How LegalZoom reached 3,200 new earned media referrals and strengthened its brand authority with Stacker

The Challenge

As one of the biggest online platforms for legal services since the early 2000's, LegalZoom was a pioneer in using content to generate new business. Its library of thousands of articles sharing knowledge about how to incorporate and run a business has remained an effective tool at generating new customers. But in 2024, they recognized that leveraging their extensive knowledge base could enhance their brand authority and reinforce their status as the leading provider of online legal services, particularly as competition intensified with reduced barriers to entry.

The LegalZoom marketing team quickly recognized that Stacker was essential for LegalZoom to enhance brand awareness through mentions and backlinks from highly reputable publications with strong domain authority.

The Solution

LegalZoom came to Stacker with a specific goal - find innovative ways to build visibility and maintain authority in the online legal space. Being a power house for legal content, they only needed a way to distribute that content to third-party publications outside their current reach. They got access to Stacker's editorial team to optimize their stories for reach and engagement, and distributed these stories to over 3,900 publishers on the Stacker Newswire over 6 months.

They not only gained additional visibility and authority but also achieved an unexpected benefit—predictability of results.

“We love that Stacker brings in more predictability when it comes to the kind of reach and pickups we should expect from different topics and stories," said a Marketing Lead at LegalZoom. ”Thanks to their expertise in the media space, and their internal insights from thousands of stories distributed to thousands of publications, they are able to give accurate predictions on content performance. That kind of predictability is something we had never seen before."

How It Works

Stacker combines scalable technology solutions with human editorial expertise to power an innovative earned distribution platform that enables the creation and syndication of engaging stories from brands to a network of national and local news outlets.

LegalZoom selected Stacker's Connect product, which distributes brands’ ready-to-publish editorial content to thousands of publishers on the Stacker Newswire. Stacker's editorial team ensures that each story meets journalistic standards, and is optimized and timed to maximize reach and engagement. After distribution, LegalZoom receives detailed and real-time insights on the performance of their stories via Stacker' self-serve reporting dashboard. 

With Stacker, LegalZoom was able to distribute stories like 7 tips for choosing the best name for your business, which earned 288 placements in partner publications, and featured a fun and engaging business name generator from the LegalZoom website. This creative add-on ensured that beyond reaching more readers, the article would engage them more actively. Coverage for this story, along with all the stories LegalZoom distributed on Stacker, enhanced LegalZoom's visibility and authority while reinforcing its reputation as the top online platform for business formation.

The Results

For established brands with a strong organic footprint like LegalZoom, finding innovative ways to continue growing an online presence is crucial. By adopting Stacker, LegalZoom did just that. After 6 months of working with Stacker, LegalZoom was already seeing significantly positive growth trends for all downstream metrics that bode well for future performance. 

6 months after distribution of LegalZoom's first story on Stacker:

With Stacker, LegalZoom expanded its content reach, connected with new audiences, and reinforced its position as a leader in a competitive market. After 13 stories created and distributed over 6 months, LegalZoom secured more than 3,265 placements, reaching over 480,000 new readers across the U.S. However, for the LegalZoom marketing team, the benefits of working with Stacker go beyond the data. They value the quality of the network and the publications that pick up LegalZoom content, opening access to new audiences previously outside of their scope.

"There are hundreds of agencies out there that promise backlinks on thousands of sites," said a LegalZoom marketing lead. "But the reality is, your often end up on very niche websites with low reputation and reach. Stacker's network includes thousands of local publications trusted within their communities, and appearing in these publications is very valuable to us."

Conclusion

Utilizing Stacker’s distinctive combination of story insights and scalable distribution, LegalZoom successfully increased its referral links from credible sites and strengthened its brand authority. The collaboration resulted in thousands of premium media placements that enhanced organic search performance and bolstered LegalZoom's reputation as a reliable leader in small business formation.

"Now that we have good momentum going, it's all about refining our strategy, and focusing on getting more targeted results with greater impact," says a LegalZoom marketing lead. "We're looking forward to exploring all the innovative ways we could contribute to and benefit from the Stacker Newswire in 2025."