Law Firm Infographics

Infographics sometimes get the reputation as being “the holy grail” of backlink and traffic generation. A lot online marketers (particularly on the plaintiff side) are convinced that paying a designer a few hundred dollars to cover some state-specific car accident facts is enough to launch them to the top of the SERPs.

However, the truth is that the market for these types of projects is being saturated with similar projects and you’ll need to do a lot more than combining facts to get the value on an infographic.

After spending the time analyzing some high performing (as well as low performing) infographics, we’d advise any law firm looking to launch an infographic as part of a marketing strategy to make sure they’re not falling into any of these five mistakes we see firms making:

1. Unoriginal Ideas
2. Lack of Outreach Research
3. Poor Design
4. Lack of Embed/Share Code
5. Poor Outreach Strategy

We’re going to get in depth with each of these issues so read up to make sure your next infographic isn’t going to be a flop.

1. Avoiding Unoriginal Ideas

The internet is full of clichéd infographic topics. For instance, countless infographics on ‘texting and driving’ saturate the internet, diminishing the impact of any new additions in this category. To stand out, law firms must delve into unique, underrepresented areas. For instance, exploring niche topics like “The Impact of Emerging Technology on Personal Injury Claims” can resonate more with a discerning audience. The key is to identify gaps where your infographic can provide fresh insights or perspectives.

Without even searching Google, I’m positive you should knock any of the following infographic ideas off your list:

• anything to do with texting and driving
• anything to do with car accident statistics
• anything to do with motorcycle accident statistics
• anything to do with distracting driving
• anything to do with DUIs

While I may be picking on personal injury attorneys a bit here, you’ll find similar trends in any practice area.  A quick Google search of your topic idea can quickly lend some insight to how much identical content you’ll be competing with.

2. Conducting Thorough Outreach Research

The success of an infographic heavily relies on effective outreach. Start by identifying platforms where your content could be appreciated. This includes legal blogs, educational institutions, and niche forums. The outreach process should be meticulously planned:

• Identifying Prospects: Use advanced Google search techniques to find websites and blogs that have shared similar content. Tools like BuzzSumo can also help identify potential outreach prospects.
• Categorization of Prospects: Segment your prospects into categories like niche legal forums, general legal information sites, and educational resources. Aim for diversity to widen your potential reach.
• Tailoring Your Approach: Customize your outreach messages for each category. For example, a message to an educational institution might emphasize the infographic’s value as a teaching tool, while a legal blog might be more interested in its relevance to current legal trends.

As we’re reaching out to a wide variety of websites try using the following queries to get started:

• “keyword phrase” + “guest post”
• “keyword phrase” + “blog”
• “keyword phrase” + “forum”
• “keyword phrase” + “contribute”
• “keyword phrase” + “news”
• “keyword phrase” + “infographic”
• “infographic gallery”
• “infographic blog”

If your research isn’t garnering a large enough pool of prospects, consider that a sign to revisit your infographic idea. Remember the first point – coming up with an original idea will make the marketability of your infographic infinitely easier.

This is another mistake too many law firms make.  The allure of taking the cheapest designer (or doing it in-house) will do more harm than good.  This is not a part of your infographic you want to skimp on.  One of the keys of an infographic is presenting your data in an engaging and novel way.  Take the infographic below from Batarro Law Firm:

Infographics should be more than just taking a few statistics and and turning them into an image.  Your job here is to present your data graphically.  The example above is still (almost) a text format with some single pie fact charts throw in.  Have your designer start looking into various methods of data visualization for the statistics you want to present.  This book is a good start and can give a great starting point.

The best part about infographics are the ability to share a large amount of data without overwhelming your audience.

But most importantly, the key in this section is to not skimp on a designer!  Good designers cost good money – you’ll only be hurting yourself down the road by opting for the cheapest method.

Here are two design/aesthetic constants:

• Visual Storytelling: The design should tell a story. For instance, an infographic on “Environmental Laws and Policies” could use imagery related to nature and pollution to visually guide the viewer through the information.
• Data Visualization Techniques: Explore innovative ways to present data. Instead of standard pie charts, consider interactive elements or animation if the infographic will be hosted online.

 4. Lack of Embed/Share Code/Landing Page

This should be step one for any law firm setting up an infographic.  Your goal here is make sure the infographic is as shareable as possible – and make sure that people are sharing the URL to the page your infographic is on, and not the image itself.

Once you have a finished infographic you’ll need to create a dedicated URL where you’ll include the following:

• Title/H1 tags about your infographic
• 1-2 paragraphs describing your infographic and the reasons for creating it
• The infographic itself (make sure the image in this page links to a full-size infographic if it’s extremely large)
• Embed Code (try this one from SEOGadget)
• Social media buttons that “like/share/etc” the page you just created – not just links to your facebook/twitter pages (I’ve seen this issue before)

5. Crafting a Strong Outreach Strategy

This is another crucial step in the success of your infographic.  Outreach shouldn’t be limited to your marketing team (though they’ll be doing the bulk of it), you need your whole law firm in on the job. There are generally two types of outreach that you can employ to get your infographic out there:

• Internal Engagement: Encourage your team to share the infographic on their professional networks. This not only broadens the reach but also lends authenticity to the content.
• Targeted Outreach: Personalize your outreach efforts. For example, if targeting academic institutions, highlight how your infographic can be a valuable resource for students.

Once you’ve gotten the low hanging internal shares out of the way it’s time to start emailing some people that you don’t know. Now, the standard form email might not work here (though you certainly can use the same format more or less) so make sure to think of the following when reaching out by email:

• Keep it personal: track down the first name of your person you are reaching out to (this should have been done in your prospect research) and make sure that cutting-and-pasting their first name isn’t as far as you go with the personalization. It may take some time, but writing out each of these emails individually is going to be worth it!  You shouldn’t have the mindset that once your link is live these contacts are dead to you – you should always be trying to build relationships with these folks as you never know when you might need some help down the line.
• Keep is short: This is where I personally run into problems as I can get wordy – you’ll want to keep these emails under 2 paragraphs if you can.  Any longer and your prospect might just glaze over without reading into your email too much.
• Tracking and Following-up: Use tools to track your emails and follow up diligently. Persistence often pays off in outreach campaigns.

6. Expanding Beyond the Basics

Beyond these fundamental steps, consider the following to further enhance the impact of your infographics:

• Interactive Elements: If hosting the infographic on your website, consider adding interactive elements. This can increase engagement and the time visitors spend on your site, positively impacting SEO.
• Multi-Platform Adaptation: Adapt your infographic for different platforms. For example, create a shorter version for social media with a link to the full version on your website.
• Regular Updates: Keep your infographic current. If it includes statistics or data that might change over time, plan for regular updates. This not only maintains its relevance but also provides an opportunity for renewed outreach.

7. Case Studies and Success Stories

Incorporate case studies to showcase successful infographics. For example, an infographic that led to a significant increase in website traffic or client engagement can serve as a powerful testament to the potential of well-executed infographics.

Bonus Tip: Reverse Image Search

This is an important strategy and worth mentioning. Once your infographic has been released into the wild for sometime, try performing a reverse Google image search by dragging the image from your website directly into the Google image search toolbar. It may yield results of websites that published or cited your infographic but did not give you credit with a backlink. You then should reach out to each of these websites requesting credit in the form of a backlink to your site.

Have a questions about an infographic you recently launched?  Feel free to get in touch we’re happy to answer any questions.