An estate planning practice thrives on a steady stream of clients to remain profitable. Some nights, you may lay awake wondering whether you’ll hit your monthly revenue target.
No one told you at law school that in business, a positive business trajectory month on month, isn’t always possible, and as such, there will be good months and bad. You now realize, the one thing you need to continue doing, is marketing your practice daily, and putting your practice out there in the digital world to help attract new clients each month.
While you’ve probably explored popular options like Google ads and social media, have you considered integrating blogging into your marketing strategy?
Allow us to explain why adding SEO optimized blogs to your estate planning practice’s marketing mix can be useful.
Let’s start with exploring why you should start blogging for your estate planning practice
The most valuable thing about blogging consistently on your website, is that it will help to generate traffic. This means more potential clients and thus, more revenue.
The way this works is when you write content around relevant estate planning and elder law topics on your blog, and someone searches for a query related to that post, your website will pop up in search results. These new clients will find your website because of the content you’ve published. And they may well get in touch with you if they wish to take the next steps.
Blogging helps your practice remain relevant, memorable and profitable
Competition is getting fierce across all industries, and to remain relevant, memorable and profitable, it’s important to look at digital marketing methods that will help you attract new estate planning clients.
Blogging is one digital marketing method that will help you do that, plus it is easy to implement, and a cost-effective way to get the word out about your practice.
Estate Planning clients have questions, you’ll have the answers
Nowadays, internet search helps most people answer their random questions on where they can find services such as estate planning, what estate planning entails, when to start estate planning and so on. Having a constant flow of blog posts published to your website, means you’re keeping your website up to date with relevant information so when people search for the service you provide, it’s easier for them to find you online.
It also helps you rank well on Google and similar search engines, and you can also create thought-leadership content to display your authority in the estate planning industry.
Blogging helps you get discovered next to profitable keywords
Blogging will help your website get found in search engines like Google. It’s a good idea to know which search engine keywords will help you convert visitors into paying clients, by doing some keyword research. The beauty in blogging is that most content can be written in an ever-green fashion, so unlike Google ads, where you pay for every click to your website, blogging will help you attract clients for years to come.
By effectively using keywords, commonly asked questions and answers, and updating your blog more often, the blog has the potential to feature higher on the SERP (Search engine results page). Higher visibility always results in more traffic to your website, which may equal more clients.
There are SEO tools you can use to find profitable keywords such as SEMrush, MOZ and Ahrefs. These will help you identify the relevant keywords in your niche, but there are some things to keep in mind when compiling your keywords:
- You want to ideally help your website reach spot 1 for numerous search terms, but competition is usually high for these spots, and the higher the search volume for a keyword, the more difficult it will be to rank for that keyword.
- The sweet spot to be able to easily rank is to look for medium volume keywords where the search volume is an average of 100-500, where you have a good chance, to rank.
- Some of these tools also have a “keyword difficulty” or “KD” indicator, showing you how hard it will be to rank for the keyword from 1-100. Again, try to aim for keywords that have a KD of 40 or less.
- The most blog posts you produce for one type of keyword, the bigger the chance of you being able to rank for that keyword. These are known as topic clusters.
If you want to attract new website visitors, don’t just copy others’ content or use tools like ChatGPT to generate text. Your content needs to be unique. Google values content that shows “experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.”
To make your blog successful, avoid repeating what’s already out there. Focus on creating helpful content that really serves your ideal customers.
Blogging can help you generate leads for your estate planning practice
When people subscribe to your blog to get notified of new posts, download guides that you’ve dropped within a blog post, or sign up for offers, you can collect their contact information. Use forms or tracking tools to exchange the guide for their details. For example, “Estate planning checklist for [STATE]”. This will help you understand who is considering estate planning.
Blogging can help you educate potential estate planning clients
Estate planning is a very technical area of the law, which many people find confusing. Terms like wills, trusts, probate, and the taxation of estates are some of the issues that may be difficult for them to fully grasp if they have no legal background. This lack of understanding often results in procrastination or poor planning, so through blogging you can inform and educate to help them take the next steps sooner.
Blogging is a very effective method of delivering such information as attorneys can simplify these matters into something more relatable using content.
Blogging helps to establish credibility and expertise
Lastly, your blogs on estate planning, will show your expertise in that area of law, and increase trust. This is really important because with the level of personal information your clients discuss with you, and the money tied into the estate planning services, you need to establish credibility and trust from the start.
Some examples of estate planning companies that are doing it right
Some of the most successful estate planning blogs are available online and these three picks below are part of them.
Some of the most successful estate planning blogs are available online and these three picks below are part of them.
1. Houck Menninger Law LLC
Houck Menninger Law LLC is taking their blogging efforts seriously, as they consistently produce 4 blog posts each month, that cover complex legal issues in simple language that their clients will understand. These include topics such as will execution, Medicaid planning, estate taxes, and long-term care. In short, all topics, which their target audience cares about.
This approach not only informs potential clients but also creates an image of Houck Menninger Law as a firm of experts willing to listen and provide services for all estate planning needs. One way they achieve this is by creating a strong content calendar and making sure you are publishing content consistently and talking about topics which your audience truly care about.,
2. The Estate Planning and Elder Law Group
They use their blog to deploy SEO techniques in writing the blog in order to be the first to appear in the Google search (SERP). They focus on the areas of interest that people go looking for solutions in estate planning, which helps to place the site on the top of the search engine. Topics such as power of attorney, the retirement plan, and how to recognize elder abuse are written, with consideration to SEO strategies.
This strategy not only enhances their ranking on the search engine but also helps in attracting more organic traffic to their website which in turn makes it easy for potential clients to find them.
3. Rampulla & Newstad LLP
Rampulla & Newstad LLP do a great job of sharing stories of estate planning with the aim to rank for highly search SEO keywords by answering commonly asked questions. They even have a dedicated FAQ pages which can be great for SEO rankings. Users generally like short, easy-to-read answers, and FAQs can provide those.
They also create content related to recent changes or updates in elder law and estate planning, making them seem like they have their finger on the pulse. This helps them build trust with prospective clients and will attract more website traffic.
Examining these successful estate planning blogs shows that nearly all of them act on the following approaches:
- Enhanced Communication
- Storytelling
- SEO
These three combined can augment a firm’s online presence. Adopting these marketing practices in your blogging can help you gain more clients and establish you as an authority in the estate planning space.
Making use of the resources provided by LWP for blogging fulfillment
Marketing toolkit for lawyers with purpose members
Lawyers with Purpose (LWP) is aware that the estate planning legal specialty is moderately slow, and marketing challenges can be somewhat distinct. LWP is a collection of resources that members can turn to when they want to enhance their estate planning practice and attract more clients.
Improving the quality of work life by optimizing practice management
Being a member of LWP, you can enjoy numerous advantages that help make your practice more efficient and free up your time. The cloud-based software solutions enable you to manage your practice more efficiently and spend more time on what you do best – nurturing client ties.
Set the stage for extraordinary accomplishments.
Blogging is a powerful way to promote your practice, as well as to reach potential clients. Through offering informative content, you can serve as a source of relevant information, gain the audience’s trust, and attract more visitors to your website. At Lawyers with Purpose, we believe that our members need the tools and skills to be successful to keep up with current business trends.
If you’re ready to get more clients and improve your estate planning practice then it’s time to become a member of Lawyers with Purpose.
Contact us now to learn more about how you, too, can reach your goals with your practice.
Our LWP Members can access the exclusive “How to Get Started with Blogging Guide” which gives you step-by-step instructions on how to blog for an estate planning practice. Access it here.
