Want to make the most out of your marketing materials? Try repurposing your content.

One marketing technique that many law firms are getting into is repurposing content. Unlike re-posting, which involves posting existing material on a new website, repurposing content puts a new spin on it by placing content on a different format. Not sure if this would work for you? Here are the top three reasons to give repurposing content a whirl.

#1: You’ll reach more of your demographic.

Perhaps the biggest reason to repurpose content is the fact that doing so gives you the ability to get content in different forms in front of more of your target audience. While Maui accident attorneys may have a successful blog, not everyone enjoys reading text-based content. By repurposing an original blog post into a slideshow, podcast or video, they could appeal to considerably more people. Consequently, it could help their firm gain additional exposure and generate more leads.

#2: You’ll save time.

Another advantage is the convenience associated with this strategy. As anyone who runs a blog knows, maintaining fresh content can be arduous and time consuming. Rather than creating something brand new for every post, repurposing content gives you the opportunity to expand upon topics you may have previously touched upon. This means you can extract the same core message from material on one platform, tweak it and use it on a different platform. It lets lawyers consistently provide valuable information to their audience without having to work around the clock.

#3: You’ll build brand equity.

Besides this, it’s a perfect way to brand your law firm. While you may have limited impact by simply running a blog, repurposing content can spread your marketing materials out across multiple mediums. This is important because potential clients have different preferences in terms of favorite websites, social media platforms and types of content. Regardless of where they go online, you can establish a presence. Over time, you can achieve a unique identity and build a sense of trust within the legal community.

A landing page with a preview image is over three times more likely to be clicked on than the same page without a preview image.

Improving click-through rates and driving more business to one’s website or blog is a primary focus for lawyers beginning to establish a web presence, and they can benefit from using preview images or other engagement objects to improve their website’s search rating and create more leads. Embedding such objects is a quick, easy way to improve a site’s value and reach even more clients.

Statistical studies confirm results

A landing page with a preview image is over three times more likely to be clicked on than the same page without a preview image. This was confirmed in a statistical study that showed that preview images improved a landing page’s conversion rate by as much as 359 percent.

Why a preview image is important

There is a lot of text on the Internet; consequently, a relevant and attractive image will stand out and draw a viewer in. Preview images and other media such as videos are often called “engagement objects,” meaning that they can be used to engage the viewer’s attention while searching. When a viewer is comparing the website or blog of employment lawyers in Pittsburgh to their competitors’ websites, for instance, this small detail could make all the difference in his or her ultimate choice.

How to include a preview image

Using preview images in your legal firm’s website or blog is as easy as simply changing up your landing page’s design: Rather than having it only include text, consider embedding videos and images to make it a multimedia experience for potential clients. As the web becomes increasingly social, you can receive a big boost in interest if a client links to your informative videos or images.

Stay away from these black hat techniques for the health of your SEO campaign.

While SEO plays a critical role in getting your law firm’s website ranked highly in search engines, it only works if you’re doing it the right way. This means staying clear of underhanded black hat SEO techniques and sticking with white hat ones instead. Here are some techniques that can hurt your rankings and that you should stay away from.

One of the most common problems people run into is trying to build too many back links too fast. Since SEO is a gradual process that takes time, your firm shouldn’t be overly concerned with building a multitude of links over night. In fact, you’re usually better off when you steadily build high-quality links from reputable sites over time.

Another link generation strategy to avoid is paying for low-quality spam links. Often, you will see online advertisements that will give you thousands of links for a few dollars. Even though this may sound like a good deal, Google is likely to penalize you in a hurry, and your rankings can suffer.

Besides this, your firm should stay away from links being placed on foreign language websites. Relevancy is key for link building, and if no one coming to your website through these links can read your content then the link is worthless at best and a black spot on your reputation at worst. If a firm of Chicago malpractice attorneys used this technique, it’s likely that its rankings would decline short term, and it could see even more penalties over time.

In addition, participating in link exchanges can really damage your firm’s rankings. The majority of these platforms rely on websites exchanging links with one another that are often irrelevant and low quality. Even though this technique is a quick way to generate links, it tends to do more harm than good and can put a damper on your long term SEO efforts.

Check back next week for part two of this series to learn more about negative black hat techniques to avoid!

Is a blog considered advertising? The Virginia State Bar seems to think it is, and has brought misconduct charges against attorney and blogger Horace Hunter for refusing to include a disclaimer. Most state rules regarding attorney advertising are similar to Virginia’s, including the requirement of a disclaimer on advertising to avoid misleading the public. So if you have a legal blog, you might want to consider whether your blog is legal.

Blogs fall into a bit of a gray area, because, in many cases, bloggers are not directly selling from their blogs. These bloggers—Mr. Hunter claims to fall into this category—are simply imparting information and offering opinions on news within their field and about themselves or their company.

On the other hand, bloggers also often hope their blogs will encourage readers to hire them at some time in the future. The Virginia State Bar says Mr. Hunter falls into this category, arguing that discussions of past cases on his blog suggest he is using the blog to attract new business.

Unfortunately, the main criterion for labeling a blog as advertising seems to be intent, which is a notoriously slippery beast, since content can be interpreted in multiple ways. For example:

• Do you intend for your article to help your readers understand the implications of a recent ruling, or are you hoping it will demonstrate to them that they should hire you for similar cases?
• Did you announce your promotion because you are proud and excited? Or because you are hoping it will encourage more people to hire you?

Gyi Tsakalakis analyzed this issue in more detail, including defining “blog” and “advertising,” in “Legal Blogging vs. Advertising & Marketing.”

If you write a legal blog, it’s worth considering how your local bar association will interpret it.

Information in this post gathered in association with Chicago Business Lawyers.