Skip to content Not too long ago, a lawyer with a website automatically assumed the role of law firm website content writing as well. After all, you’re a professional who knows the law, and producing content for your website will be just like the share of documents you’ve drafted in your career.
Wrong.
Regardless of the industry, content writing for the web goes beyond the words you write down. If you are looking to generate traffic, engage, and eventually convert website visitors into clients, then writing your own law firm content is out of the question. Here’s why:
You Barely Have the Time
How many client meetings do you have on your calendar this week? Court dates to attend? What about the numerous documents you’re required to draft, review, or file?
When you are a lawyer, it’s likely that your days are full of professional and personal responsibilities, that you don’t have the time to sit and write your law firm’s content. And when you do, the work is likely to be short, sound rushed and almost always completed later than you anticipated.
As a busy lawyer, consider delegating these duties to professional legal content writers as you focus on running your law practice.
You’ll Not be Consistent
When you don’t have enough time to write your law firm’s content, it’s unlikely that you’ll stick to a consistent schedule. An emergency meeting or court date could arise and take priority on your to-do list.
Unfortunately, consistency is an important driver of content marketing. Without consistency, you’ll not be in a position to cover all your potential client’s pain points. Inconsistency will also confuse your audience, especially if, in the beginning, you introduced a pace that you can’t keep up with.
As a result, your audience will start looking for solutions elsewhere, including your competitors.
You’re Not a Marketing Expert
There’s a lot that goes into content writing. While lawyers learn how to articulate themselves better both in verbal and written format, nobody teaches you how to write for the web in law school. This only means that, unfortunately, you’ll be relying on sheer luck for your content to achieve your marketing goals, because its success is not based on the law content it possesses.
Besides putting up content, you also need to apply SEO (search engine optimization) strategies, to ensure that your audience can easily access it. Professional legal content writers also understand marketing techniques that are likely to make your audience take an intended action on your site.
Analytics is also a crucial aspect of content marketing. Knowing what’s working and what’s not bringing in results can help shape your future content. When you choose to write your legal content, you’re likely to miss some of these important points.
Furthermore, you’ll need to understand linking strategies, both on your site and off your site. That can get really complex, and be honest, consume a ton of time.
Lack of a Content Strategy Plan
Since you don’t possess legal marketing expertise, writing your website content equates to winging it. This also means that you likely don’t have a concrete schedule and a content strategy plan. Sure, you have an idea of what you want to talk about in your next article, but this is not enough.
Besides helping you plan ahead, having a content strategy ensures that your topics are carefully selected to cater fully and connect with your audience.
You Risk Writing Like a Lawyer
There’s nothing wrong with writing like a lawyer, only that it’s not likely to capture your audience’s attention and keep them engaged.
When a lawyer writes, they are likely to get lost in the technicalities and forget about the primary goal: offering solutions. The results are too much legalese and too little help.
Lawyers are also often guilty of using a lot of jargon. When potential customer encounters this, they are likely to look for similar content from other law firms that have hired legal content writers instead.