Law Firm Social Media Campaigns That Invite Audience Participation

When you scroll through the Lifestyle feeds on BuzzFeed, you find that many of the entries are lists of responses that readers gave about topics such as which discontinued food items from the 90s they miss the most or which of their views changed after they became parents.  Inevitably, some entries are calls for contributions on some of these topics.  Sure, the authors of listicles can scroll through Reddit or X, formerly known as Twitter, but it is more fun if readers respond directly.  You can use this same format for your law firm’s social media strategy.  Ask readers to send you messages on a given topic; ask them to submit them by email, rather than posting public comments.  This way, you can curate them and post the ones that are most consistent with your law firm’s mission and brand identity.  This way, your legal marketing content will be more interesting and easier to write than if you simply rehash existing social media content.

Ask Me Anything

It takes less than a minute to write an “Ask Me Anything” call for participation.  All you have to say is, “I am a personal injury lawyer.  Ask me anything.”  The questions you get in response may surprise you, and since it is your social media account, you get to decide which ones you respond to.  You will learn more about how your audience thinks, and some of them will probably even ask questions you have never thought about before.  You might even be able to turn the results into an “infrequently asked questions” page on your website.

Red Flag Green Flag Posts

In another call for participation post, you can ask the community about red flags and green flags related to your practice area.  For example, your call for participation can say, “Divorced people, what were the red flags and green flags about divorce lawyers you consulted.”  When you publish the results, edit out names of law firms, if the responses mention them, as well as anything that could be perceived as identifying details about your competitors.  The results will make for entertaining reading, and you might even be able to borrow a page from the playbook of lawyers that the audience listed as green flags.

Day in the Life Videos

To invite participation in this campaign, post a one-minute video about the daily happenings at your law firm; do not show clients, of course, unless they agree to be in the video.  Ask people who have been involved in cases like the ones you represent to send videos about their daily lives.  If you are a personal injury lawyer, ask readers to send videos about living with a severe injury.  If you are a family law attorney, ask for videos about a day in the life of a divorced parent.

Law Blog Writers Provides Content and Ideas for Content

The professional law firm content marketers at Law Blog Writers, LLC can help you build a social media marketing strategy or write posts for you.

A Small Law Firm’s Guide to Dealing With Competitors

The goal of marketing for small law firms is to get more clients to hire you; in most practice areas, the same client will only need your services once, so you are always on the lookout for new clients.  Likewise, the other law firms in the same city have the same goal and the same base of potential clients, so the competition is fierce. 

Conventional wisdom in the marketing sector, especially when it comes to digital marketing, holds that you should pay close attention to what your competitors are doing and try to do it better than they do or reach a segment of your audience that they cannot reach.  Learning more about your competitors can always teach you more about yourself, but there are lines you should not cross with your legal marketing content.

Think of Them as Referral Partners Instead

In the legal profession, the easiest way to get your competitors’ customers to become your customers is if your competitors refer them to you.  Therefore, you should not think of the other law firms in your city as rivals, but rather as referral partners.  For example, imagine that two solo law firms operate in the same small city, advertising to family law clients.  Branwell Bloggins has an initial consultation with a woman whose husband has just surprised her with a divorce petition.  He makes suggestions about how she might approach her divorce case, but the client does not seem convinced; everything he says seems to make her more upset about her husband’s betrayal.  At the end of the consultation, he decides to refer her to Evelyn Enterprise, whose law firm is located in the next zip code over, and who is also in her element with family law cases.  Branwell thinks that, because Evelyn is also a divorced woman, this woman will trust her more and will feel like Evelyn understands her.  In turn, Evelyn refers a DUI defense client to Branwell because Branwell is young and single and can afford to work around the clock practicing door law, but Evelyn must pick and choose her cases so she can make her work schedule accommodate her parenting time.  This would not be possible if Branwell and Evelyn had decided to see each other as enemies.

Don’t Go After Your Competitors

The worst thing you can do is to mention your competitor’s name in your marketing content, especially in a negative context.  If the home page of Branwell’s website said that his clients get an average of 20 percent more parenting time than Evelyn’s clients, it would only make him look like a jealous hater.

Don’t Go After Your Competitors’ Clients

Another stinky move is to use underhanded tactics to find the contact information of your competitors’ clients.  If Branwell were to email a complete stranger whom he believed to be Evelyn’s client and say, “I can get you a better divorce settlement than Evelyn can,” the best possible outcome would be that the recipient would delete the email.

Marketing Content Can Be Catchy Without Being Sleazy

The professional law firm content marketers at Law Blog Writers, LLC can produce eye-catching content without being misleading or sensationalist.

How to Build a Successful Content Marketing Strategy When Your Client Base Is Flat Broke

Some lawyers’ jobs are one economic downturn away from oblivion.  If your job is to draft real estate sales contracts, prenuptial agreements, and collaborative divorce agreements for folks in the Hamptons or in Beverly Hills, you are in a more vulnerable position than you think, even though your clients pay you so much that, if push comes to shove, you can just retire and move somewhere cheaper.  That is not the world where most lawyers live and work.  If your job is to contest unfairly denied Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) claims or to tell clients that it is inevitable that they will have to sell their late parents’ house during probate due to Medicaid estate recovery laws, you don’t have to wait for things to get worse before you and your clients begin feeling the financial strain.  Bankruptcy lawyers rank highly among practice areas where an initial consultation is most likely to include the words, “If I could afford that, I wouldn’t need to hire you.  For bankruptcy lawyers and others with a low-income client base, legal marketing content is less about persuading your clients to part with their nonexistent money and more about building a reputation for being knowledgeable and helping your target audience save money.

A Good Reputation Is Priceless, Even When No One Can Afford Your Hourly Fees

Conventional wisdom says that the goal of law firm marketing is to get Google users to visit your site, fill out an online contact form, schedule a consultation, and start paying you to represent them in their legal case.  If bankruptcy lawyers built their strategy that way, they would miss out on a large segment of their audience, the ones who already know that they can’t afford to hire a lawyer.

Bankruptcy lawyers should focus on building a website that enables visitors to complete the bankruptcy filing process on their own.  Include how-to guides in written and video form; bankruptcy can happen to anyone, from old fogeys who like written lists to digital natives who prefer to get information from videos.  As with any kind of video marketing content; someone out there just got a horrifying bill and wants to watch a 90-second video about filing for bankruptcy before getting back to work on gigs to earn money to pay down the bill, while someone else has fallen behind on a mortgage and is trying to choose between bankruptcy, surrendering the house to the bank, or both; this person wants a 20-minute video with greater detail.  As with any practice area, you need an FAQ page.  One of those questions should be about when it is advisable to hire a bankruptcy lawyer.  The complex cases that need you will hire you, while the simple cases will represent themselves in bankruptcy court, but don’t hesitate to end your video by asking them to write a positive review of you online if they found your video helpful.

Law Firm Marketing Content for Bankruptcy Lawyers and More

The professional law firm content marketers at Law Blog Writers, LLC can create valuable website content for lawyers in any practice area.