Law firms need to publish user-centric, not self-centered, law blogs
Law blogs that fail tend to be self-centered versus user-centric.
Lawyers and law firms publishing successful law blogs ask what does our audience of clients, prospective clients, and our niche area of law need. What would be of continuing value to them?
Self-centered law blogs are marketing focused. How do we strengthen the brand of the lawyers and the law firm? How can we get conversions – get unique visitors to our website so they contact us?
You cannot have both says product designer, Anthony Franco (@anthonyfranco) writing on the conflict between marketing and user experience (UX). User experience and marketing cannot co-exist when it comes to digital media.
The primary function of marketing is to sell to the customer, while the primary function of UX is to serve the needs of the customer. One campaign, one application, or one digital product simply cannot do both.
Just look at the failure of branded apps says Franco. 80% of all branded apps are downloaded fewer than 1,000 times. They perform so poorly because they cannot simultaneously serve and sell.
Perhaps law firms launching a blog ought to ask the questions that Franco says UX departments ask when tasked with building a branded app.
- Why is someone going to download this app, and
- Why would someone continue to use it?
Market research has even shown, reports Franco, that launching an app for marketing purposes will damage the brand. People are coming for a user experience — value — and it’s not being delivered.
Sadly, far too many law blogs are self-centered. The goal is to prominently brand the firm and its lawyers. The user experience takes a back seat.
Rather than defining the purpose of the blog as providing value that could not be found elsewhere and delivering on it, the purpose becomes showcasing lawyers, some even with a picture or two of lawyers, in each post.
Such law blogs damage the law firm’s brand. Bloggers, reporters, publishers, association leaders, clients, prospective clients, and referral sources see the blogs for what they are.
Forrester Research identifies a three features that define a successful branded app. Useful. Usable. Desirable.
Law firms looking to have a successful blog, one that builds relationships, grows a network, and brings in business would be well served to heed Forrester’s findings – not with an app, but with their blogs.