Content writing is a powerful tool for business professionals of all kinds – especially lawyers – to establish authority, enhance visibility and engage with clients, prospects, reporters and other important contacts. By focusing on the needs and interests of your audience, providing valuable insights and maintaining a professional yet accessible tone, you can significantly enhance your engagement and establish yourself as a thought leader. Remember, the goal is to inform, engage and motivate your readers, helping them navigate complex legal landscapes with ease. Here’s how to create stronger content.
Steps to Begin Content Writing
It’s not easy to start from a blank screen or piece of paper, so hopefully these tips will help get you on the right foot quickly.
1. Set Clear Objectives
- Clearly define what you aim to achieve with your content. This might include educating clients, generating leads or enhancing your professional reputation – or a combination of all of these.
- Align these objectives with your firm’s broader marketing and business development strategy to ensure consistency and relevance.
2. Develop a Content Calendar
- Use a content calendar to plan out your article/post topics and publishing schedule. This will help you maintain a regular flow of content and ensures coverage of a diverse range of subjects. It will also help with content repurposing, which will enable you to maximize and leverage all of the great content you’ve already created.
- I recommend a simple Google sheet for your content calendar that you can share amongst colleagues.
3. Allocate Resources
- Determine whether you will write the content yourself or collaborate with others. Consider your schedule and workload to decide if you need to delegate.
- Co-writing an article with a colleague, industry friend or client is a great way to share the responsibility of writing a piece of content while building relationships.
- Schedule time for research, writing and editing.
How to Write a Strong Blog Post or Client Alert
1. Selecting a Topic
- Choose topics that are timely, relevant to your practice areas and of interest to your audience. For a client alert, focus on recent legal changes or rulings that affect your clients.
- Ensure the topic provides value, such as actionable advice or critical legal insights.
2. Crafting a Compelling Headline
- Create a headline that is both informative and attention-grabbing while being concise. It should clearly indicate the benefit of reading the post and encourage the reader to learn more. Extra points if you use numbers in your headline – people like lists.
3. Structuring the Content
- Introduction: Briefly introduce the topic and explain its relevance. A strong opening will hook the reader and set the tone for the rest of the post.
- Body: Use headers to break up the content into manageable sections, each addressing a specific point. Include bullet points for clarity and visuals like charts or infographics to enhance understanding. Focus on explaining the legal change, its implications and actionable advice.
- Conclusion: Wrap up with a summary of key points and a call to action, such as contacting your firm for more detailed advice or attending a webinar.
4. Including Practical Information
- Provide clear, actionable advice or steps the reader can take in response to the information. Practical tips or checklists are valuable to the reader.
- Link to further resources, such as detailed guides, previous posts or external articles for additional reading.
5. Optimizing for Readability and SEO
- Use simple, clear language that can be easily understood by non-lawyers. Avoid legal jargon unless it is defined or explained.
- Incorporate keywords naturally to improve SEO and help your content rank higher in search results.
6. Review and Edit
- Ensure accuracy and compliance with legal advertising rules.
- Have someone else proofread the content to catch errors and ensure it flows logically.
Following these tips will help you create more strategic content that you can use in a wide range of areas – it’s well worth the time and effort to create and maximize your content!
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