Executing a consistent and aggressive content strategy isn’t easy. The work can be even more arduous in industries where your expertise needs to be more concise with less subjectivity, such as legal marketing. Many people will fail to follow through with a steady plan because of some of the following reasons, ordered from most to least common:

  • They do not have the time or resources.
  • There is no vision for the end goal of adding content to your website and other digital assets. The topics and keywords they are trying to encompass are limited.
  • There are capable people able to do the content, but they’re just burnt out with the limited variation of content or the approach to creating the content itself that needs to be executed.

I remember during my first SEO job, I offered to personally write an extensive geo-content strategy for a supply chain management client. I effectively signed myself up to write the same high-level SCM page for over one hundred cities around the United States. The only info that changed from page-to-page was the city name. After a while, no uptick in coffee consumption could have made the slog any more tolerable. So, how can you put together a content strategy when you don’t have the time or vision?

Looking at 5 Achievable Ways to Accomplish a Top-Notch Content Strategy

In the following techniques, I use my more than 10 years of experience managing what’s likely amassed to 10,000+ individual pages and blogs created for hundreds of law firm websites in order to compile what I believe to be the best practices for research, efficiency, easier execution, and consumer engagement.

Lists and Subtopics

The listicle is still alive and well, but you do not need to use sensational headers (like mine!) to grab someone’s attention. Not every page or blog on your website is going to quantify the sections or questions that will be outlined in a piece of content. For example, as a personal injury lawyer, you could present “5 Questions You’ll Want to Ask Your Insurance Company After a Car Accident,” and immediately think of the top five questions your clients ask you to outline the bulk of the content for that page. But if you are creating a standard practice area page, the page would not be answering a question in this fashion at all. In fact, you are likely going to want to present an entirely different approach to the content altogether, informing a potential client why your firm is the best fit for guiding them through their legal issue.

While having a quantified mentality is easier and cleaner for a blog or an article, there are still many ways to use this quantification mindset in executing pages of your website that would never include a numerical presentation. This would be through consistent use of subtopics or subsections. This allows you to create a segmented flow of the page based on how you want to present yourself to your potential client.

Let’s dig into this: as a criminal defense lawyer, you may want to take two routes. One route is explaining the urgency of retaining a lawyer and the dire consequences of using a public defender. Another route could be educating the potential clients on the possible defenses they may have and elucidating all of the options they have available. Your initial subsection flow could look like the following:

  • Route 1: Intro -> Explain Urgent Timeline of Obtaining Private Counsel -> Outline Maximum Potential Fines, Jail Time, Probation Etc. Of Crime -> Talk About Weaknesses with Public Defender -> Discuss the Financial and Emotional Impact Crime Can Have on One’s Life -> CTA/Outro
  • Route 2: Intro -> Relate to Individual and Why They Are in This Situation -> Discuss Potential Options They Have for Their Defense and How PD vs. Private May Handle the Case -> Talk About Potential Outcomes of the Case -> CTA/Outro

This article isn’t to necessarily discuss which route is better (and there are still plenty more), but instead to help guide you along on how you can clearly execute content at an accelerated pace when the subtopics are laid out for you in advance.

Using Data, Statistics, and Surveys to Create a Narrative

One way to not only create plenty of content, but to craft especially engaging and interesting copy is to use data, surveys, and statistics. There are many ways for all practice areas to use everything from consumer reports to data provided from local public records to create relevant content.

As opposed to simply rewriting a local news report, data is used to support existing content and allow you to creativity give your take on a trendline in your sector. In addition to being able to create additional content from data and statistics, you are able to create a more powerful narrative for your potential clients. For example, if you are a bankruptcy attorney, you could state that X% of people have the same conversation you are about to have every day, so you are not alone. As a family lawyer, you could state that X% of married couples move forward with a contested divorce, so your firm will give the additional peace of mind required to push the reader to contact you instead of other family lawyers in your area.

Looping in Updates from Previous Content

When you start to amass a collection of content, many pages and blogs will fall into different themes and categories. This will allow you to tie in relevant content and excerpts in addition to providing solid internal links throughout your website for further reading. This is especially useful for any content that involves changes and updates to what was covered previously. When we produce content for legal marketing in the form of an annual analysis of something marketing related—such as directories, search behavior, content best practices, etc.—we will pull in findings from the previous year and see how they compare to the present year. Not only is this relevant for creating trendlines, but it supports your ability to produce comprehensive content more efficiently.

To give a brief example, if we are talking about the accidents or crimes committed per capita in Florida in 2021 vs. 2020, we can use our article from the previous year to set the tone and kickstart the content we are analyzing: “Last year, Tampa was number one for motorcycle accidents per capita. It is no surprise that since the Harley megastore opened in Lakeland 9 months ago, Lakeland has now catapulted to the top.” For the record, this is not something that actually occurred, but correlations like these happen quite frequently.

Supplement Inspiration and Copy from Transcriptions

Transcribing audio and video to create supplemental content is nothing novel. I remember transcribing voice memos by hand over a decade ago into a garbled sequence of nonsequiturs and half thoughts that took much longer to edit than write from scratch.

Even for an evenly paced, eloquent speaker, a transcription of a speaking engagement or podcast does not translate into a reading experience for which most consumers are really looking. But as far as a framework for building additional content around or spurring the creativity you need to get things the ball rolling, this is a content technique that is still extremely helpful if you are finding a lull in your content sprints.

Without the actual use of a ghostwriter—though potentially an option within itself if you are concerned about the tone/style/quality of content coming from you personally—an experienced editor may be able to create high-quality content from your transcription. This would be a specialization I would imagine would not be particularly cheap, and the transcription being provided would go further if it were spoken in points. Likewise, it would probably be as far away as possible from anything resembling a stream of consciousness.

Authority From a Topic Does Not Start and End With You

Using additional sources to craft your content is not just a good practice for citations, but it is also in many ways encouraged by Google in order to establish authority and expertise. If your topic is not totally evergreen—in reality, hardly anything in legal ever is—then your content does not belong on an island. Referencing other websites to support the accuracy and legitimacy of your content does not simply have to be an external link – it can be a resource for taking additional insight and information and being able to transform it into unique content with your own voice, tone, and thematic relevance.

When it comes to legal issues (and legal marketing issues) with more subjectivity, it provides an opportunity for content in line with an air of an op-ed. Typically this is some of the most dynamic content you can create, which is especially relevant for sharing on social media and newsletters, if you’re into that kind of thing, so your network can see more of your own personality and company values. Who knows? Savvy marketers may check backlinks reports and see your attribution, spurring action for others to link to you and recognize your own content-related accomplishments.

Contact the Content Marketing Experts at Market My Market Today

Content marketing is imperative for a number of reasons, perhaps paramount of which is that your readers expect high-quality information to be coming from so-called industry experts. Content marketing answers your reader’s questions and helps you build trust, encourage relationships, strengthen conversions, and generate leads. However, we understand the dilemma this can create at most law firms: you understand the importance of top-notch content marketing, but you don’t have the time, resources, or content marketing know-how to take the next step. That’s where we come in.

At Market My Market, we serve to take digital marketing off your plate so you can focus on more important aspects of your business. Our best-in-class team of SEO and content experts have years of experience helping lawyers like you stand out in the crowded industry. By producing interesting, readable, and convertible content, we can help your firm generate leads. To learn more about how we can help you, contact us by calling (866) 696-0248 or completing our online contact form today.