Law Firm Marketing 2021:Year of Expecting the Unexpected

We made it through 2020, but now what? If the pandemic year taught us anything, it is that getting attached to your plans is an exercise in futility. It has also revealed people’s resourcefulness and their perseverance in maintaining social ties even in adverse circumstances. Given how many law firms’ plans fell apart in 2020, you might be hesitant to form any sort of expectations for 2021.

You figured out how to market your law firm effectively for 2020, but now it is a new year. How will you market your law firm in 2021? The legal content writers at Law Blog Writers can create just the digital marketing content your law firm needs for 2021, the year of expecting the unexpected.

Should You Include In-Person Marketing Initiatives in Your 2021 Marketing Budget?

The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are currently being distributed. Maybe you know someone, most likely someone who works in healthcare, who has already gotten the first shot. Over the course of 2021, more and more people will become immune to COVID-19, such that it will be safe for these people to attend in-person social events, but it is hard to know how many people will have immunity by what date. Scheduling in-person promotional events is almost certainly out of the question for the first half for 2021, but what about a trick-or-treat event for kids and panel discussion about co-parenting for divorced parents? What about a brunch in August for students about to begin law school? This year, a little goes a long way with in-person events. Just being able to partake of wine and cheese with people outside your immediate family is a treat in 2021.

Avoid Tone-Deaf Pandemic-Related Promotions

Of course, you should tailor your marketing efforts to the Zeitgeist, but using the pandemic as a gimmick is sure to backfire. Every joke you make about banana bread reminds countless readers of the parents, siblings, and friends they lost to COVID-19. Every snarky comment you make about decluttering resonates with one reader and alienates many others who only wish they could live in a cluttered apartment from which they have no fear of getting evicted. Simply use your marketing content to address questions related to your practice area that prospective clients might have in light of current events.

Law Firm Blogs Never Go Out of Style

No one knows to what extent in-person promotions will return, but your law firm’s blog remains an essential part of maintaining your website’s SEO rankings and building your reputation as a credible source of information about your practice area. Be sure to keep updating your blog, even after your law firm transitions back to in-person office work.

Start 2021 Off Right with First-Rate Blog Content

Whatever 2021 brings, your website will be a major point of first contact with prospective clients. The legal blog content writers at Law Blog Writers create fact-checked, readable blog content that your readers will enjoy reading and find easy to understand.

Advertising During Uncertain Times

The year 2020 has left lawyers, along with everyone else, wondering whether the assumptions that underlie their major decisions about their professional lives are still valid. For much of this year, it has seemed as though nothing is certain except uncertainty. If the last few weeks have shown us anything, though, it is that it is better to do something than to do nothing, and that if you speak up, someone will listen.

Your law firm may be operating on a lean marketing budget, but it is important to get the word out about the services you can provide to clients, even if the role of your practice area seems to be changing. Legal blog content and other inexpensive but effective forms of law firm marketing are as important as ever, and they are essential to helping your law firm make it to the other side of the pandemic.

Be the Voice of Reason and of Practical Solutions

In 2020, people have had a lot of time to sit around and worry about the worst-case scenario. Unable to socialize in person, the only ways they can calm their nerves are by watching television and consuming online media content. That means that you have countless opportunities to see your marketing content. According to Mark Waller of Firmidable, law firms that advertised on television during the COVID-19 pandemic, even when TV ads had never previously been part of their marketing strategy, saw an astronomical rise in traffic to their website and in new leads. An inexpensive TV ad can pay dividends.

You have a chance to be a voice of hope and of practical paths forward for all the people who are doom scrolling through news feeds or glued to the television to see whether a last-ditch effort to stop the world from falling apart succeeds. People are listening.

Don’t Put Yourself in a Position to Play Catch-Up

People are listening, so let them hear your law firm’s messages before they hear your competitors’ messages. It is much easier and more productive to be the first law firm in your geographic area to address the questions in the backs of prospective clients’ minds than it is to follow a marketing trend that has already proven successful. Even if you don’t have all the answers, get the word out about your law firm now, before your competitors have a chance to capture your target audience’s attention first.

Reward Prospective Clients for Engaging with Your Content

Once you get new visitors to click on your site, keep them interested with the marketing strategy that never loses value, namely informative, easily readable content. Use your blog to show that you are an authority in your practice area and that you care about your clients’ concerns.

Law Blog Writers Helps You Get the Word Out

Are you too busy doom scrolling (or hope scrolling) to create legal marketing content? No problem! The legal content writers at Law Blog Writers produce custom-written law firm blog content for every practice area in every era.

Brevity Is Great, but Beware of Broetry

Lawyers, of all people, are used to receiving criticism for their verbose writing style. From impenetrable legal memorandums to long-winded Christmas letters, it is obvious that lawyers love to write more than anyone enjoys reading their prose. Most advice on how to become a better writer follows the same line of logic, namely, say more in fewer words. Reduce your word count. Trim the fat. In short, shut your face. Websites on improving your writing style, much like their predecessors, books on improving your writing style, tend to valorize the laconic style of Ernest Hemingway and his contemporaries.

They also, implicitly or explicitly, enjoin the “man to man” writing style made famous by Hemingway’s tales of war and self-imposed exile or Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled detective stories. The message comes through loud and clear: adjectives are for sissies. Real men don’t need auxiliary verbs. All of this is old news, but the man of few words writing style has taken on a new life on business blogs, often with counterproductive results. Here is why “broetry” does not serve the purposes of your legal blog content.

What is Broetry, and Why Doesn’t It Belong on Your Law Firm’s Blog?

Carina Rampelt has observed a writing style she terms “broetry” on business blogs and professional networking sites in a variety of industries. She describes the hallmarks of a broetry blog post as follows:

· A clickbait opening sentence (on a law firm blog, it might be something like “Is the family court system rigged against fathers?”)

· Lots of single-sentence paragraphs

· A self-aggrandizing anecdote

· A cliché ending sentence (on a post about appealing your divorce judgment or modifying your child support order, this might be something like “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over”)

According to Rampelt, the biggest problem with broetry blog posts is not that they assume that the reader’s attention span is shorter than it is. The problem is with what she terms the tech bro mindset, which we might consider the law bro mindset in the context of law firm blogs. It puffs up its chest and says “I’m the winner. Everyone else is a loser. The only way to win is to be like me.”

No matter your industry, the purpose of a commercial blog is not to tell people how great you are. It is to show them how much you can help them. If your eight-sentence paragraph tells people the next steps they should take to address their legal or financial problem (for example, getting injured in a car accident or being served with divorce papers), then you have provided more value than 100 single-sentence paragraphs of broetic bravado could.

The Bottom Line

Eschew the broetry. Just write straightforward, informative posts that address your prospective clients’ concerns. Let the bro bloggers call you a sissy for using the word “eschew” while prospective clients click the contact link at the bottom of your blog posts.

Straightforward Law Firm Blog Content Without the Dudebro Attitude

The legal content writers at Law Blog Writers provide custom-written content to inform your readers about issues related to your practice area.