When it comes to legal marketing, some lawyers get it, and others don’t.

Lawyers who aren’t open to digital marketing are keeping themselves outdated. In a world where nearly 90% of people search online for legal services, why would you take yourself out of the game?

Well, I could think of a few reasons. Here are a few reasons why you, as a lawyer, are probably struggling with digital marketing.

Lack of Connection

When you want to promote yourself as a lawyer, what do you choose to promote?

• Your practice area
• The length of time you’ve been in practice.
• Your number of successful cases.

And guess what? None of these matters to your clients.

Lawyers brag about their experience before they even get to know their clients. Instead of thinking about how to promote yourself, think about the clients that you can serve.

Let’s say that you are a lawyer who specializes in product liability accidents. Why would someone need your services? What type of mental state would they be in before consulting with you?

Have they ever experienced a product liability accident before? What do they need to know?

These are the questions that can help establish a better connection between you and your clients. Before asking for their business, your clients must know that you care about them.

And that leads into the next problem.

Failing to Understand the Client’s Journey

As a lawyer, you’re expected to understand the legal process. But nine times out of ten, your clients don’t.

This is probably their first time being involved in the legal process. Some of them don’t even know their rights or that they can seek compensation.

That’s where your expertise really shines. You can relate to your client by understanding where they are mentally – and this doesn’t just apply to a consultation.

Maybe you’re one of the law firms that actually has a website and blog. But your content is just not connecting with your audience.

This is why. Many lawyers decide to use their content to educate their clients. Is this necessarily bad? No. But what is your intent with your content?

Do you use it to cover every aspect of the client’s buying journey? Are they aware that they have a legal problem? Do they know that there is a solution to it?

And why should they trust you to help them solve their legal problems?

Structuring your content around the client’s buying journey could be the missing ingredient to your content marketing.

No Specific Niche

Another missing ingredient could be a lack of a niche.

Let’s go back to your practice area. You’re a personal injury lawyer that specializes in product liability accidents.

Many personal injury lawyers love to keep it broad with their marketing. Instead of highlighting one personal injury practice area, they’ll refer to all of them.

To help yourself stand out against the thousands of law firms across the nation, you can create targeted content. You can specialize in product liability accidents and market your law firm as one of the best law firms to handle those types of cases.

Another tip to help your law firm stand out is focusing on its value proposition. What unique advantage does your law firm have against your competitors, and how can it be used to help your clients?

These are the things that help your law firm stand out amongst the competition.

Fear of Ethical Guidelines

Marketing your legal services comes with a responsibility. You can’t make certain claims or mislead your clients into accepting your services.

Let’s say that you wanted to write a legal blog post on your website. If you “guarantee” a win for your client, you have just violated one of the legal marketing guidelines.

This would be considered false advertising. No matter how skilled you are as a lawyer, you can’t guarantee a win for your client.

In fact, if you come across a law firm that makes these types of claims, they are “guaranteed” to be a settlement mill.

Another tricky guideline involves the use of testimonials. Testimonials are a great way to share your credibility with potential clients.

But if not done properly, it can lead your clients to believe that their case will end in the same manner.

It’s understandable that as a lawyer, you would be concerned with violating these guidelines. But that fear shouldn’t stop you from marketing your services to your audience.

Lack of Creativity

And that leads to the last reason why lawyers are struggling with marketing: lack of creativity.

Because lawyers are afraid to violate their state’s marketing guidelines, every blog post/website page/social media post reads the same. They’re either going to have one or all the following topics covered:

• A summary of the legal issue or accident.
• Examples of the legal issue or accident.
• Why someone may be entitled to compensation.
• The types of damages that the victim suffered.
• Why the law firm is the best person to help them fight for compensation.

And if the law firm wants to spice it up, they’ll give a summary of their approach in fighting for compensation.

Taking this cookie-cutter approach to your digital marketing hurts your law firm. Again, you want to stand out amongst other law firms.

That’s hard to do when you’re following the same digital marketing model as them.

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Fortunately, there is a solution to every problem.

Even though these issues seem impossible to overcome, they can be resolved by working with the right content strategist.

If you’re experiencing one or all these problems with your content marketing, click on the contact form below to schedule a consultation.

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