Like streaming services and professional content creators, law firms can create bingeable thought leadership content that wins over clients and referral sources.
When I say bingeable content, I know the first thing you think of is not legal thought leadership, or probably any kind of thought leadership.
The first thing you probably think of is the kind of content you can get from Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, or countless other streaming services and countless other content creators.
But just like how bingeable content can draw in viewers of streaming services and fans of content creators, it can do the same for consumers of legal thought leadership content like current and prospective clients and referral sources.
Here are four reasons why law firms should consider creating bingeable thought leadership content.
Wait, what is bingeable legal thought leadership content?
Before I get into the benefits of bingeable thought leadership content, I should explain what I consider to be bingeable thought leadership content.
Bingeable thought leadership content is, of course, thought leadership content written or presented in a way that is relevant, valuable, and compelling to current and prospective clients and referral sources. That’s a foundational requirement so those individuals will want to consume it.
But in addition, this content is connected through its presentation on a website to other pieces of thought leadership content so that once a current or prospective client or referral source starts consuming some thought leadership content, they are presented with additional related content they can easily jump to so that they can continue learning about a particular legal issue or topic.
Bingeable thought leadership can (and should) take different forms. Maybe there’s a mix of blog posts and videos. Or a mix of bylined articles and podcast episodes. The idea is for related content that on its own is relevant, valuable, and compelling to the consumers of that content to be presented on what seems like an endless conveyor belt to keep the people consuming that content engaged and going down an irresistible rabbit hole regarding a particular practice area, industry, or other topic.
I can’t overstress the need for each piece of bingeable thought leadership content to check all three of the “relevant,” “valuable,” and “compelling” boxes. If the consumers of your content aren’t finding the content to do so, they’re not going to binge on it. They might jump around from one piece of content to another, but they’re not going to download and listen to five podcast episodes in a row, or open up seven new browser tabs to read seven client alerts.
Bingeable legal thought leadership content creates a great first impression
The first benefit of bingeable thought leadership content is that it creates a favorable first impression in the minds of current and prospective clients and referral sources, and any other consumers of that content like members of the media.
When a current or prospective client or referral source comes to a firm’s website or one of its practice group’s pages, and they see a slew of resources— blog posts, articles, client alerts, white papers, podcasts, videos, etc.—all of that thought leadership content makes a great first impression on that visitor. It’s hard to not be impressed.
The content is showing them that the lawyers at that firm or in a particular practice group must be knowledgeable and wise about the areas of law they practice and the industries they serve. How can they not be when they’ve created all of this content regarding what they do, who they serve, and the problems they solve?
Bingeable legal thought leadership builds authority
Why does bingeable thought leadership content create such a great first impression? Because of its second benefit: it establishes the lawyers behind the content as authorities in the areas of law they practice and the industries they serve thanks to the scope and depth of that content.
To have bingeable content, a law firm or practice group has to have produced more than just a few random pieces of content. They have to have produced a generous helping of content. That generous helping will naturally cover a wide range of topics all connected back to the firm’s or practice group’s core competencies.
There will likely be a wide scope and significant depth of topics the content covers. A firm isn’t going to have two dozen articles about the same topic. By covering the many topics and various angles of those topics necessary to create bingeable thought leadership content, lawyers show themselves to be authorities regarding the subject matter of their thought leadership content. Again, lawyers at a firm or in a practice group couldn’t create this much content if they didn’t have the knowledge and wisdom necessary to do so.
But those who possess that knowledge and wisdom are able to create relevant, valuable, and compelling thought leadership content in spades.
Bingeable legal thought leadership content is a pressure-free way to build relationships with the consumers of that content
The third benefit of bingeable thought leadership content is that it allows the consumers of that content to go on a self-guided tour of that content during which they can get to know, like, and trust the lawyers at a firm or in a practice group, based on the knowledge and wisdom published by those lawyers through their thought leadership content.
There’s no high pressure one-on-one conversations here that could rub current or prospective clients or referral sources the wrong way. The consumers of this content can proceed at their own pace when researching and then determining whether the lawyers at a particular firm are the kinds of lawyers they can trust to handle their legal problems. They’ll feel more confident that a lawyer or law firm is the right fit for them and their needs because they will have come to that conclusion themselves based on having consumed that lawyer’s or law firm’s thought leadership content.
Bingeable legal thought leadership content puts its creator(s) in pole position to win the business of the people consuming it
The fourth benefit of bingeable thought leadership content is that it puts the lawyers creating that content in pole position to win the business of the people consuming it.
When the consumers of that content have all of this relevant, valuable, and compelling information at their fingertips courtesy of the lawyers or a practice group at a particular law firm, how can another law firm compete? How can another practice group from a different firm compete when they don’t have as much content?
That steady stream of bingeable thought leadership content will have created a competitive moat that another law firm is not going be able (or perhaps be willing) to cross because thought leadership content that’s calibrated to speak directly to an audience’s legal issues takes time and effort to pull off. And once it is consistently published, it provides a concrete point of differentiation between the firm publishing the content and its competitors.
Far too many law firms, regardless of size, are poorly equipped to consistently create the individual relevant, valuable, and compelling pieces of thought leadership content that come together to form bingeable content. That’s why it is such a powerful competitive advantage for the firms that are equipped to do so.
Bingeable content shouldn’t just be the domain of streaming services
While perhaps not as innately appealing as the content on Disney+ or Netflix, legal thought leadership marketing and business development content is appealing to audiences interested in the issues covered by that content.
Those audiences may want to binge on content they find relevant, valuable, and compelling. The law firms that consistently serve up that kind of content to their target audiences stand a darn good chance of winning those audiences’ business.
How to create bingeable legal thought leadership content is a topic for another day. But for now, law firms and their lawyers should understand that bingeable thought leadership content could have a significant role to play in their marketing and business development efforts.
Thinking about bringing on an outside writer to help your law firm strategize and create compelling thought-leadership marketing and business development content? Click here to schedule a 30-minute Content Strategy Audit to learn if collaborating with an outside writer is the right move for you and your firm.