Most firms have the newsletter game down. (Yay you!) The schedule, the segmentation, the email lists, all of it is set up so you can regularly and consistently reach out to your current and potential clients.
But what if newsletters, while consistent, aren’t necessarily the most effective way to keep in communication.
Kevin O’Keefe covered a post on 6 reasons why you should quit newsletters and start blogging instead! a couple of weeks back.
My initial response was agreement, but tentative. After all, I subscribe to a decent number of newsletters and I find them valuable.
But then I read a post on the LexBlog Network that was social proof of blogs beating out newsletters. Sometimes, you just have to see it in writing from another point of view.
In the LexBlog Leaders post, Blogging Allows Financial Services: Regulation Tomorrow to Keep Up with the News, the team of attorneys who were compiling content for newsletters found their reach broadened and their access to readers improved.
Initially the blog merely allowed the financial services team in London to post and share their information more frequently. But as the firm expanded geographically, it also allowed them to get even more coverage.
What if you could get more value from those newsletters by turning them into blogs? Would you try it? How do you decide what newsletters are blog worthy?
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think there is anything wrong with newsletters. However, there are times when your newsletter could be more.
Turn that newsletter into a blog
If you’re looking at your newsletters or client alerts and wondering whether to blog, ask yourself these questions:
- Does this newsletter come out on a monthly or weekly frequency?
- Is this newsletter dense with content?
- Could that content be spread out over more frequent postings?
- Does this newsletter cover more than one item when it’s released?
- Does this newsletter provide highly valuable insights for clients?
- Would this content be more effective if it was more timely?
Chances are, if you’ve got a newsletter that goes out to clients and gives helpful updates, it should probably be a blog.
Per the 6 reasons by Louise Waern, as a blog your legal content will :
- Get indexed in search engines
- Allow frequent communication
- Allow sharing to a broader audience
- Enable communication over status updates
- Encourage tailoring the message
- Include better analytics
Keep it as a newsletter
There are newsletters that likely aren’t really worth being in blog form. These are the newsletters that aren’t timely nor provide high value to your clients. Consider:
- Does this newsletter come out light and infrequently – every quarter or so?
- Does this newsletter cover mostly firm updates – hires, awards, etc.?
- Is the newsletter internal only – mostly info on break room updates or open positions?
If the answer to these questions is yes, you’re probably better off leaving it as a newsletter.
Anything that doesn’t provide value for your clients (the target audience) or wouldn’t be something you’d want findable on the internet, should remain a newsletter.
There is nothing wrong with having firm newsletters. But if you’re going to be putting the energy into making a really great newsletter or client alert, you might want to consider turning it into a blog. You’ll get more coverage for the same amount of work.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Any newsletters you’ve got that should turn into a blog? Any newsletters you think should stay as is?
Cropped image by Flickr user Dennis Skley.