Beyond the Legal Jargon: Mastering the Craft of Effective Legal Content Writing
Sarah Edwards
According to the American Bar Association, there are over 1.3 million lawyers in the United States, and 25% of them practice in just two states, California and New York.
With so many attorneys vying for the attention of prospective clients, growing your business can feel like an uphill climb. You’ve run paid ads and built a website, but you’re still falling short of your growth goals. What’s missing?
The answer is likely organic content. If you want people to visit your site and connect with your brand, you need to deliver value. Legal content writing can be your catalyst for increasing brand awareness and attracting new clients at scale.
You may be a master of legal jargon and courtroom prep, but if you don’t know how to translate that knowledge into digestible, website-worthy content, there will always be a disconnect between you and your audience. Here’s how to bridge the gap through legal content writing.
What Is Legal Content Writing?
Legal content writing is the process of creating marketing assets specifically for law firms and attorneys. Legal content writing services typically focus on producing materials for organic brand-building efforts. However, you can also commission content for ads, social media posts, newsletters, and more.
Organic legal content can be divided into two broad categories: educational or informative materials and conversion assets, such as service and landing pages. These deliverables use a combination of keywords and copywriting best practices to improve your visibility online and provide answers to users’ questions.
Educational or informative materials are meant to provide value to your audience without pushing your services. While you can include a call to action (CTA) within your educational content, the goal of these assets is to improve your search engine rankings and deliver value to readers.
By contrast, landing or service pages are meant to position your practice as a solution to the reader’s problem and encourage them to connect with your firm. These types of content typically have multiple CTAs spread throughout the piece, as well as some social proof, such as testimonials or reviews.
What Types of Deliverables Does Legal Content Writing Include?
Legal content writing agencies offer various types of deliverables. A full-service team like Write Collective can provide any type of written copy necessary to support your growth strategy, including but not limited to:
- Blogs
- Landing pages
- Service pages
- Social media posts
- FAQs
- White papers
- Case studies
- Newsletters
- Email copy
- “About Us” content
- Biographical summaries of staff
Choosing the right legal content writing partner is essential for maximizing the efficacy and reach of your content marketing strategy. Working with a versatile team that can evolve with your firm will ensure that your content is on-brand, tonally consistent, and in line with your expectations.
Having a strong online presence is more important than ever, as only 5.59% of Google searches result in a click for an organic link on page two or three of the search engine results pages (SERPs). Conversely, 71.33% of searches lead to an organic click for sites on page one of the SERPs.
Why Legal Content Writing Is More Complex Than General Copywriting
Legal content writing is tougher than other copywriting processes for several reasons. First and foremost, all of your content must comply with American Bar Association Rules 7.1 and 7.2.
Among other things, you can’t state or imply that you’re a specialist or expert in a given field unless you’ve been certified as such. While adhering to this rule may sound simple enough, including terms like “expert,” “expertise,” or “specialist,” even in a general sense, could be construed as a violation.
Let’s face it — spending hours creating your own content and verifying that it adheres to the relevant rules isn’t the best use of your time. That’s where outsourcing comes into play.
When outsourcing your legal content writing needs, it’s critical to choose an agency that understands the implications of using the wrong terminology. What’s more, you need a partner who can comprehend complex legal topics and transform that information into accessible, digestible content.
The Key Elements of Effective Legal Content Writing
What makes legal content writing great? Here are a few best practices to follow if you want to craft winning content.
Choose the Right Topics and Length
The field of law is vast. Therefore, you must narrow your focus and prioritize content that’s relevant to your practice area and your target audience’s needs.
However, limiting the subject of your legal content writing efforts to your practice area isn’t enough. You need to step into the mind of your target audience and craft content in a way that aligns with their search intent.
What questions are they asking? Which keywords are they incorporating into their searches? Once you know that, you can develop a content strategy that aligns with their needs.
Target the Right Keywords
Next, you’ll need to target the right keywords. This includes phrases relevant to your practice area and the region you serve. Keyword targeting is about more than simply cramming your blogs and landing pages with search terms. That approach is known as “keyword stuffing,” and it can actually hurt your rankings.
Even if Google doesn’t penalize you for keyword stuffing, your audience will feel the effects of this lazy tactic. They’ll be bombarded with a bunch of legal jargon and buzzwords but won’t get as much out of the content. As a result, they might turn to other sites for legal information in the future.
Use the Power of Persuasion
As an attorney, you’re adept at building strong arguments and supporting those arguments with facts and logic.
While you’ll apply a similar approach to legal content writing, you’ll also need to break down complex topics into digestible bits. More importantly, you must limit the read time of your content to a few minutes, which can be tricky.
Use the four Ps of persuasion when writing your content: promise, picture, proof, and push. In the legal industry, you can’t promise an outcome, but you can promise to deliver quality service and fight for your client’s rights. You can then paint a picture that proposes your practice as the solution to the reader’s problem.
Once you’ve made this connection, offer proof in the form of reviews and testimonials, which illustrate your ability to resolve the issue the reader is facing. Finally, give them a little push, encouraging them to book a free consultation or contact your firm.
3 Challenges of Legal Content Writing
Legal content writing is difficult for many reasons. Here are three hurdles you’ll likely encounter as you embark on your copywriting journey.
1. Keeping Content Concise
Condensing complex legal topics and services into a blog that ranges from 600 to 2,000 words isn’t easy. You’ve got to make the content skimmable, informative, and engaging, all while answering the reader’s questions thoroughly.
If your content is too long or dull, readers will bounce before they get to your CTA. Chances are good that they’ll return to the SERPs and click on one of your competitor’s links.
2. Addressing Sensitive Topics With Empathy
Legal issues are often sensitive and personal. Your law firm’s content needs to be written with a level of tact and empathy that acknowledges the reader’s situation. This is particularly important if you work in a practice area like family law, criminal defense, or personal injury.
Professional legal writers are skilled in crafting content that’s empathetic and reassuring, providing your potential clients with a sense of understanding and hope. This approach keeps audiences engaged and positions your firm as a source of support in their time of need.
3. Finding the Right Copywriting Partner
Finding the right copywriting partner is one of the biggest roadblocks you’ll encounter. Freelancers are a dime a dozen, but few of them understand the nuances of legal content writing. Even if you find a great solo copywriter, getting them to perform consistently and stick to your law firm’s campaign schedule can be next to impossible.
Working with a full-service agency that handles content planning, copywriting, and editing under one roof is the more pragmatic approach. Write Collective is home to writers and editors who specialize in serving attorneys, which ensures that your content adheres to ABA guidelines while supporting your growth.
FAQ
How Often Should a Law Firm Publish New Content to See Results?
For most law firms, posting between two and four blogs a month can be beneficial, although it’s important to stay consistent. By getting into a regular rhythm with your posts, it can be a sign to search engines that your site is a place of authority and activity.
Can Legal Content Writing Work for Solo Practitioners and Smaller Firms, or Is It Better Suited to Large Practices?
Legal content writing is a great equalizer for firms of all sizes. Organic content takes time to work, but a well-executed strategy for content can help even a two-person firm rank along some of the larger, more established firms in the area.
How Long Will It Take Before My Legal Content Starts Generating Leads?
It’s important to remember that organic content is a long-term investment. Many firms will start to see traffic coming in after three to six months, with the most significant results within a year.
Why Choose Write Collective?
Outsourcing your legal content writing needs to Write Collective allows you to tap into the power of quality copy while expanding your digital presence. Whether you’ve got an idea for a great content marketing campaign or need some assistance with concept ideation, we’ve got you covered.
We’ll kick off the partnership with a meeting between you and an account manager. Once we have a plan in place, we’ll assign content to one of our legal copywriting pros, who will craft compelling copy that captures your brand voice and magnifies your authority. Finally, our keen editors will ensure that the final deliverable is publish-ready. Explore our content packages today and embrace the power of legal content writing.
About Sarah Edwards
Sarah Edwards, the founder of Write Collective, is an SEO and content marketing expert with a strong track record in helping businesses, agencies, and individuals in every sector establish credibility online with strong links, optimized webpages, and superior copy.