How and When Small Business Clients Consume Legal Content
By Katherine Hollar Barnard, Firesign
With the potential to generate up to 429 million legal matters every year, the small business sector presents significant opportunities for law firms.
To connect with this market, it’s critical to understand their buying behavior – and how it may be different from the traditional corporate audience.
First, unlike the in-house counsel that Big Law devotes significant time to courting, most of these potential clients are not lawyers; 87 percent of small businesses have no internal legal capacity (and no ongoing retainer contracts with legal professionals or HR counsel). As such, they are not routinely consuming articles in the legal press, nor are they attending Continuing Legal Education events.
In fact, in a Firesign survey of 100 small business owners and leaders, 80 percent said they reviewed legal news “occasionally” or “never.”
Second, this demographic is extremely busy and extremely focused on running the business, often working more than 60 hours per week, according to Gallup; they lack the time to scout pending regulation and legislation or Supreme Court decisions.
Legal marketers should be aware that content marketing can still be a very effective tool for reaching the small business audience – but they should deploy it strategically.
Here’s what you need to know:
Timing is everything. Again, small business leaders are time-crunched; they approach legal news on a “need-to-know” basis. Indeed, the Firesign survey showed that small business clients are most likely to engage with law firm content after a specific legal problem has occurred. Before an incident occurs, 37 percent said they will browse law firm content; after, nearly double (72 percent) cited law firm content as helpful to the selection process.
Knowing that your small business prospects are using content at a specific place in their buyers’ journey – selecting their lawyers – should shape your approach. Instead of general “staying up to speed” content, think about what kind of material would help you win the business: How can you show that your firm can deliver expertise and a predictable process?
Consider content that shows you are experienced handling a problem like theirs, and content that helps these business owners and leaders feel empowered:
● Frequently Asked Questions
● Common terms and phrases
● Typical steps in a certain process
● What to expect/how to prepare
Location, location, location. Where will small business owners see your content? In the Firesign survey, most indicated they would read it directly on the law firm website – twice as many as those who would consume it on social media, and nearly ten times those who would view it on a news aggregator, such as Lexology or JD Supra.
This makes sense; because small business owners use content to screen potential attorneys, they’re going to scout your website before other channels. And while there’s certainly a place in our marketing strategy for aggregators, it’s just not a priority for reaching small business clients; they are too law-focused for this audience.
What this means for you: Focus your firepower on making your content easy to find and easy to scan on your website. Ensure it displays on the relevant lawyer biographies. Make sure it’s mobile-friendly and concise.
Small business is personal. Empathy matters when marketing to small business clients, many of whom may have personal fortunes or family legacies wrapped up in their enterprise. As we shared previously, in a Kingston University study, 16 percent of respondents said that after a legal problem, they felt stress-related illness; 5 percent felt ill physically; 4 percent had a mental health issue; and 20 percent felt any combination of these.
When preparing your content, consider this perspective. How can you be reassuring? How can you help them feel they have an ally? How can you lessen this stress?
Some tips:
● Recall that you are not writing for lawyers. You don’t need to get overly basic, but provide context in business terms, not legalese.
● Acknowledge the stress. A simple nod to the emotional impact can build trust, such as language like “We know that legal issues are disruptive and stressful; here is what you can expect.”
● Provide assurance with evidence. Help small business clients see you are a safe choice by demonstrating that you’ve successfully handled problems like theirs.
This is Part 2 of a series, Startups and Small Business: Actionable Intel for Legal Marketers. In our next article, we will explore the role of referrals.
To learn more about how small businesses scout and select lawyers, check out Firesign’s report, From Referrals to Recon: How Small Businesses Hire Lawyers.
Katherine (Katie) Hollar Barnard is the managing partner of Firesign | Enlightened Legal Marketing, an agency that helps law firms and legal service providers build their brands and bottom lines. She can be reached at khb@firesignmarketing.com.