What Is Demand Generation, and Do Law Firms Have Any Use for It?

If you have ever learned about the ancient Athenian play The Frogs by Aristophanes, the part you heard about was the scene where Dionysus crosses a lake to the Underworld while the Greek chorus imitates the sound of frogs croaking; in Classical Greek, frogs say, “Brekekekeks koaks koaks” instead of “Ribbit ribbit.”  It is funny enough that the dialogue of a play thousands of years old included frog croaks, but an even more memorable scene in the play, not often described to students, is where Dionysus asks his brother Heracles for advice on the best way to get to the Underworld, and Heracles suggests leaping from a tower or drinking poison.  Dionysus wisely does not choose any of the options Heracles suggests.  Likewise, most of the possible ways that lawyers could increase demand for their services would not be desirable ones.  No one with any hope of maintaining a law license in good standing would suggest that personal injury lawyers should cause more accidents, family law attorneys should cause more divorces, probate lawyers should cause more family estrangement, or criminal defense lawyers should cause more crime.  In the world of content marketing, demand generation is a subtler matter, and law firms should apply a light touch when implementing it in their legal marketing content.

Demand Generation Is About Building Brand Recognition for Your Law Firm

If the phrase “demand generation” gives you the creeps, it is probably because of its similarity to “lead generation,” which, if you describe it to anyone outside the content marketing industry, does sound like a gray hat marketing tactic at best.  Certainly, lawyers don’t need to create splashy-looking websites with little in the way of informative content just to entice people to type their email addresses so that you can send them promotional offers.

That is not demand generation.  Instead, demand generation is about getting your name out there.  You have little control over who will need to hire a lawyer in your practice area and when they will need to hire one, but you can control whether your name pops into their head when they need a lawyer or have a legal question, as well as whether they recognize your law firm’s name when they Google generic legal questions or enter search terms like “estate planning lawyer near me.”  Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tried-and-true strategy for building name recognition; despite the constant barrage of new SEO gimmicks, you should stick to the tried-and-true strategies, such as updating your blog at least once per month and adding practice area pages for every subtopic of your practice area and every sizable city and town in your metropolitan area.  Demand generation can also take place offline, with billboard advertisements and sponsoring non-profit events so that your law firm’s name goes on the list of donors on the event’s website or on a banner at the event itself.

Custom Written Demand Generation Content for Law Firms

The professional law firm content marketers at Law Blog Writers, LLC can help you generate demand for your law firm through blog posts and content pages.