Having great legal content must be a big part of a law firm’s overall marketing strategy. It must be educational and entertaining enough to hold the attention of the audience it is intended to reach. The end objective of legal content is to provide enough value to readers so that they are persuaded to take the next step toward becoming clients.

Beyond a basic ability to write, there are three skill areas that must be combined in just the right proportions to create legal content that will get the results a law firm is looking for.

1. Law and Legal Process

Much of legal content is directed toward helping people understand their rights and obligations in various legal situations. It just makes sense that if you are going to be good at explaining something to someone else you have got to have a decent understanding of it yourself.

Attorneys who write their own legal content are obviously going to be very proficient in their knowledge of what they are writing about. They may even be a little too proficient to the extent they are focused primarily on the subject matter of their content – perhaps to the exclusion of the necessary marketing components.

Understanding how to research legal subjects is a huge benefit for legal content writers.

I find it quite helpful for writing legal content that I have a JD and did practice law for a short period many years ago. But a JD is not necessary to become a good legal content writer. What is necessary is a sincere interest in the law and legal matters, a willingness to learn, and the ability to research and write about a topic.

2. Digital Marketing

Business advertising has moved to the internet in a big way. Advertising on the internet requires some skills that more traditional methods of advertising do not require.

  • You have to know who your audience is – who do you want to read your content?
  • You have to figure out how to get your content in front of your audience.
  • You have to know how to increase the likelihood that your content will get the attention of the people you want to read it.
  • You have to be able to hold reader attention long enough to get them to take the action you want them to take.

What this means is that you have to understand the concept of search engine optimization (SEO) and using keywords and key phrases. You have to know which keywords to use, when to use them and when not to use them.

You have to know what it means to target a particular audience and to write your content so it speaks to those people.

You have to engage your reader visually. Content must be presented in a way that is visually appealing to a reader. It must be organized so that it is capable of providing basic information from a quick skim.

3. Copywriting

Copywriting is “selling with words.” Copywriting is the ability to persuade the reader to do something. In the case of legal content, the copy must be written so that when the reader gets to the end of the article they are willing to call the phone number or click through to a law firm contact page and schedule a consultation.

Copywriters are interesting people. It’s not just writing, it’s writing with a purpose.

Copywriting emphasizes being able to connect with your reader and make them feel something. People who need to hire a lawyer or law firm have a problem they need help with. Good legal content connects with people who have a specific legal problem and then shows them the solution and why a particular law firm is the most capable of providing that solution.

Putting the Pieces Together

The main goal of legal content is to sell a lawyer or law firm to a prospective client. Legal content needs to hook readers who are looking to solve a particular legal problem and then build a bridge back to the law firm that can help them.

Research shows that people make most decisions based on emotion and then justify those decisions intellectually. So while having the technical aspects of legal content correct is very important, being able to write so that you capture something intangible within people is the difference that makes the difference.

There is extreme competition among law firms offering similar services to rank high in search results and get the attention of the people needing their services. If you want to be in the game, you have got to know what you are doing with your advertising.

At Blue Seven Content, we come from varied backgrounds. Some of us have worked in the legal profession. Some of us are really into technology. Some of us have marketing experience. But what we all have in common is a passion for creating great legal content that keeps our clients happy and our services in demand.

If you want legal content that both convinces and persuades, Blue Seven can help you with any of the following:

Find out how you can improve your law firm marketing with strategic, well-written legal content by contacting us here for a free planning session or calling 843-580-3158.

Written by Mari Gaines, JD – Legal Content Writer

Published by Blue Seven Content

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