Content Marketing for Lawyers

Are you looking for new legal clients online? If not, you’re probably missing out on a large pool of people who need the services you can provide. But what’s the best way to start or refresh your efforts? Are you familiar with content marketing for lawyers?

What is content marketing?

Content marketing involves producing engaging content and sharing it with people who may benefit. The goal is to attract the attention of your potential clients. Usually, you’re not going for the direct sell. Instead, you’re going to focus on building trust or at least establishing that you can provide value.

What are the benefits of content marketing for lawyers?

The attorney-client relationship should be built on trust. How do you build trust with someone before they hire you? How about showing them who you are and what you know? Repeatedly. In different formats. Over time.

When you make content marketing a deliberate and recurring part of your law practice, you will build up a virtual library of your expertise. Some potential clients (or referral sources) will see this content trickle out in dribs and drabs. Others will find it all at once when they visit your website or another online hub (such as LinkedIn or a Facebook page).

Whether they consume all of your content (unlikely) or not before hiring you, they will have a greater comfort level with you before you ever meet.

Content marketing also helps strengthen connections with current and former clients. It shows them you’re keeping up with your stuff or perhaps simply reminds them that you’re around.

Here are 10 examples of lawyer content marketing ideas we’ll discuss in more detail.

Blogs
Videos
Pictures
Books
Webinars
Infographics
Checklists
Whitepapers
Testimonials
Podcasts

Blogs

I remember “warning” employers about employee blogging back in 2007. What might they say? Will it be on-brand? Will it reflect poorly on the company? Those questions may still warrant some consideration, but the important point here is that blogs have been ubiquitous now. Many people have built their entire career out of blogging. (I haven’t, but you’re reading a blog now!)

As a lawyer, we aren’t expecting you to generate direct blogging revenue. In other words, you’re probably not going to run ads on your blog (or at least not the blog you’re using to market your legal service.) But you can certainly leverage your expertise to write a blog that will attract your target legal consumer. When some of your readers eventually hire you as their lawyer, you’ll likely earn more than 99% of bloggers make off of ads.

There’s no precise rule for how often you have to write a new post for your blog. In the first two years of my firm, I posted almost 200 times on my New York Management Law Blog. Each post averaged around 750 words, for a total of nearly 150,000 words. You might not want to write that much. Or maybe you want to write more. But I found time to do that while still serving my clients on a full-time basis and handling virtually all of my firm’s administrative tasks. And it yielded measurable returns, driving 100s of views on my website each day.

Videos

How much time do you spend on YouTube watching, well, pretty much anything you could imagine (and many things you never before thought of) on demand? What about Facebook videos? TikTok?

Do videos have a place in content marketing for lawyers too? Of course. Search YouTube for any question your clients often ask you. Did you find a video offering an answer? If so, as I suspect, then there’s your proof. If not, well, there’s your opportunity!

Beyond YouTube and social media platforms, videos are tremendously valuable on your firm’s website (hopefully have one). They, like a blog, demonstrate to potential clients that you really know your stuff. Frankly, the day is coming where hardly anyone will trust a lawyer they haven’t already seen and heard online. It’s the ultimate “try before you buy.”

Pictures

Video-lite. Worth 1,000 words, so presumably better than a blog post? Aha! Put pictures in your blog post. Lawyers might forget that most people don’t read every word. Purely text-based content can get dull quickly. Jazz it up with an image. A photo. A drawing. A chart.

Ideally, you (or someone you pay) would create unique images for your exact needs. But, that’s not the entry-level approach for most. Here are three sites I use for stock images that you can use too without paying anything. You don’t even have to create an account if you don’t want to. Double-check for yourself on the legalities, but these sites generally allow free modification and use of their images, even without attribution:

Note: These sites will include links to third-party or “paid” images. But they’re not going to charge you for anything without your knowledge. And the database of readily available free photography and illustrations is surprisingly vast. (There is even some free video footage available.)

Books

Books could be the ultimate form of content marketing for some lawyers or law firms. Let’s be frank. It might not even matter if anyone reads your book. The fact that you wrote one is enough to suggest you have extensive experience in a subject.

Is it hard to write a book? Maybe. I guess it depends on you. But many lawyers are accomplished writers in some respect. And we’re not talking about suddenly penning a best-selling novel. (Well, that’s an option. I’m sure John Grisham could develop a thriving law practice based on his notoriety as an author. Luckily for him, though, he doesn’t need to.) More likely, you’d write about your practice–an area of law or industry in which you have or want clients.

And it doesn’t have to be as daunting as it sounds. These days, you don’t have to print a bound, hardcover tome to have a book. eBooks are a valid alternative, for starters. Even a somewhat lengthy .pdf document can qualify. But, if you want to go beyond that, it’s easy enough to self-publish a physical paperback book. I did it in 2018, while maintaining–that is, growing–my solo firm:

Webinars

Webinars might be my overall favorite form of content marketing for lawyers. I’ve used all of the above media as well, but webinars have the advantage of being more interactive. Plus, they can be repurposed easily for additional pieces of content.

You’ve probably participated in web-based seminars for years. They’ve become increasingly commonplace perhaps in the COVID-19 era. The presenter can be anywhere with a camera, or even just a microphone. The attendees can be anywhere else with Internet access. Much cheaper than anyone having to travel to a conference room, much less renting one and providing coffee and snacks.

Pick a topic and date. Let people know you’ll be speaking. Give them a way to sign up. Prepare your presentation. Present.

I’ve done dozens of webinars since starting my firm. I don’t charge attendees. You could, but that becomes less a form of content marketing and more of a product. Either way, you must make sure to record the presentation. Then you can make it available again, either full-length or cut-up into segments. Post these on social media. Embed them in blog posts. Send them to clients. Get creative.

Infographics

You may not have ever created an infographic, but you’ve seen them. This list isn’t in any particular order, but infographics wouldn’t be at the top even if it were. I don’t think they’re usually the best form of content marketing for lawyers. For one, they seem to entail a bigger departure from most attorneys’ skillsets than the other content marketing ideas included here. But, they can be powerful and attract attention when done well.

Infographics are a bit like digital scrapbooking. You take pictures and words and arrange them in a crafty way to share a message in a visually appealing way. They often include statistics or other data chunks along with illustrations. Because screens scroll up and down, they usually end up as vertical images that can be relatively “tall.” But they can also be concise enough to all fit within the field of view at the same time.

Lawyers can use infographics either as standalone social media posts or embedded in blogs or other content.

If you want to try your hand at making an infographic, I recommend checking out Canva. Even the free version provides powerful, yet user-friendly, image editing software. Since I started my firm, I’ve had a full Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (the premium in content editing software). But I prefer Canva for most projects because it’s so much easier to use.

Checklists

Especially if you don’t have a graphic designer on-hand, checklists might be a great alternative to infographics. Forget the pictures (or include them) and focus on lists of relevant items. Attorney-produced checklists can provide value without giving away the farm.

One approach is to use checklists to prepare potential clients for retaining an attorney (hopefully you). Here are some ideas:

10 Documents to Share with the Lawyer Writing Your Will
5 Steps to Take Before Hiring a Bankruptcy Lawyer
24 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Leaving Your Spouse
100 Things To Know When You Sell Your Business

In these examples, you’re not giving legal advice. More likely, you’re qualifying your prospects and probably making your life easier when they call you. You’re not getting paid for your client to hunt down their insurance policies or credit card statements. And how far do you want to get into an M&A transaction before your client realizes they need to involve other equity holders?

Whitepapers

I’ve probably intentionally buried this item down the list. Now we’re getting into more “traditional” content marketing. Firms have long prepared mini-treatises on a subject and sent them out to clients, prospects, maybe even the press. Originally, these were transmitted in actual paper form. Then email and the .pdf took over.

No matter. Call them what you want; the “whitepaper” is not dead. Marginalized by the blog post, perhaps.

But if you have the expertise to dig into a subject in a meaningful way, ideally with novel data not available or compiled elsewhere, then write it up as a report. Then use social media, your website, email, etc., to share it with anyone who might be interested.

See also “Book/eBook.” Is there a difference? Perhaps. Labels aren’t important when it comes to content marketing. Produce valuable content. Distribute. Rinse. Repeat.

Testimonials

Here’s a totally different form of content marketing vital for lawyers that you can’t create yourself–the client testimonial or review.

When people you’ve already worked with vouch for you, others feel more comfortable retaining you. The ideal scenario is a direct referral from a client to someone who knows them personally. But even a “generic” review carries weight. And, once properly obtained with consent to use it in your marketing, a testimonial is easy to share across various platforms.

You can include testimonials on your website and social media accounts. You can also get direct reviews through Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and many other sites that future clients will use to find or vet attorneys.

Podcasts

Depending on your perspective, a podcast might be the most ambitious item on this list of lawyer content marketing techniques. But it has never been easier to start your own podcast. For the most part, all you need is a smartphone, tablet, or computer with the ability to record audio.

Disclosure: I have not used a podcast to market my firm. Not that I couldn’t, or wouldn’t. I’ve just decided to spend my marketing hours differently. But I can still offer ideas on how you could structure a podcast to generate law firm clients. Done well (primarily meaning consistently), podcasting can be the most powerful strategy on this list.

Interview podcast

If you feel like you don’t have much to say, no problem–let others do the talking! Find people who have interesting perspectives on topics of interest to your target audience and ask them questions for 15, 20, 45 minutes. Most people would be flattered to be interviewed on any podcast. Even if it’s episode #1.

Who can you ask? Former clients. Local businesspeople. Other attorneys. It depends on what type of law you practice, what kind of clients you want, and your approach to reaching them.

Quick example. Real estate attorney who handles residential home purchases.

Interview real estate agents about which neighborhoods are trending up, what amenities most buyers are looking for, and how to find hidden gems.
Ask a recent client what they loved about the home they purchased or what surprised them about the buying process. (Don’t ask them directly to sing your praises. They’ll probably do so subtly and more effectively on their own. “Well, there were some hiccups with the home inspection. But you really helped us out by getting that closing date re-scheduled on short notice to keep us on our timeline.”)
Talk to a security expert about ensuring your new home is safe.

Remember, ultimately you aren’t selling the content of the interview. You’re just getting the attention of people who will need a lawyer when they buy a house. Who do you think they’ll call?

Lecture podcast

This format is where you, as the knowledgeable attorney, talk directly to the audience about your area of interest. This certainly could be a legal subject matter. But consider your audience. How many times will an accident victim listen to a personal injury podcast about the ins and outs of related legal issues? Perhaps not many. But a business attorney may have more to offer in-house counsel or executives who deal with an array of legal and compliance matters daily.

You can go non-legal too. Love cars? Talk about cars. Make it clear you’re a lawyer. Maybe state a connection here and there: “When I was in law school learning about contracts, I bought my first new car. I thought the finance guy was going to walk out on me after I spent 30 minutes reading the paperwork.” Or: “My dad bought me a share of Ford stock when I was 8. Last week, I wrote a will for someone who had only driven Fords for the past 60 years.” Again, if you draw an audience based on your shared passion, some of the people listening will eventually need a lawyer who does what you do. Or they’ll know someone who does. “That lawyer who talks about restoring old pickup trucks” might be the one they call.

Repurposed Content podcast

How about combining some of these content marketing techniques? Have a library of webinars or videos about your practice? Consider stripping out the audio into a podcast. You might need to add some dialogue for context, or not. Will people listen to you talk about changes to insurance regulations without the visuals? You won’t know unless you try it.