Blog / How to develop a content marketing strategy (and why you need one)

14 November 2016
By Shivani Patel

Your law practice has made the smart decision to embrace content marketing to attract new clients and build loyalty. Now what? Just as every case requires a strategy in order to be successful, a good content marketing programme begins with a content marketing strategy. Here are some tips to help you to develop yours.

Content marketers draw and develop the larger story that their organisation tells. They focus on ways to engage their audience using content to drive profitable behaviours. For your law firm, profitable behaviours include awareness of your firm and its areas of expertise, newfound understanding for parts of the law with which clients must be cognisant (and will then be more likely to contact you for representation), and reinforcement of your firm or individual counsel's thought leadership in an area of law or in your jurisdiction.

Do you really need a content marketing strategy?

Yes. According to research by the Content Marketing Institute, firms that embark on documenting their content marketing strategy:

    • are far more likely to consider themselves effective at content marketing;

    • feel significantly less challenged with every aspect of content marketing;

    • tend to consider themselves more effective in their use of all content marketing tactics such as content aggregators, and social media channels like LinkedIn; and

    • can justify spending a higher percentage of their marketing budget on content marketing



What should your content marketing strategy include?

There are six basic tenets of a successful strategy:

    1. Your business case for pursuing content marketing: By articulating the reasons why you've embraced content marketing, the risks involved and what success will look like, you're more likely to get executive support for your initiative, and understanding should you make a mistake or two.

    1. Your content marketing plan: Your plan includes your goals, such as to attract five new clients each month or to land three offers to speak on a specific field of law. It should also include the unique value you will provide to readers; and details of your business model, like who will write and post content and how you'll finance related expenses.

    1. Your audience segments: Audience segments or personas refer to the different kinds of audience that you hope to attract including their needs, interests, concerns, and where they go for information.

    1. A content map: This refers to the kinds of information that your audience would want during each phase of the buyer journey. For example, a potential client would be interested in general information when they're performing initial online research on a particular area of law, but would want to drill down into specifics if they are deciding which firm to engage for an immediate issue. You want to have content at the ready for both of these instances.

    1. Your brand story: Like any other business, your firm should have a unique brand- a point of view that differentiates you from the competition. Your online content should represent that brand, and tell its story.

    1. Your channel plan: This would include the platforms you will use to tell your story; what you hope to achieve with each one, and how you will integrate them so that they represent a cohesive brand conversation.



By organising and documenting your thoughts to develop your content marketing strategy, you're on your way to achieving your content marketing goals. By sharing your strategy with others in the firm, you'll gain support, fresh ideas and maybe another writer or two - and the road to success.

 

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