Information overload. It's a real thing, not just an idiom. And if you've ever Googled "content marketing plan" in hopes of putting one together for your law firm, you know how easy it is to be overwhelmed by all the data out there on the topic. It's enough to make you throw in the towel!

I'm here to encourage you not to give up. Content marketing may seem like an overwhelming task, but it doesn't have to be. Yes, you'll invest some time in your strategy, but that time will be well spent. With a few simple steps and some planning you can build a content marketing plan that doesn't just work well—it will get you serious results.

Setting Goals

While it's notoriously difficult to track ROI in marketing, content marketing is another story: You can establish clear metrics for the success of any given piece of content. For some firms, they're simply looking to develop their branding and establish thought leadership. For other firms, the goal is to get leads and conversions through well-developed long-form content.

Starting out with these kinds of goals in mind has its benefits. Jim Jarrell, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Norris McLaughlin, recalls a legal alert the firm sent out for one of their practice groups. "The very first question I asked was 'What are you trying to achieve?' If the point is to send out information, they may already know. But if it's about touchpoints with current clients or referral sources, the content could be targeted to them specifically to encourage that type of interaction."

The firm wound up including a specific call to action in their alert that generated business. How? They made it easy to tell where the new work came from—clients called in referencing the alert they received.

How do you replicate this success for yourself? Start by asking yourself, and your firm, why you want to do content marketing in the first place. Our team often hears answers along the lines of "Google likes new content, so we should" or "Our managing partner wants to see our blogs regularly updated."

This kind of content marketing, just for the sake of it, can be a waste of firm resources. Instead, it's better to come up with clear goals, such as:

• Earn valuable backlinks,
• Drive site traffic and engagement,
• Improve client retention and cross-selling.

These goals will help you decide what type of content to create. For example, if you're looking to earn links you'll want to focus on thought-leadership pieces, infographics, surveys and guest posts. Taking the time to set these goals from the start—rather than doing content marketing just for the sake of it or because everyone else is—can make the difference between a marketing initiative that just does alright and one that generates real revenue for your firm.

Coming up With Topics

The entire purpose behind content marketing is to help you get found by the right people. Not every firm will be everything to everyone, nor should that be the objective. Instead, you want to fine-tune who it is you're trying to reach. Once you know that, it's much easier to create content for your intended audience.

The number one question you should be asking when coming up with ideas is: What's going to be most helpful to the people I'm trying to reach?

Consider the following questions to kick-off your brainstorming:

• What is my target audience's biggest struggle?
• What questions and conversations have been coming up recently with clients and colleagues?
• What really interesting change, ruling or trend is happening in my practice area?

"You can use tools like Ubersuggest to do keyword research on the topics that you are covering. You can also Google search the keywords that you want to rank for and see what types of articles are ranking at the top," says Jarred Manzone, Business Development Manager at 9Sail, an SEO agency that specializes in the legal industry. "If you're able to create content that is more informative than those top articles, you will have a chance of outranking them in the future. Without this upfront research, it is going to make it harder to effectively rank for high-intent keywords and won't produce the leads that you are hoping for."

Here are some other tools you can use to take a look at what's trending and for topic suggestions:

• BuzzSumo
• AskThePeople
• Quora and Reddit (check out what others have been asking)

Inspiration can come up to you at any time, whether you see an article in an email newsletter, hear something on a podcast or are mid-conversation. Don't let these ideas slip away! Come up with a tracking system that works for you. You can use a tool like Evernote, or go with a low-key method like emailing suggestions to yourself with the same email subject every time. When you're ready to put together your editorial calendar or write, just go back and search "Awesome Content Topic" or whatever subject line you picked.

Seeing What's Working, and What's Not

Your digital platforms generate a lot of data to look at! You don't need to look at all of it to figure out what's working, though. Pick and choose what's relevant to your goals and content types.

Manzone says, "The best way to track the effectiveness of your content writing is through Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These two tools will show you the amount of traffic that comes to your website and what terms people are typing into search engines to get to your website."

Once your accounts are set up, setting up goals is mission-critical to your tracking. Jarrell notes, "Building the landing page is not enough. You need to optimize the backend so you're setting conversion goals so people are clicking on what you want them to click on."

To set this up, Manzone offers the following guidelines: "There's a 'goals' section of Google Analytics that allows you to set parameters for different actions that will register once an action is complete. The most frequently tracked goals are the total number of contact forms submitted and the total number of times that the phone number on your site was clicked on. You'll be able to track your content creation effectiveness through the number of goals that are completed and the total traffic that comes through your website each month."

Here's what you can check for each type of content to see what's working or not:

• Blogs. Take a look at unique users, returning readers, and page views. Be sure to keep an eye on trends. If the numbers are dipping, go in and update the post and re-share. Check out what generates the most views and shares to see what people are most interested in.

• White papers, case studies and ebooks. Conversions and leads are the big KPIs here. You can create what's known as a "gate" to require someone to provide their email or information to access the content. If you're not getting the results you had hoped for, you can always ungate it to still get traction.

• Email newsletters and client alerts. Track opens, clicks, and firm interactions after sending.

Jarrell has another recommendation for getting the most out of your content marketing: "Try to use tracking numbers in the call to action if the CTA is to make a phone call. Also, use vanity URLs for certain campaigns when you're trying to get them to a certain landing page of content to track where they're coming from."

Make It Worth Your While

Give your content marketing some structure by investing time in setting objectives and tracking them. It may seem like a lot of work, but the payoff is worth it. With clickable topics and helpful reads, you're bound to start hitting your content marketing goals.

Amanda Sexton is the founder of FocusWorks Marketing in Denville, an agency that uses the power of digital marketing to grow brands and businesses. Amanda is also the current Marketing Chair of New Jersey Legal Industry Providers.