Lawyers have an incredible advantage when it comes to blogging, and yet, few are doing it.
“26.9% of law firms have legal blogs; 10% of individual lawyers have blogs” – LexisNexis | Business of Law Blog.
If you’re not blogging, consider starting, that is, if you want to take advantage of these statistics:
- 39.1% of blogs resulted in clients or referrals – LexisNexis | Business of Law Blog
- Small businesses that blog generate 126% more leads than SMB’s that don’t blog. – Matt Romas, LocalVox
- Companies that blog also have 97% more websites linking to them well. – Matt Romas, LocalVox
On the contrary, lawyers that are blogging are not necessarily blogging well.
Lawyers are well educated, have a vast vocabulary, and are part of an eternally relevant and evolving industry. Translation? Lawyers have every opportunity to consistently write new, unique, and high quality content.
However, the nature of a lawyer’s writing style is often similar to that of a legal brief. Many lawyers fill their blog posts with jargon, link to legal resources, and quote laws, acts, and judge rulings. This is great for the courtroom, but not for your blog.
Tips for Writing Engaging Law Blogs
1. Stop writing case summaries
If you’re going to do it, cut to the chase. How can your audience relate to this ruling and what lessons can they learn from it?
2. Write from your point of view
Don’t write behind your firm’s name. Write behind your name. Give your audience your personal opinion based on your industry experience and knowledge.
3. Show personality
Ditch the stiff and professional voice that makes your audience’s eyes glaze over. Show your unique personality through your writing. People will relate to you as a person and trust you as a professional.
4. Speak in layman’s terms
Drop the long and fancy legal terms and referencing style. Write the way you would talk to someone in real life.
5. Use visuals
It’s imperative that you include at least one high-resolution photo in each blog post. Consider other visual elements as well, such as SlideShare presentations, videos, infographics, ReplyAll, click-to-tweet, to keep your audience intrigued.
6. Hook, line, and no sinker
What do you want your audience to do after reading your post? Share it with their friends? Ask their burning questions? Consider hiring you for representation? Schedule a consultation? Make your call-to-action clear and easy to fulfill.
7. Links
Keeping your blog post short and punchy is essential. Link to other articles that elaborate a topic in greater detail.
8. Mix it up
Try new types of content, and try them on a regular basis. Here’s a list of 101 types of content to try by Thomas Armitage.
9. Listen & Respond
Listen for likes and shares and respond to comments on your blog and on social media. Show your appreciation.
Use these tips in your next blog post and leave me the link in the comments here. I’d love to give it a read and offer my feedback!
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Kelsey Vere
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I was enjoying and appreciating your post, then i followed to the “101types of content”. I think Cruella de Vil would have a field day culling these down to a team of leader dogs, point dogs, swing dogs and wheel dogs.
There are definitely a lot of types of content to choose from in that list. It’s wonderful. It’s a great resource to have bookmarked on your web browser. That way, whenever you feel stuck on a blog topic, you can refer to it for inspiration.
Thanks for your comment, Emma! I see you’re already well on your way to fantastic blog posts! Can’t wait to see what you write next!