Blogs hold a unique position in the online media landscape because they have become an accepted source of information. When used properly, a blog becomes a clear, consistent voice for your practice. It entices prospects, referral sources, colleagues, clients and thought leaders to engage you in dialogue. It keeps you top of mind and builds visibility among your target clients. Ultimately, it earns you more of the kind of client you most desire.
Here are the 7 key areas you need to focus on in order to develop a law firm blog that delivers qualified leads, including:
- Structure — organizing your blog for maximum visual appeal and ease of navigation is important for engagement. Remember, most readers scan, so break up your test for easy reading.
- Address the interests of your target market. If you’ve been practicing law for awhile, you should already know the problems that face your target market. Each problem becomes a database of ideas from which to draw your blog subject matter. Sprinkle your posts with your insights and experience and you create something of value to potential clients.
- Add other voices. Many of the most popular blogs have multiple authors. If you have partners and associates, ask them to contribute. If it’s just you, seek out other experts — perhaps strategic referral partners like CPAs, accountants, bankers, etc. – who would be willing to contribute to your blog. If you view your blog as a publication for the benefit of your target market, you begin to see more possibilities for adding valuable content from others.
- Call-to-action — showcase one clear call-to-action on your blog home page and position it on the page where it is easily visible.
- Social sharing — empowering engagement through social sharing — linking your blog to your social media pages and using Share plug-ins — allows users to pass along your content, thus doing some of the lead generation heavy lifting for you. (NOTE: If you use WordPress — the most popular blogging platform — you are now no longer be able to automatically share your posts on Facebook. To share your posts, you’re going to have to post directly on your Facebook page with a link back to your blog.)
- Page speed — page load speed is important since research shows more than most people will abandon a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.
- Capture email addresses. Email is still the #1 marketing tool for lead generation and will help you nurture repeat visitors to your law firm marketing blog. We have a standalone email sign-up form on our blog encouraging visitors to sign up for our monthly email newsletter and you should, too.
And if you think that blogs aren’t worth the time and trouble, then you need to be aware of these 7 stats about what blogging can do for business:
