What’s “content” mean in content marketing, exactly? 

Most of the time it means blog posts — well-written, educational, and optimized articles that target a specific search term your audience is frequently searching for online.

I’d say that traditional blog posts make up the bulk of “content” in most content marketing strategies.

Here’s a fact — having a great law firm website isn’t enough to attract web visitors. You really need to blog regularly.

Without blog posts, there are no answers to your audience’s Google searches that link to your site. No answers means no new traffic for you.

In this article, I’ll break down why content marketing for law firms is important, give a basic tutorial on how to write a blog, and then give you 10 ideas of other content for you to create.

Content marketing for law firms is a long-term strategy, which can take weeks or months to start seeing traction.

But remember this — content lasts forever. Once you publish a piece of content, it can continue to draw people in for years. 

What is content marketing for law firms?

Instead of blanketing ads on billboards and TV spots, which are traditional advertising options, your aim will be to create as much free, quality content as you can.

This should be valuable content that your prospective clients want to read or share with others.

This is the basis of content marketing — to create engaging content that will rank on Google and lead your target audience to your website.

This is why content marketing strategies and lead generation strategies work together.

You must create new and relevant content consistently to maintain your website’s Google ranking. I’d say produce new content at least four times a month to begin with. Larger firms should produce even more frequently than this.

The more often you post on your website, the more Google will reward you by placing your posts higher up in Google searches.

The following are examples of queries that your audience is already searching for online:

• “What are the grounds for divorce in X state?”
• “What does an annulment mean?”
• “How long do you have to sue for medical malpractice?”
• “What constitutes the bankruptcy estate?”

Instead of landing on your competitors’ page your visitors will click on your post instead. Ideally, your law firm’s content will be more targeted content, that is relevant and well written.

Don’t worry, I’ll explain how to get started writing blog posts.

Remember this: Traditional advertising lasts when you stop paying, but content lasts online forever.

A quick guide on how to write blog posts that will rank high in Google searches

Each blog post should be at least 1000 words. But more words is better, generally. 

You’ll notice this post will probably be more in the 2000 word range. That’s because blog posts with longer word counts, contrary to what you may think, usually rank higher.

Long form content gives the search engines more to work with and rank.

Use appropriate header types and keywords throughout your article

Also, be sure to use headers throughout your posts for improved scannability — not only does it make skimming articles easier, but Google will be able to index your post into their search results easier. 

Your section headers should try to include the keyword you’re targeting, whether it’s “medical malpractice” or a specific search term like “how do I sue my doctor for malpractice?” Make sure to sprinkle these keywords and specific search terms throughout your article, but not too many times. 

For reference, your blog’s title should be an H1 header, and your subheadings should be H2 headers. Any subheadings within those sections will be an H3 or H4. 

Aim for 3-5 subheadings in your articles — don’t write one huge paragraph or in all plain text. This won’t help your readers, and it will make it harder for Google to index your post into their SERP.

Add outbound links

Also, any time you make a claim, like “over 70% of the time” make sure to add a link to cite your claim. Each article should have at least 2-3 “outbound” links — links on your website directing people to an outside website. This is to add credibility to your article.

Some obvious notes: don’t link to your competitors’ websites, and don’t link to shady websites. Online journals, magazines, and newspapers are good sources to link to.

If you write a great article, other websites will link to it, giving you a “backlink.” The more backlinks your website has, the higher it will rank in Google. Google figures more backlinks means more credibility. It makes sense.

Ever notice why Wikipedia is usually the first search result? It’s because each page has thousands of backlinks.

Constantly link to other related posts or pages on your website

As your law firm’s website builds its library of blog posts, make sure that new blog posts link to your older, related posts.

This is a useful content marketing strategy to keep readers on your website longer, which increases the chances of conversions happening — getting them to fill out the contact forms throughout your website.

Add calls-to-action to make it easy for your reader reach out

Remember, always end your posts with a call-to-action (CTA). Encourage your readers to fill out a form or contact your office — something like “Book your free consultation today!”, “Get the compensation you deserve today” or “Click to call.”

You can also offer exclusive content called a “content upgrade” to encourage readers to submit their email addresses instead. I’ll cover this in step #4 below.

Okay, now that I’ve covered how to write a basic post, you’ll be more prepared to write other forms of content on this list. 

10 content marketing ideas for lawyers to find more clients online

Content marketing is synonymous with blogging, mostly because blogging works wonders and is the main traffic generator for many websites.

But, there are numerous other types of content out there you should be producing. In this quick guide, I will feature examples of different blog posts you should be writing, as well as other forms of written or visual media that are beneficial to share online. 

You never know which piece of content will reach your target audience first, so it’s best to create various content forms to reach your audience wherever they’re at online. 

Content ideas:

Written content is the most popular content found in Google searches.

The following are my suggestions of helpful content to produce, so your target audience has many opportunities to discover your law firm online.

1. Write a FAQ page

If you receive the same questions over and over from your clients, maybe to the point of annoyance, then create a frequently asked question page on your law firm’s website.

First, this will qualify your leads so people will know if they’re a good client fit, but it also will attract more traffic to your website when people search for common legal advice.

FAQ pages can be a quick way to hack Google’s search engine results page (SERP) so your answers will show up on the first page of results.

2. Create a case study

Case studies are a form of social proof, just like reviews and testimonials. People rely on social proof to make the right decision, especially if they’re comparing multiple lawyers.

Offering a case study could give you a competitive edge over another law firm with inadequate proof of their past work.

3. Write a blog about each of your target audiences’ legal scenarios

As I said before, blogs will make up the bulk of your content marketing strategy.

Put yourself in the shoes of your target clients:

• What are their pain points? 
• What do they frequently ask you? 
• Why do you wish they knew? 
• What are they searching for online?

Then, turn these questions into answers in the form of blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other content marketing formats.

Also, look to your competitors’ websites to see which of their blog posts bring in the most people. Use content marketing tools like Ubersuggest (free) or paid tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs. These sites will tell you how much traffic your competitors’ websites are getting, what keywords they’re ranking for, and their top blog posts that bring people in.

Then write a better, longer, and more updated version of those blog posts to redirect the traffic to your website instead.

4. Write a free eBook

An eBook is usually just a much longer version of a post, with extra styling and images to impress your audience. If a blog post is 1000 words, then an eBook should be several thousand words long to make it worth their while.

While normal blog posts are free to read, free eBooks usually require readers to submit their email addresses to receive the free download.

This is known as a “lead magnet”, “download gate” or “downloadable content.” 

It’s a lead generation technique to take advantage of the new traffic your website is seeing. Some people may not feel ready to fill out the contact form but are more comfortable submitting their email addresses to receive their free download.

Now you have an email address to enter into your email marketing strategy.

5. Write a weekly email newsletter

Famous marketer and author Tim Ferriss sends out his “5-Bullet Friday” newsletter every week. It’s filled with interesting finds related to business, health, marketing, or whatever interests him at the moment.

Similar companies and influencers follow this pattern with their weekly newsletter.

Depending on your practice areas, you should consider creating your own weekly newsletter. Perhaps it’s an opportunity for you to speak your mind on current events, update people on new law changes, or share new blog posts with your audience.

You never know who will open your email and share it with a friend or family member in need of your legal services.

6. Become a legal expert on legal forum sites

In your spare time, you may consider creating a Quora, Reddit, Avvo, or FindLaw account so you can offer free advice online related to your practice areas.

Well-written answers often receive thousands of views. From there, you can redirect people to your law firm’s website for lead generation.

7. Rewrite your old blog posts

Every couple of months or so, look to your Google Analytics to see how popular your blog posts are. If you see one blog post’s position in Google continue to rise, then re-write and expand that article to increase its word count and add more essential keywords so that blog will rank even higher. 

Sometimes those giant articles are known as “pillar pieces” and usually will have a title like “The ultimate guide to…” or “The complete guide to…” 

Pillar pieces usually have anywhere from 2500-5000 words. As a result, they rank high!

This is one of the most common techniques for optimizing your current blog posts without having to write an entirely new blog post.

8. Repurpose your most blog posts into graphics, eBooks, slideshares

There’s a term in marketing called “low hanging fruit.” These are the easy little wins that don’t require much effort but have a huge reward. Finding your best content and repurposing it into more content is an example of this.

Over time, after you’ve posted enough blogs, you’ll know which blog post has the most potential to be repurposed or recycled into new content.

Convert the old blog post’s information into several other mediums such as:

• Infographics
• YouTube video
• Slideshares
• Facebook or Twitter posts
• Reddit or Quora posts or answers

Because you know the content is already popular, there’s an increased likelihood that the variations of that content will also be popular.

Visual content ideas:

Let’s find ways to get your law firm to appear in Google’s Image and Video search categories, which I find to be much less saturated than written search results.

This kind of content can be more expensive to produce, but because there’s less competition, you may see faster results.

9. Create a YouTube video or YouTube video series

Videos are kind of time-consuming and expensive to produce, and as a result, most law firms don’t have videos. And if they do, it’s just one video.

Luckily, this also means there are not enough videos to satisfy the user’s demand — so if you produce any video, you’ll probably get lots of views quickly.

Spend the time (and money) to produce a high-quality video with a well-written description and timestamps to help your viewers find relevant information, I guarantee you’ll see a large amount of engagement pretty quickly.

I’ve seen YouTube videos land on the first page of Google one day after they were posted. Google demands great content, and videos can satisfy that need and get you more exposure.

If you don’t want to spend the money, consider filming a quick iPhone or computer video and posting it to your social media pages. 

Remember: Any kind of video content is good content.

10. Create a shareable infographic

You’ll need the help of a graphic designer for this one, but infographics are huge, especially on Pinterest and Google image search.

Just take your top blog post, or top FAQs and create an attractive, shareable PDF that’s branded with your law firm’s logo.

Because images are highly shareable, you may even get other websites or accounts re-posting your image, which can provide backlinks to your website and increase your website’s Google ranking.

Let us do your law firm content marketing

Kaleidico is a full-service lead generation agency and content studio.

We offer content marketing for law firms, as well as for mortgage lenders and financial technology companies.

Our services also include SEO, PPC, web design and development, graphic design, content strategy, writing for social media posts, blog writing, and editing.

Want your law firm’s web presence to reach more people online and generate more case leads? Reach out to schedule a Discovery session.