60 percent of all consumers in the United States find blog posts useful during the early stages of the buying process. If you own a law firm, this statistic means that running a business blog can help to boost your digital marketing strategy significantly.
Blog posts are unlike other pages on your firm’s website in that they allow you to declare your opinions and stance to the world. When you do it right, blogging can establish you as a respected influencer of people and earn you a loyal following.
Unfortunately, many law firms make certain mistakes with blogs that undermine the entire purpose of having a blog in the first place. In this post, we highlight some of the commonest law firm blogging mistakes that you need to avoid.
Read on to learn more.
1. Not Blogging for A Specific Audience
Who is your target audience? You need to establish this fact from the outset, so you pick topics for blogs that suit them. For most lawyers who blog, their audience includes existing and potential clients.
You want to be sure that your audience finds what they’re reading useful in their lives or jobs. For instance, car accident lawyers should write content that is relevant to people who’d like to find out how to avoid car accidents or want legal assistance after an accident.
Remember to write in the language of your target audience, not yours. How would you explain this specific to them if you were talking to them directly? Use that style in your blog.
2. Discussing Unnecessary Statutes and Case Laws
There’s nothing wrong with including a case law or elaborating on a statute within your blog. However, ask yourself whether that statute or case law impacts your current or potential clients’ business.
Does your audience need to know the statute to understand how a certain ruling might apply to their case? If they do, explain why the fact is essential.
Avoid including full citations when you discuss statutes and cases in your blog. Such citations stand out because of all the numbers and the italics you use, and this may scare the ordinary reader off. Keep things simple, such as Smith v. Johnson, when discussing a specific case.
3. Too Much Legalese in Your Blogs
The vast majority of your clients and potential clients may not understand legal terminology. That’s why using too much legalese in your blogs will only work to your disadvantage.
Understandably, it’s not always easy to use plain language in the legal world, but it’s essential for your law firm’s blog. Remember, your intention isn’t for your blog to stand up during a trial. No reader will complain that the language you use is too simple to understand.
4. Blogs That Have No Lesson for Your Readers
A big problem of getting into too many details in your blog is that you may forget to find your way back out and state what the key takeaways are from the analysis. So, what can you do to avoid this?
The best solution is to always begin and end your blog with a summary that ties your entire message together. The summary should also clearly explain why your reader needs to know about the topic in question.
5. Littering Your Blog With Footnotes
It’s almost second nature for lawyers to footnote each fact when writing. While this is great for articles in legal journals, it has no place in the blogging world. The best way to go about it is to include hyperlinks in your blogs to credit sources you’ve used in your writing.
6. Failure to Use Subheadings
This error isn’t just limited to law firm bloggers; it affects bloggers from all industries. Everyone is in a hurry, and no reader wants to scan a blog post that has 15 lengthy blog posts that give no idea where the writer is going. Who has all that time for a blog?
With subheadings, your reader has a map for your blog that confirms to them that they’re headed the right way. When you write them properly, subheadings can entice your reader to read the entire post.
Subheadings also benefit you as a blogger. They keep you on track and can add search engine optimization (SEO) value to your blogs.
7. Not Including Images in Your Blogs
Articles have a powerful impact on blogs. Articles that have relevant, high-quality images receive over 90 percent more viewership than those without. In addition, including images on your post significantly enhances engagement rates on different social media platforms.
Some social media platforms are mainly driven by pictures. These include Pinterest and Instagram. To experience success in these platforms, you must master the art of using the right pictures in your blog posts.
So, how do you get the best images for your blog posts? One option is to download top-quality stock images from platforms that offer monthly and annual subscription services. You can also make use of sites that link bloggers with photographers willing to share their photos for free.
Before using free images, investigate the source thoroughly to ascertain whether the graphic artist has given the license you need to use them. The last thing you want is to have a lawsuit on your hands for using a photographer’s work without permission.
9. Infrequent Blogging
One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is to leave their blogs unattended. A dormant blog does little, if anything, to boost your content marketing. Such a blog looks bad to potential clients who stumble across it.
Regular blog posts on your blog are a signal to major search engines that you’re continually offering fresh information. This is good for your ranking.
When potential clients see that your content has a recent source, it’s a good sign. It proves that you’re tending to your blog and covering relevant issues.
Avoid Mistakes With Blogs to Stay Ahead of Your Competition
Law firm blogging is increasingly getting popular, and for a good reason. When you do it well and steer clear of common mistakes with blogs, you can grow your reputation as a leader in the field and attract more traffic to your law firm’s website.
Would you like to read more great content on how to improve your digital marketing as a law firm? Please keep visiting our blog.