Are You Writing for the Right Person?

We spend lots of time, energy, and money on content. (And for good reason, too!) It’s imperative that all that content we create is on point. This means that content for content’s sake isn’t a good thing. If you aren’t writing with intention, writing for the people who will actually make a difference for your business, then you’re wasting much more than time. When you are writing for your ideal clients, however, the results are stellar.

Why blogs are important

Hands down one of the biggest parts of your online marketing is always going to be your blog. The way we gather information and learn about brands is constantly changing, and all bets are being hedged on the internet. There are three big reasons you need to make blogging a priority:

●       Attract Searchers. Everyone wants their site to be on the first page of a search, right? Among the many, many factors that go into Google’s intense ranking algorithms is how fresh content may be. If you’re relying only on your regular ol’ website pages to be enough to drive traffic to your site, you simply will not see the kind of results you desire. If you aren’t ranking, the searchers can’t find you. If the searchers can’t find you, their business is going elsewhere.
●       Create Authority. You can bet that every one of your competitors has a website. (After all, it’s the new business card.) What sets one apart from another? You can certainly appreciate design and ease of use on some sites versus others, but what is really going to hook your potential client is your content. If you don’t have valuable blog posts—essentially free information for them—you won’t be able to build the authority required to convince them that your firm is the one worth taking time to explore.
●       Converts Leads. Now that you’ve shown your visitor that you know what you’re talking about, you’ve built trust with this person you haven’t even met yet. If you’ve done it well, that blog article, which originally seemed like more of a hassle than a business tool, has now made your reader feel like it’s time to take the next step. This could mean they download a free resource from your website or it could mean that they call your office for a consultation. Either way, they’ve connected with you, and now you have the opportunity to do more than tell them why they should be your loyal client, you can show them.

How to learn about your audience

So now that we’ve established that blogs are essential to your marketing efforts, it’s important to note that not just any blog will do the trick. As with any other marketing tool, blogs need to be directed at the right people.

Imagine, for example, a commercial for purses or ballet school playing during the Superbowl. Companies dish out tons and tons of money to get their brand exposure in between plays, but you won’t see just any company advertise there. Budweiser, Doritos, Honda, PayPal—the list goes on and on—they have a deep understanding of who they are trying to reach; their content and content placement reflects that understanding. In the same vein, if you’re going to write blogs that are effective, you need to learn about who you are blogging for.

You may have a buyer persona already. If you do, well done. If not, you should get started on that. Think about things like age, income, family size, education level, and even hobbies or organizations—all of these factors will help you determine what kind of content your potential clients need and how they want to receive it. You can gather this information by talking to your current clients, doing research, and even by making educated guesses about the kinds of people you prefer to work with.

You aren’t your ideal client

A vital part of successfully writing for your audience is understanding that you aren’t your ideal client. It’s always a good idea to find samples of writing that you like: tone, structure, and approach are all important, as your content should reflect your style and brand voice. However, recognizing that what appeals to you (the expert!) won’t be the same as what is going to be a good fit for your prospects is crucial in creating content that converts.

Even if your audience is highly educated, they are not experts when it comes to the law and your content should reflect their level of understanding and use language that helps them learn You, as a business person, are going to have standards for anything you produce, and those should never be compromised—but make sure your content is still a good fit for the needs of your prospects, not your own wants.

Write with intention

Let’s be honest here, talking about Medicaid and trust administration tends to get a bit dry. There’s a great deal of information out there, and chances are that anyone who is visiting your website would like a little more than the facts. This is why every time you sit down at the keyboard, you should be focusing on writing with intention.

Just listing the basics shows your audience one thing: you also have access to the Google. Before you type out a single word think about what you want your prospects to know about your topic. What information is usually left out when this topic is covered? What facts are commonly misunderstood? Furthermore, how do you want your audience to feel after they’ve read your writing? What action do you want them to take?

There’s no way to fully stress how important your content is to your law firm, but if you’re actually taking the time to write for your ideal client—and doing so with intention—it will show in the responses you receive.

Language is immense. Go into detail. Share your knowledge. Use some adjectives. Create an experience on the page they can’t forget. Write for the right people, and they will take the time connect with your law firm, and your law firm will reap the rewards.

Shauna Armitage
SEO Coach
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com