The various core strategies of organic marketing – content, social, email and website – don't generally happen overnight.
In truth, they are mostly medium to longer term strategies.
Despite this, most of us at some point or another tend to wonder just how long it's all going to take (and honestly that's one of the more common questions I get in my initial discussions).
First I'm going to tell you why the question can't really be answered.
Then I'm going to give you the answer to the question based on the research done by the excellent people at The Tilt.
So Many Variables
Different firms and different lawyers attack their marketing with various degrees of intensity.
Some are going to publish constantly brilliant material, on point, well targeted, and ultimately taking the whole marketing game to the next level.
Others are going to blog… sometimes… maybe.
As you'd expect they're going to see different results.
The amount of success you see and the time it takes to see it is going to depend on:
- how good you (or your law firm marketing expert) is at it;
- how much time/money/effort you're investing in the process;
- the volume of your output; and
- your area.
So while many people want to know when their efforts will pay off, with those factors in the mix it's pretty challenging to give a generic answer.
So What's the Research Say?
So, the boffins at The Tilt went and did some research.
Now this isn't research into law firms, admittedly. It is, however, research into agencies which rely on content to generate the marketing results they are looking for.
And what did they find? They found that on average you're looking at around 26 months for a content strategy to support 1 person's salary.
Now you might be thinking this isn't quite as relevant to your law firm as it sounds.
However, it is. It also reflects research done some years ago by Darren Rouse at Pro-Blogger on the same topic, who suggests that it takes around 33 months for a blog to be “successful” using a number of different metrics.
Can you Speed it Up?
Yes.
Bear in mind these are averages, too.
So on one day you might find a successful content strategy kicks into high gear after 6 months.
The next day you might find another that took 35 months.
But don't lose heart – there are things you can do which will steer your law firm in the right direction so far as successful blogging is concerned:
- Have a dedicated person – while full time or hiring a marketing agency for your firm is best, if you can't do that having a person dedicated to a significant amount of content would be best;
- Focus on owned channels – while social media is fun and sexy at the moment, the fact is you don't own anything on them. Focus on content and assets that you own, not ones that you rent;
- Approach this as an investment with a business mindset – this is an asset that takes time to bear fruit. Approach it accordingly.
- Be patient.
In terms of raw speed though, the fact is you're going to better with more content and better content.
Need Help?
It's pretty hard building a bunch of content.
If you need help, you know where to find us… although you obviously already found us, so… um… just fill out the forms ‘n' stuff.
