Can Content Marketing Work for Your Firm?
Published: Oct 21, 2014
In today’s legal marketplace, a law firm of any size would be remiss to abstain from having a website or internet presence. A website provides potential clients with information about the firm and its services, and it can also be used as a way for the firm to demonstrate its expertise.
While there are rules of professional conduct regulating the content of lawyer advertising, firms can still take advantage of content marketing to attract and retain clients. Content marketing is the creation and distribution of relevant content, typically through websites, to a defined audience with the goal of having the customer take action.
For many law firms, this means writing regular blog entries on subjects relevant to the firms’ practice areas. For example, a family law firm in Alexandria, Virginia would hope that a potential client Googling divorce lawyers in northern Virginia would find the firm’s blog at the top of the search results, read it and choose to have a consultation with that firm.
While blog entries are much shorter than law review articles, they are still time consuming and likely non-billable. As such, firms may wish to have someone else hit the keyboard. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Vikram Rajan, the co-founder of phoneBlogger.net, about his word-of-mouth marketing service that assists lawyers with their blogs to stay top-of-mind with their referral relationships.
Q: What is phoneBlogging?
Vikram: Instead of spending hours writing an article, editing it, publishing the article on your website, optimizing it for Google and social media, promoting it through LinkedIn and email, what if you could speak with a dedicated editor over the phone for a few minutes? We call that phoneBlogging! If you can answer a frequently asked question or share a client success story in about four minutes by phone, we can type up an article that preserves your personal brand and expertise.
Q: How can phoneBlogging help attorneys and their clients?
Vikram: More than saving time and getting their blogging and social media done consistently, we help our clients become a real resource for their clients and referral relationships, including other attorneys. Over a period of time, our clients develop a real knowledge base on their website. Some of our clients are now turning their blog into published books.
Q: Who can take advantage of phoneBlogging?
Vikram: Partners & principals of law firms mainly. Rainmakers on partner track should consider building their blog, their LinkedIn presence and contribute to their firm’s email newsletter. Younger associates may want to co-author articles with senior partners via phoneBlogger.net.
Q: Why do you think attorneys need a blogging presence?
Vikram: I don’t know if they do. But I think the American Bar Association does. They’ve been rating the Top 100 Blawgs for the past seven years! Blogging helps our clients to engage their referral relationships in their word-of-mouth. For those growing a firm or a modern practice, it’s the simplest way to brand themselves.
Q: How did you become involved in phone blogging?
Vikram: My partner, Mark Bullock and I started this service as a favor to our clients. When we were practicing marketing advisors, our clients were just too busy to keep up with all this stuff. So we asked ourselves, “What if we just interviewed our clients over the phone and typed up their words into optimized blog articles?” As they started getting business this way, they recommended us to their peers. And so, phoneBlogger.net was born.
Learn more about phoneBlogger.net here.
Follow Vault on Twitter @VAULTLAW, Instagram @VaultCareers and Facebook
Read More: