A legal blog has a ton of value for law firms looking to improve their legal marketing and drive new customers to their website. Prospective clients often search for legal topics to familiarize themselves before consulting an attorney, and if a law firm can provide that information, that puts them at the forefront of the client’s mind when they’re ready to get their case started.

Law firms should keep in mind, however, that a prospective client isn’t seeking legal information to handle a complex case on their own. Instead, they’re seeking clarity, expectations of their case, and help identifying the right legal team to bring to their side.

The right legal blog topics are essential for the success of a law firm’s legal marketing tactic. Here are some ways law firms can come up with brilliant law firm blog topics with useful content to attract clients and establish thought leadership in the industry.

Utilize Recent News Reports

The newspaper, news websites, or other legal blogs offer inspiration for timely, relevant topics that are content-worthy. Law firms can browse headlines and identify potential content ideas based on what’s trending in the news, even if it’s not directly related to the legal industry. Perhaps a news story prompts questions about the law related to a broad topic that will be useful to prospective clients.

Try Doing Interviews

Along with written content, podcasts and videos are popular for online audiences. One of the best topics for a podcast or video is an interview, and law firms can leverage this with live interviews with local judges, other lawyers, or clients that had favorable case outcomes. This not only provides valuable information to the viewer but can be helpful for law firm networking and building relationships in the industry.

Use Your Legal Blog as a FAQ

In any legal practice area, clients often have a lot of the same questions about their general cases. The details may vary, but quick keyword research reveals general questions like “what to look for in a lawyer?” and “what’s the timeline for my legal case?”

Law firms can use these questions to their advantage. In addition to having a dedicated area of practice page and frequently asked questions on the law firm’s website, law firm blog topics can follow the most common questions asked by clients. Law firms can consult with other lawyers, paralegals, and staff at the law firm to determine the most valuable questions to answer.

Incorporate Educational Legal Blog Topics

Much like frequently asked questions, law firms may find that prospective clients have a lot of the same questions and concerns about their case and experience. Law firms can provide valuable educational legal blog topics to address these questions and concerns and give prospective clients a little peace of mind.

Here are some ideas for law firms to provide educational content:

• Case Studies: This content is ideal for covering broad law topics and how they apply to specific cases. Typically, case studies are more in-depth than a general blog and cover most of the details and conditions of a case, giving readers an understanding of how a case may unfold. Case studies are particularly useful when they cover landmark decisions or precedents.

• Success Stories: If a law firm had a recent win or exciting outcome, it’s worth posting a success story to show prospective clients that the law firm’s clients’ successes matter to them. Even if the case outcome wasn’t ideal, an inspirational story can serve the same end.

• Q&A Sessions: Q&A sessions can be longer blogs that cover the commonly asked questions with in-depth answers and examples, or hypotheticals, that illustrate a case more comprehensively. With podcasts or video, these Q&A sessions can be live to address questions as they come up.

• Glossary: Legalese can be challenging for non-legal people. Often, these unfamiliar terms have long answers, so law firms can provide legal content that covers the terms and gives them a deeper understanding of the area of practice. Law firms should consider the most mystifying or intimidating terms in their area of practice, such as “tort,” “negligence,” and “prima facie.” The blog should define the terms in lay terms, including pronunciation, how the term is used, how it may apply, and practical examples.

• Events: Blog content can highlight upcoming seminars or conferences that a law firm is attending or that may be of interest to the audience. Not only prospective clients keep up with legal content – industry professionals, including other lawyers, may be interested in these topics.

• Staff Highlights: People want to know the people behind the brand, and that’s no different for law firms. Perhaps a paralegal got admission into law school, or an employee won a distinguished award. These types of stories are inspirational and give clients insights into the day-to-day of the law firm and the people they may want in their corner for their case.

Promote Your Legal Blog to Drive Traffic

Creating content is excellent, but it needs somewhere to go to generate awareness and interest in a law firm. Once the content is created, law firms should promote blog posts on social media and email to drive traffic. Law firms should also keep SEO best practices in mind to make the content discoverable.

With the right practice management system, integrations allow law firms to seamlessly integrate into software like content management systems (CMS) and email platforms. This streamlines the content creation and promotion process to ensure that content is consistent and timely, creating more value and interest for prospective clients.