There are many ways to skin a marketing cat, but getting the basics right is the best way to build your firm’s reputation and profile, writes Annette Densham.
Do a quick Google search for “law firms” and you’ll find that just in the largest global firms, there are almost a quarter of a million lawyers. Globally, lawyers number in their millions. Their challenge is how does a law firm stand out in this sea of legalese?
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Unlike the good old days where the person seeking legal advice had to let their fingers do the walking through a phone book, today it is as easy as typing in “lawyer” and your location. This means there are so many opportunities to rise to the top of searches by doing these five things to market the firm.
- Marketing 101
Know your audience and key messages. While your firm may have the skills to do everything from criminal law to immigration law, specialising is the key to standing out. Niching means you can really get to know your target audience, their pain points and what they need to solve their problems, so all your content and messaging are like a giant billboard lit up in bright lights. When your audience knows you understand them and you understand their challenges, you are on the front foot because you’ve started the “know, like and trust” journey even before speaking to them.
- Create a content calendar
It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day machinations of running a firm and managing existing clients. While it is true it is easier to keep clients than to acquire new ones, being methodical about your content will assist with the acquisition process. Every quarter, spend time brainstorming content ideas for blogs – you only need four every month published to really get organic traction on search engines. Topics ideas can come from existing cases you are working on, case studies to highlight your expertise and skills, frequently asked questions, current trends in the law, any changes to the law, opinion and observation pieces, and topics in the current news cycle that may impact your clients and audience.
- Consistency
Once you have created a content calendar, get writing or hire someone to create the content for you. While there are millions of pieces of content on the internet, content pushed out by your firm is dropping valuable breadcrumbs for prospective clients to pick up as they search. The more you post, the more visible you are. That lovely website you paid thousands for shouldn’t be static; search engines reward websites with consistently fresh content with higher rankings in searches. And if you utilise keywords for SEO in your written and visual content, when someone searches for your niche, you will more likely appear at the top.
- External publishing
After you have brainstormed your content topics, chances are you have more than you need for the website alone. Use these topics to reach out to external publishers like legal and digital business publications to tap into their audience. This approach helps with securing backlinks – also known as inbound links, incoming links, or one-way links; they are links from one website to a page on another website. The more respectable the publication is, the higher their domain authority is (a metric created to measure a website’s likelihood to rank on search engines). You will have to write the content, but appearing on these sites improves your searchability, reputation and credibility.
- Repurpose
Most marketers will tell you that you need to be visible on more than one channel, so it is not enough just to write blogs for your website. You also need to be creating content across multiple channels. This adds to the breadcrumbs you are sharing about who you are, what you do and why you do it. Content helps people form relationships with you even before you have met them. People make decisions to buy in the limbic system – the part of the brain that controls our emotions. Most buying decisions are driven by emotions, not logic.
So, the more content you can have out there, the more likely you are to get in front of people. Repurposing the art of taking one piece of content and reusing it – tiles for social media platforms, memes, videos, quotes, webinars, eBooks, reels, stories, newsletters and Facebook groups. You can turn one blog into at least seven other pieces of content by pulling out key quotes, creating images on platforms like Canva.
Of course, there are many ways to skin a marketing cat: Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, advertising, being a podcast guest, becoming a valued source to the media, and doing live videos – but getting the basics right and creating great content ideas is a solid basis to build your firm’s reputation and profile.
Annette Densham is the co-founder of The Audacious Agency.
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Annette Densham
