Really happy with my choice to hire Matt and his team for my digital marketing campaign. Was previously using SMB Team and they charged ridiculous fees with little to no performance. Switching to Matt and…
JOHN BUCHMILLER
CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYContent writing for lawyers includes blogs, social media posts, syndicated articles, web pages: In online marketing terms, all of these things are content writing. FORWARD Lawyer Marketing provides personalized, on-brand content writing for lawyers and law firms in all areas of legal practice.
Advertising for the legal profession differs from other types of online content creation. We follow a set of best practices that helps consistently deliver effective, quality writing:
Marketing for lawyers is heavily dependent on credibility, so firms usually benefit from professional writing services. However, even if you don’t end up hiring an agency to provide your content, you might find some of these online writing tips useful.
Before you start writing online content for your law firm, you have to know the legal advertising ethics for your jurisdiction. These guidelines are different in different states, but here are some examples:
Also — and this is probably assumed — it’s important to be correct. If you provide any details about the law, it should be relevant to your potential clients and accurate for your jurisdiction.
If you’re unsure about advertising ethics, you can usually find ample resources at your state bar association. Alternatively, give us a call — we have clients across the country and we are familiar with all relevant ethical standards.
There’s a concept in online marketing termed “evergreen content“. It refers to writing content that people can use forever.
This is one of the gold standards of content writing, especially for SEO. Unfortunately, it is relatively difficult to achieve in most areas of legal practice. Most lawyers have to maintain their strongest articles, updating or expanding them from time to time and updating when there are changes to state laws.
There are a number of approaches. For example, you could write articles that have a combination of generally useful information and specific information about the law. When you go back and rewrite, you would only need to change the outdated legal information.
You could also separate general information and specific legal information into different articles. Some would be evergreen and some would not.
Some of your updates will be dictated by changing laws. Others will be part of your search engine optimization strategies. You’ll want to do it sooner or later. Planning ahead will make the process as efficient as possible.
How many typos can you have in an article before your audience stops taking you seriously? In law, probably not many.
At FORWARD Lawyer Marketing, we have multiple stages of professional editing. We also use several AI proofreading tools to support our human readers — something like a super-powered spellcheck. Every piece of content writing is subject to intense scrutiny before it gets published. Our SEO Director has been writing professionally and performing search engine optimization for almost 30 years and he personally reviews every piece of content posted.
As an attorney in a professional capacity, you’re probably used to talking to people about the specifics of their cases. Maybe you’ve also delivered lectures or written books. You also might have litigation experience, negotiating skills, and various other communication modes at your disposal.
One of the keys to writing effective online content for your law firm is making the most of your communication skills. Think about the people you want to read your article. Then, think about the best way to communicate your ideas to that specific group.
Defining your audience is a fundamental marketing concept. To illustrate the point, here are some examples of content types we have written and their respective target audiences:
It’s a great idea to have a few general information articles prominently featured on your law firm website. FAQs, practice area explanations, general resource pages: These give people a place to start while considering your services.
However, the bulk of your online content will probably be highly focused. The goal of each article should be to give the readers specific information — and, of course, tell them how you could help.
The way you organize content is important. Here are some guidelines we typically use:
Your writing style should be a reflection of the atmosphere at your law firm. An aggressive criminal defense lawyer who handles violent-crime cases would probably want a different tone than a family law attorney who focuses on alternative dispute resolution.
There is something to be said about writing legal copy, however, you also want to give your readers and potential clients a good idea of what to expect when they contact you.
It really comes down to integrity. You ideally want all of the communications that come out of your law firm to integrate completely with your brand image.
Details matter. Here are some of the elements of style we consider, depending on our client’s brand:
Many large enterprises have detailed online marketing style guides that outline even the most minute grammatical rules. If you’re looking for a place to start, we usually use AP style at FORWARD Lawyer Marketing. It’s the industry-standard format for journalism and print media in the United States. When we take on a new client with an existing website our SEO Director goes through every page and corrects spelling and grammatical errors plus performs on-page SEO.
One of the best things you can do for your content writing is to keep track of how it performs. You can monitor and record nearly everything that happens to a website:
This type of information helps you understand what works and what doesn’t. For example, if people are calling you after reading one of your articles, you might have an effective call to action.
It gets overwhelming relatively quickly, which is why we have dedicated content management teams that do this for our clients. In the context of search engine optimization, this type of oversight goes from useful to essential.
Content marketing is more than just publishing things for people to read. It’s also useful for increasing your position in search results. To do that efficiently, you need SEO.
Google and other search engines read your website, recording the presence of certain keywords and key phrases. When people search for those words, your page might appear. We have numerous tools we use to discover what keyword phrases people are using to get to your website and use that data to write targeted content.
SEO requires research, testing, and strategy. You have to identify your best keywords, integrate them into your writing and follow through on the results.
It goes beyond keywords. The more you focus your articles, the more likely it is that Google will match you with specific searches. The more time people spend reading, the better your engagement metrics will be. The more people who link to your page or share it, the more online credibility (represented as higher search rank) you’ll have.
Writing quality content using SEO best practices: It’s a winning combination. It’s a good way to simultaneously provide value for your potential clients and get exposure for your business.
Last but certainly not least, it’s important to consistently post quality articles. In fact, this is one of the best reasons to hire a content writing agency for your law firm. The more often new content is posted, the more often the search engine spiders visit your site and crawl your content.
As an attorney, you probably write quite a bit. Publishing a minimum of 1500 words or so per month might not seem like much to you. Some of our clients that are having the most success in improving rankings and traffic are posting a 1500 word blog post weekly.
Most of our clients find that marketing writing isn’t difficult, but rather that it’s unfamiliar territory. Copywriting for lawyers needs to be composed and polished in a way that isn’t all that common in the legal profession.
Inserting keywords, creating skimmable articles, checking metrics, updating old content: Each task is simple by itself. However, it takes experience and practice to put the pieces together in an elegant, approachable way.
Content writing is one of our core services, and it’s the foundation of your online presence as a lawyer. If you find yourself falling behind in your publication schedule, we’re here to help you catch up. Contact us at your earliest convenience to discuss law firm marketing. We can discuss the scope of your project and get started right away. Call us at (888) 590-9687
Here is what some real clients have to say about Us
Really happy with my choice to hire Matt and his team for my digital marketing campaign. Was previously using SMB Team and they charged ridiculous fees with little to no performance. Switching to Matt and…
JOHN BUCHMILLER
CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYI’m a solo immigration attorney, and I worked with Matt and the team at FLM to create my firm’s website. To say I’m happy with the process and the results would be an understatement! Matt…
ESTELLA CASTILLO
IMMIGRATION LAWYERThis is a marketing company that has taken a couple of my website ideas from concept to completion. They are also handling a modest click ad budget for us. I have been impressed with their…
JOSEPH RICHARDS
PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERMatt and his staff are great to work with and provide superior and effective services to my firm.
ALAN ORLOWSKY
ESTATE PLANNING & PROBATE LAWYERSo happy to have connected with Forward Lawyer Marketing! They are great to work with, knowledgeable, and will guide you through every step of the way. Highly recommend!
ALEX BRINKMEIER
DIVORCE & FAMILY LAWYERMany thanks to Forward Lawyer Marketing for creating our website. Anderson & Anderson, LLP was particularly impressed with the quick and comprehensive responses to our many questions. Open communication is vital in conducting business, and…
KAREN ANDERSON
CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAW FIRMVery professional, responsive, innovative and willing to adapt to your needs. I have used MANY marketing companies over the years and Forward is the best I have encountered.
MARK DIAZ
CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY