Law Firm Marketing: How to Write an Effective Blog Post

July 18, 2017
Daniel Decker

Last week on Legal Marketing Live, Ben and I discussed the “anatomy” of an effective blog post. Today, I’m going to dive into the subject a bit further.

Choosing your topic. The first step is deciding what to write about. I highly recommend that you focus your blog posts on practical questions and challenges that clients and potential clients are facing. If you get certain questions regularly during consultations, for example, chances are that would be a great topic for a blog post. A few examples… as a business attorney, you could write about the pros and cons of forming an LLC, or write about the first steps to take if you’re served with a lawsuit. A family attorney could write about the process of determining child custody in their state, or a blog about what to expect during the divorce process. Bottom line: choose topics that provide practical information to potential clients. This positions you as a resource and as someone who knows what you’re talking about and who understands what clients are going through.

Length and format. I recommend somewhere between 350 – 600 words. Much longer than that and you risk overwhelming your readers. If anything, err on the side of being too short. In addition, it’s important that you format your blog entries to be as engaging and “welcoming” as possible. Avoid long, intimidating paragraphs. Use headlines, bold font, and italics to make your blog post easily digestible.

Tone. This is a big one. You need to remember who you’re writing for – aka, potential clients and referral sources. You’re NOT writing a legal brief and you’re not writing to impress your law school professors. Stay away from the legalese. Instead, write in a tone that resonates with your target market… whether that is business owners, retirees, high-income earners, immigrants, or whatever the case may be. Write in language that makes sense to your market and that helps them build rapport and trust in your ability to help them.

Promotion. Once you’ve invested the time and effort to create a blog post, make sure you get as much mileage out of it as possible! Share it on social media. Include it in your next e-newsletter. Make sure it’s prominently featured on your website. If possible, we recommend including a “Recent Blog Entries” section on the Home page of your website so that your most recent work is always featured. Remember, if you’ve put in the effort to create a blog entry that’s legitimately valuable to your potential clients, you’re doing them a service to make sure they have the opportunity to read it. It’s marketing, but it’s also delivering tangible value to the marketplace. So make sure it gets seen!

Find the time to make it happen. You’re busy – I get it. But if it’s important to you to create a blog, and you don’t want to hire a professional firm to do it for you, then you need to treat your blogging time like a non-negotiable commitment. Schedule time in your calendar on a weekly basis (or once per month at minimum) to work on your blog – and treat it every bit as seriously as you treat meetings with your clients. If you don’t make it a priority, you’ll end up putting it off and it won’t get done. I can’t tell you how many lawyers I know who started blogging but then gave it up after a few months… not because they weren’t getting value out of doing it, but simply because they didn’t commit to doing it consistently.

Questions or comments? Feel free to shoot me an email – daniel@spotlightbranding.com.

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Daniel Decker

Daniel Decker is a co-founder and Partner at Spotlight Branding. In addition to helping lawyers stand out from the crowd, he spends his time writing, dreaming up new marketing strategies, and coming up with catchy subject lines. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys playing sports, guitar, politics, and Minnesota sports.