Sometimes, Figuring Out What to Write about is the Hardest Part of Blogging
The benefits of blogging for law firms and lawyers are indisputable. So, now that you’ve set up your site and are ready to go, what are you actually supposed to be writing about? As a practicing attorney, most of your written communication is likely directed at other attorneys and judges, and this is exactly the style of writing that you should avoid when blogging. Remember, you are blogging in an effort to connect with your potential clients, and (perhaps just as importantly) so that your site is noticed by Google and other search engines. For this reason, content that looks like a legal brief or law review article is NOT what you should be posting.
For many people, finding blog topics is harder than putting pen to paper. Here are 40 ideas to get you started generating content for your law firm’s blog
When it comes to legal marketing, personal injury is likely the most competitive practice area there is. Personal injury law firms are in fierce competition for the high-value cases that occur on a daily basis in every jurisdiction in the United States.
Many people who are injured in accidents caused by negligence have never worked with an attorney before or have lawyers in their personal network. Because of this, after an accident, many accident victims look to the internet – specifically Google – to find an attorney to represent them, The firms appearing in the first few positions in the search engine results pages (SERPs) generally get a significant amount of business online, making these spots highly coveted.
With the weather warming up, more and more motorcyclists are getting their bikes out of storage and hitting the open road. Unfortunately, this exposes them to a significant risk of injury in a motorcycle accident. Law firms can create content to keep motorcyclists safer, raise awareness, and connect with victims who are in need of legal representation.
In 2017, we made several predictions regarding the direction legal content marketing would follow. While we are still waiting for some of these trends to catch on, one benchmark stands tall. Unique legal content continues to become an ever-increasingly important marketing tool for law firms around the country. Here are the top three marketing trends we are forecasting for 2018.
When you consider which industry might focus most heavily on content marketing, legal firms probably would not be your first guess. But at the moment, the legal industry is leading the way when it comes to producing fresh content and adopting effective client acquisition strategies. In fact, by the end of 2017, Contently reports that between 30 and 50 percent of all law firms will have a content marketing strategy in place. With the budget to invest in advertising and the resources to hire in-house marketing experts, legal firms are turning away from traditional print or TV ads and embracing new forms of media through content marketing.
Here are some of key strategies to consider when creating a content marketing plan:
Write compelling and readable content
It should be no surprise to point out that the key to successful content marketing relies on the ability to produce compelling, readable content. Major firms across the United States are posting and promoting blog articles about trending topics like global security compliance, data privacy, and intellectual property issues. In addition, consumer-facing firms that practice in areas like personal injury and criminal defense are generating content that answers the questions that potential clients are asking.
And while there is no shortage of compelling content to pull from, the challenge facing these firms is the ability to build a bridge from lawyer to consumer. The key to content marketing is engaging with potential new clients, and this requires writing compelling stories that an audience can relate to. In other words, legal firms need to write about the law without sounding like lawyers. While building a content library, remember to focus on delivering relevant information in a relatable manner.
Focus on thought leadership over advertising
Establishing your firm as a thought leader is fundamental to demonstrating expertise and distinguishing your firm in an already crowded marketplace. So be the industry expert in your field. Use your platform as an area to educate and to establish your credibility and knowledge in areas of the law. The goal is to first call out a topic and define the challenge, then offer unique research-based knowledge that provides a solution. By defining yourself and your firm as a thought leader in the legal industry, you are now a part of the conversation – and perhaps even leading it. Focus foremost on providing valuable information to potential new clients. By doing this, you have the opportunity to build trust from the first engagement a consumer has with your firm.
Choose your allies wisely – LinkedIn is your friend
Out of all social media outlets, LinkedIn is established as the go-to source for professional networking. According to the American Bar Association’s 2016 Technology report, 76 percent of all legal firms are active on LinkedIn. This is a place to promote blog articles, gain visibility with a hashtag, and establish your firm as a thought leader in the industry. When posting on LinkedIn, it’s important to focus on guiding new clients to seek legal advice (versus offering direct advice).
Contact the Legal Copywriters at Lexicon Legal Content
By embracing new techniques for reaching clients, legal firms are moving away from the reactionary business model and focusing more on initial engagement. Providing great content is a clear path towards building a successful, reputable legal practice. The professional legal content writers at Lexicon Legal Content are available to help your firm create compelling, jurisdiction-specific content that helps your firm connect with potential clients. Call us today for a free consultation or send us an email through our online contact form.
Regardless of your political leanings, one thing is certain: the Trump administration has shaken up the political landscape and created substantial uncertainty in many different areas of law.
And we’re not talking about esoteric constitutional issues such as the limits of executive power or the emoluments clause.The current administration is making moves that are affecting real people on a day-to-day basis, often resulting in significant uncertainty about legal issues that can have a direct impact on the most important aspects of their lives.
How does this affect legal content marketing? For one thing, it is providing lawyers and law firms (and their marketing teams) ample opportunity to create new, fresh content that is relevant and of interest to their target audience.
The First Travel Ban: A Case Study
To understand how this works, it is illustrative to look at a concrete example. On January 27th, the President issued an executive order banning travel to the United States for people from certain countries, and it was not immediately clear whether legal permanent residents (green card holders) from the affected countries would be allowed to reenter the country if they were overseas when the order was issued, which proved to be a source of significant controversy.
Here is a chart showing the number of searches for “Green Card Entry” over the past 90 days:
(Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. Likewise a score of 0 means the term was less than 1% as popular as the peak.)
As these data make clear, the number of people searching for “green card entry” spiked soon after the executive order was issued. Granted, some of these searches were people simply seeking information for information’s sake, but is also safe to assume that some of them were concerned that the order would apply to them or their family members – people who, for some attorneys, are potential clients.
Importantly, other words that are semantically related to the issue show similar spikes in traffic, and identifying these words and phrases is the foundation of creating a timely content marketing campaign.
By identifying the legal questions that people are asking and creating content that answers those questions, lawyers in any area of law can connect with individuals who are actively seeking their services. Here are some of the areas of law that recent actions taken by the Trump administration have affected as well as specific issues on which relevant, timely, and informative content could be created.
Immigration Law
Immigration law has perhaps been the most volatile area of law since Trump took office and the uncertainty has certainly captured the media’s attention.
The executive order banning travel from certain countries referenced above is just one area where there is significant uncertainty. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program instituted under President Obama directed federal authorities to use prosecutorial discretion regarding the removal of certain undocumented individuals who arrived in the United States as children. The program provides those eligible with a renewable 2-year work authorization as well as deferred action regarding their undocumented status. In other words, they may live and work in the United States without immediate fear of removal. The new administration has taken a tough stance on immigration and has yet to indicate what it plans to do with DACA – a program that Trump could decide to end at any moment.
Issues regarding the enforcement of immigration laws has also generated significant interest, as the administration recently expanded the list of individuals who were removal priorities significantly.
Criminal Law
In late summer of 2013, the Obama administration issued a memo to U.S. Attorneys in all 50 states indicating that “in jurisdictions that have enacted laws legalizing marijuana in some form… conduct in compliance with those laws and regulations is less likely to threaten the federal priorities..” and that “state and local law enforcement and regulatory bodies should remain the primary means of addressing marijuana-related activity.”
In practice, this directive has meant there is a lack of federal enforcement against marijuana operations and users who are in compliance with state law. Importantly, however, this could change with the stroke of a pen under the new administration. Aggressive enforcement could create chaos in states that have robust and established marijuana economies and could result in significant criminal penalties for individuals who have been operating under the belief that they are not an enforcement priority for the feds.
Personal Injury
While personal injury matters are generally matters of state law, there are certain cases in which federal regulations may have an impact on the outcome of litigation. For example, in some jurisdictions, noncompliance with FMCSR regulations could be used as prima facie evidence of negligence in truck accident litigation. In light of the president’s directive to repeal two regulations for every new one implemented, the regulatory landscape is on shaky ground, including for the trucking industry. Some regulations that were poised to take effect (i.e. speed limiters on newly manufactured heavy trucks) may never be implemented, and others may be repealed.
Title IX
Last May, the Obama administration issued guidance that directed all educational institutions to allow students to use facilities that are consistent with their gender identity. On February 22nd, the Trump administration withdrew the previous guidance, calling into question whether federal officials will enforce Title IX against schools that discriminate against transgender students in this manner. The issue is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, where the court is expected to decide whether Title IX requires schools to treat students consistent with their gender identity.
Use Current Events to Generate Long-Tail Keyword Phrases
Of course, when creating SEO-friendly content, one of the main concerns is incorporating keywords that will signal that the content is relevant to particular topic. Long-tail keyword phrases that exactly match what a potential client is looking for will ensure that you are attracting the right kinds of visitors to your site. Some examples of long-tail keyword phrases that may be relevant to the practice areas listed above include:
Will the speed limiter rule be enacted
What are defenses to deportation?
Enforcement of federal marijuana laws
Will DACA be Repealed?
Of course, these are just a few basic examples of phrases that legal consumers may search in response to political developments, and using tools like Google Trends’ Related Queries feature can help you come up with long-tail keywords to target.
As Questions Arise, so do Opportunities to Connect with Clients
These are just a few of the areas of law in which questions raised by the actions of the new administration are creating opportunities for lawyers and their marketing teams to create compelling and informative content of interest to their potential clients. If the trend established in the past six weeks is any indication, the questions will continue to arise.
To discuss your legal content strategy, call Lexicon Legal Content today at 877-486-8123 or send us an email at info@lexionlegalcontent.com.
A cursory search of the internet will establish that significant percentage of law firm websites greet their visitors with a pop-up window that offers to connect them with a live representative.
While live chat has the potential to increase the percentage of website visitors that become paying clients, they can also be annoying to users and now could have a negative impact on your site’s rankings in the SERPs. These types of pop-ups, known as “interstitials,” often cover up the main content of the site and can be difficult for users on mobile devices to dismiss.
Late last summer, Google announced that websites that use interstitials may not rank as highly after January 10th of this year. Specifically, the search engine stated that:
“Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible. This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller. To improve the mobile search experience, after January 10, 2017, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results may not rank as highly.”
An Intrusive Pop-Up
An Intrusive Standalone Interstitial
Another Example of an Intrusive Standalone Interstitial
There are some situations in which a site could continue to use interstitials and not be affected by the change. These include the following:
An age verification pop-up
Logins on sites where the content is behind a paywall
Banners that use a reasonable amount of space and are dismissed easily
How to Keep Your Potential Clients Engaged
Of course, one of the main benefits of offering live chat is user engagement and setting an appointment so that visitors become paying clients. Importantly, this update does not mean that lawyers should not offer live chat – they simply need to not do so with a pop-up that covers up their content.
This new ranking signal is consistent with Google’s focus on rewarding sites that provide content that is useful for people searching the web. As content is critical to both search engine rankings and the impression that your potential clients get when they visit your site, it is important for attorneys to ensure that the content on their site is well-written, compelling, and provides site visitors answers to their questions.
Call Lexicon Legal Content Today to Discuss the Content on Your Law Firm’s Website
The content on your website has a direct impact on your site’s position in the search results. Unfortunately for busy practicing attorneys, creating a consistent stream of high-quality, informative, and useful content takes a significant investment of time. The team of professional legal blog writers at Lexicon Legal Content is available to provide your firm or marketing agency with content in a variety of formats that will provide value to your readers and improve the quality of your site. To learn more about our services, call us today at 314.691.8602 or contact us online.
Content marketing is a cost-effective way for law firms to expand their reach online and engage new clients. Here are some of the main benefits in engaging in a professionally-managed content marketing campaign.
When it comes to legal marketing, personal injury is likely the most competitive practice area there is. Personal injury law firms are in fierce competition for the high-value cases that occur on a daily basis in every jurisdiction in the United States.
When you consider which industry might focus most heavily on content marketing, legal firms probably would not be your first guess. But at the moment, the legal industry is leading the way when it comes to producing fresh content and adopting effective client acquisition strategies. In fact, by the end of 2017, 
