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A Tech Adoption Guide for Lawyers

in partnership with Legal Tech Publishing

Small Law Firms

Thought Leadership And Your Law Firm

Thought leadership marketing allows your law firm to use its unique voice to establish expertise and trust.

“Thought leadership” is making a big impact in the legal field. But what is it, exactly? Thought leadership is content created by thought leaders who are knowledgeable and reliable sources for expertise in their field. Thought leaders are often opinionated as they share their innovative thoughts and ideas with others. Through their thought leadership content, they inspire and connect with their audiences. Thought leadership is an effective subset of content marketing used to grow a law firm’s audience, and thus its potential client base.

What Is Thought Leadership Marketing?

Thought leadership marketing uses the unique influence of thought leaders who are experts in their field and are recognized for their proficiency. Individuals as well as companies can serve as thought leaders as they use their prominent, authoritative voices to achieve marketing goals. Law firms can share their thought leadership content with their target markets on various social media platforms and websites. When the content is useful and intriguing, fans and followers share it, helping a law firm build its brand and improve its reputation..

A Niche within Content Marketing

Thought leadership marketing is a subset, or niche, within content marketing. The goal of content marketing is to gain leads for a law firm by providing value to its audience. Content marketing includes blog posts, podcasts, articles, videos, ebooks, webinars, and the like. Thought leadership marketing can use these same vehicles, but has an additional component not present in other content marketing — the expertise and authority of the thought leader’s persona. This additional aspect enables thought leadership marketing to influence an audience to take action. 

All about Positioning

The primary goal of thought leadership marketing is to position the thought leader as an authoritative voice on important issues that matter to the law firm’s audience in order to attract more business. Thought leaders weigh in on the subjects people care about through credible, cutting-edge content. Through this content, thought leadership marketing positions a law firm as a reliable resource for its target audience, proving it is elite among its competitors. 

Think Long Term

Developing thought leadership marketing is a long term goal. It takes time to develop because it requires building relationships and trust through persistent, authoritative content voiced with vibrant expertise. It also requires thoughtful analysis of high-priority topics that will impact the future.

7 Ways To Establish Your Law Firm As A Thought Leader

Law firms that want to establish themselves as thought leaders need to develop a clear brand and a trustworthy presence. They must share valuable content consistently and ensure the content is easy to find. It is critical to make your voice heard in a variety of formats, including published articles, courses, webinars, and forums, and to share content on various platforms, such as social media, podcasts, and as an expert legal news source. High visibility as a thought leader can increase your firm’s growth and provide other benefits.

Here are seven ways for your law firm to succeed as a thought leader.

Find an Idea

Thought leaders start with an idea that is original and inspires an audience to take action. When thought leaders post their insight in a clear and concise way, they make it easy for others to share. To help your law firm grow its thought leadership marketing, streamline your thought leadership core messages to three or less. 

Voice a Unique Point of View

The last thing thought leaders want to do is proclaim a well-worn perspective on an issue. A thought leader needs to share an insightful and compelling viewpoint that gets others thinking differently about big, popular and sometimes controversial ideas. Thought leaders must announce a genuinely unique and compelling viewpoint on their focus topics. Take a prominent position and ensure your voice is heard. 

Build Trust

People hire law firms and lawyers they trust, so thought leaders use their content to build trust by sharing expertise and skills. Offer opinions and insight that will inform your audience’s decisions and help potential clients explore new ways of thinking. When your law firm takes a position on a complex issue, include evidence to back up the opinion by relying upon marketplace examples and research. These supported opinions further the goal of building trust based upon your knowledge. 

Provide Value

Thought leaders, like parents and teachers, need to repeat themselves in order to be heard and understood. It may take a lot of content in multiple mediums to get your message out there as an accomplished thought leader. Your law firm must consistently communicate its message in many different ways, such as videos, podcasts, articles, interactive events, blog posts, social media, and online forums. It takes time, effort and commitment in thought leadership marketing to discover how and where your target audience can best hear your message. A large amount of quality content that contains your incisive wisdom is essential for successful thought leadership marketing. 

Keep Your Audience Engaged

If you publish a blog post, but nobody reads it, does it even exist? Obviously, in order to stand out as a thought leader, you must develop an audience who listens, cares, and shares your content. It is not only about the number of followers, likes, and comments, it is most important that your followers are engaged and enthusiastic about sharing your message. One of the best ways to engage your audience is with stories as opposed to research-laden articles. Data does not trigger an emotional response, and we often forget statistics soon after hearing them. However, we remember compelling stories, so use them to engage your audience. 

Choose Channels and Platforms

Thought leadership marketing can be shared on numerous platforms, including your website and blog. Also share your content on social media platforms, via email, online advertising, events, and more. As you build a successful thought leadership marketing strategy, try a variety of channels to share your message, check your metrics, and make changes as necessary. 

Keep Measuring

To maximize any marketing strategy, including thought leadership marketing, a law firm needs to set goals and measure the outcomes. Start by setting goals for what you want to achieve within the next three years. Then plan the content your law firm will produce to meet your goals. Some ways to measure your thought leadership influence include:

  • Content production and audience response
  • Media mentions
  • Being asked to be an expert legal source
  • Getting published in strategic publications and niche outlets
  • Website backlinks
  • Speaking engagements
  • Awards earned within the legal industry and local community.

Conclusion 

Examples of thought leadership are visible on numerous platforms like podcasts, blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media channels. Sometimes it seems as if everyone is trying to be seen and heard, as a growing collection of brands, individuals and companies are vying for attention. In order to stand out, start your thought leadership strategy with an insightful, educational, or life-changing message. Find the best channel for your audience, and keep posting helpful content. It takes time, effort and resources to develop a high quality, consistent message, but persistent effort will allow your law firm to emerge as a thought leader.


Annette Choti graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is now the CEO & Owner of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small and solo law firms. Law Quill is the only legal digital marketing agency that provides unique, SEO-optimized content, pre-packaged content, and courses for lawyers to learn SEO themselves through Law Quill Academy. Annette used to do theatre and professional comedy, which is not so different from the legal field if we are all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at annette@lawquill.com.