It's now news content marketing is now the buzz trend. More and more business of all size and shape are actively using this strategy to attract new leads and grow their client base.
According to the 2014 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey over 80% of law companies plan to add content marketing as their marketing strategy and produce more content in 2015 and onward.
As a law company however, you are likely to face the following problems:
•Lack of proper strategy and ability to scale the results effectively
•Being a "boring" niche and lacking ideas for viral posts and social media content
If any of the above sounds familiar to you, check out the following strategies to help you acquire leads, links and double the ROI of your content marketing efforts.
1. Newsjacking is your biggest friend
David Meerman Scott started the global trend of "newsjacking" in 2011. He defines it as "the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story".
In simpler words - take trendy industry news e.g. an important court decision or issuance of a new regulation, and offer your professional analysis and commentary on the matter.
Newsjacking can come in forms of YouTube video commentary that is likely to rank well on the platform and appear next to published news videos on the subject.
Blog post and opinion posts on your own website, published shortly after the news got spread is another powerful option. In this case, you can piggyback on the news popularity by using relevant trending hashtags and actively promoting your post within the 24 hours after publishing.
"Newsjacking helped us leverage our company name on the media. After half a year of strategic publishing, we've seen a massive improvement in online visibility and started receiving frequent request from journalists to provide expect quotes. Our link profile was growing naturally and we have gotten a number of great referrals after being quoted in the media," - says Ed Smith from Auto Accident.
Newsjacking is simpler than you think.
Step 1: Set up Google Alerts that will immediately notify you of new breaking stories published in your niche.
Step 2: Use Hashtagify to monitor all trending Twitter hashtags in your area within the specified time frame.
Step 3: Sign up as a source to HARO (Help a Reporter) and receive queries from journalists looking opinions for their stories. One - you can be potentially quoted in the story. Two - you know in advance what subjects are likely to get massive coverage soon and use those knowledge to your advantage.
2. Focus on Quality over Quantity
Law companies are busy places and even as a content creator you may be juggling multiple projects at a time. While publishing regular content is important for a number of reasons, publishing low quality "filler" posts can ruin your reputation as an industry expert.
What to do instead?
•Upgrade the existing posts with simple graphics and new data to promote them on social media.
•Repurpose existing content e.g. a handful of old posts can be refurbished into a free eBook or spiced up with some new data and turned into an infographic in just a few hours with Easel.Ly
•Invite fellow lawyers for an expert round-up or featured interview.
•Focus on publishing just a few well-thought, evergreen posts and case studies per month and afterwards promoting them to a wider audience with guest posting and outreaching.
3. Keep the Focus on Your Niche
While content marketing increases the temptation to speak to wider audience, that's not always the right step to make.
Focus on thought leadership in your niche instead. This marketing technique helps you build your credulity as the industry expert on certain topic. Meaning, you new become a go-to person both for the media and the clients to ask for opinion.
To solidify your brand and capture the attention of your ideal customers keep your niche fairly narrow. Don't spread too thin and focus on building up your expertise in a very specific type of case handling.
4. Have a constant conversation with your clients
Another common problem law companies often face is trying to sound too serious and completely forgetting about the human element to their practice.
Law niche shouldn't be boring unless you decide to make it sound like one.
Adopt are more conversational tone of writing. Stop using the unhealthy amount of legal terminology that doesn't make you sound more professional, it just leaves your clients puzzled and bored.
Break down complicated concepts into simple statements and educate your clients with practical and easy how-tos.
Keep the tone of your writing engaging and foster two-way communication by interacting with your readers in the comment section or setting up a dedicated community forum or Q&A platform.
Content marketing is about bringing value, rather than squeezing out a sale. Use it to establish your authority online and earn the name of "this amazing, friendly legal company" to bring more referrals on board.