8-Step Content Marketing Strategy For Law Firms
A Step-By-Step Guide To Developing A Content Marketing Strategy For Lawyers
Content marketing can drive traffic and increase conversions to your law firm's website. However, if you haven't thought out a plan, you may be wasting your time and money. So, before you even consider uploading content, you should conduct some research and develop a strategy.
Your content marketing strategy works best when it's well-planned and thoroughly defined. When you already know what to do and when to do them, it makes you more efficient and effective.
Here's a list of the important steps in drafting the perfect content marketing strategy for your law firm.
1. Set Realistic Goals
You might already know what content marketing (or "inbound marketing") can do for your law firm: you produce high-quality content that people seek out due to its value. Instead of advertising yourself to users, you appeal to those looking for valuable information (through blogs and articles) and lead them to your website.
Now that you know what content marketing can do for your law firm, you have to ask yourself what you need it for. Is it to generate more leads? Is it to establish yourself as an industry authority? Is it to get more people to subscribe to your legal newsletter? Is it to attract potential clients from a specific age group?
Remember: Your goals dictate the tactic you will implement in your content marketing strategy.
2. Specify Your Target Market
Content marketing requires a thorough understanding of your target audience.
For Example:
When you're trying to appeal to a specific demographic, you'll need to know those individuals' preferences. You'll also need to figure out what kind of content your target audience will enjoy.
Define a persona for your average customer. The average age, gender, location, and income should all be included in the persona you create. In addition, it would be beneficial if you took into account factors like your target audience's interests, concerns, and motivations.
3. Stake Out The Competition
The next stage is to get an idea of your competition. This allows you to take inspiration from what they're doing right and take lessons from what they're doing wrong. Knowing your competition also clues you in on industry-specific online marketing standards, so pay attention to them if you don't want to get left behind.
Remember: You will be vying for people's attention and time with more than just your usual competitors. There may also be content from news, reference, and entertainment websites covering similar topics to your regular content.
When researching your competitors, note the types of material they're putting out and which seems to be the most successful. Then, find out what keywords they're optimizing for, and see if you can compete for those as well.
4. Keyword Research
After you've figured out your target audience, the next step is to figure out what they're looking for. First, you'll need to do keyword research on Google and other search engines to see what people are looking up.
Remember: In Lawyer SEO, keywords are the most popular search terms people use on the search engines. Therefore, the more people using those keywords for those searches, the more traffic high-ranking pages can get.
For starters, pay attention to the search volume for the keywords that you think are relevant. Your keyword research will almost certainly produce some unexpected findings, as well as new content ideas.
5. Plan Your Content
The next stage is to think about how you'll use what you discovered in your research. You'll need to think about the platforms to publish your content, what content best fits their user base, and how to effectively market your content based on your chosen platforms.
For Example:
The users on Twitter and your legal blog are going to want different types of content. The optimization for both mediums will also be different.
Not only should your content be good, but it also has to fit the platform you choose to publish them on. You can't upload a 1000-word essay on Twitter, and you can't write a 280-character blog entry on your website.
6. Make A Schedule For Content Creation
Now you must organize all of your ideas into a content publishing timetable. The schedule should include a calendar of publication dates and the people responsible for each piece of material.
The volume of content you publish should be reasonable for the size and capacity of your content marketing team. For example, if you're a small law firm and make the content yourself, don't insist on publishing 5 blog entries per day.
Remember: Your content marketing strategy only works when you can produce high-quality material. If an article doesn't give users what they need, they'll look for something better. So don't rush content creation just to make an unreasonable deadline.
7. Promote Your Content
While you're using Lawyer SEO to rank high on your chosen keywords, you can boost traffic on your new content by promoting them on other platforms. For example, link your latest articles, blog posts, and infographics in social media posts and email newsletters.
Remember: Traffic is also a significant factor in ranking your pages, so bring in some traffic to your new content by directing users toward them.
8. Make Changes Along The Way
The final phase in your content marketing strategy is to track the effectiveness. Then, depending on how your content performs, tweak your strategy as needed.
Remember: Your content marketing strategy will change as time goes on. So be flexible as you implement your plans.
Do You Need Help With Your Content?
Blogs, videos, and quick legal how-to's can generate leads and boost your search engine rankings. However, your content marketing campaign is most effective when it's high-quality, consistent, and well-promoted.
If you need a little help with that, LawyerLeadMachine can help you. Review your Lawyer SEO options here.
