We’ve all heard of that one group that talks about starting a blog, but just doesn’t know where to start.
They know they need to be making business development efforts, but there are so many options, so many choices and they still need to get their hours in.
As a marketer, you know that blog will help with business development, but you’ve got several additional demands for your time and focus.
I recently wrote a couple of posts over on LexBlog’s Please Advise blog that cover seeding a new blog and keeping it going. While you can’t write the content for your attorneys, you can offer some suggestions to get them started and keep them motivated.
What to Write About on Your Law Blog
Getting started is the hardest part, but once your authors have a few posts, they’ll be ready to rock.
- Before you write – nail down your audience.
It won’t matter what you write, if you don’t know who you’re talking to. - Start with the basics.
- FAQ’s are a great way to just get basic content published. Can you take a government FAQ list and make it better? Yes, you can.
- Create evergreen content. Write on elements that won’t change over time. “What is a Patent?” “What paperwork do I need to file for Divorce?”
- Where is your next post coming from?
Once you’ve got a few beginner posts, start listening to where you’ll get your next posts. LXBN, Google Alerts and Twitter all make great listening tools.
How To Keep Fresh Content on Your Law Blog
Once those initial posts are up, your attorneys might be anxious about how to keep it up. No worries though! Keep up the FAQ and evergreen posts, but add a few more advanced elements in too.
- Add additional conversations into your posts.
- Conduct an interview with an industry influencers
- Ask for guest posts from relevant thought leaders
- Cover topics that are trending in the media
- Give your perspective.
The best blogs don’t just cover the facts. They cover the “why should I care” and do the analysis for your readers. Make it easy for them to see why you’re the expert. - Reuse, repurpose and keep consistent.
As a blogger and industry leader, you’re going to get busy. But your readers will still be looking for relevant and useful content regardless of your schedule. Plan ahead so you have consistent content but don’t feel like you need to reinvent the wheel every time.
This post is an example of reusing and repurposing. It took me about 20 minutes. Some weeks, your attorneys will have tons of time for writing. Others, they’ll be bogged down in business.
As you’re looking at all the various demands on your time and your attorneys time, consider the short cuts and quick posts that can be used to seed and keep a blog going.
Just get started and these tips will help your bloggers keep going.
Photo credit: cropped image by Flickr user jakeandlindsay.