Content Marketing Strategy

 

10 steps  to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy

1. Identify Your Main Objective

Content can serve a variety of purposes – from attracting website visitors to increasing engagement on social media to growing your email list. 

Before creating content, you should consider what your primary objective is so you’re prepared to create content that helps you accomplish this goal. Different types of content work to generate different results, so it’s worth identifying your main objective(s) from the very beginning.

With your content, what are you trying to achieve:

• Attract website visitors?

• Grow your email list?

• Increase social media engagement?

• Increase your law firm’s authority online?

• Run a PR campaign?

• Improve your search engine optimization (SEO)?

• Turn visitors into leads?

• Attract backlinks?

These are just a few of the many objectives you may have for your content. Consider these before creating your content marketing strategy so you’re sure to create the right kind of content to achieve your goals

 

2. Do your keyword research for your blog articles:

1. Use keyword research tools to search for any terms you can think of that might describe the services you offer or some questions your target audience may have.

1. Look at the search volume and competition score of these keywords to see if they are worth targeting on your site. The sweet spot is keywords that have high traffic volume but low competition.

1. Use the “Related Keywords” function to find relevant keywords you might not have thought of during your original search.

1. Make a list of the keywords you think make the most sense for your site and write out some potential blog post titles that relate to these keywords. For example, “how to file for divorce” could become “How to File for Divorce - X Steps” or “How to File for Divorce - Avoid Stress & Animosity”.

1. Use your target keyword (for each post) throughout your content, paying special attention to your post’s title tag, meta description, and H1 and H2 headings.

3. Spy on Your Competitors’ Content

Sometimes you’ll find yourself a bit stumped on what content topics to tackle on your website. This is when it’s a good idea to scope out your competitors’ content strategies to see what keywords they are targeting and what content they’re posting on social media.

You can use the same keyword research tools as above (SEMRush and Ahrefs) to search for your competitors’ domain names and see what keywords they are ranking for. This can be a great way to find keywords you should be targeting on your own site.

Not all content needs to serve an SEO purpose, however. If you see your competitors posting thought-provoking content on their blogs or social media channels, this can give you some ideas for content you can create to increase engagement, improve your firm’s authority, and even attract clients to your website.

4. Ask Your Audience

The legal niche is highly competitive, which often makes it difficult to come up with content ideas that haven’t been tackled before. It’s a smart idea to ask your audience what topics they’re interested in and what questions they have about the services you offer and the legal process in general.

You can do this by posting a question like “What questions do you have about X?” on social media, by sending out an anonymous survey, or by sending out a campaign to your email subscribers. Then you can turn these questions/topics into blog posts and/or create a Frequently Asked Questions page on your website.

5. Establish a Content Schedule

When it comes to content marketing, quality comes first but consistency makes the difference. Your law firm’s content marketing strategy is made more effective when you are publishing, posting, and marketing your content on a regular basis.

In the beginning, you may want to start slow so you can keep up with a regular posting schedule. Even if you’re only posting two times per month, this is better than skipping months at a time. Later on, you might consider hiring help (like a blog writer) to create more content on a consistent basis.

 

6.       Share your contents to generate more traffic, engagement, and views: in the following ways

• Facebook posts
• Facebook Ads
• Instagram posts or stories
• Email list/newsletter
• Repurpose as YouTube video
• Twitter
• LinkedIn 
• Google Ads
• Pinterest
• Reddit
• SMS (text message marketing)
• Blog
• Messenger bots
• HARO (Help a Reporter Out)
• Google My Business posts
• Guest posting on third-party sites.
• medium.com
• Quora
• Bing Ads

7. Focus on Lead Generation

If one of your objectives is to generate more leads for your law firm, then you will want to give your readers various opportunities to contact you (i.e. “convert”).

When publishing and sharing your content, consider what action(s) you want users to take. Do you want them to download an ebook? Give you a call? Fill out a form? Whatever it is, make this clear so you can generate as many leads as possible.

8.Here are a few ways to generate leads from your content:

1. Include contact forms on the service pages of your website.
2. Add downloadable like ebooks and infographics to your blog posts so users have to provide their email addresses.
3. Include calls-to-action on your social media posts to encourage followers to contact you.
4. Add your phone number to your web pages to make it easy for prospects to reach you. 
5. Promote your email newsletters to collect more email addresses. 
6. Create “lead magnet” content users would be interested in. Make is so they have to provide their contact information before downloading this content. 

9. Follow Up with Prospects

What use is a lead if you don’t follow up with them? Unfortunately, this is a mistake a lot of law firms make

10. Create Linkable Assets 

A linkable asset is a type of content that works to attract backlinks to your website. Links from high-quality sites can improve your own site’s SEO, increasing your rankings and drawing in new website visitors.