Who Is Your Audience?

Thought-leadership marketing can be a great way to stand out as a competent, well-respected expert in your field. This is especially true if you write content tailored to the concerns of a specific audience. While it can be tempting to showcase your expertise across a broad range of industries and practice areas — to be all things to all people — this strategy is counterproductive. Here’s how to ensure your thought leadership makes an impact:

Narrow your focus. Even if you have more than one audience (because you serve more than one industry), write multiple pieces on a single topic, each one targeted to the concerns, challenges and solutions a specific audience needs to hear about.

Publish your content where your audience will see it. Target media outlets most likely to reach your audience. Look especially at niche industry publications, newsletters from professional organizations and blogs.

Offer solutions to problems your audience faces right now. Become a keen problem-solver and your audience will value your input. They will trust you. When an issue arises, you and your firm will be top of mind — better positioning your practice to own this niche.

Be disciplined about staying in your lane. You may be tempted to weigh in on industries in which you have less experience, or legal questions you aren’t that familiar with, but once you develop the discipline to focus on a single industry, you’ll reap the rewards. Offering expertise in one practice area for one industry in an article helps you stand out from all the generalists.

By understanding who your audience is, and what keeps them up at night right now, you can craft more targeted thought leadership content that is actually valuable to your readers. You don’t have to be all things to all people — you just need to deliver crucial insights to a small group of legal-services buyers in the industries you know best.