression.)
13. Use Key Search words. Google is the search engine King and YouTube is the Search queen. Thus, make sure your writing and titles contain relevant key words that will come up when a prospect is searching for answers and info on engines such as Google and YouTube.  You can obtain a list of these key words online but remember that the key word rankings change so you will want to update your list regularly.
14. Multipurpose- Always think about ways to multipurpose your Content; For example, if you write a nice blog post for your website, make sure you share it on your other social media platforms as well. If you create a great Q&A Report, consider using done-for-you software like LUMEN5 to turn your written text into a rolling video/text with graphics and music.
15. Use Your Content as Lead Magnets– Offer them online, on both your website and social media platforms, in exchange for the prospect’s email address. Then create a series of nurturing emails designed to build a relationship of likability and trust with your prospects.  This kind of marketing funnel is cheap and easy to implement but can yield big results. (Software such as MailChimp can help with setting up your automated email system.)

Hopefully these pointers will help you begin to create engaging content that attracts prospects and differentiates you from the other lawyers in your market.

You might also like: Great Content Doesn’t Have to be Perfect Content, with Lashonda Council-Rogers

If this short article has piqued your interest, make sure and check out Ken Hardison’s books, such as Systematic Marketing, and Under Promise-Over Deliver.  These classic books will give you a wealth of strategies and a clear roadmap for how to grow your law firm through effective legal marketing.