Content Marketing For Your Law Firm Or Small Business

Are you the owner of a law firm or small business who is overwhelmed by marketing tasks? In this series of articles, exploring the basics of digital marketing, we’ll take a closer look at recommended marketing strategies you can implement today that can positively impact your business tomorrow.

Our goal is to help you clarify the tasks you need to consider in order to market your business, so you can spend less time performing administrative tasks and more time doing the work you set out to do.

Now, let’s get started!

What is Content Marketing?

One of the more overwhelming but vastly important marketing tasks law firms and small businesses face is content marketing. So, what is content marketing?

Content marketing is the process of creating, managing, and promoting valuable content that a clearly defined audience will be attracted to, find value in, and want more of. Content marketing is what we consider a foundational marketing strategy.

Conversion is the endgame of content marketing. The goal is to attract and convert mildly interested website visitors into customers, and customers into repeat customers and repeat customers into referring ones.

Digital content creation is preferred to other forms of creation, as digital media is more affordable, long lasting, and easily shared. The share-worthiness of content is where the power of content marketing lies. You want your content to spread across the web like wildfire!

What Types Of Content Should I Create?

According to our partner Hubspot, 53 percent of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2017)

Examples of content include blog articles, as mentioned, case studies or customer stories, downloadable checklists or eBooks are also popular. Depending on your audience, technical white papers may even be appropriate. Social media is not to be forgotten, either, though it can also be a method to share content from your website in addition to having its own content.

Can Content Marketing Help My Small Business?

Yes! Content marketing can help your law firm or small business. In fact, we are amazed how many law firms, in particular, are not utilizing this marketing strategy. (That’s why we’re writing this article!)

Here’s what content marketing can do for law firms and small businesses alike:

Rank higher on search engines like Google!

This is probably the most obvious reason to create content. In these times, your private practice or small business has to be findable on the internet. If you create content people like, use and refer to, you will rank higher in searches across the web. Why? Because search engines take into account how many people are talking about (really linking to) your blog article, white paper, or eBook. The number of people who find your website matters! 81 percent of shoppers conduct online research before making big purchases. (Retailing Today, 2014)

Generate more leads — and therefore more sales of your product or service.

We hope it goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, the higher you rank in searches, the more people will navigate to your site and be exposed to your services or products. From there, if you do content marketing right, you will reap more leads, and ultimately, more customers.

Did you know 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep? (Demand Gen Report, 2016)

Get a higher return on your investment.

Content marketing costs less and lasts longer than traditional marketing strategies like advertising. That means for every penny you spend on developing content, you get more results (ahem, leads, customers, referrals) in return.

Build authority and credibility in your industry and among customers.

Today’s customers can choose from a list of hundreds of service providers and products of any kind that match their interests. You can use content marketing to educate the people looking for your services and products. Show them how much you know, and you will become more than a business, you will become a resource.

96 percent of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)

Tell your story.

This is how you become an individual in a sea of options. Your personal story or business story, often times, can be the thing that sets you apart when the customer is ready to buy. If you own a product-based business, consider Zappos’ discussion surrounding its’ company culture.

Next Steps

Now that you know what content marketing is and how it can benefit your work, the next step is to develop your own content marketing strategy. Because some forms of content creation can be time-consuming, it’s true, we recommend private practices and small businesses start out by obtaining the support of a digital marketing company. A digital marketing company can build your content for you and help you commit to and be consistent with your content marketing strategy. Later, if you’d like, you can take over these functions on your own.

In the marketing industry, outsourcing the content creation itself, for example, is an aspect of marketing automation. And it’s worth the investment. 64 percent of marketers themselves say they saw the benefits of using marketing automation within the first six months of its implementation. (Regalix, 2015)

Learn more about how Above the Fold Media can support your content marketing strategy in whole or in part, so you have time and energy to do the work you set out to do in your law firm or small business.