Why Repurposing & Refreshing Law Firm Marketing Content Is Helpful
You might have heard this phrase before – “Content is king.” Does this mean that you need to produce a never-ending amount of content to get your desired target audience to pay attention and see you as an authority?
Absolutely not.
Repurposing content is a way to utilize previously used or published content while injecting new life into it. When creating content, most marketers create it with a specific target audience and purpose in mind. For example, a law firm might create a blog post about an area the law firm specializes in, like birth injuries. A blog post can be a lengthy piece of content. The law firm could repurpose this blog post into social media posts about the number of birth injuries in the U.S. and what to do if a mother or newborn experiences a birth injury. The post can be repurposed for use on several different channels such as social media, the law firm’s website, legal marketing hubs, and more.
Another way to understand repurposing content is to think about how it could add value to a new or expanded audience. By reaching a new audience, the piece of content expands your reach and impression. Consider where your content is already appearing and where it could appear to have a greater impact. A blog post will only reach people who found the blog, whether through search engines, shares, other websites, or social media. But when you repurpose and refresh the content by using it with other content marketing strategies, your law firm can grow its audience base and distribute messages tailored to that audience.
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Think about repurposing content as a room with a new coat of paint, feature wall, or mural. The addition of new facts, angles or details can make it appear like a new piece of content. Repurposing content could include adjusting the original message to be relevant to current events.
Repurposing and refreshing content is an easy and effective way to leverage and revitalize important and high-performing content without starting from scratch.
Content Marketing Strategy
A content marketing strategy focuses on creating quality content that is relevant and consistent for a specific target audience. While refreshing content adds to something existing, repurposing takes existing content and finds opportunities to distribute it through a new marketing channel. Both are worthwhile strategies that contribute to content marketing efforts.
As part of a strong content marketing strategy, knowing the benefits of repurposing content is important. For example, suppose a law firm created a blog post about why people seek legal advice after inclement weather over winter. In that case, the content could be repurposed and focus on weather-related accidents and damages that occur in summer.
While portions of the original post are not relevant in the summer months, most of the content and messaging are. The blog post simply needs some new information related to summer weather. Then the content can be revamped to appear in multiple marketing channels.
How to Choose Content to Refresh & Repurpose
Before beginning to refresh and repurpose content, your law firm should start with a content audit. A content audit involves reviewing content previously created. This information is then used to better optimize and revitalize content, improve your web pages, and ensure potential clients can easily find you. Examining the mobile-friendliness of pages and posts is also an essential part of a content audit.
While conducting the audit, look for content that best meets your desired marketing goals. For example, to attract new potential clients, focus on what’s relevant to current events. Having timely content is a good method to gain authority and have your law firm be recognized as credible on the topic. Posting content about current events shows the target audience that the law firm is paying attention to what’s happening in the world, how it affects legal situations, and is up-to-date on topics relevant to their work.
Related: Goal & Target Audiences for Lawyers
While performing a content audit, another strategy is to look for content that can be updated to include new information. If a law firm were refreshing content, adding details about new or changed legislation in your firm’s practice areas would be a good place to start.
Evergreen Content
Repurposing and refreshing content can be a lot of work. As a busy lawyer, you may not have time to commit to revising content. Instead, you can focus on creating evergreen content that’s relevant to your expertise.
Evergreen content is always relevant. If one of your law firm’s practice areas is automobile accidents, evergreen content may include topics like what to do in case of a car accident, what to do if involved in a hit-and-run or what to do if involved in an automobile and bicycle accident. This type of content is important and will always have relevance and ties directly to the law firm’s practice area and expertise.
Generating ideas for content is challenging. But there are content ideation tools that provide popular topics and consider current web search queries and trends.
Review Recent Feedback
When conducting a content audit, take a look at the comments on blog posts. They’re full of useful feedback and may help guide you in repurposing and refreshing content. If your content is delivered in the right place, many of the comments will be from your target audience. Adding content based on their feedback and questions posted are opportunities to increase your credibility and provide the information they’re specifically asking for.
By positively reacting to their feedback, your target audience will recognize you’ve heard them. For example, pretend one of your areas of expertise is vaccine injuries, and a user comments that you should provide information about shoulder pain after a COVID-19 vaccine is administered. In response, you or your marketing consulting firm craft a well-written blog post about what to do if someone was injured while being administered a COVID-19 vaccine. As a lawyer, you have responded to vital feedback from potential clients and now have a link to share with others who make similar posts or ask questions. Your law firm’s impression of those who left feedback can improve. You show you’re paying attention and willing to work with clients.
Research Competitors
One of the most important components of a marketing strategy is to keep an eye on your competitors. Everyone has them. Whether you’re part of a law firm or a sole practitioner, there are other attorneys – competitors – who specialize in the same practice areas.
Research your competitors. Know who they are. Find out what content they’re posting. If their blog posts and social media channels have comments, read them. By researching and keeping an eye on your competitors, you will see what content is being published and is engaging your common target audience. You might even be able to determine their content marketing strategy and anticipate their future content.
Perhaps they address a topic that you and your law firm are knowledgeable about but haven’t published content on it. If you identify a topic area like this, create content to make up for the gap and meet the needs of your audience. This type of competitive analysis is vital in other stages of the content marketing process.
Potential Marketing Channels
Say you have a popular blog post that’s attracted high volumes of traffic. While a blog post is a great way to garner attention, other marketing channels play a role in your inbound marketing strategy. This strategy helps your brand and firm stand out with relevant, fresh content.
For example, imagine your law firm is an expert in handling automobile accidents. You provide a great client experience and help those involved in a car accident find justice. As part of your content marketing strategy, you’ve written a lengthy blog post about what to do if you’re injured in a car accident. You can repurpose this content into social media snippets for the many social media channels your law firm uses. How? Pull out a line or two from the blog post. It should be clear and strong and entice followers to click on the link. By reminding those following you on social media your law firm is an expert in automobile accidents and the law, you may attract new or returning clients who need assistance that your firm can provide.
Many organizations collect email addresses and have an e-newsletter that is sent to those who have subscribed. A great way to share and reinforce important pages or posts is to repurpose content through the email newsletter. Use several sentences or a paragraph as the hook to encourage potential subscribers to learn more about a topic your firm can help with. It can help drive traffic to your website or blog and reinforce your credibility and messages.
Other opportunities to share refreshed and repurposed content include webinars. With the rise in virtual meetings and webinars, webinar topics in your area of expertise offer a way to share information in a different format.
Webinars could reach people who are interested in or in need of services related to your practice area. An easy way to decide what to base a webinar on is to look at your blog topics. Covering your most important topics through webinars ensures that you’re contributing to your law firm’s content marketing strategy. They’re an effective way to repurpose content that matters.
Another marketing channel you could use to repurpose and refresh legal content is podcasts. Consider appearing on a podcast related to your area of expertise. After all, it’s a growing channel with more than 2 million different podcasts. Participating in a podcast is similar to a television or radio interview. It’s a great way to reach a new audience and convey that you and your law firm are experts in your practice areas.
Since your law firm should already have a series of pages and blog articles about your practice area, a marketing opportunity worth exploring are guest posts on other blogs. Your firm or consulting team can contact other blogs relevant to your expertise that might be interested in a guest blog post. This marketing tactic helps to grow your audience base and reach new people. This type of content refresh involves using the original content you’ve already published and customizing it for the blog you’re a guest on.
Sharable Content
A great way to position your firm to repurpose content efficiently is to ensure content is shareable when it’s being created. This means it can be used on several different marketing channels.
For example, pretend you’re an expert in birth injury lawsuits, and you’ve written a variety of blog posts about the types of birth injuries that can occur. To repurpose content, pull a quote out of one of your blog posts and use it on your law firm’s social media channels. Since social media channels are shareable, you’re reaching out to those who follow or like your firm’s page. Should a follower share your post, your law firm and what you share appear in their social media feed. This increases the reach and exposure of your social media post, and your content could get in front of new audience members.
Outsource Content Marketing
While repurposing and refreshing content seem straightforward, it takes time, and there are potential pitfalls if done poorly. Working with a legal marketing firm with an experienced team is a way to ensure the content you repurpose and refresh is done right.
Just like you and your law firm are experts in specific practice areas, a legal marketing firm has experts in all aspects of content marketing, from development to analysis. By outsourcing your law firm’s content needs, you can focus on your work instead of figuring out efficient and effective content strategies.
