Lawyers and Digital Marketing? That Fits!

What is digital marketing and how does it differ from sales and business development? Here you can find more information and a clarification of the terms.

No matter what the others think: law firms are made for blogging

As a lawyer, you hear from time to time that people actually prefer to have nothing to do with you. Some of these statements are very clear and explicit. But often they are also wrapped up in joking comments or chummy "Oh dear, the lawyer again". Torn up bills and other accusations like quarrelsomeness, opportunism or too much shop talk are part of it. Some people seem to think that lawyers are unsuitable for human communication.

Although otherwise usually endowed with a healthy self-confidence, lawyers in this field now even like to devalue themselves. Especially when it comes to blogging. Many law firms believe that their own people cannot use this communicative medium. They therefore refrain from using this important tool in their marketing. Have we allowed society's lawyers to deny us the ability to communicate outside of the jargon? Hopefully not. At HeadStarterz we firmly believe that law firms actually have the perfect basic conditions for running exciting blogs that are worth reading! Here's why:

1. law firms have exciting content for running a blog

Blogs live on content. Content is king. Only those who post interesting articles can build a readership. Google reads everything, but cannot decide what is effectively interesting. The mere reference of the search engine brings traffic and clicks, but does not keep the user on the website. If I land on a blog post, I only read as long as it is exciting. So the readers have to be presented with cool content in the blog.

Lawyers read a lot of books and spend a lot of time behind the computer. Nevertheless, they deal with people and real life situations on a daily basis. Law firms have their finger on the pulse of many exciting things that they experience with their own clients. Lawyers are usually informed and interested people beyond the confines of their own office, with a good network and presence at various events. All these are sources of content from which exciting stories emerge.

For lawyers, these stories may be commonplace. For us they are not. We want to hear these stories! If they package it right, law firms would have a considerable amount of content that would be perfect for a blog.

2. how do I design a blog post? Lawyers can write!

Many blogs are still written today. This is good for the lawyers. They are used to expressing themselves in writing. Of course, that doesn't mean that anyone and everyone can just write such good blog posts. The style is very different from classic legal content. A blog like a divorce suit? Not ideal... But blogging is writing. And those who are already good at it have an advantage. Adapting to the often somewhat informal blog format may take some practice, but will usually succeed. Give it a try!

3. lawyers represent opinions - blogs are platforms for exactly this purpose.

I have already mentioned it: many people think that lawyers like to argue. Let me put it this way: You have opinions.

"Blog" comes from the term "weblog". These were websites with a diary-like style, where people discussed or informed about topics. Today the blog has many faces, but actually we have not moved that far away from it. They are still platforms that are suitable for representing opinions. Readers follow expert blogs precisely because they are interested in the opinions and views of the authors. They are a source of information. It therefore takes writers who dare to have an opinion, to justify and represent it. This is nothing new for lawyers. Why shouldn't they be able to do this on a new platform? In this respect, too, lawyers are ideal bloggers.

4. positioning yourself online - essential in a personal business

The legal business is a personal business field. The relationship between a client and his lawyer is characterized by a high degree of trust. The more I know about a lawyer, the better I can assess as a client whether such trust can be established. For a law firm, the blog is a valuable medium for positioning itself and its own experts. The audience gets the opportunity to get a better picture of the authors. Even before the initial contact, the law firm can thus grant its own target group access to the people.

The blog serves the lawyer as a positioning tool. Law firms are made for blogging for this reason as well. They bring a need with them that can be satisfied with the means of digital marketing.

Conclusion

We will see a further increase in blogging law firms in the future. The benefits of digital marketing are simply too great to ignore. The barrier to entry is not high. Especially not for law firms. They have all the necessary prerequisites for a successful blog. Blogging fits the law firm marketing like a glove.

There still remains the issue raised at the beginning that we lawyers are not communicative enough. Dear people, in case you have had bad experiences with a lawyer, this can happen. There are actually a few... let's say, "special characters" in the legal profession. Most people who have had bad experiences with lawyers are likely to be lawyers themselves. They deal with each other all the time. I've been there... This does not make the legal profession different from any other branch. I don't know anybody who has never been annoyed by a craftswoman, a policeman, a doctor or a service employee in a restaurant. So there is no reason to denigrate the legal profession as a whole.

We have communicated a lot about "blogging" in the past months. Last week we held our first workshop on this topic for lawyers. In addition to large law firms from Zurich, smaller offices from Lucerne and Basel also took part. It was an exciting event, which our participants added to by their participation and reports on their experiences. A special thanks also goes to our graphic designer from Studio w+e Basel for the super fast implementation of the great handouts.

If you are also interested in the possibilities of digital marketing, please contact me at any time: tobias@headstarterz.com. We will gladly send you more information about this workshop.