Sole practitioners and boutique law firms across the country struggle to compete with conglomerate law firms that seem to take all the clients, all the leads, and earn all of the money.
It’s terrible – especially when you know that you can provide an equivalent, if not better service for a client.
If you’ve ever scoped out your competition online, you’ve probably come across law firm websites with tons of pages that describe their practice areas, introduce you to their team, and blogs that cover an assortment of legal topics.
You might even have some of this on your own website. But why do we do this? Why do lawyers all seem to have the same websites? And who is reading these blog posts?
Why You Need Content
“Content” is the buzzword these days. And it’s not just entertainment and media who are trying to procure content anymore – the internet has created an expansive new environment where audience and performer have melded into one, and anyone can create, share, and promote their content. But why?
You’re not looking to become an influencer, or to start a vlogging career – so what’s the point of creating content?
The strategy behind content marketing is multifaceted. And it’s a strategy that is usable for nearly every type of business, but especially for lawyers.
Website Exposure
The first reason why content marketing is an effective promotional tool is simply exposure.
Content provides an avenue for your audience to find your brand. In this aspect, content uses the same strategy as traditional advertising methods like radio, television, billboards, etc.
But content marketing is much more versatile than these traditional methods. First and foremost, it’s less expensive. If you create content yourself, the only cost associated with your content marketing strategy is the cost of web hosting. There’s no entry fee or advertising platform to pay. You simply create and post!
The second strength that content marketing has over traditional media is its potential reach. By creating content that is free to access online, you can reach anyone and potentially everyone, not just in your audience, but in the world.
This is a double-edged sword though, because in order to reach more people, you’ll have to put in more work – work that isn’t always straightforward too. We’ll get to that in a little bit though.
Creating Value
Another buzz-phrase you may have heard is “value up front” or “adding value first.”
Value, in this sense, is an intangible benefit, usually information or entertainment, that a user receives from visiting your website.
For lawyers, this value is often answers to commonly asked questions or general advice that does not actually constitute legal advice.
Adding value first may seem counterintuitive – why should you provide value to a client before they have given you value (i.e. money)?
Moreover, why should you provide value to someone on the internet who might not even become a client? Isn’t that just wasted value?
You might be the type to play your cards close to your chest, but you’ll soon find that those who share more and give a little “sample” of their services online actually perform better than those who don’t.
Content that contains value will keep readers engaged with your site. Obviously not every reader will follow through with a consultation, but engaged readers have already passed the first major hurdle in the client conversion process.
Readers who engage with your content are more likely to share this content with others. They’re also more likely to come back to your page at a later date to reference your content or find more information.
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Consistency in Content Writing
In order to maximize the potential of your blog, you’ll need to post consistently.
There are a lot of reasons as to why consistent content is an effective marketing tool.
Frequent posting allows you to increase your chances of virality. Not every post is going to be a hit – but the more posts you have, the more chances there are of one of them taking off.
Frequency is most important however not for humans, but for robots.
Well, not robots as we’re used to seeing – I’m talking about internet bots.
Search engines, like Google, have millions of these bots, which crawl the web and attempt to make sense of everything that is online. These bots are like scouts that report back intel to base camp. This intel is used to determine search rankings.
One of the things that these bots look for is in fact consistency.
Consistent posting will thereby get you more traffic, which will in turn lead to more clients coming to your firm.
How Often You Should Post
Marketers have studied this, and the common understanding is that posting two to four times per week is the optimal frequency to increase traffic to your website.
Rockcontent and Forbes back this consensus:
“While some swear by posting daily, there’s actually a confirmed sweet spot when it comes to posting frequency.
Most experts agree that blogging two to four times per week is the best way to see increased traction from your content.
This equates to somewhere around eleven to sixteen posts a month, depending on how set you are on the actual times per week you post new content.
However, this isn’t a final tally.
In some competitive niches, it is important to blog more often, such as four to six times a week.
In contrast, some evergreen niches where information doesn’t change frequently can usually withstand less new content.”
-Rockcontent
That sweet spot is pretty unrealistic for DIY-ers and sole practitioners though – imagine adding six quality writing assignments per week to your workload, on top of running your business. All those billable hours wasted away…
From our own experience at ClearBox, this frequency is ideal, but not necessary for success. Your schedule can be different – weekly, bi-weekly, even monthly.
Whatever works for your schedule is optimal, and pushing out less content but quality content is better than posting garbage – which can in fact hurt your business.
So, have I sold you on content?
Then let’s get right to it! Carve out some content creation time out of your busy schedule today.
Even better, we created a convenient and easy to follow guide that shows you how you can go about creating fresh, consistent content month-over-month. Simply fill out the form below to get your free guide now!
