It’s no secret that creating and posting content is an effective way for lawyers to build your reputation and win new clients.
But with so much brainspace dedicated to the day job, it’s a bit of a chore to come up with ideas. Or you’ll have a good idea, and then talk yourself out of it. What if it’s not very interesting? What if my colleagues think it’s too simple?
The first thing to say is: post the content.
You’re not writing content for your colleagues, or ex-colleagues, or the partner that scared you when you were a trainee. You’re writing content for prospective clients. And what you have to say is interesting, and smart, and it’s going to help those clients.
So where do you start when you’re looking for ideas for content?
Here are a few ideas to get you thinking. You’ll find that once you start tuning your antennae into content ideas, you’ll open the floodgates and you’ll be bubbling with ideas in no time.
Questions people ask you
This is your gold mine. If your clients are asking you questions, your prospective clients are probably Googling the same questions. Make a note of anything you’re asked on the phone, in an email, in meetings. Things like:
- Will offering to settle make me look weak?
- How do you choose the right barrister for this?
- This document isn’t good for my case. Can I shred it?
It won’t take you long to write a quick answer to those questions. In fact, you probably do it all the time in advice notes. Just turn it into something a little more conversational and non-case specific and you’ll have a great blog.
Google alerts
Regularly overlooked and underused! You can set up alerts in a matter of seconds. Just use the most obvious keywords for your practice area: ‘arbitration’, ‘arbitration awards’, ‘international arbitration’.
You’ll get daily updates (or less frequently if you choose) about any news stories Google finds. Your content can just be a quick comment on an article, or you can use it as a springboard into content about the subject matter.
Google alerts are not a panacea though. They will miss things, and they do retrieve a lot of bumf among the gems.
National Archives
Comment on the most recent cases in your practice area.
How do you stay on top of that?
Just check the National Archives every now and then. I’d recommend doing it daily to stay on top of it and make sure you don’t miss any breaking decisions.
The site is updated every week day, but the latest decision to be added won’t necessarily appear at the top of the list. It appears in chronological order by the date of the judgment. So I recommend clicking “see all recent judgments” and choosing 50 per page. Then you won’t miss any recent judgments that have snuck on outside of page 1.
Scan each of the judgments to see if they’re relevant to your practice area. You can see which court the case was heard in, so you needn’t check every decision; only those in your relevant court.
What will your clients search for?
This is a similar line of thought to the questions that your clients ask you. But it serves a slightly different purpose. Think about your prospective clients. People who have never met you. People who don’t know if they really need a lawyer, or if Google can actually answer their legal conundrum for them.
What are these people typing into Google?
Maybe it’s general counsel asking “when should I offer a Part 36 settlement?”
Perhaps it’s someone who’s suffered a personal injury asking “how long do I have to pursue my claim for an injury from a motorbike crash?”
Just spend a few minutes thinking what your ideal client might be typing into Google. And then turn those ideas into content.
Case studies
Lawyers typically shy away from posting case studies for fear of breaching confidentiality. But case studies are a really important piece of content to explain to other people exactly what you do.
Imagine if I told you I was a financial adviser. You might be interested. But if I explained how I helped one millennial consolidate their pension pots and prepare a roadmap to retire by the time they’re 55, you’re probably more interested.
Case studies help your audience see themselves using your services. You can keep them anonymous to protect confidentiality, and gloss over the finer details. But you do need to tell the story of how you help people.
Chat GPT
As a very last resort, you can try Chat GPT. You’ll quickly realise that the content is below par and out of date, but if you want a few generic suggestions for blog titles, it will spit out one or two workable ideas.
If you’d like any help with your content strategy and generating regular content, please get in touch.