Developing educational, substantive content on your law firm’s website is an excellent way to drive more business to your law firm.
A blog that you publish to regularly can also have that effect.
Frequent blogging, when it’s done right, helps your law firm’s website get found and often gives you new followers. It also has an amplifying effect on the content on the rest of your law firm’s website. However, some attorneys aren’t sure what to write about to drive more traffic to their law firm’s website.
Here are three things you can write about on your law firm’s blog.
Consider the Audience of Your Law Firm’s Blog
It’s often easier to decide what to write about when you remember who you are writing for: your potential clients and referral sources.
Take some time to consider what issues are likely to be of interest to them and how you can present topics in a way that engages the right audience.
If your content is too broad, it’s unlikely to attract and inspire the right audience.
Go beyond ad-like copy to teach your potential clients new things on your blog. As you’re writing content for your web visitors, ask yourself:
- What kinds of questions do my potential clients often ask me about this particular topic?
- What do my potential clients need to know about this particular problem?
- What don’t my potential clients know yet?
- How can I help them solve this problem?
- What actions can they take in their current situation?
To learn more about creating unique content, see: “How to Turn General Website Content into Unique Content for Your Law Firm.”
Law Firm Blog Topic: Stories in the News
Looking at the news for inspiration is usually a good choice for attorneys. Criminal defense lawyers and personal injury attorneys, for example, rarely have a shortage of news articles that they can draw from. The stories you choose don’t necessarily have to come from your jurisdiction, so long as you can bring a connection to the geographic area(s) where you practice.
For example — a story about a celebrity DUI arrest isn’t off-limits to you if you practice in one state, and the arrest occurs in another state, so long as you can connect it to the geographic area where you practice, and it provides valuable information to someone who could potentially hire you. You might choose to discuss what potential punishments that celebrity would face for a DUI arrest in your geographic area had they been arrested there.
One of the more common mistakes we see on law firm blogs as it relates to stories in the news is a simple regurgitation of a news story, or even copying and pasting the news story into a blog.
Neither of these methods are likely to drive more traffic to your law firm’s website.
The best law firm blog posts are those that allow you to develop your firm’s online voice. The best way to do that online is by using your blog for analysis.
Summarizing a news story in the first part of a blog post is fine, but what comes after that? Your potential clients can find a news story nearly anywhere — if they visit your blog, it’s because they want to understand your view of the event. Be sure to provide an in-depth analysis of the story.
Law Firm Blog Topic: Changes in the Law & Proposed Legislation
Much like writing about stories in the news, changes in the law and proposed legislation provide two great topics for attorneys to blog about.
Again, the key to getting the most impact out of these topics is to provide in-depth analysis.
Here’s an example of proposed legislation: At the time of this writing, Hawaii’s Senate Bill 2234 would reduce the blood-alcohol content threshold for being arrested and charged with a DUI from 0.08% to 0.05%.
A DUI attorney in any other state could write a blog post explaining the proposed legislation and discuss the potential consequences of these changes — as well as discussing the changes in the context of the current laws in your geographic location.
An attorney in another state could use their blog post to answer a question like “What do you think this would mean for [the people of your state] if a similar law were to pass in [your geographic location]?”
Law Firm Blog Topic: Answering Common Questions
Blog posts can be a great place to address common questions that you receive from both prospective and current clients.
For example, a DUI attorney might write a blog post about “How many points can I get on my license before it gets suspended?” The attorney can then go on to explain the answer to the question in detail, including other information that a potential client may want to know or might be unaware of.
A personal injury attorney might answer a question like, “Who is at fault in a rear-end car accident?” and then go on to explain all the various nuances around that question.
Consider adding links to relevant webpages in your blog posts. Blog posts capture something timely that can draw readers in, but they can learn more information by having access to related practice area pages that are associated with the topic of the blog post.
In the above DUI-related example, this attorney might link back to their relevant pages on topics such as aggressive driving, license suspension, etc.
Learn More About Effective Law Firm Blogging
Blog posts can help you declare your stance and opinions to the right audience. When you blog the right way, it helps you attract followers who want to know what you’ll say next, and it helps you attract the right kinds of potential clients, as well.
To learn more about blogging, see: “How Blogging Can Be a Difference Maker for Law Firm Websites.”
