How to Build a Law Firm Blog That Attracts Clients
If you were starting your law practice in 1967, the extent of your legal marketing would probably be putting up a sign on your office, getting an ad in the local Yellow Pages and getting involved with your local Chamber of Commerce, Lion’s Club, Rotary or other professional community organizations.
You’d network at cocktail parties because they were much more frequent then and people always wanted to hear the lawyer’s opinion. You’d be asked for free advice, and you’d give it since you hoped it would lead to an engagement. And you wanted to be viewed as someone with expertise that other people sought out. In today’s vernacular, you wanted to be a thought leader.
Today, the way you market your law firm is very different. The Internet changed that forever. But the goals have not changed all that much, just the path to reaching them has changed. And your path to becoming known as a thought leader leads to a blog.
Blogging provides a host of benefits for lawyers and serves as a solid foundation for your legal marketing outreach:
Blogging helps drive traffic to your website through organic search. Every time you add a new post, Google rewards your site by acknowledging it as fresh content, which helps you rank higher in search results. This is one of the reasons why it is important to have your law firm blog as part of your website, not as a standalone entity or a subdomain. You give up too many SEO benefits by keeping your blog separate from your main site.
Blogging helps you establish authority in your practice area. Your law firm blog is your platform for sharing content that helps you build your brand and expertise in your chosen area of practice. Building authority breeds trust and familiarity, which helps keep you top-of-mind when your potential clients are ready to choose an attorney.
Blogging extends your reach beyond the people you already know. And you don’t even have to do it yourself! With social sharing, people can forward your content to others you may not have reached any other way, spreading your influence much farther than your regular readers.
Blogging creates quality inbound links. It is almost impossible to attract authoritative inbound links to just your regular website. Having a blog that is referenced by others when they quote your content will provide those links that are so essential to SEO.
Blogging provides content for social media marketing. Your blog is the hub of your social media marketing efforts, providing content that you can link to from your social media accounts and creating shareable content on all your social networks.
Blogging increases leads. According to HubSpot, blogs generate 67% more leads for companies that have them versus companies without a blog. Including a call-to-action in every blog post generates new opportunities for lead generation every time you add a new post.
Tips for Building Your Law Firm Blog
- Focus Your Blog on Your Niche
Developing a niche for your practice is an essential part of attracting the right type of clients. Here’s why:
You develop expertise. Becoming an expert in one narrowly defined area of the law makes it possible for you to attract good clients. Once you become recognized for excelling in this area, clients will come to you because of your expertise and the solutions you offer to solve their problems. When you accept only certain types of work, you make it easier on yourself to be able to handle the workload because you fully understand your niche.
You can “type” your clients. Narrowing in on a niche allows you to become very familiar with the types of clients who need your services. You will quickly learn what makes an ideal client for you, and what kinds of clients just don’t fit your practice. You’ll be able to weed out the bad fits much earlier in the process.
You can charge what you’re worth. Once you establish your expertise in a particular niche, you’ll be able to command higher fees. This is something a generalist can never do.
Simply attracting traffic to your website for the sake of getting eyes on your law firm blog is not going to get new clients in the door. It is better for you to target your blog to your niche by writing about the specific areas of concern for this target audience so the leads you do generate are quality leads.
- Focus on Great Content
Blogs that produce results in terms of lead generation have one thing in common: great content. If you do not have the time or expertise to consistently deliver great content for your law firm blog, then look for help. Just remember that you are responsible for what is posted, so if you hire a freelance writer or marketing group, be sure all posts are reviewed by you or someone at your firm prior to posting.
- Include Visual Content and CTAs
Every blog post should have compelling visuals and contain a call-to-action that encourages the reader to do something — download a free ebook, sign up for your newsletter, or just add a comment to keep the conversation going.
- Promote Your Blog
Every single post should be cross-promoted on all your social media networks with links back to the post. You should also consider doing some paid advertising on your social media networks to promote your highly engaging posts. Promote popular posts in your e-newsletter or through a separate email marketing campaign.
In today’s Internet-centered society, blogs have become an accepted information source for millions of people searching for answers to pressing problems. Creating a niche for yourself as the authoritative voice in your practice area and location will result in a steady stream of qualified leads for your law firm.