Blogs used by law firms and lawyers do not always follow the same protocol as most ordinary blogs. With a law firm blog, there is always a goal of bringing in new clients. To meet that goal, try to avoid making the following mistakes.
1.) Marketing a blog instead of blog marketing
The goal of marketing a blog is to increase traffic. However, law firm and lawyer blogs are different. Their goal is to find perspective clients. What good are 1,000 new visitors to your blog if none of them are perspective clients? Instead of worrying about getting thousands of visitors, aim for local traffic which include people in your city who could actually become clients. Worrying about the quantity of visitors more so than the quality of your visitors will result in less leads and fewer new clients.
2.) Blog does not match your website
While your blog should have different content than your website, visitors should recognize that the two go together. That means sharing a similar color scheme at the very least. You want visitors on both your website and blog to know they are still dealing with the same firm. Contrasting colors and styles will make visitors second guess who they are reading about.
3.) Failing to include e-mail subscription option
Bloggers are very familiar with RSS feeds and most are very comfortable using them. But with perspective clients, it is often a different story. Many potential clients tend to be wary of the RSS feed. To ease your readers’ minds, use a ‘subscribe by email’ option instead. FeedBurner is a top choice when it comes to setting this up.
4.) Poor pictures
In this day and age, a picture may be worth more than a thousand words. The wrong sized pictures could make your blog posts look clunky and unappealing to the eye. That could immediately turn readers off. Some blogs also make the mistake of using too many stock photos that have no authenticity whatsoever. Don’t opt for stock images of law books or gavels that have nothing to do with your actual firm.
5.) Too busy of a blog
Blog posts that have too many words, poor positioning of paragraphs, or too many links are going to turn readers off. Also, try not to do too much with different fonts, bold or italics. Too much of that is overkill and will usually chase readers away.
6.) No invitation to contact
The goal of a law firm blog is to gain new clients. How can that happen if you to not extend an invitation for further contact? At the end of your blog posts, put out an invitation that is a call to action. Invite readers to call or contact your law firm. If you do not put your firm out there as wanting to initiate interaction, then it is probably not going to happen. Always be approachable and extend an invitation without being pushy.
7.) Too many laws and statues
Don’t get caught up in quoting laws and legal statutes. It does not read well to the potential client. Make sure your blog terminology is a language ordinary people can understand. And always ask yourself if your audience really needs to know specific facts about a case? If they do not, then don’t include it.
8.) Linking to the wrong directories
It’s okay to link to other sites, but don’t include a directory that has anything to do with other lawyers who could be deemed direct competition. If any link has the remote possibility to taking your leads near another firm, do not use it.
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