Content Marketing and Web Analytics

Good content has always been one of the best ways for a lawyer to establish and maintain a professional reputation. In the hands of potential clients, good content demonstrates your understanding of the law and your ability to do what you claim to do.

Let's say you write an excellent article on the recently signed Patent Reform Act. Prior to the Internet, your options for distribution of that article would be limited. You could submit it to print publishers who could decide whether or not to publish it and how to edit it. By the time it appeared on a client's desk, it might be three months out of date.

In addition, you could snail mail a copy of your article with a cover letter directly to your list of clients, potential clients and referral sources. You could include it in the firm's print newsletter. You could mail it to reporters covering the patent law beat and hope that they give you a call next time they are writing a story on that topic.

And that was about it. You really had no way of knowing what happened to that hard copy ' if the publication was read or if the envelope or newsletter was even opened.

Today, thanks to the Internet, the options for distributing a well-written and informative article (and all kinds of content) to a wide range of interested parties are vastly expanded. So, too, are the options for finding out if the article was opened or read and prompted further action on the part of the reader.

“In the Internet age, online content marketing is the best way for lawyers and law firms to establish their reputations and attract new business,” said Per Casey, founder of Tenrec (http://www.tenrec.com/), a web technology consulting firm that focuses on the legal industry. “And web traffic analysis is the best way for lawyers and law firms to measure the success of a content marketing campaign and move forward based on that information,” he said. “Content marketing and web analytics are inseparable parts of the same strategic process.”

Casey discussed strategic content marketing and web analytics at the monthly educational program of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing
Association (www.legalmarketing.org/rockymountain), held in the Fall in Downtown Denver. Over the years, he has collaborated with dozens of well-known law firms on successful web technology projects. Casey also serves as member-at-large on the LMA International Board of Directors and as co-chair of the LMA Technology Committee.

Online Content Marketing for Law Firms

Online content marketing involves publishing content (like the article on patent law) on your law firm's website (including mobile website version), client extranet sites or blogs. It involves the e-mailing of your article (or newsletter) to clients, potential clients, referral sources and media sources.

“An integrated online marketing program is an essential part of a law firm's marketing program,” said Casey. “Content marketing involves distribution of your content using popular social media sites (like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) as well as successful content syndication sites (like JD Supra, LegalOnRamp and Scribd).”

Each time your keyword-rich patent law article is published on one of these sites, it is indexed by Google and other search engines ' enhancing results for searches on terms like your name, your law firm's name, your geographic area and the relevant subject area.

“The term 'content' applies to almost any kind of material your firm is publishing,” continued Casey. “It applies to documents like press releases, experience descriptions, attorney biographies (profiles), client alerts, blog post, white papers, e-mail campaigns and e-books on legal subjects. Content also includes non-written files, like an online ad campaign, courtroom graphics, a PowerPoint deck, or photos of an open house or employee charity event,” he said. “It includes online surveys along with survey results. And it definitely includes audio or video recordings of a presentation, a seminar or a webinar.”

All types of reputation-demonstrating content can be posted not only on your own website, but also to a wide range of (mostly free) social media and content syndication sites. Once posted, this informative content is available 24/7 and around the world.

Web Analytics for Law Firms

“Not only does the Internet facilitate the wide distribution of content,” said Casey, “it also allows lawyers and law firms to closely track distribution ' to know how many visitors click on the content; how much time they spend reading, listening or viewing the content; and where (your website, search or some other site) they found the content.”

Web analytics is a process for collecting visitor or consumer data, analyzing those data and generating reports on the overall performance of these different channels. It extends well beyond your website into virtually every online channel your law firm might be using.

“In the early days, web analytics programs focused on the simple measurement of activity on a law firm's website,” said Casey. “Today, a good law firm website still contains useful information about the firm and its services, but the site functions more like an interactive hub to which all of the firm's online content distribution efforts are tied.”

In addition, most social media sites have their own built-in analytics programs that can be accessed for more details about activity on your accounts on those sites.

Google Analytics

The popular Google Analytics program is free, and yields information about site visitors, including number of visitors (unique, new and repeat), page views, repeat rate, visit length, page view length, page view per visit, bounce rate (those who leave quickly from a given page), entry pages (where visitors enter you site), exit pages (where visitors leave your site) and referral sources (direct traffic, search engines and other referral sites).

Among other things, Google Analytics can chart data over time, compare data month-by-month or year-by-year, and internally compare different sets of results.

“Other commercial web analytics programs allow the site administrator to 'dig deeper' into the data,” said Casey. “Most analytics programs will record detailed information at the user level, allowing administrators to track the number of times a given user came to the site, which pages he or she viewed and, in some cases, the location from which that user is connecting.

“At Tenrec, we combine basic Google Analytics with a program called Urchin (essentially, Google's commercial analytics product) to obtain different levels of results for our clients,” said Casey. “There are many programs out there. The one you select should be determined by how you plan to use the results.”

It is important to remember that no performance metric is inherently bad or good. A limited number of the right kind of people visiting your content and reaching out to your firm is a better result than hundreds of visitors who take no action.

Strategic Content Marketing and Web Analytics for
Law Firms

“Web analytics programs are capable of generating a vast amount of information,” said Casey. “There are far too many metrics for users to process and interpret. Measurement tools are only useful when there is something specific to measure.

“The challenge is not to get more data, which can needlessly complicate your decision-making,” said Casey, “but to get better data. Be strategic. What is the purpose of this online content campaign (within the context of our business goals), and which select measurements will indicate progress towards achieving this goal?”

Let's go back to that article on patent reform. You post it on your website. You reference it in your blog. You e-mail it to clients, potential clients, referral sources and media sources. You post it (with links back to your site) on a variety of social media sites and content syndication sites. On your website, analytics will let you know who visited the page and how they got there. In addition, you will discover if they stayed a while, read the article and downloaded a copy.

“If no one comes or if visitors take a quick look and 'bounce,' you know that there is something wrong with the content,” said Casey. “The subject is not newsworthy. The headline or keywords need work. The article is too long or too short. It is too dense and needs shorter lines and subheads, to encourage skimming. It is too casual or too filled with legal jargon. In other words, it needs work.”

An e-mail analytics program will let you know who opens the e-mail and clicks on the link. Other analytics programs will indicate how your article fares in the blogosphere or is shared or re-tweeted on social media and content syndication sites.

Conclusion

The information generated by web analytics is a valuable tool to help lawyers and law firms plan ' and continuously improve ' their content and their online content distribution campaigns.

Janet Ellen Raasch is a writer, ghostwriter and blogger (http://www.constantcontentblog.com/) who works closely with professional services providers to help them achieve name recognition and new business. She may be reached at 303-399-5041 or [email protected].