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Every day, our inboxes and social media feeds overflow with thinly veiled sales pitches masquerading as "thought leadership." Many lawyers fall into this trap too, viewing every piece of content as another opportunity to remind people to hire them.
Let's be clear: selling is essential to build a legal practice. But your content serves a different purpose. It's about education, insight, and establishing trust with your audience. When you try to make every article, LinkedIn post, or newsletter do double duty as a sales pitch, you diminish its real value.
Think about your own reading habits. When you encounter an article that starts with useful information but devolves into a promotional message, what's your reaction? If you're like most people, you probably click away. The sales pitch makes you question the authenticity and objectiveness of the insights being shared.
Instead, let your content do what it does best:
Share genuine insights about important legal issues
Explain complex regulatory changes in accessible terms
Offer thoughtful analysis of industry trends
Help your audience understand the legal landscape better
Your expertise becomes evident through the quality of your insights, not through telling people to hire you. When readers consistently find value in what you share, they naturally think of you when they need legal help – no sales pitch required.
This doesn't mean you should never sell. Rather, it means recognizing that not every touchpoint with your audience needs to be about getting business. Some interactions should simply be about sharing knowledge and building trust.
In a world of endless sales pitches, be the lawyer who knows when to sell and when to simply share valuable insights. Your audience will appreciate the distinction—and they'll remember you when they need legal counsel.
The best part? When you do need to have sales conversations, they'll be much more effective because you've already established yourself as a trusted source of knowledge.
p.s. You may have noticed that I do have a call to action at the bottom of this newsletter (and my blog, if you’re reading this there) about my coaching, training, and consulting services. And so you may be thinking: Practice what you preach, Harrington! The nuance here is: sell around your content, not in your content. Keep your content focused on delivering value, and let your bio, website, or newsletter footer do the work of explaining how people can work with you. There's nothing wrong with making it easy for interested readers to engage your services—just keep it separate from the content itself.
Jay Harrington is president of our agency, a published author, and nationally-recognized expert in thought-leadership marketing.
From strategic planning to writing, podcasting, video marketing, and design, Jay and his team help lawyers and law firms turn expertise into thought leadership, and thought leadership into new business. Get in touch to learn more about the consulting and coaching services we provide. You can reach Jay at jay@hcommunications.biz.