When Walter Consumer has a legal problem, his first reaction is to turn to the Internet. At this point he is not looking for a lawyer, he is looking for information. He might ask “What is personal injury?” or “What is a Power of Attorney?” Providing content that answers his questions helps you connect with him early in his search.

To be sure that you are on target with your content marketing you need a publishing strategy.

A well-developed law firm publishing strategy improves the firm’s profile and supports its business development. The reason to publish great content is to increase business so be sure your publishing strategy fits with and furthers your business strategy.

A Publishing Strategy Includes:

Your market: Your first consideration is your market. If you are a solo practitioner, you may have one type of client. Larger firms, however, could have several practice areas with specific client types you want to reach. Try to be as specific as you can when describing the prospective client. For example, if your personal injury cases are limited to motorcycle accidents, you would write for those readers.

Your Content: Consider the needs of your proposed reader and plan your content accordingly. Content can include frequently asked questions, case summaries, discussion of current legal events, how to guides or legal business updates.

Your Format: There many ways to publish content on-line. You can write a blog, a feature article, a newsletter or an e-book. Other formats include videos and podcasts. Each one has its benefits. Which you use depends on your reader and your skills at communicating.

Your Schedule: As was said in Mice and Men, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” This especially true of writing marketing content. To stay on track, set a schedule, put the dates in your calendar and when the time comes, sit and stare at the blank screen until the words emerge. Keeping a regular publishing schedule is the best way to retain readers and be recognized by the search engines.

Your Budget: Your budget will include two types of expense. First, moneys spent to hire a staff person to write content or to hire a freelance contract content creator. Second, for the lawyers responsible for producing content, account for their non-billable time in their personal development plans.

Your Team: Someone in the firm needs to be in charge of the publishing strategy. For large firms, that person is usually the marketing director; in smaller firms, it would be the lawyer or a staff member.

Finally, how do you know if the plan is working to bring in more business? Try to set goals that are measureable such as percentage of new work from existing clients, number of new clients or more speaking requests for a particular practice group.

Need help with your content writing? Contact me at roberta@robertamgubbins.com or 734-255-9119.