Law Firm Marketing BLOG

A lawyer marketing blog is a good way to help your law firm gain visibility among potential clients. They help to increase law firm website status on search engines as well as create a forum in which to showcase your ability and knowledge.

Before deciding upon a blog, it is important to ask yourself a very important question:

• Do I have the time or resources to maintain a blog?

A blog is a great way to showcase your skills and specialized background as an attorney, but in order for a blog to be a successful lawyer marketing tool, it must be updated regularly and often. This means that a blog should be updated a minimum of two to three times a week. The more often your blog is updated, the more visible it will become.

In addition to updating your blog, utilize the opportunity to show your professionalism and qualifications as an attorney through high-quality informative content. Although blogs are more conversational in form, it is still important to relay up-to-date and relevant information. This will help your blog maintain a continuous flow of traffic as visitors return for more information.

At Attorneys Online, Inc., we have a team of designers who will design and build a blog that can be branded to match your attorney website design.

Blogs have become popular in recent years as an online journal or log of current events that allows readers to post responses and comments.

In the world of law firm marketing, a blog that is kept up by attorneys can help to keep your law firm website at the top of search engines. By keeping your law firm blog up to date with frequently (weekly, if not daily) entries, you are representing yourself as a knowledgeable expert in your field. A timely blog will help you be seen as an attorney who is up to date with the current trends and events that affect your clients.

Some tips to help your law firm website blog stay on top:

• Use frequent hyperlinks
• Update as often as possible
• Use informative legal news content

Blogs have become an important aspect of law firm marketing. Attorneys Online, Inc. has a team that can design and host your law firm blog.

There was a recent article posted on Home Office Warrior about 12 Ways a Blog Can Benefit Your Business. Running a law firm is a business so the reasons to use a blog can apply to your law firm marketing as well.

1. Blogs are not expensive and in fact cost less than most other marketing efforts.
   Attorneys Online, Inc can create a blog for your law firm that will match the same look and feel of your website and train you how to use it!
   If you don’t have a website Attorneys Online Inc can create a new design for your blog. You can contact our legal marketing consultants for more information.
2. New blogs launch quickly and are easy to use.
   Enough said.
3. Search engines love blogs and they love them because blogs are easily updated.
   As stated by Home Office Warrior, “This is a key to blogs and blogging. Because a blog is designed to be easily updated, you will update it with new, relevant content to your target market. If you can write an email, you can update and post to a blog. New, relevant content is key. Not just content, but relevant content.”
   The ability to add new content as often as you like can boost your search engine rankings so you are found under the types of practice areas that you handle. A blog is flexible and can be a powerful tool for reacting to current news topics, cases, and providing information for people in a timely manner. The key is that you decide 5 – 10 keywords you want to focus on and rotate the use of the words throughout your blog entries. As you start to go up in the rankings you can gradually build your keyword base but you will have to juggle the use of your keywords so your rankings don’t fall for the original set of phrases you selected.
4. Publishing a blog shows your readers who you are.
   A blog can help people in need of legal advice feel more comfortable contacting you. They have read your words, opinions, and if they subscribe to your blog you will continue to build their trust with each anecdote, story, and opinion you provide.
5. Blogs offer you a completely new way to communicate with your clients, prospects and fellow business owners.
   Home Office Warrior said it best: “Blogging is a communication between you and your target market. It is a conversation both you and your target can participate in.” People can relate to you by your blog and you can have a more personal approach to people since a blog is an ongoing conversation with people in the internet world.
6. Your target market is using the web to search for everything, including the services or products you are offering.
   A blog is another means to get your name out there for people when they need legal help. If you continually blog about a specific topic like say, New Jersey personal injury law and relevant legal matters eventually your blog will come up when people are looking for that type of legal help. You can provide current information that your potential clients need and if your competitors don’t have a blog then you are a step ahead.
7. Blogging can position you and your blog as the place to go for the information that is needed on the Internet.
   Very Important Facts Provided by Home Office Warrior: “This is accomplished by providing up-to-date, relevant content. A blog puts that information in a form and fashion your target can understand and use. It is projected that 75% of the general public is going to the Internet first to find those things they need. Blogging and its success in search engine placement will put you in front of your target market. And in turn, will drive business to you like no other marketing effort. “
   If your law firm can consistently provide information about the types of cases you would like to handle people will find you when they are searching for that type of legal expertise.
8. Blogging and posting relevant content can position you as a “thought leader” in your niche.
   The more you blog about a topic you have knowledge in the more proof you have as an expert in your field. Your blog can allow you to react to news, concerns, and items in a timely manner which will build your reputation with people visiting your blog and see you as a “thought leader” in the legal world.
   Another way to think about “thought leader” is try a unique angle that would set you apart from your competitors. The legal world can be vicious with the amount of competition you have in your area so to make an impression on people use your blog as a means to show your personality, your interests, and your beliefs. One of our clients, Larry M. Pollack, just launched his blog last week and came up with a great idea – Blog about bizarre and humorous court cases. Here’s the unique angle - he includes his opinion about them and provides “homework” for the next blog entry. That’s brilliant! Keep them coming back for more – you do this by being a “thought leader.”
9. By hosting a conversation on your blog, you will be positioned to succeed.
   Having a blog gives you the ability to communicate with potential clients. You can give feedback and connect with the people interested in your legal topics posted. The ability to communicate with people on a more personal level before they even call you or set foot in your office is what helps you stand apart from other attorneys that don’t use a blog.
10. Having a blog puts you in control of your own Web based magazine and talk show.
    A blog is your platform to discuss whatever is important to you and your firm. You decide what you want to blog about.
11. Your blog post will never disappear from the reach of your target market. While you may have complete control over the blog content you write you should be careful on what you do choose to write about because as stated by Home Office Warrior “your Web content is forever.” The plus side to such a long “shelf life” of your blog posts is that your content has the potential to reach a lot of people at different times and on a continual basis. If you send an email blast, a letter, run a print ad or TV commercial people can delete it, throw it away or turn it off. But your blog posts won’t be eliminated by people. You will always have a fresh crowd to see your blog so long as you keep your blog up-to-date with relevant content and you don’t take down your blog – that is how the “forever” side of your web content can work for you.
12. Get with it and blog, because if you don’t, you will be left behind.
    A famous quote applies here: Time waits for no man.
    The same is true about blogging – the longer you wait to set up a blog and use it the more competition you will have when you do start. Be ahead of the curve. Get a legal blog.