As a lawyer, you might think that clients will simply come to you. And that might seem to be the case if you’re well-established. But in today’s increasingly online society, it’s important that your practice is armed with a distinct, authoritative Internet presence, or else you’ll lose out on valuable business to other firms that have already established their brand persona online.
Why A Legal Blog Is A Critical Part Of Your Law Firm's Digital Marketing Efforts
People will always need lawyers, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a blog. According to imarc, 70% of law firms found new cases through their websites in 2015. If you want to outlast your competition, you have to outmarket them – and that’s where your blog strategy will come into play. With a law blog, you can:
- Build your reputation from the ground up. This particularly applies if you’re fresh out of law school. You might be struggling to find a position due to your lack of experience, but a blog allows you to demonstrate your knowledge of the law for all the world to see.
- Establish yourself and your firm as authorities in the industry. By crafting in-depth, informative posts on various elements of the law, you’ll be going above and beyond your duties as an attorney to show website visitors that you can be trusted thanks to your expertise.
- Help potential clients. Obviously, your blog is no replacement for a genuine lawyer/client relationship, but it lets you create resources that will guide website visitors seeking assistance with legal matters. And if your blog posts imply that you’re well-versed in a certain area, readers might just realize that you’re the perfect choice for the legal representation they need.
- Develop valuable industry relationships. Your content writing won’t just be seen by potential clients – other lawyers may stumble upon them, too. If you blog about the right topics, it can trigger thoughtful discussions among the professionals that visit your website, which will make it that much easier to flesh out your network of connections.
- Expand your existing knowledge of the law. Sure, your legal blog is the perfect place to flex your expertise. But it also helps you learn by spurring you to research the topics you write about at length.
Remember that blogging isn’t a tool restricted to certain types of lawyers. Whether you’re a renowned personal injury attorney or you operate within the music business, a blog can help refine your brand persona, attract potential clients and prove that you’re the real deal.
How Do You Create Great Content For Your Law Blog?
Once you’ve decided to create your own law blog, you’ll have to create great content. While the blogs can be written by you or another lawyer from your firm, there are other options, too. Having a secretary or another member of your staff write the blogs, for example, could help save time. Additionally, you might choose to outsource content creation to a professional blog content provider that will create the content based on the parameters you set.
Regardless of your blog strategy, here are a few types of content that will serve any legal blog well:
- Informative posts: There are lots of ways for your blog to serve as an online educational tool. Lawyers are tried and tested experts in their field, and clients might often feel overwhelmed with the technicalities and stress of dealing with the law. With your blog, you can simplify complex terms and laws to make the process of seeking legal help easier for your readers.
- Lists of tips: Although your blog certainly isn’t a place to give out specific legal advice, posts designed to teach readers how to manage issues that might bring the law into play – such as a car accident or workplace injury – can prove invaluable to website visitors. Plus, if you use each post to remind readers that they’ll need a skilled attorney, these posts can help boost your business.
- Tell readers why they need a lawyer: Many situations, including the aforementioned car accidents and workplace injuries, might not immediately come off as incidents requiring legal representation. But a lawyer can make a world of difference in securing the appropriate compensation, and since you likely have experience with such situations, a list of five reasons why someone needs an attorney might sway readers to become clients.
- Tackle an industry myth: People who don’t work in law may not understand how the industry works. On your blog, you can use the experience you’ve gained to address certain myths or perceptions about attorneys that may or may not be true.
- Explain a widely publicized court decision: Has the Supreme Court recently overturned a long-established precedent? Was a well-known figure sentenced for some sort of scandal? These high-profile cases generate lots of interest among the general public, and those interested may not entirely grasp the results of the case. Examining these situations on your blog lets you tap into a large audience while remaining relevant to your area of expertise.
As you create the content for your blog, be sure to follow SEO best practices to maximize the effectiveness of each post. Use conversational keywords, link to external sources, link to your other blog posts and more. Additionally, keep an eye on the blog metrics for each post to discover what works best and identify areas for improvement.
Begin Blogging Today
Constructing a valuable blog from scratch takes effort, but with the right planning and consistent, high-quality posts, your blog will soon prove to be an essential element in your business plan. Do you have experience with legal blogging? Be sure to leave a comment below, because we’d love to hear all about it.
Are you interested in starting a blog, but you lack the time or human resources to create quality content? Virtucom Group’s well-educated, in-house blog writers have experience writing for a wide variety of legal practices. For professional content writing services designed to meet your blogging needs, check out our full-service subscription packages today.
About Virtucom Group
Consistent business blogging yields results – more clicks, more subscribers and – ultimately – more conversions. Whether you’re writing an automotive blog, an accounting blog, a healthcare blog or a home renovation blog, blogging for business and content development are useful for any industry. Follow the content writers at the Virtucom Group blog as they share digital marketing tips and discuss website content writing services that can optimize your business blog.
