The creation of law firm marketing content often falls into the hands of those who are experts in law, not necessarily in crafting reader-friendly content.

This presents a unique challenge for law firms: converting dense, legal writing into engaging, effective marketing material. This challenge intensifies when faced with lawyers who believe that extensive, footnote-laden documents are the best mode of communication with clients and prospects.

Here are five strategies to help align your firm’s content with the preferences of audiences today to ensure that it resonates with a wider audience while maintaining its integrity.

1. Identify and Emulate Effective Content

• Spotlighting Success: Review recent publications by practice area and identify those that consistently deliver concise, accessible content. Pay particular attention to their engagement metrics such as open and clickthrough rates.
• Leverage Internal Competition: Use the success of these practice areas as benchmarks. Showcasing their achievements can motivate others to adopt similar strategies, tapping into the competitive nature of professionals.

2. Embrace the Digital Savvy of Younger Lawyers

• Capitalize on Tech Fluency: Younger associates, who have grown up using social media, inherently understand the power of concise digital communication. Utilize their skills to create content that aligns with contemporary communication trends.
• Mentorship and Training: Encourage these tech-savvy associates to mentor their senior colleagues in the art of effective digital communication, fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation.

3. Analyze and Adapt to Your Audience

• Understanding the Audience: Conduct an analysis of your mailing lists to demonstrate that your audience extends beyond just legal professionals. Emphasize the diversity of your readership, which likely includes CEOs and other non-legal professionals.
• Tailor Content for Broader Appeal: Remind your attorneys that effective communication, even on complex issues, can be achieved without resorting to jargon or extensive footnotes. Use examples from widely-read publications to illustrate this point.

4. Quality Over Speed in Content Delivery

• Balancing Timeliness and Depth: While being among the first to report on new regulations is important, it’s more critical to convey an understanding of how these changes impact clients. Encourage your lawyers to address the practical implications for clients in their initial communications.
• Follow-up with In-depth Analysis: After the initial alert, provide a more detailed analysis in external publications. This approach ensures both immediate relevance and long-term value to your clients.

5. Optimize for Mobile Consumption

• Adapt to Modern Reading Habits: Acknowledge that professionals often consume content on mobile devices, favoring brief, to-the-point information. This reality necessitates a shift towards shorter, more digestible content formats.
• Efficiency and Effectiveness: Emphasize to your lawyers the dual benefits of creating shorter content: it not only saves time in creation (respecting the value of billable hours) but also significantly increases readership and engagement.

Conclusion

Transforming legal content into effective marketing material is not just about simplifying language; it’s about understanding and adapting to the evolving preferences of your audience. By showcasing successful examples within the firm, leveraging the digital nativity of younger associates, tailoring content to a diverse audience, balancing the need for timely and in-depth information, and optimizing for mobile consumption, law firms can significantly enhance the impact of their content marketing efforts. The goal is to bridge the gap between legal expertise and engaging communication, thereby expanding the reach and influence of your firm’s marketing endeavors.

Embracing these strategies will not only elevate the quality of your firm’s content but also ensure it resonates with a broader, more diverse audience, ultimately driving greater engagement and business growth.