A three-year plan for better content marketing

As more and more people search for lawyers online, having no content marketing strategy will eventually put you at a disadvantage. Creating a website is a beginning, but unless you maintain it and add new content, it's no more effective than hanging a shingle and hoping clients will wander in off the street. A steady stream of content opens the door to social media marketing, builds inbound links to your website, and creates materials that provide value to prospective clients. Here's a three-year plan for effective content marketing that even a busy attorney in a small office can use. Year One: Assemble what you already have The first step to effective content marketing is to understand your prospective clients. - Who are they demographically? - Why do they come to your firm? - Who makes the final decision to retain you? As you answer those questions, create three character descriptions or "persona" of the types of people who might hire you. You'll update your character personas periodically, but these initial personas will provide a good starting point. Map out the process that prospective clients go through when choosing an attorney like you. The search probably begins with a need: The client is being sued, charged with a crime, getting divorced or having another legal problem. How do prospective clients use the Internet to search for attorneys like you? Do they call you or set up an in-person consultation? How do they make the decision to hire you? Gather up articles that you've written, old blog posts, brochures, newsletters, recorded interviews, videos and any other existing content. Ask a paralegal, assistant or intern to help you. Then create a spreadsheet that tracks: - Who wrote it and where the article is. Have a column for the title, where to find it (the URL, publication information, CD-ROM or file name) and its author. - Who it's for. On your spreadsheet, label each piece according to which client persona would benefit from the material and on what part of the hiring journey the client would need the material. - How ready it is. Assign a freshness rating from one to 10, with 10 being "ready to share today" and one being "hopelessly out of date." Make notes on what you would need to do - update the legal information, reshoot the video without your 1970s hairstyle, rewrite the article in everyday language - to bring the freshness rating up to a 10. Year Two: Create, repurpose and share After you've identified prospective client personas, mapped out how they hire you, and gathered current resources, use Year Two to create new content, repurpose not-so-fresh content and share content online. - Create. Start blogging or hire a ghostwriter to write posts for you. Mix current events-related posts with content that offers permanent value. Use approachable, everyday language. - Repurpose. Start repurposing content with a low freshness rating. Upload repurposed videos to YouTube or convert old law journal articles to PDF files so that online audiences can use them. - Share. Every time you create or repurpose content, decide how to distribute it. List your blog in Justia's Blawg Directory. Share content on LinkedIn or Google+. Create an email marketing list and distribute a monthly newsletter. Start sending content to prospective clients based on where you think they are in the hiring journey. Year Three: Expand your reach Now that you're in the habit of creating and distributing content, follow these steps to grow your audience: - Network. If you haven't started connecting with other attorneys and prospective clients on your social networks, start following interesting people, getting to know them, and sharing their content. Hopefully, they'll share yours in return. - Guest post. Research high-quality blogs, contact the editors, and pitch guest blog posts to them. Continue writing to your client personas, but also write posts for other attorneys who might refer clients to you. - Syndicate. If you've developed a high-quality content library, extend the reach and life of your content by syndicating it through publications that have good reputations. Content marketing requires a lot of front-end work, but it gets easier once you get started. It also generates a steady stream of leads and enhances your reputation in a way that no other type of marketing can. MLW ----- Legal marketing expert Larry Bodine, a former litigator, is editor-in-chief of Lawyers.com. He can be contacted at larrybodine.com. Published: Wed, Mar 11, 2015