How to Define Your Target Client in Your Legal Content

How to Define Your Target Client in Your Legal Content
According to the American Bar Association, there are approximately 1.3 million attorneys in the United States. With so much competition, it’s vital that you find ways to stand out. Savvy lawyers know that one of the best ways to rise above the noise is to develop quality legal content for their blogs and landing pages — content that is optimized for search engines and builds their reputation as authorities in the industry.
But before you get to work on your next legal blog writing project, you must first define your target client. Doing so will help you develop more targeted, effective law firm content writing and consistently meet your readers’ needs.
With that in mind, here are 4 important steps you need to take to define your target client before you write a word of content.
1. Conducting Market Research
First, identify key demographics and behaviors associated with your target client. For instance, if you specialize in DUI criminal defense services, you might find that most of your target audience is males ages 18–45.
However, identifying demographics is only the first step. You must then expound on this preliminary information and ask questions like “How does my target client choose a lawyer to represent them?” and “What marketing channels are most popular amongst my clients?” After all, newspaper ads might help estate planning lawyers find clients who need to draft wills and create trusts, but they won’t do much for lawyers serving a younger demographic.
2. Analyzing Competitors’ Strategies
Next, you should analyze the competitors within your market, focusing on the most well-known practices in your area. Make sure you also conduct a quick Google search of phrases relevant to your practice area and take note of the pages that appear on page one. Those are the firms you especially need to outrank.
Analyzing your competitors’ strategies can inspire your own legal blog writing efforts. If certain types of legal content consistently rank on page one, you should consider emulating their success so you can start climbing the rankings as well.
3. Developing Client Personas for Your Legal Content
Now it’s time to put all your research to use by creating client personas: fictional archetypes that represent your ideal customers. Personas should identify and personify the core traits you’ve identified in your research and clearly lay out specific factors that influence their decision-making process.
The next step is to identify the pain points your prospective customers face, whether they’re purchasing barriers or legal burdens.
For example, pain points for a DUI client persona may include:
- Legal expenses
- Concerns about potential jail time
- A lack of transportation
Next, address these pain points one by one, clearly identifying how your firm is uniquely equipped to solve your target client’s problems. In this case, you might position your firm by:
- Advertising affordable fees
- Demonstrating your expertise in court to reduce/eliminate sentencing
- Providing virtual/phone meetings
Once you’ve identified a generalized persona, segment your audience into smaller groups and create a separate persona for each. This will help you target certain blogs to specific personas and see even better results.
4. Creating Legal Content to Meet the Needs of Your Target Client
Legal content can be tailored to meet the unique needs of your target client. You can develop a diverse range of content, including:
- Landing pages
- Service pages
- Blogs
- FAQs
- Infographics
While the purpose of each piece of content will vary, they should all share one thing in common: providing value to your audience. If your content is overly promotional or all about your success, clients will fail to relate with you and therefore choose to work with another lawyer.
Create Content that Converts with Our Legal Blog Writing Services
Once you have identified your ideal client, you can finally get to work and start generating high-quality, targeted legal content. But chances are, you’re too busy finding new leads or providing services to your existing client base. And if you’re a dedicated lawyer, content writing may not be your forte.
That’s where Write Collective comes in. With our team of law content writing specialists, you can continuously post professional legal content without missing a beat. We’ll capture your unique brand voice, craft content demonstrating your expertise, and inspire potential clients to connect with your firm.
Learn more about Write Collective’s legal content services or check out our samples of blog writing for lawyers today.