Law firm blogs play a key role in your content marketing strategy and are a perfect way to communicate with your audience. By sharing valuable information that focuses on important topics, blogs help drive targeted traffic to your website, encouraging visitors to engage and do business with your practice. For people to find your content, however, you need to raise awareness through various channels. It’s not enough to simply post a blog on your news page and hope that it will be found. As part of your law firm marketing strategy, you need to squeeze every ounce of value from these carefully crafted pieces. That’s where sharing your law firm blogs via social media or through newsletter marketing comes in.
This article shows how to use three popular social media platforms and newsletter marketing, to leverage maximum results from your law firm blogs. Keep in mind that you will need to consider the profile of your audience when choosing your social media channels and adjust each message accordingly.
Share your blog posts on Facebook
Your law firm Facebook page can be a powerful marketing channel for distributing fresh content. You can post generally on your Facebook page or add a paid option to boost your post.
In a Facebook post, only the first 477 characters show in your audiences’ newsfeed before the ‘read more’ option appears. Although you can have a maximum of 63,206 characters in your post (which is great for sharing longform content), it’s important to entice your readers with a succinct message to help them decide if they should bother clicking on ‘read more’. On that point, many marketers believe that short and sweet is best for Facebook, with posts of 40-50 characters being ideal for audience engagement and for getting people to your website. So where possible, create short, compelling Facebook posts but not at the sacrifice of diminishing the value in your blog post.
Another tip for sharing your law firm blogs on Facebook and boosting your reach is to include an image that is likely to resonate with your audience. Statistics indicate that social media users tend to engage with and share posts that contain images more than those without.
A Facebook boosted post is where you pay to promote your post which can be useful for reaching an extended audience who may not see your organic post. When considering paid options, you might think about choosing to boost a post that has already achieved a good level of engagement with current followers as this could be an indication that it will also be of value to other likeminded people. Remember that the post you choose to boost must have a link to your legal firm blog as the intention is to drive additional traffic to your blog and increase engagement with your practice.
Tweet about your new content
Twitter made changes to its original140-character limit for tweets by increasing this to 280 characters, however when it comes to hitting this mark, statistics indicate that very few tweets do. Brevity tends to reign in the World of Twitter and less seems to be best with brief tweets generally getting better engagement and retweets. Accordingly, to maximise your Twitter traction, the strategy seems to be to introduce your new law firm blog content as succinctly and punchy as possible.
Again, images and links to the blog post you are promoting are important for enhanced engagement. Consider also whether the same image used in Facebook is suitable, or whether a different image to invoke interest from your Twitter followers is better. Hashtags are placed before a relevant keyword or phrase to categorise the Tweet, enabling it to show up in the search bar. Include up to four of these (for example #divorce, #childcustody) to make your tweets searchable. You should also include a call-to-action, for example, ‘follow us for up-to-date legal advice’.
As the average lifespan of a tweet is only between 15 and 20 minutes, we suggest sharing your posts more than once, on different days, and at various times to ensure they gain as much visibility as possible.
Post your law firm blog content on LinkedIn
With over 774 million registered users and a focus on business content and professional networking, LinkedIn is certainly worth considering as a strategy to promote your law firm blogs. LinkedIn has specified character limits for various sections of text, providing ample opportunity to get your message out while also showing your company’s personality.
You can publish full articles to demonstrate your expertise in various legal areas which can be shared by others and may also show up in Google search results. Posts that contain lists or tips, like ‘10 Steps to Writing a Will’ or ‘how-to’ posts, for example, ‘How to End a Business Partnership’ are usually popular.
You can also post your law firm blogs in relevant LinkedIn groups. Groups are ideal for discussing industry news and for developing your professional network. You may need to change your messaging to appeal to the specific profile and demographics of each group and ensure your posts are relevant to those interests. Avoid self-promotion and remember to interact with members in discussions and add value to conversations.
Extend the life of your blog posts by sending law firm e-newsletters
Promotion matters when it comes to marketing for law firms and another way to get the most out of your law firm blog posts is to supercharge them in the form of an e-newsletter.
By repurposing your law firm blog posts via an e-newsletter you get an opportunity to extend your reach to those who wouldn’t have necessarily read your valuable content elsewhere. The benefits of sending regular law firm e-newsletters go beyond the monetary value of repurposing content. Professional e-newsletters facilitate regular communication with your clients, potential clients and referrers, promoting your brand, reinforcing your firm as a trusted advisor, and putting your name front and centre when your readers need your legal services.
Promoting your law firm blogs via social media and newsletter marketing are powerful ways to drive traffic to your website and an important part of your law firm marketing strategy.
If you’ve gone to the trouble of writing or purchasing great content, you need to be exploiting that valuable content at every opportunity. Law firm e-newsletters and social media platforms are ideal for distributing information cost-effectively and purposely to a targeted audience.
Remember, to leverage the full benefits of an extended reach you should tailor your message for each platform to ensure it is engaging and that it resonates with the desired audience. Don’t simply copy and paste the title of your blog post. Check the demographics of your audience on each platform and share your content at the time your audience is most active on the social media platforms you’ve chosen.
The beauty of using various channels for your law firm content marketing is the ability to reach a wide audience through their chosen media. People consume information in different ways – some like to read newsletters via personal email, some prefer short snippets of information in social media, whilst others like to engage across platforms like LinkedIn. Using a mix of strategies ensures that the net is cast wide enough to optimise your legal content for maximum reach.
We are a law firm marketing agency. We formulate gold-standard marketing strategies for busy lawyers to help them grow their practice through digital marketing, e-newsletters, and quality content. If e-newsletters already form a part of your law firm marketing strategy, then we believe you are on the pathway to building better brand awareness and success. If you need help with content or with creating a regular e-newsletter campaign, please contact Lift Legal Marketing for assistance.
Call 1300 881 811 or email [email protected]
About the author
Peter Heazlewood
Peter Heazlewood is a management and marketing consultant, he specialises in helping law firms develop their practices using business planning marketing and performance reporting techniques refined in his own successful law firm. Peter lives in Sydney with his wife and is the father of five adult children.