Content is an integral part of most marketing campaigns, especially for SEO and social media. The legal industry is, by far, one of the most competitive industries on the web. This makes content even more important.
Look at who ranks on Page 1 in Google for keyword phrases you want to rank for. Click on some of the higher ranking websites and look at their blogs. Notice the typical length of their posts, the topics, and the frequency that they post, which you can usually figure out by looking at the dates of each post. This gives you a good baseline of what you are up against and what you should strive to either match or even exceed.
3 Things To Remember
- Always keep your intended reader in mind when coming up with ideas. Who will be reading this? Potential clients or other lawyers?
- Editorial calendars are the secret sauce of a solid content strategy. Not only do they help you plan and organize your content, but they help you stay accountable and diligent on spacing out your content.
- If you had 10 pieces of killer content ready to go, it would be better to spread them out and publish them over time rather than all at once. Consistency is what you should be striving for.
What should you write about/pay someone to write about? Here is a list that our content team came up with. This is part of what we use when deciding what to blog about for our clients.
News Items
News items are great for content because they offer a way to share your expertise as it relates to current events. Make sure you don’t copy a news item. Rather, offer your take on it and make it your own.
“Newsjacking” is a term that was coined for when content marketers spin their own content to tie into a viral or trending news topic. I would caution against doing this unless the news topic in question is relevant to your practice area.
Ideas for news-related legal blog topics include:
- New legislation and/or changes in the law that could impact your clients
- Trends in the legal industry
- Court rulings
- Your thoughts on high profile cases
Informative Content
Informative posts fall into a wide range of categories and tend to make up the bulk of blog posts on a website.
Some potential topics include:
- How-to posts – These would be tips, tricks, guides and tutorials.
- Tips & Tricks – “10 Tips For Protecting Your Family After Your Gone”
- Guides and tutorials make for good content to re-purpose as slideshows, podcasts, or videos. – “Guide For Appealing A Disability Claim Denial”
- Interviews – Interviews are great because the person you are interviewing helps create the content for your post.
- Interview expert witnesses.
- Interview other lawyers.
- Interview partners and team members.
- Cheat sheets – Cheat sheets can be turned into infographics in some case. Guides and tutorials tend to be longer and go into more depth.
- In-depth answers to commonly asked questions
- Process pages – “The Injury Claim Settlement Process”
- Explanation of laws, statutes and legal terms.
- Common myths and unrealistic expectations for your practice area.
- Legal strategy – for example, potential defenses to a criminal charge
- Exposè – for example, safety recalls
- Links to helpful resources around the web
Law Firm Announcements
Every Law Firm has blog post worthy announcements throughout the year. Sprinkle these in with your regular content. It helps readers get to know the firm and its attorney(s).
Firm specific blog post ideas:
- New attorney
- New office/location
- Recent court victory
- Awards and recognition
- Pro bono and community service activities
- Merger, acquisition or partnership
- Practice certification
- Hiring announcements
- New practice areas
- Attorney and staff spotlights
Lists
Readers love lists and checklist posts. List posts can make a large amount of information easier to digest by using bullet points and numbers. List posts can often be evergreen (content you can re-share over time and it still be relevant). The blog post you’re reading now would fall into this category. It is a list of content ideas.
Examples of List Posts:
- 10 Reasons Why…
- 10 Most Common Mistakes…
- 7 Steps To…
- The Top 3….
- Make a list of free ebooks or important documents
- Mashup posts – With mash-up posts, you share with your readers a “mashup” of great content you have found. It helps if the content you are sharing is all relevant in some way, like a “best of the week” or posts that help explain the same topic.
Examples of Mashups:
- The best blog posts you’ve read the past week or month – with links.
- Writers (or authors, teachers, industry leaders, philanthropists) who inspire you.
- Your favorite legal blogs.
- Helpful tools and resources you depend on.
- Your favorite (or most-viewed, or a group of related) posts from your blog.
- Who to follow on Twitter (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) – and why.
- Links to articles on a particular topic – “what people are saying.”
- A mash-up of all guest posts, interviews, news, etc. where you’ve been featured on another blog or website.
Hopefully, I have given you enough ideas to keep your consistently writing for you law firm’s blog. Remember, the key is to create high-quality content at a frequency that you can maintain consistently. Please feel free to leave any other content ideas I have missed in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!