Law Firm Marketing | Why Have a Blog?

I like to talk about law firm marketing, and I used to have a different site devoted to it. But I just decided I should combine everything here. So I am. Starting this week you should be getting one post devoted more to marketing a law firm and one devoted more to the other areas of starting a law firm. Sound good? Not hearing any responses from the crowd I'll assume that's a no (by the way, that's kind of a bad trial lawyer joke - I heard someone ask and respond to about fifty voir dire questions like that once - why not ask the question so you get some answers?!).

Today's post is about blogging. We all feel like we should be blogging, right. We are all blogging, right? But are we doing it correctly, that is the question. And is there even a way to do it incorrectly?

If you didn't know it, what I'm doing write now is blogging. The term originally came from weblog, which was supposed to be like a diary for a lot of people. Weblog was then shortened to blog, people found out that people would search out and read what they were writing, people found out they could make money from it, and it's been a little bit art and a little bit science ever since.

I could probably create a 300 page book on the art and science of blogging. There's really that much to it. But today, according to the title of my post, we're just here to answer "Why Have a Blog?" particularly in the law firm marketing sense. The other answer to why you should have a blog is because it's a great place to make yourself feel more important than you really are.

From a marketing perspective, you want your blog to do a couple of things when people find it. First, you want it to make a personal connection with the people that are reading it. For example, with this blog, I'm not stuffy. I tell you what I'm thinking in my own language and in my own style. Though you may not know much about me personally, I bet you kind of have a picture of who I am, at least from a law firm owner's standpoint. That's what you want. It will make it so when people call you to get help you won't need to sell them on what you can do. They'll just be verifying what they already feel from experiencing your web presence.

Second, you want to show people you know what you are talking about. If I got on here and told you about my dog Rufus all day, you probably wouldn't be relying on me very much for information related to marketing a law firm. So you have to talk about your topic, and you have to talk about it in a way that either answers people's common questions or invokes thought. I like to do a little bit of both. By blogging you can build up a perceived level of expertise that people will enjoy. It's a way of "showing" what you can do instead of "telling" what you can do.

And, by the way, don't talk about how experienced you are or how good you are (that's the "telling" I was referring to), that works about as good as telling a judge they should rule in your favor because you "believe it's the right thing." Show the judge why you're right, position yourself so there's only one way he can rule - yours - and you'll win the case. Same thing with clients. Position yourself so when they pick up the phone and call you they are thinking "this guy knows what he's doing - I want him to help me." That's effective law firm marketing.

Finally, you should have a blog because it is a cheap, easy way to significantly increase your web presence. Every time I write a post on this blog you see that I have links pointing all over the place - I do that on purpose. And every time I write a post on here I create a new web page. In some places, because of the way these posts set up as their own web pages, I've been able to the first, second, and third result in a Google search. Think about how much exposure you could create if you did that for your blog or website. The possibilities are endless. I'm not going to talk about blog set up here today - I've already talked about it before. But it's definitely a reason to have a blog.

Still not convinced you need a blog for your new law firm? Don't believe some of the things I'm saying? Have some follow up questions? There's a nice little spot for comments right below here. Instead of sending me an email, put in a comment. And if you read a comment and have an idea, respond. Maybe we can have an old fashioned discussion on here!

Happy marketing. Talk to you Friday.