Law firms that want to differentiate themselves in the minds of prospects and be seen as leaders realise the need to have a steady stream of good quality content that people are actively looking for.
Content marketing, when done right, is a powerful lead generation tool that law firms should not ignore.
However, have you ever wondered why your content marketing is not getting you in front of prospects and making a positive impact on you law firm revenues?
Many lawyers feel that any time taken to produce content stops them focusing on core legal work which, if done brilliantly, will result in instant recognition and more business.
This only works for a few lawyers or law firms. Otherwise, competition for prospects means you simply need information that gets people hooked on to you. This is really important given the way information searches had evolved and how third party recommendations via social media influences decision-making processes.
Many lawyers have simply said “let us produce content” which, though better than doing nothing, has has been more of a ‘blast it out and let us see’ approach. Even though this content has been produced with a knowledge of what people are looking for, it has been driven more by a need to have specific content plan so that lawyers know what they need to do over a given period of time.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not wrong. But in 2013, this approach will be tough to sustain if you want a measurable and positive ROI on your content marketing.
If lawyers want to build trust with prospects and stop them looking at other lawyers as leaders to follow, then they need to make sure their content marketing in 2013 starts to become personalised. All the information gathered from conversations, feedback surveys, recommendations made on forums or social media sites, and legal services purchased gives lawyers the platform from which they can identify what content or experiences they design for individual targets.
The technology to personalise marketing communications exists. Opt-in marketing, which essentially gives lawyers permission to communicate with prospects and clients, is a great opportunity to establish deeper relationships with people and move away from the one size fits all marketing that many people associate with lawyers.
For those that are really forward thinking, then real-time marketing (which requires integration of CRM, email, social and offline systems) can help lawyers use hot news items to communicate with people based on their preferences, interests and specific needs.
All this means law firm partners will need to invest time and resources to get persoanlised and contextual marketing working. It does not mean it is cripplingly expensive, but does need everyone in the practice to realise what contribution they can make to lead generation activity, and how they can collectively steer prospects through the firm’s sale funnel.
2013 has to be the year when law firms personalise their marketing BASED ON a thorough understanding of what prospects and clients are specifically looking for and their desired goals.
