There is an abundance of law firms out there. The digital era makes it easy for potential customers to search for lawyers and click their way through till they find one they can trust.
If you want your firm to stand out from the crowd and appear trustworthy, you must create valuable authority-based content. This is because humans tend to trust authority figures, and with helpful content, you are demonstrating expertise instead of claiming expertise.
What Is Authority Content?
Authority content is the act of consistently creating and distributing helpful information to your clearly defined audience. Authority content aims to attract your audience’s attention and engage them long enough to develop trust.
Notice the keywords here “consistently” and “helpful.”
It is critical that your content marketing efforts are consistent and continuous. If you want your law firm to appear trustworthy, you must create content on a steady stream. Randomly posting here and there will not do the trick. Instead, show your prospects that you are reliable and consistent and therefore trusted to handle legal matters in a professional and timely manner.
Contrary to what old-school SEO marketers believed, packing many SEO keywords in your content will not make you an authority. Granted, it will get you on the top of the search engine’s results page, but this does not imply that your content is valuable. Instead of focusing on SEO, authority content aims to help its audience, offers real solutions to their problems, and takes on a more client-centered approach. Google’s new algorithms no longer simply consider SEO but rather consider how much value each content offers.
How To Create Authority-Based Content
To stand out from the abundance of law firms out there, you must be seen as the industry leader. But how do you make yourself stand out in an overcrowded marketplace? How do you position yourself as an authority and not just another law firm?
Authority content is not “fake it” till you make it. You are either authority or you are not, and if you are not, your prospects will quickly see through you and click their way to the next available law firm.
Three significant elements will establish your authority in the arena of practicing law.
1. Core Authority
Core Authority means that you have a deep understanding of your market. You know your prospects’ problems, and you have the knowledge, expertise, and experience to help them solve their problems. Being passionate about what you do will only surface in your content, whether emails, blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media posts, etc. Authorities have deep knowledge and understanding; they have opinions, are inquisitive, restless, and genuinely interested in using their knowledge to help others. You must, therefore, create a body of content that demonstrates these qualities using these four steps.
Pick a topic that you are knowledgeable about, and make sure you keep it specific and have a narrow focus.
Write a series on that topic. Then, break it down into smaller articles and publish one piece from the series every week. Include surveys, statistics, infographics to support your arguments.
Bundle the series into one downloadable pdf as a guide and ask prospects to subscribe to your email list to receive the copy. Having downloadable guides instead of simple blog posts or articles on your website exponentially increases your core authority.
Promote the series on social media and other platforms.
2. Website Authority
Your website is your stage for showing your core authority and the platform to position yourself as the leader in your industry. This means that your website must be professionally done and your content professionally displayed. In addition, it must be user-friendly and optimized for mobile phone users. There is no need to dazzle your prospects with cutting-edge designs. Just make it smart-looking, easy to navigate, and consistent.
Do not assume that a plain website with a list of services and contact information will do much in enhancing your position as an authority figure. Your prospects need to see a lot more to be convinced about the validity of your authority. They do not want you to say that you are the best; they want you to show it without having to say it.
3. Social Authority
The social authority provides social proof of your expertise. It is where your customers or other recognized agencies and individuals come forth and give testimonials on your authority. Create valuable content and show yourself as the authority in practicing law by including success stories about your customers and testimonies about complicated cases that you have managed to win in court. Authority-based content is all about earning the trust of your prospects and fostering a closer relationship with them. Nothing wins people’s trust more quickly and efficiently than storytelling. So use stories, case studies, testimonials, and customer reviews to show your expertise. You don’t have to say that you are an authority when you have so many others saying it for you.
Including testimonials and case studies will also make your content valuable. Prospects find it helpful when they have real-life examples of people having similar problems as them. Learning about how your law firm helped these people overcome their problems and identifying the steps they took to do so offers genuine value to your business.
Why Is Authority Content So Powerful?
Authority content will attract high-quality links to your site from other credible websites. This will also increase your shares and will add more to your credibility. As a result, this will establish your authority as a legal firm, improve your trustworthiness and ultimately increase your client base.
Juggling a law firm, winning cases at court, and handling your marketing efforts can be a daunting task. Creating valuable, authority-based content is one bulletproof way to attract more customers. If you want do not want to risk your chances with your marketing efforts, trust the creation of your authority content in the hands of expert writers. Here at Iris-Writing we have numerous years of experience and have successfully created valuable content for several law firms, skyrocketing their authority in the field.