Legal marketing can both be expensive and critical to a law firm’s success, yet many attorneys put little effort into ensuring that the legal content on their website and their online marketing programs is creative and engaging. The information and legal content that appears on one personal injury attorney’s website or online marketing profile often looks so generic it could easily have been cut and pasted from a dozen other attorney websites. This lack of creativity and originality can mean that prospective clients quickly navigate away from a law firm website or legal marketing biographical profile. Many times this content is written by the legal marketing company or website design and SEO company, which means it is necessarily general and typically not particularly engaging. Given the cost of online legal marketing, it is surprising that law firms delegate the writing of their legal content on the law firm websites and legal marketing profiles to online legal marketing companies. While it is not a mistake to rely on the marketing expertise of an online marketing firm, it is a mistake to assume an Internet based legal marketing company knows more about your law firm than you do. You know what makes your firm unique and compelling and must communicate this to ensure that your legal marketing content is compelling. The key is to telling a compelling story as described below:
Avoid Dry Recitations of the Law: One of the most common mistakes law firms make in internet marketing is simply to provide the same dry generic overview of the law that is contained on every other website that is relevant to the same area of law. While providing helpful legal information is a good idea, it is more effective if made relevant to particular situations that the client may face. Stories of hypothetical clients that a prospective client can identify with are much more effective then simply setting forth basic legal principles. A prospective client will find content much more compelling if it is applied to actual scenarios and situations that a prospective client likely faces.
Use Objective Measures of Ability as Opposed to Self-Lauding: Many law firms use self-lauding language that extols the law firms merits in ways that cannot be quantified, such as, “aggressive”, “knowledgeable” and “experienced.” This language has little value as clients dismiss it as simple advertising puffery. It is much more effective to give specific examples of aggressive tactics or strategies that a firm has used successfully. Instead of simply asserting that an attorney is “knowledgeable” or “experienced”, the law firm should provide detailed biographical evidence that supports those conclusions which may include the following:
• The number of cases the firm has handled
• Complexity of cases handled by the firm
• Specialized training, seminars or experience
• Years in practice and in handling a specific type of case
• Publications, teaching, professional certifications
• Recognition and acknowledgment by third parties of an attorney’s expertise
The natural inclination to communicate that an attorney has certain traits like aggressiveness or expertise is appropriate, but clients will only find the information persuasive if it is supported by something more than broad unquantifiable conclusions.
Provide Stories of Positive Results: Again, the key is telling a compelling story. Many law firm clients find themselves overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. Prospective clients can relate to stories of people sharing the same pressure and stress where the problem is successfully resolved. These sorts of stories make it clear that you understand a prospective client’s feelings and problems. This helps you connect with the client and helps the client put your ability to help them through their legal troubles in concrete terms.
The information provided in this article will seem familiar to litigators as this is what good litigators do. They provide a compelling story which allows a judge or jury to identify and connect with their client. It is surprising that many attorneys do not use this same skill when developing online legal marketing content. The best legal marketing firms are good at developing compelling marketing content but will never know your law firm and your practice the way you do. Your knowledge of your practice and the types of issues you see everyday is where the compelling stories that will make your online legal marketing successful begin.
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