Online Publishing Strategy for Law Firms

When you think of legal proceedings and law firms as a general audience, publishing may mean a lot of things. For the purpose of legal marketing, publishing is the easiest and the most typical. Almost every lawyer may publish but very few have a process in place that enables them. A law firm should always insist on publishing goals as it helps with it’s business development as well as marketing effort. But how does one go about it?

For law firms, it’s important to come up with a strategy to ensure effectiveness, satisfaction and overall growth in your business’ publishing efforts. 

• Identify your publications overall scope and come up with a strategy or guide which would act as a framework for your team. 

• Make legal content a part of your marketing strategy and overall business plan.

• Find the right platform for your team - nothing too technical but rather something that provides a centralized management structure for smooth workflow. 

• Create your brand footing in different platforms and ensure that your content reaches these platforms in appropriate formats. 

• Create a workflow wherein everyone in the team is aware of the publishing platform, are comfortable with it and are excited to contribute. 

• Look into the performance of each of your publishing efforts by using the right tools

1. The firm’s content strategy or publishing strategy needs to align with the overall business strategy - this needs to be kept at the center of all the discussions. The content process is entirely a different workflow altogether but keeping the business strategy at the forefront helps maintain the purpose of all the effort. Publishing content online should essentially help you achieve your business goals/ marketing goals by the end of it. It could also help you achieve a couple of things along the way, but at its center it helps you spread brand awareness or increase credibility. 

2. Create a list of your target audience.

   This can be difficult for a larger firm or a small firm. An easy way to go about it is to ensure you cater to all industries. This helps your brand pop up in different searches while helping your clientele understand how multifaceted your business is. 

   While giving this brief to your team, its important to let them know exactly who their readers are/should be. Give them a demographic, an age group, an industry, an ethnicity, etc. Be as specific as you can be so you can cater to as many people as you can. Having a definite group helps you narrow down your focus and put meaningful content out there. 

3. Once you know why you’re publishing and who you are publishing for, the next thing is to set your platform. Find social media platforms that have your relevant audience. An easy way to check this is by looking into your competitors. Create profiles or business pages wherever necessary and understand what the content requirements are - start with a website. This can later be discussed as you come up with multi-layered content. Look into other mediums like - do you want to start sending newsletters? What about print copies? And more. 

4. How do you measure your success?

   While setting goals for your business, setting up goals for publishing is also important. Come up with measurable goals and have them looked into with the right tools. You could see how many existing clients are coming back to you, exposure to new clients through content, exposure to a new industry or getting requests for particular lawyers involved in the process.  Remember to set realistic goals otherwise you’re setting up yourself for failure. 

5. Creating a guide for content 

   You must start with recognising the different types of content out there. Identify all the different types of content you want to include on your website and other platforms. Once this is done, create a brief about what each content piece should look like or rules they must follow. You can set a certain standard for your content to give it an elevated sense of credibility. Have a clear workflow in place - look into who will be contributing to your content plans. Come up with a list of main subjects of which content titles can be derived from - this list can keep expanding. Identify the most helpful elements on your content - summaries, quotes, verdicts, etc. 

6. Editorial Guidelines 

   Look into your preferred formats. Not everyone will sit and read a long worded blog. Look into - articles, newsletters, ppts, audio files, blogs, interviews etc. Be specific about the kind of content you wish to see for specific audience groups as well. Assess the needs of your audience and gauge their engagement to understand if they have any specific demands. Look into how technology can help improve the impact of your publishing efforts. 

7. Publishing budget 

   For a legal team, you need a solution that not only caters to your audience but also your writers. You need an easy to manage centralized content management system, an easy website UI and tools that help you analyze your publishing success. This means that you’ll need a lot of software help and AI support. It’s important to look into the budget for this. Once you’ve set a publishing budget, you can prioritize your tools and get on plans that best support your intent. 

8. Who’s writing your content? 

   Look into your content contributors and set your expectations right. This also involves communicating with your legal team and setting the deadlines in place. Once you’ve got your process in place, you only need to check in with members and see how the content is coming along. This would also require edits and uploading which can be set in motion once everyone knows exactly what they’re responsible for. Set up a calendar in place for people to upload their content in time, maintain a workflow where people know where to take the work from and carry it forward.