Blogging has multiple benefits for your law firm including digital marketing, client and referral relations, community relations, issue advocacy, publicity, reputation management, and thought leadership. However, for some attorneys, it can be hard to know where to get started or how to get the most out of their blogging efforts.
Read on to learn more about the two types of blogs, best practices for picking effective blog topics, and four ways to maximize the impact of your law firm blog posts.
Types of blog posts
For lawyers, there are two distinct types of blogs that perform the best to drive more business to your firm online. The two blog types are: 1) evergreen blogs and 2) time-sensitive blogs. Read on to understand the difference between the two types and when it’s appropriate to use either type.
#1 Evergreen blogs
Evergreen blogs consist of content that remains relevant long after the publish date. Evergreen blogs will likely become the foundation of your website’s content because they remain consistently relevant to your potential clients. Well-crafted evergreen content educates potential clients about the law and answers the questions they have about their case or matter in detail. Creating evergreen blog posts with LawLytics is very quick and comprehensive – no technical experience required.
Example: What is Uninsured Motorist Coverage?
#2 Time-sensitive blogs
Blogs that are time-sensitive are opposite in nature to evergreen blogs. Their subject matter is of the moment, and requires timely writing and publishing. You can also expect the blog to become outdated at some point in time.
Example: A Supreme Court decision that affects your potential clients
How do I pick effective blog topics?
One of the biggest challenges to blog writing is deciding what to write about. This is especially true for attorneys who are looking to get the most reward for their time spent on blog writing. If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of writing a blog for your law firm website, remember that blogs don’t have to be very long to be effective. In fact, you only need to write until you feel as though your message is sufficiently conveyed.
When choosing a blog topic, think about what would be of value to your potential clients. Below are some potential subject areas that you could explore when blog writing:
- Common questions from clients
- Common concerns from clients about their legal problem or the legal process
- Complex legal concepts that can be broken down into bite-sized bits of information
- Detailed case results
- Seasonal topics that affect your potential clients
- Repurposed materials or information from CLE events or other seminars
- Timely topics that are relevant to your practice area (in the news, new policy, etc.)
Tip: Keep a running list of blog topics handy for when you get stuck.
Maximize the impact of your law firm blog
Although blogging shouldn’t be an arduous task for you or your practice, a well-written blog is likely to take a decent amount of effort and time and so it’s important to be strategic about how to get it in front of your potential clients. Once you have thoughtfully written and published your new blog, there are a few ways to maximize its impact and your ROI.
#1 Post your blog to social media
One of the easiest ways to get more eyes on your content – and as a result, your website – is to share your new blog entries on social media. When crafting your social media post, include a short description of what your blog is about and provide a direct link to the entry on your website. If you used a photo or a video in your blog, tag this onto your social media post to catch the eye of your audience. If you’re a current member of LawLytics, there is a built-in feature that allows you to instantly post new blog entries to social media.
To help attorneys get the most out of their social media efforts, we recommend sticking to the “Green Zone” for social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These platforms are ideal for solos and small law firms because they are likely where your potential clients are spending a lot of their time online.
In addition to posting new blog entries to your personal and law firm social media profiles, you can also ask your staff to share the post to their personal social media accounts. This small effort can help to increase your blog’s visibility by multitudes, combining your network with your staff’s to attract a larger online audience.
#2 Share your blog with your email database
If you send a regular newsletter or other firm communications, this can be a great opportunity to share your new blog entries with your network. Law firm email marketing often requires brainstorming concepts for your content so that your emails are engaging and relevant for your readers. Because your blog entry topics are thoughtfully written with your intended audience in mind, they make for perfect material for your email newsletters.
To incorporate your blogs into your email marketing, it’s recommended that you create a teaser of sorts to give the readers an idea of what your blog is about. Craft a short blurb about the topic of the blog that encourages your readers to click the link to learn more. Similar to your social media posts, incorporate an image or video to help catch the attention of your reader and spark their interest.
#3 Format your blog for success
To help your blog resonate with more of your potential clients, incorporate thoughtful formatting. For example, crafting your blogs to be easy to read can help you to engage your audience for longer. Due to the overexposure to available information via the internet, our audiences are gravitating less and less toward complex, long-form types of content. Characteristics like simple sentence structure, shorter sentences, and the use of conversational language all contribute to the readability of your content.
Another formatting technique is the use of headings and subtitles. Headers serve a dual purpose for your website: To clarify your content for your readers and to communicate to search engines about the subject matter of your content. The best headers and subtitles will be both descriptive and concise, and are crafted with your potential client in mind.
With the LawLytics built-in content tool, you can be certain your practice area pages are equipped with optimized headers and subtitles that work to attract more local and relevant clients to your website. Each practice area page template comes pre-loaded with headers and subtitles that follow best practices for both the reader and search engines.
To make your blog formatting more visually appealing, consider using media such as images or video to accompany your written content. To get the most out of your added media, make sure that it is high-quality and relevant to your blog content. In most cases, a single image or video is sufficient.
#4 Use performance analytics to your advantage
The data produced around your digital marketing strategy can help your law firm determine what’s working and what’s not. Using performance analytics can also help you avoid wasting time and money on efforts that don’t serve you or your firm.
To begin using your performance analytics, you first need an easy and comprehensive way of accessing your website’s performance reports. If this is difficult to do or perhaps a total mystery, we recommend taking the time to figure out how this can be more accessible to you. With LawLytics, members have a quick way to view reports for their website performance.
Once you have access to your website performance analytics, you can begin using this data to help you craft and publish more effective blog entries. One easy way to get started is to simply explore what blog topics achieved the most web traffic over the past several months to a year. Observe this data for any trends: Is there a particular subject area that performed better than others? Did you have a blog series that spiked in popularity? In addition, observe what performed poorly.
With enough performance data, you will soon be able to make informed decisions on what subject matter to focus on when brainstorming new blog ideas. If a blog topic performs particularly well on your website in terms of traffic and clicks, this is an indication that your audience might be interested in seeing more of this topic. This could inspire a blog series about that topic, or perhaps a deeper dive into the subject.
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