Content Marketing for Law Firm Websites in 2022

Law firm content marketing can be one of the most valuable ways to earn attention from potential clients and convert them into new clients. Unfortunately, most attorney website content doesn’t resonate with the intended target audience and hasn’t been optimized for search engines (SEO) and social media.

What is Content Marketing for Law Firms?

Content marketing for law firms is just a buzz-phrase for creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain an audience. While this has become a hot legal marketing strategy in recent years, lawyers have been doing content marketing since the beginning.

The main difference in the digital age is the tools available for content creation formats and distribution.

As we discuss more specific content marketing strategies, I encourage you to consider a more expansive definition. Many of the mistakes lawyers make when crafting a piece of content are related to taking too narrow a view of what effective content might include. In fact, great content for a law firm might have nothing to do with your legal services.

Why is Content Marketing Valuable for Law Firms?

People (tend to) hate advertising. Maybe hate is a strong word, but your prospective clients aren’t eagerly awaiting your next digital marketing advertisement. Unfortunately, the legal industry floods our highways, televisions, and social media feeds with low-quality ads every second.

On the other hand, the demand for useful information might be at an all-time high. Practical, high-quality online content is one of the best ways to build brand awareness, nurture referrals, and win new business. But the key to creating quality content requires a deep understanding of your audience and know-how of the platforms on which people are consuming it.

How to Get Started with Law Firm Web Content Marketing

The most important part of any content marketing plan is understanding the target audience. Even the best content marketing efforts will fall on deaf ears without research. Before you begin creating relevant law firm website content, you should:

• Define your audience personas. What are the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your audiences? What are their pain points? What examples of valuable attorney website content are they talking about?
• Do the research. Perform keyword research. What Google search queries are they using to get answers to questions that are relevant to your practice area? Do you have Google Analytics or Search Console data that can help inform your law firm’s SEO marketing campaigns?
• Choose your distribution platform(s). Where will you publish? Your law firm website? LinkedIn? Email marketing campaigns? Know how to use content in the context of the platform.
• Choose the right content format. Not all content is equally effective. A podcast episode, infographic, white paper, landing page, webinar, and social media post will all be perceived differently based on your audience’s needs. While I encourage you to repurpose existing content in different formats, don’t blindly syndicate it in all forms.
• Define your content metrics. What are the goals for your law firm web content? Is it increasing brand awareness, website traffic, conversions, or inbound leads and referrals? If it’s for search engine optimization, are you working on getting inbound links?

What Are Some Types of Content Marketing for Law Firms?

Legal content marketing doesn’t have to be about lawyering. Some of the most compelling recent pieces of content that have been making their way around the web are more entertaining than valuable from a subject matter standpoint. 

Does that mean all your law firm website content should be of you dancing on TikTok? Of course not. But balancing your brand’s position, expertise, and entertainment usually improves engagement and visibility. Here are a few types of law firm web content marketing that regularly perform well:

• Client testimonials: Publishing client testimonials is one of the most effective ways to communicate your expertise and showcase your exceptional client service. You can turn testimonials into images or videos for use across social media and on your law firm’s website. Of course, get permission from your client and check your state’s rules on using testimonials.
• Speaking engagements: Do you regularly speak at events? Sharing images and videos from speaking engagements can be a powerful strategy for demonstrating recognition in your industry and validating social proof in your community.
• Community service: If you serve a local community, highlighting your good works in the community through online content is very effective for building meaningful brand awareness.
• Team profiles: Introducing attorneys and staff members puts a more human face to your firm. It’s also very effective for attracting audience members that might share the same interests.
• Instructional videos: Showing people “how you do things” is really valuable in building rapport and trust. Again, this doesn’t have to be “what to do after a car accident.” Instead, show people how you deploy technology at your firm and how it benefits your clients. By showing others how you use your practice management tools, you might also meet other lawyers who can become sources of referrals.
• Interviews: Have someone interview you about why you became a lawyer. Sharing your story may resonate with someone who is in the process of deciding whether or not to hire you.
• Date-based emails: Send your contacts emails on important dates like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. People may not want your firm’s newsletter, but they want to know you’re thinking about them and that you’re human.

Seth Godin wrote:

“Marketers used to have little choice. The only marketing was local. The local neighborhood, the local community.

Mass marketing changed that. Now, the goal was to flip the culture, all at once. Hit records, hit TV shows, products on the end cap at Target, and national TV ads to support it all.

With few exceptions, that’s being replaced by a return to clusters.

The cluster might be geographic (they eat different potato chips in Tucson than they do in Milwaukee) but they’re much more likely to be psychographic instead. What a group of people believes, who they connect with, what they hope for…

The minimal viable audience concept requires that you find your cluster and overwhelm them with delight. Choose the right cluster, show up with the right permission and sufficient magic and generosity and the idea will spread.

We’re all connected, but the future is local.”

When crafting your legal marketing content strategy, remember Seth’s words. Focus on local. Maybe it’s sharing your favorite local lunch spots. Perhaps you’re passionate about coaching local youth sports. Find your clusters and create content that delights those audiences. When they need your services, you’ll be the first person they think of.

Ready to evaluate your marketing strategy? Here’s our free guide for Digital Marketing for Law Firms.

Gyi Tsakalakis helps lawyers grow their practices online. As a non-practicing lawyer, Gyi is familiar with the unique considerations of ethically and effectively marketing a law practice online. He founded AttorneySync to provide lawyers with more effective, transparent, and accountable digital legal marketing results. He proudly serves as a Co-Chair of ABATECHSHOW 2023 and hopes to see you there. He is passionate about Michigan football, coffee, and stoicism.