Most law firm blog topics fall into two piles: deal announcements and summaries of obscure court decisions. This has been the safe approach for firms big and small since the dawn of the internet. Attorneys are paid to be risk-averse, and you can see it in the content their channels share.
Coming up with law firm blog topics that will actually interest people is difficult. The articles that are helpful, thought provoking, and original might not always be the safest. But they attract the right people, and they motivate people to take action.
If you want your content strategy to work, you have to be consistent. You need to produce new content regularly. But this doesn’t mean you have to sit down every day to a blank screen and start from zero. Developing a process for topic brainstorming allows you to systematize your creativity. Marketers call this a swipe file, but you can call it whatever you want. The basic idea is that you create one single document that is a collection point for any stray idea, opinion, or point that you have during the day. These do not have to be clearly defined topics, and sometimes you will develop points that bleed into each other, but by keeping them together, you can always work toward better law firm blog topics.
Step One: Gather Stray Ideas and Parts
Your only goal in creating a swipe file is to collect raw material that might lead to content at some point. You might think of these as quotes, data points, issues raised in recent cases, something you noticed as a result of talking to clients, or anything really. You will keep it in your Word document, Google Sheets, or even the notes app. The material does not need to be fully formed or flawless, because really you just need a constant source of hooks and angles for the interwoven content on your site. Your website is designed to be a network of related topics, so each post can improve or expand upon a topic you might have discussed extensively, or even just casually mentioned earlier. There’s no reason to edit what you include in your swipe file. Err on the side of more ideas rather than fewer. Some sources you can consider for ideas for your swipe file include:
- Conversations with clients about their pain points and challenges
- Meetings with other attorneys
- Keyword research
- Things you’ve mentioned in previous articles and want to explore at further length
- Books you’ve read recently
- Social media you’ve seen recently
- Issues raised in recent higher court opinions
- News from recent deals handled by other firms
- Anything else you can think of
Do not bother with detail when including things in your swipe file. A few sentences at most is probably the best for this stage of generating ideas. If you try to come up with a full outline of content at this stage in the ideation phase, you are likely to get too bogged down and lose out on a more innovative topic.
Step Two: Develop the Ideas Until They Become an Interesting Topic
Most of your ideas in the swipe file will not be great at first. But if you allow them to develop over time and take on additional nuances, there’s a good chance you can turn them into something great. Maybe you have a hunch about something but don’t have the detailed information to support your opinion. Maybe you just haven’t fully thought out the angle but you have a piece of it now. Great ideas are gradually revealed over time when you place them down somewhere and don’t allow them to disappear. Let your brain think about them when you are doing other things. To help them grow you can:
First, Identify common threads between ideas.
Maybe some of your ideas are not great on their own but by looking at them listed together, you identify a pattern connecting those ideas. For example, I’ve long thought that the regular content that most BigLaw firms produce is not helpful to their clients and I’ve suspected nobody really reads it. I’ve also thought that most law firms produce vanilla content because lawyers are risk averse. These things might be true but I don’t really have data on client readership of BigLaw blogs or how they decide their content strategy. But by thinking about both these concepts in the context of how clients are forcing firms to compete in research projects, I came up with the beginnings of a post on how client experience starts with content strategy for law firms.
It’s fine to let these half-formed ideas sit in your swipe file until they feel finished enough to publish. At some point, you might find a topic that makes sense of the half-formed ones and creates a single, better post idea. Similarly, you might begin work on a post that isn’t quite ready to leave the swipe file yet. That’s fine. File it away in your drafts folder until it’s ready to premiere.
Second, Test new angles.
You might have a good topic that isn’t quite great yet because you don’t have the right angle. You need an interesting framing for the argument. So there might be a blog post idea that is fine on its own, but after sitting in your swipe file for a while, you find a way to really put it to use later, in the context of other thoughts. We want to always be writing on similar, interrelated and interwoven topics. Why? Because you have to repeat yourself a million times in marketing before anything gets through. One post on a subject is simply not enough. This is why a swipe file of law firm blog topics pays off over time: a post on Prop 60 claims for beginners might not accomplish everything you wanted the first time
Third, Share the idea with someone else.
A colleague can help you get your ideas out in a more effective way. They can help you identify the strongest part of the draft, ask questions about parts that aren’t as clear, and help you think further on what is most useful about your content. These colleagues might be partners at your firm, people in your network, or even clients (if you’re really feeling adventurous).
Step Three: Know When a Blog Topic Is Ready to Publish
Some ideas become posts immediately. Others need to sit and marinate for a while before they become big enough for publication. There are still others that might never work on their own but could add flavor to a post down the line. How do you determine which posts are ready to be published? Consider:
First, impact and timeliness.
Will this post be useful to your firm and your goals for it? Would its impact be different if published at a different time, or is it evergreen content? Can it wait? Does it reflect on something that is current in the news cycle? Here’s a high impact, time-restrained article example: COVID-19 regulations, circa 2020. These addressed pressing problems created by recent law and regulation changes. It was impactful at the time because it solved a pressing problem, but that impact was tied to its currency. A non-time-constrained post would be one that targeted a lucrative keyword that you don’t want to pay PPC costs for. This keyword continues to be important regardless of the date, and a post about it does not have to be posted at a particular time to remain effective.
Second, originality and credibility.
Does this post add something new to your practice area’s discourse? Are you repeating what someone else has already said, or are you offering commentary about something someone else has said? Is your argument as strong as it needs to be? Do you have the right data or case evidence to validate your argument? An original article might be something that tackles a completely novel issue or use of caselaw and includes enough supporting evidence to set you apart from other firms. If you are having difficulty determining the order in which to post your content, you can create a means of scoring the posts on these rubric items, and go with whatever score is highest. If you’re more intuitive, you might take the approach of just knowing when a post is ready based on your ability to finish it.
Turning Stray Thoughts Into Law Firm Blog Topics That Attract Clients
Not every blog post idea is going to work, but by allowing your ideas to develop, you can make sure you’re on the right path to find more interesting topics. There’s a balance between using a process to make content production more regular and the intuitive elements of creativity. The main thing is that you begin to approach your law firm content with the idea that topics come from anywhere, and these are the tools to capture those ideas and turn them into something valuable for your clients.