Developing a content marketing strategy for a social security disability firm.

[ScottMcPherson]

I have a client that I've been working with for a little over a year now and I've been struggling to generate new business from his online presence. Initially, I completely re-designed his website with semantically correct html markup, and used all of typical, site level SEO tactics, i.e., keywords in title tags, h tags, paragraphs, correct NAP, etc.

We've only seen very low marginal returns off of our efforts. Part of the problem is that my client is not an attorney, but instead he runs a social security disability advocacy firm. He still performs all of the operations that an attorney performs, but due to the fact that he is not an attorney, we cannot optimize his site for search phrases containing "attorney", which is a common keyword that people would generally use to find the services that my client offers.

So I've decided to try a different approach. A content marketing approach. The only reason I prolonged avoided this approach for so long is that, to be frank, I had no idea how to target his ideal clients with content. After talking to my client the other day and recommending this new approach, I uncovered some similarities between his previous clients. Most his clients live in rural areas, and they like nascar, hunting, fishing, etc. So I suggested that I create blog for him,  and begin finding some freelance writers that can create some killer content about nascar, hunting and fishing.

Admittedly, I don't have a much experience with a content marketing approach, but I want to learn everything there is to know about it.

I guess I'm a little unsure about this approach that we're getting ready to try, and would love to hear from some people that have been down this path, and might be able to offer any advice.

I really want to help my client's business flourish, and it's now very clear to me that solely relying on an old SEO line of thinking is not doing the trick anymore. Any tips, tactics and strategies would be greatly appreciated.

Am I on the right track here? How would we get this content in front of his ideal clients, and market it in such a way that he will get a good return on his investment?

[ScottMcPherson]

That makes a lot of sense. We might as well target as large of a targeted audience as possible to maximize our efforts.

[Houses]

Disability topics definitely sound like the way to go as Egol said. They help set your client up as an authority on the subject, building trust with potential clients.

The (unique) content could also be used on other sites helping get the name of your client out to a wider audience.

Not sure that fishing etc will help unless you can link those topics to what he does.

Good luck

[EGOL]

he runs a social security disability advocacy firm

In my opinion, the percentage of potential website visitors to the Nascar, hunting and fishing content who are interested in your client's services is really really really really low.    You might not make enough money to pay for the content.

Have you considered disability topics?  I think that they would produce more leads and would be related to his client base.  I would go that route long before nascar and hunting.  If I did that I would run a couple of his ads on every page and a couple adsense ads to appeal to any person who arrives.

Rand had a whiteboard Friday about creating content for people who are really high in the funnel.  You are proposing a strategy that is completely outside of the funnel.   I understand how you would like to help this client but this type of content is quite a risky investment if you ask me.

http://moz.com/blog/targeting-your-audience-earlier-in-the-buying-process-whiteboard-friday