In an age where information is readily available with just a few clicks or taps, businesses must create their own narrative. This is especially true of law practices.

The field of law is complex and ever-changing, with seemingly endless specialties created to suit the needs of the public. One of the problems with this is that law is increasingly difficult for the average person to understand.

Similarly, finding the perfect law firm to handle an individual’s case can be extremely daunting.

The best way to mitigate this confusion is by having a blog. So, if you’re wondering: does my law practice need a blog? The answer is a resounding, yes!

Read on to learn how to start a blog that best serves the needs of your law practice and your clients.

Why does my practice need a blog?

Creating a blog can do wonders for your law practice. Along with having a strong social media presence, a blog can become your greatest marketing tool.

It can draw massive traffic to your website, increasing the number of unique visitors to your website and increasing your SEO ranking. This, in turn, increases your firm’s visibility and introduces you to potential new clients to serve.

On the financial spectrum, maintaining a comprehensive and helpful blog can grow your business.

On the personal end, it is where you can connect with clients and prove your credibility. They will learn more about your firm and how your expertise can add value to their life.

According to Demand Metric, 82% of consumers feel more positive toward a business after reading their custom content.

Custom content, such as your firm’s blog, can help create an affirmative connection between your firm and clients. This is especially important during uncertain times when starting a relationship with a trusted business is paramount.

Where do I start?

Creating a blog for your law practice is probably easier to do than you may imagine. The tricky part comes with maintaining it, which we will talk about later.

The following guideline is for those who do not have an internal tech team or person. If you do, disregard this section, and ask them to add a blog to your website. They will know how.

To start a professional blog for your law practice, follow these steps.

1. Consider what content management system (CMS) your existing website uses and its capabilities. If you use B12 for your website, it’s easy to add an integrated blog feed (no third-party necessary!) yourself using the B12 Editor, or you can have one of our experts do it for you.
2. With that done, it’s time to put some thought into the UX, or the user experience. You want your blog to resemble the rest of your legal practice’s website, but it also should be extra enticing. This may require extra work depending on your platform, but with B12, we’ll make sure your blog feed perfectly matches the rest of your site. Your blog is ineffective if it’s difficult to read, navigate, and doesn’t encourage engagement.
3. Add features like colorful photos (you can find high-quality stock photos from Unsplash right in the B12 Editor) and eye-catching formatting. Decide if you’d like to add a call to action or a comments feature at the bottom of the page to further participate with visitors.

These are just a few basic elements to consider when starting a blog. The experts at B12 can understand all the integrations and features that might be right for your firm.

What should I write about?

Figuring out what to write about is an especially important step to creating a new blog. It may seem intuitive at first thought. Of course, you’re going to write about your legal practice!

But there are several factors to consider before jumping in.

Who am I writing for?

Firstly, who is your target audience? In a basic way, your target audience is most likely potential legal clients. But who would be an ideal legal client for your firm?

Think about the type of law you specialize in and who your previous clients are, or who you want future clients to be.

What is the tone?

After you decide on your target audience, you can then figure out the tone of your blog. You should emphasize the value you bring to these potential clients and ensure it comes across in every post you publish. Do you want your posts to sound more enthusiastic or entirely matter of fact?

This will help you create a brand identity that clients will come to know you by, another essential marketing philosophy. Make sure you’re always conveying your message consistently.

What about maintenance?

When it comes time to write and maintain the blogs, you have a couple of choices there, too. Do you want to leave this important task to someone in-house, or do you want a team of professionals to handle all aspects of your legal practice’s blog creation, promotion, and maintenance?

For a tailored blog service that is designed to improve your SEO rankings, check out B12’s SEO Pro plan. On this plan, we deliver monthly SEO-focused blog posts. We optimize each blog post for a different keyword, and we send you a draft to review before we publish it.

When we create a blogging content calendar for your legal practice, we make sure it balances SEO best practices with your brand voice. This plan is a great way to increase your site’s volume of content and to appeal to search engines with fresh posts every month.

How often should I publish a new blog post?

You do not want to blog too often or too infrequently. This could confuse potential clients and make all your efforts futile.

Ideally, you should publish a couple of new posts each month. Regularly adding new content is an integral piece of your SEO strategy, but you don't want to overwhelm your website and its visitors with too much information at once.

A monthly blog is the perfect vehicle to express to your website visitors what’s new at your law firm and how you add value to your clients’ lives. It also ensures consistency, in terms of your blog delivery and your brand messaging, both key to successful content marketing campaigns.

One or two posts each month is the perfect vehicle to express your firm's value and expertise. B12 sends you a monthly metrics email that summarizes your website performance, so you can see how your efforts pay off.

Where do I promote my firm’s blog posts?

Promoting your law firm’s blogs can be more complex than meets the eye. Most firms will promote their blog on their Facebook account or other social media. This is a great way to encourage users to visit your website via your blog post.

But this is only the beginning.

Start a mailing list

Along with having a blog, ensure your law practice's website has an email list that users can sign up using their email address. This is a superb way to build a contact list, promote your firm, and share updates about your blog, practice areas, events, and more.

When you publish a new blog post, email your subscribers to let them know. You can also add social sharing buttons to encourage your email list subscribers to share the post with their friends on social media. A simple promotional idea like this can improve your page views exponentially.

Rely on niche communities

You should also consider niche forums and communities. For the legal field, choosing a respected community is key. There are several communities to consider posting links to your blog, many of which you probably have heard of and may frequent.

Some of these communities include:

• Quora
• LegalMatch
• LinkedIn groups
• Reddit subreddits
• Avvo

Be sure to be thoughtful when adding a link to your blog with these groups. Adding context to intrigue users into clicking on the link instead of ignoring it is crucial.

Guest blogs can extend your reach

You can also consider writing the occasional guest blog. Guest bloggers add authority to your blog and can help drive new traffic to your blog. The idea is to write an authoritative blog about your firm’s legal niche and publish it on another website’s blog.

Include an author bio at the end of your blog with a link to your firm’s website or blog feed. Like posting content to online legal communities, this can also bring a large volume of unique visitors to your site.

Share comments to increase attention

If your firm admires the work of another legal firm in your community, check out their blog. This is a good opportunity for you to leave comments on their posts.

Doing so can increase you and your firm’s presence and is another way to drive traffic back to your own blog. You can position yourself and your firm in a place of authority.

Try paid advertising, too

Paid advertising is another option. You can pay native advertisers for your blogs to appear on content discovery platforms, like Outbrain and Taboola.

Native advertising promotes your blog and encourages users to click a link to your site. Your blog will appear at the end of articles a user is already reading on other websites.

**Don’t forget about the power of paid social media ads **

You can also pay to have your blogs promoted on social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn all offer advertising platforms that can boost your blog’s presence and inspire new visits to your blog. For instance, Instagram states that more than 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile daily.

Wielded successfully, paid social media advertisements can be powerful promotional tools for your firm’s blog.

A blog can become your biggest driver of new business

By now, you can see how a successful blog can increase your law practice's visibility and attract new clients. It can also ensure your firm is responsible for its own narrative and shows clients how you can help them.

Your blog is custom content that can help you create a connection between your firm and clients. Developing and maintaining a blog, including successfully promoting it, is essential to the success of the blog.

For more information on how to develop your blog and other industry-leading secrets to a better website, check out the B12 Resource Center.