Surprisingly (or not), blogging has become one of the most important parts of social media and digital marketing for all kinds of businesses. In fact, 46% of people read blogs more than once a day and 82% of marketers who blog daily have acquired a customer using their blog. That said, if you don’t have one already, your firm absolutely needs a blog.
Here’s how you can get the most out of the time you spend blogging:
There is nothing more intimidating to a reader than a giant block of text! Adding a featured image is a great way to play to readers’ love of visual content, which is essential to moving readers to engage in social sharing. Moreover, if your law firm has a Pinterest strategy, it's important to understand how to integrate that strategy into your blog posts (trust us, it makes a huge difference). We love this post from Wired for learning more: This Is the Perfect Pinterest Picture, According to Science.
Titles are key when it comes to posting great blog content that you want people to read. They should be direct, concise, and attention-grabbing. The best titles are accurate, offer a clear value, and are optimized for SEO. For more tips, we suggest reading over HubSpot's blog post on writing kick-ass blog titles.
You don’t want to come off as overly stuffy - it’s a blog, not a legal document. Make your content easily digestible, interesting, and relevant to your target audience. One of the most popular content formats is the "listicle," otherwise known as an article written in list form (much like this one). Breaking up your content with easy-to-skim headings is a great way to ensure that your readership can quickly find the part of your article that they're most interested in.
Few things are worse than a blogger who doesn’t, well, blog. Take the time to plan out an editorial calendar so that your idea pipeline never runs dry and so that the frequency of your posting is consistent. After all, consistent publishing is paramount to maintaining a readership that comes back day after day. Why? First of all. readers will always know what to expect and when they can expect it. If readers are continually trying to figure out when a new post will be on your blog, they'll eventually get tired of being disappointed by your empty homepage. Second of all, fresh content is one of the many keys to making friends with search engines, which you can learn more about in this handy blog post: Why Fresh Content is Essential to Your Website's Success.
You don’t always have to write long content. Although 1,500 word posts are ideal, blog posts that are between 200 and 500 words can be just as effective for engaging visitors as long as you're providing a clear and obvious value. This also applies to the idea that you don't need to post every single day in order to have a successful blog. Daily posting is a great way to grow your blog quickly, but if you're not providing valuable content, you're actually doing yourself more harm than good. That said, whenever you post something, you should always ask yourself, is this post worth my readers' time to read? If not, it might not be worth your time to write, either.
We mentioned that you need to be conversational when using social media and blogging is really no different. Have a conversation, be interested in your readers, and inspire them to interact with your blog. This means every post should include a strong call to action at the end and you should genuinely aim to create content that is going to improve your audience's lives in some way. If you’ve been successful at getting people to comment on your blog, don’t stop there! Blogging is about creating a mutual trust and community with your readership, so be sure to nurture those readers and make sure they know that you’re appreciative of the time they took to read and comment.
Interested in more blogging and marketing tips for your law firm? If so, there's so much more where this came from!
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