Thanks to the pandemic, Nielsen reports that 47% of people tuned into the news during 2020. Of those people, a majority (64%) tuned in to their local news. These statistics are crucial if you’re considering law firm newsjacking as a part of your marketing strategy.
Business development for your law firm isn’t the same as a business looking to sell a product. You need to attract new clients who need an attorney in your practice area. This means marketing your law practice in places where people who need it will see it.
This guide will show you how newsjacking can help you promote and grow your law firm.
What Is Newsjacking?
Thanks to the internet, the news cycle is a continuous 24 hours. The news happens in real-time, and because of this journalists are gathering information in real-time as the story plays out. The information scramble centers around the basic questions.
The term was first coined by David Meerman Scott, who wrote a book with a ridiculously long title: Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.
The narrative can easily include anyone who steps forward with useful and credible information. Journalists scour Google, social media, and blogs as they look for unique content and inspiration that will differentiate their story from the others.
Newsjacking refers to businesses capitalizing on trending news stories to boost brand awareness and sales. This increased exposure could last a few hours, days, and on rare occasions, weeks.
Why Is Newsjacking Important?
The practice of newsjacking is important because it creates increased brand awareness and exposure. This is vital to the success of any business, including law firms. It puts the company at the forefront of people’s minds when they are giving full attention to something.
Why Newsjacking Works
The practice of newsjacking remains popular because it’s effective. By having your company associated with or included in a news story, you capitalize on people already actively searching for something associated with your business. This results in more organic traffic, inbound links, and media attention.
How Newsjacking Works
You have to be fast if you want to newsjack. Don’t get caught up in the details or minutia of the whole thing. By the time you get your act together, you’ve missed your opportunity to get included in a breaking news story.
Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps it takes or the speed and aggressiveness with which you need to act. It’s a simple strategy that anyone can put into practice.
How to Become a Newsjacker
You need to be more than just a marketer, you need to become a strategist.
Step 1: Set Up Alerts
The first step is to set up alerts so that you can find news stories that you’ll want to newsjack. Setting up Google Alerts eliminates the need for you to monitor the news 24/7.
Start with the obvious, such as criminal activity for a criminal defense attorney, or injury-related cases for a personal injury attorney. However, sometimes the best newsjacking opportunities are those that are out of the box.
Sometimes news stories that are seemingly unrelated on the surface are the perfect opportunity for you to connect your law firm. You can also set up mention alerts for social media to help you monitor trending topics.
Step 3: Know Your Topic
This is the final step before you start writing. Do some quick research to ensure you know the news story and what’s already out there. This helps you know what other’s have already done. It also ensures you have the right information so you remain credible.
If another law firm has already newsjacked a story, then you’ll look foolish and behind the times for attempting something similar. You also need to understand your target audience. That way, you write about something that they’ll find interesting. This will help you convince a journalist to include your content in their story.
Step 5: Be Different
The goal of your content is to provide an interesting angle that makes people want to reference your blog post. This will bring more people to your law firm’s website and attract media attention to your law firm.
There are two ways to differentiate your law firm. The first is to write content with an original point of view. Perhaps your law firm has a personal connection or takes on the occurring news story. The other option is to write about a point of view better than what someone else has already done.
Step 2: Check SEO
Now that you’re monitoring what’s in the news, you’ll come across stories that you want to newsjack. You’ll need to create relevant content. Before you start writing, you need to consider SEO.
Your content will already get a small boost because you’re the first to publish content about a news item first. However, you’ll get a better boost if you also target higher search volume keywords.
Obviously, if it’s a brand new topic there may not be much of a search volume to consider. That’s ok, though. Think about what people naturally search for and then phrase your targeted keywords similarly. For example., people search “what is….” more often than “…. explanation”.
Step 4: Write Accurate & Fast
Now that you have a story, your target keywords, and a solid understanding of what’s already out there, you’re ready to start writing your content. Work quickly to write accurate content.
This is not the time to spend time experimenting with formatting or being picky with your image choice. Simply write your content, have a senior partner give it a read through, and be done.
Step 6: Promote
If you want media coverage, you need to promote your content. Sure, you’ll get a certain amount of organic traffic from writing the blog post. However, it won’t be enough to make all of your efforts worthwhile.
The first step is to promote and share your content on your social media networks. Share with fellow attorneys and send it out to your client email lists.
You should also develop long-term relationships with local journalists and media writers. These are the people writing the stories on the big-name news sites. This type of outreach will boost the likelihood of your inclusion in the news story. Send your content to these people and follow-up with them.
Improve Your Law Firm’s Marketing
Whether you’re trying out law firm newsjacking or some other digital marketing strategy, I can help. My ability to create quality content means you can have relevant text to submit to journalists.
What you need is someone who can deliver error-free and quotable text in a short turnaround time. Contact me today and let’s chat about what I can do for you.