Is Blogging Still A Worthwhile Practice For Lawyers?

Read almost any legal marketing guide or eBook, and there will usually be at least some mention of how lawyers need to be blogging. But, are attorneys actually following through on this advice?

This past summer, we at Answering Legal sent out a legal marketing survey to 100 attorneys. That survey is the subject of our newest eBook, called “How Attorneys Are Marketing Their Firms in the Digital Age: A Survey Article”. The questions in the survey covered a variety of legal marketing topics, with one question asking lawyers if they currently have an active legal blog.

Our survey results says a majority of lawyers have stopped blogging

We were fairly disappointed to find that just 44 percent of the lawyers we surveyed have active legal blogs. An alarming 56 percent of our survey respondents have blogs that are dead or don’t have blogs at all.

What’s the reason for this? Well typically anything that involves being creative demands a serious commitment of time and effort, something many busy lawyers just aren’t interested in making. Not to mention, writing blogs doesn’t come naturally to all, and most lawyers are smart enough to know that a poorly written post will do more damage for their firm, than it will good.

The benefits of blogging for attorneys

According to bostoninteractive, marketers who prioritize blogging are thirteen times as likely to achieve a positive ROI. For lawyers, blogging can be a great way to build up authority and credibility for their legal services. A well-written blog post providing guidance or valuable insight on a law related issue, will in many cases be enough to sway an online consumer into trying out your firm, or at least exploring your services further. Centering your blog posts around the right SEO keywords can also help lawyers gain higher relevance in the Google results that their customers are searching for. And as we all know, getting on the first page of search engine results is a must in the digital age.

When a proper commitment is made to content creation, it can often bring incredible results for a law office. We encountered a real life example of this, when we interviewed Arizona attorney Ruth Carter for our “Let’s Talk Legal Marketing” blog series. Ruth told us that she now gets about half of her new clients from creating original blog posts and YouTube videos.

Just imagine having content exist on the internet, that constantly ends up bringing new leads to your practice’s door. This could make life significantly easier for lawyers, and give them a lot more freedom in how they spend their budget and time. The only problem, building an audience for Ruth’s content took a considerable amount of time.

“When I started Carter Law Firm, I didn’t get much traffic to my site for months, despite blogging every week,” Carter said. “I tell people don’t plan to see results for at least six months, if not a year. Having an audience is a privilege which is contingent upon consistently creating quality content.”

So Is blogging worth the time?

We at Answering Legal still think it is. That being said, lawyers shouldn’t waste their time blogging unless they have a long-term vision in place for executing their content creation the right way.

For many attorneys, this will mean needing to consult with or hire a content marketing professional. This kind of professional can work with lawyers to map out a proper blogging plan and schedule, informing them on the best topics to write about and how to go about actually getting their content seen. Some lawyers may also want to consider hiring a professional writer for their blogs, although we recommend that lawyers remain at least somewhat involved in the writing process, to help ensure that their voice remains present in their firm’s content.

Building an audience for your content is still very possible, even in today’s overcrowded online space. Just don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t happen overnight.

If you found this piece to be interesting, we really think you’ll enjoy our new eBook, “How Attorneys Are Marketing Their Law Firms In The Digital Age: A Survey Article”. Topics covered in our eBook include marketing strategies, website design, blogging, social media, and managing your online presence. Along with data from our 17-question legal marketing survey, you’ll get exclusive insight on how to grow your firm from our panel of 13 legal marketing experts.

To get the free eBook, click here!