Content Marketing for Law Firms Targeting Big Cases

In the past, lawyers relied on TV commercials, billboards, and yellow pages to promote their firm and services. Now, more people search the internet for legal information and advice.

Digital content marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your business. The goal is to provide valuable information to your clients and address their legal needs and concerns.

A fractional law firm CMO can help you prepare the perfect content marketing strategy that encourages more leads to sign up for your services. Let’s examine how content marketing for law firms targeting significant cases can be an effective shift.

What Is Content Marketing for Law Firms?

Content marketing is the process of preparing informative, engaging materials to attract potential clients to your law firm. Whatever the format, these methods aim to provide value and highlight a law firm’s credibility and trustworthiness.

Law firms can create various content types to target significant cases. These include:

• Blog articles
• Case studies
• White papers
• Landing pages
• Video content
• Social media content
• Newsletters
• Email content

Content marketing works best when aligned with your goals and marketing strategy. People are more likely to trust a personal injury (PI) law firm’s written content when written by actual lawyers. This strategy helps injury law firms increase SEO rankings.

Why Content Marketing for Law Firms Is Important

Content marketing helps law firms targeting big cases stand out in a competitive market and build long-term trust and visibility. There are many benefits to strengthening your content quality and reach, including: 

Rank Websites Higher in Search Engines

Content strategies are some of the most essential SEO techniques for injury lawyers. Search engines prioritize websites with valuable, well-written information. Keep your content user friendly to rank higher — make it easy to read and limit technical jargon. These smart SEO techniques all increase your website traffic. 

SEO best practices make it easier for Google to crawl and understand. These include on-page and off-page SEO, technical SEO, and using the appropriate schema markup.

Gain Client Trust

Content is a great way to build trust, as it shows that you’re experienced in your field and can provide clients with a unique solution, even before they ask for a consultation. Confirm that your content addresses the user’s pain points and legal questions. These simple steps make your reader feel heard and understood.

Educate prospective clients before immediately pushing for a consultation. Your willingness to share legal knowledge portrays your law firm as helpful and client-centric rather than mainly sales-driven.

Improve Lead Generation and Conversion Rates

Whether an article, newsletter, video, or client testimonial, content provides answers and solutions and convinces users to take action. The more valuable your content, the more users trust you and sign up for a consultation or subscribe to your newsletter. 

If you want to drive leads and conversions, end your content with a clear call to action (CTA). A CTA should be benefits-driven and incentivize the reader. Adding a CTA button providing a free consultation can attract potential clients without having them fully commit.

8 Steps to Law Firm Content Marketing

Content marketing for law firms targeting significant cases may be tricky initially, but not if you stick to this fundamental roadmap.

1. Set Up a Client Journey Funnel

A client journey funnel visualizes the client’s entire experience with your firm — from awareness to brand fan. It is usually divided into three main parts: the top, middle, and bottom funnel.

• Awareness: Top of the funnel (TOFU): The TOFU stage represents the client’s awareness stage. It’s like casting a wide net and catching as many fish as possible. This part of the funnel focuses on generating brand awareness, letting people know you’re an expert in your field, and building trust early.
• Gathering leads: Middle of the funnel (MOFU): The MOFU focuses on gathering and nurturing the people, or leads, who have already expressed interest. The goal is to get them from mere prospects to seriously considering your services. These people will likely compare your firm to other potential choices, and it’s at this stage, you should find ways to stand out from the rest.
• Customer relationship: Bottom of the funnel (BOFU): In the BOFU stage, you work on a strong, loyal relationship with your client. You can do this by maintaining open communication, seeking client feedback through surveys, and offering post-engagement content, such as ongoing support and resources.

2. Research Your Target Client

Knowing who exactly you’re writing content for is key. By understanding your target client’s needs, you can tailor your content to meet them and give them the desired answers: This is where buyer personas come in handy.

Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) represent your perfect client. You understand their unique situation, pain points, and goals. Conduct audience research and segmentation to categorize your audience according to key characteristics. When creating a client persona, segment your audience according to the following:

• Demographic data (Age, gender, occupation, and income level)
• Behavioral data (Previous interactions with the brand, amount of time spent on the website)
• Psychographic data (Lifestyle, values, beliefs, personality traits)
• Financial situation
• Current legal problems or pain points
• Location

Once you understand who you’re producing content for, you can design content that speaks to them directly and matches their needs. You can even address what they’re Googling or asking ChatGPT. 

3. Conduct Topic and Keyword Research

Keyword research aims to boost your website rankings in response to a specific user query. It helps you understand what your clients need to know about their legal case. This information guides your content creation strategy.

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, and Ahrefs to find low-competition keywords to target the different legal questions and topics people ask. Incorporate long-tail keywords to narrow down your keywords even further and minimize competition. 

If you’re a PI firm, a client won’t just search a broad term like “personal injury” on Google. Instead, they target more specific keywords that are location-based or case-specific ones. Narrowed-down keywords, like “personal injury lawyer for medical malpractice,” harness SEO for personal injury lawyers. Your long-tail keywords may look like:

• Personal injury firm near me
• Best personal injury lawyers in (city name)
• How to prepare for a personal injury case
• What to do after a car accident
• Car accident lawyer near me

4. Write Valuable, People-First Content

Incorporate keywords naturally into your content and use them effectively without stuffing them into every paragraph. You’ll often create content for people who may not understand legal jargon or technical verbiage. Keep these to a minimum and use simple language to help readers absorb and understand the material. 

Let’s go in-depth on the different content types:

Blogs

When writing blogs that cover specific topics, use short sentences and paragraphs with easy-to-understand language. Keep information straightforward and give readers answers immediately under each header to have a better chance of ranking on the Featured Snippets — aka the coveted “position zero.” 

Landing Pages 

Landing should have complete information needed to land a conversion, such as contact information, specific services, an FAQ section, lawyer profiles, client testimonials, and more.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) Pages

FAQ pages provide answers to commonly asked questions. Clients appreciate it when you answer their questions immediately before they ask. You can use Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ section to discover people’s questions.

About Us Page

Put together an About Us page to tell clients about your law firm. It may include company history, a list of attorneys, their backgrounds, company mission and vision statements, and core values. The more information the client has about your firm, the more they trust it.

Infographics

Infographics break down complex information and data into an easy-to-digest visual design. They can explain complex cases, statistics, and relevant data.

Testimonials

Testimonials are social proof that wins clients over. Position these firsthand accounts from satisfied clients on your website to gain credibility and convince others of your expertise.

5. Build on Expertience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)

Content marketing for law firms targeting extensive cases is best achieved when you follow Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. They decide if your content is valuable and relevant to your audience.

One way to follow these guidelines is to add links that take people to your lawyer bio. It showcases your experience and builds a connection with the target audience. Include interview snippets, quotes, or case studies demonstrating your expertise.

Another way to build on E-E-A-T guidelines is to improve your backlink profile. Backlinks are links from third-party websites that link to your website. Think of these as endorsements from other websites vouching for your site. Write guest blogs for external websites relevant to your niche in exchange for them linking to your website.

6. Attorney News and News Roundup

Add a News tab to your website where you write content relevant to your law firm niche. This strategy builds further credibility and demonstrates success in the field. You can write about an awards ceremony or highlight personal achievements in a big case, public speaking, or media appearance.

Cover relevant news stories and current events to keep clients informed and educated. If you’re a personal injury firm, you can write an article detailing different PI cases to give clients a deeper understanding of your knowledge. Or cover updates on new laws, regulations, or cases that may affect clients, such as state and federal law changes. Staying current on legal trends shows that your firm is active and well-informed in the legal community, increasing client trust.

7. Gather Case Studies

Case studies are an effective type of content marketing for law firms targeting big cases. They are detailed, firsthand testimonies of how a law firm successfully helped one of its clients. 

In-depth studies cover clients’ specific challenges, the step-by-step approach to solving them, and the results. They demonstrate your firm’s expertise, knowledge, and ability to problem solve when faced with a challenge, leading to trust and credibility among prospective clients. When creating case studies, ensure they include these five elements:

• Introduction: Introduce the client (without disclosing any confidential information) and what their specific case is.
• Challenge: Detail the specific challenges that the client encountered.
• Approach: What was the law firm’s step-by-step approach to solving this challenge? What legal strategies or tactics did you use?
• Outcome: What was the result of the case? Was it a win? Settlement? Another favorable outcome?
• Client Testimonials: To conclude, you can include your clients’ opinions, highlighting their experience with your firm.

Assemble a dedicated section for case studies on your website. You can share summaries or snippets of these case studies on social media with a link to the main case study.

8. Get Expert Help From a Fractional Law Firm FCMO

A fractional law firm CMO guides law firms with marketing initiatives, including content marketing. They devise a conversion-driving content marketing strategy that increases your firm’s authority and trustworthiness.

A fractional CMO can identify issues or concerns about your law firm’s content strategy. If you’re facing low conversion rates, this may be because of a lack of important information on your landing pages. An FCMO can fill in the gaps with valuable content to increase conversions.

The FCMO leads a team to strategize content that showcases your firm’s expertise, such as videos, social media posts, and paid ads. They help address insufficient brand awareness due to missed opportunities in content marketing.

Legal Content Strategies from an FCMO

Content marketing for law firms targeting big cases can be done differently. Here are five specific content strategies you can use.

Pillar and Cluster Model

The pillar and cluster model involves creating one central page, the pillar page, and linking it to other relevant pages, the cluster pages. The pillar page discusses one main topic while linking to other pages that discuss subtopics.

In the pillar and cluster model, you’ll identify a broad topic before narrowing it down to more specific topics. Let’s say your broad topic is personal injury law in your city. Your main page will be on this topic, which should cover more specific topics, such as relevant case studies, step-by-step processes, litigation processes, and more.

With keyword tools, you can identify commonly researched keywords to help you find relevant topics. Once you have your subtopics, create content that answers these questions and match the user’s search intent.

You can answer questions like:

• How to file a personal injury lawsuit in (city name)
• What to do during a personal injury trial
• What to look for in a personal injury lawyer

Themed Content Strategy

Themed content strategies revolve around content production within a specific theme or topic over a certain period. Start by choosing a central theme for your content. Your main topic should reflect your primary services and be relevant to your target audience. 

If your law firm centers on divorce or family, think about what would be relevant content during Divorce Awareness Month. Weekly released blogs or newsletters on related topics could include:

• “How to Prepare for a Divorce”
• “What Is the Impact of Divorce on Children?”
• “Understanding Alimony and Child Support”

Once you have finished a new post, you can share it on various digital platforms, such as social media, email, or your website, to spread the word about your brand and reach potential clients.

Newsjacking/Timely Content Strategy

Newsjacking utilizes news stories and current events to build brand awareness. You capitalize on trends and timing to promote your business through blog content or social media campaigns.

A state releases updates or changes regarding PFA (Protection From Abuse) laws. If you’re a family law firm, relevant content could be a blog detailing what victims need to know about protecting themselves under the updated law.

In a newsjacking strategy, follow current events and stay updated on industry trends, changes, and developments. Once you’ve found a topic to write about, your keyword research will help you find keywords related to this topic. You can conduct your own Google searches and see what else is being said about this topic.

Series Content Strategy

A series content strategy involves releasing different content, such as blog posts, that build on each other over time. It’s an entire series separated into various parts and released regularly. Depending on your area of expertise, your series of blogs will educate potential clients on your niche.

Let’s consider personal injury law. A personal injury blog series might look something like this:

• Part 1: Introduction to Personal Injury Law
• Part 2: How to Choose the Right Personal Injury Lawyer
• Part 3: How to Prepare For a Personal Injury Case
• Part 4: The Key Stages of a Personal Injury Lawsuit
• Part 5: Personal Injury Case Study
• Part 6: What to Do After a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Choose a central topic and write an outline to start creating a content series. This will organize your posts so you release everything in a systematic and logical order. You can share these blogs regularly via email or social media, encouraging readers to follow them.

Lead Magnet Strategy

Content marketing for law firms targeting big cases often includes lead magnets — valuable content offered in exchange for a lead’s contact information, like a gated eBook or guide. This works because whenever a potential client searches for something, your firm can provide information in the form of an eBook, white paper, or guide to help the client with their issue.

Develop high-quality content that your clients will find valuable and informative. If your law firm specializes in real estate law, you can create an eBook or guide that explains everything about estate planning. This would help homebuyers, real estate investors, property owners, or anyone managing their assets.

Promote this lead magnet across all touchpoints, such as email, social media, site pop-ups, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Use a concise and compelling CTA, using active language to encourage people to click. It might read, “Book a free consultation with our legal team to learn if you could have a case!”

Profile Case Studies: Content Marketing for Law Firms Targeting Big Cases

Here at Digital Authority Partners, we have an impressive resume of helping legal professionals with their content marketing efforts. A great example is Jacko Law Group, an M&A and business law firm that struggled with declining leads, low search rankings, and poor conversion rates.

To remedy this, DAP did an extensive content marketing overhaul. This includes adding location-specific landing pages for each service, like “Law Firm in New York.” We then created supporting content articles and guest posts to boost rankings, and implemented a video marketing strategy catered to each location that they served.

These strategies proved effective. The result was a 53% increase in organic visibility, a 28% increase in leads compared to the previous year, and a staggering 845% increase in visits to the website from YouTube.

Through targeted PPC, SEO, and video content, Jacko Law Group saw a 7.25X return on their marketing SEO efforts, strengthening their standing in business law.

Talk to a Professional Content Marketing Agency and Win Bigger Cases

Content is central to the marketing puzzle, whether in the form of blog posts, videos, or case studies. Clear marketing materials are how you promote yourself as a thought leader in the legal industry. With a clear strategy you establish trust with your audience before you talk to them personally.

The possibilities are endless for the kind of work that deserves a place on your content calendar. If you’re unsure what to do, consult a content marketing agency like Digital Authority Partners (DAP).

Digital Authority Partners specializes in all types of content marketing for any industry. We’re a team of committed marketers and digital-first CMO consultants. DAP FCMOs strive to elevate your brand with a user-centric and valuable content strategy that turns prospects into loyal, paying clients.

Book your free consultation with our DAP content strategists today and start winning the big cases you deserve.