Content creation Archives - The Attorney Marketing Center

Hmm, what shall I write about today?

October 13, 2021 by David M. Ward

Continuing my quest to equip you with a never-ending supply of ideas for your blog or newsletter or other content, or rather strategies for finding ideas, comes something so simple, you might kick yourself for not thinking of it.

To wit: Amazon’s best sellers lists.

The non-fiction best sellers lists are updated daily or hourly and are an accurate indication of what people are buying and reading.

Which means, if you write about those subjects, they’ll want to read that, too. Not only that, if you post your article online, you will help readers to find your article (and you) via search engines.

Instead of trying to guess what people want to read, let Amazon (and other bookstores) tell you exactly what they want to read.

Start by looking at books about legal subjects, of course. But also look at books on subjects that might interest your target market.

For business clients, that would include topics specific to their industry or niche and the people in them. But also general business books, because every business wants to know about marketing, productivity, leadership, sales, and a ‘ho bunch more.

Consumers are interested in a long list of subjects: insurance, debt, credit, investing, and the list goes on.

You’re in business, and you are a consumer. Find something that interests you and you’ll probably have something that will interest your readers.

You can browse by category or use the search box to search by keyword. You can stick with best sellers or drill down into niche topics, but either way, look for books that are selling well.

What then?

No, you don’t have to buy the books. Or download them via Kindle Unlimited. You don’t have to read any of the books, unless you want to. You can get plenty of ideas to write about by looking at:

The title. What solutions does the book promise? What will the reader learn or be better able to do as a result of reading the book? You might even use a variation of the book’s title as the title of your post or article.
The sales page. In particular, look at the headline and the bullet points. They should supply you with a plethora of ideas and might also be suitable for the title of your post.
The table of contents. Use the “look inside” feature to read the chapter titles and sub-titles.
The introduction. You can also “look inside” and read the first few pages of the book, to see how the author approaches the topic.
Reviews and comments. See what readers and reviewers liked about the contents of the book, what they didn’t like, and what they wanted to know that might not have been addressed.

In a few minutes, you should have enough content ideas to keep you busy for a long time. Hell, you might even have enough ideas to write your own book.

How to write an email newsletter that brings in new business

Filed Under: Blogging, Content creation, Email, Newsletters

Another way to beat “nothing-to-say syndrome” on your blog

October 1, 2021 by David M. Ward

If you’re new to blogging, or you have a bad case of “bloggers block” and need some ideas to prime the pump, you could go to your favorite search engine and search for “how to get ideas for a blog”.

A better approach would be to use that search engine to find actual ideas.

With a few clicks, you’ll have a list of blog post ideas that are relevant and optimized because they are based on actual searches.

Type in a general idea, your practice area, your niche, or other keywords related to what you do. You might want to log out first, or use a private search, so your past search history doesn’t influence your results.

Then, look at the “drop-down” list of searches related to those keywords. You’ll see what people are searching for and that might be all you need to find your next blog post topic.

On Google, you can also look at the “People also ask” and “Related to” sections for more ideas.

If you’re still scratching your head, click to execute an actual search and look at the search results page. Look at the top 3 to 5 organic results (not paid). These will give you a good indication of what people are looking for, at least today, and you can use those results to write a post on one of those subjects.

Done and dusted.

You can take it a step further by clicking through to the actual posts or articles, to see how those topics were handled by other lawyers or bloggers, and get more insights into what to include or how you might slant your post.

By the way, you don’t have to limit your search to law-related keywords. You can search for anything you think might interest your readers and prospective clients.

If you represent landlords, for example, you might search for subjects related to buying, renting, and managing rental property.

You can even write something about one of your outside interests or hobbies.

Let’s say you love muscle cars but never thought to write anything about that on your legal blog. It has nothing to do with what you do professionally, so why do it?

Because there are a lot of people who share your interest and some of them might need your legal services, or know someone who does.

Write a post about the latest trends or about your favorite cars from the ’70’s and post it.

It’s your blog. You can do what you want.

Your regular readers may not be interested, but they might appreciate that you’re not always a boring attorney but actually have a life outside the office.

And you’ll get search traffic from other muscle car lovers, some of whom might like the ‘Cuda you wrote about and decide they want to talk to you about your services.

You’ll also have fun writing about something you love and maybe meet some kindred spirits.

More ways to get ideas for your blog

Filed Under: Blogging, Content creation Tagged With: SEO

Content marketing when you don’t know what to say

September 27, 2021 by David M. Ward

Content marketing is a simple and effective way to market legal services. You create content, your target market consumes it, they learn something interesting or useful, and come back for more.

You build a following who come to know, like, and trust you. When they have a legal problem, they come to you for help.

You know this. But you resist doing it because:

(1) It takes a lot of time.

How much is “a lot”? Would you invest one hour a week if it meant bringing in one new client per week?

I’ll let you do the math.

You can also outsource or delegate a lot of the work. (Don’t outsource all of it, though. Your content needs to speak with your voice

(2) It’s not right for my market.

My clients don’t read, don’t watch videos, and don’t want to hear from me because it reminds them of bad times.

Fair enough. But your professional contacts can read and don’t mind hearing from you, and they can send you more business and introduce you to other professionals who can do the same

(3) I don’t know what to say.

You know a lot more than you think. And if you’ve been reading my daily word-bombs, you know you can write about almost anything.

And you can improve.

Start by reading (and watching videos, podcasts) outside your field of expertise. You’ll get more ideas than you can ever use.

Read about things that interest you. You’ll find that your audience is interested in a lot of things that interest you, too. Are you thinking about getting a new iPad or phone? Guess what? So are a good percentage of your readers and followers.

Read about your target market. You can’t go wrong talking about the people, the issues, and the news that’s a part of their world.

If you have business clients, read (and write) about business and marketing and other issues your clients deal with daily.

If you represent consumers, read and write about things consumers want and need to know (investing, debt, credit, insurance, etc.).

Read, learn new ideas and stories, and share this with your readers, along with your comments, experiences, and suggestions.

And yes, you can also talk about your kids, friends, hobbies, sports, games, and anything else that strikes your fancy.

That’s how your readers get to know and like and trust you.

How to build your practice with email content

Filed Under: Content creation, Newsletters, Writing

Being different without being weird

September 23, 2021 by David M. Ward

You want to stand out. Show people you’re different. Help people remember you and talk about you on social media or to their friends. You’re looking for something you can do that’s different but coming up empty.

Relax. Stop trying so hard.

You don’t have to create your own practice area or provide free pizza in your waiting room. You don’t have to do anything radically different. And you shouldn’t. You’re a lawyer, and people don’t want their lawyer to be weird.

You can be different in little ways.

I just saw a video blogger who ends his videos by telling viewers to like and subscribe, as everyone else does, but then does something I’ve never seen anyone else do. He says not to bother hitting the bell for notifications, “because honestly, you have better things to do than to look out for a notification that I’ve posted a new video”.

Small, but different.

Technically, this is bad marketing. You want your viewers/subscribers/followers to know when there’s new content for them to consume. If they don’t get notified, they may never see that new content, and that’s a lost opportunity for you to connect with them and for them to share your content with others.

On the other hand, this is great marketing.

He shows his followers that he doesn’t slavishly follow the “script” everyone else follows, and that he cares about his viewers and puts himself in their shoes.

A small difference, tiny even, but you can get a lot of mileage out of small differences.

When everyone else looks and sounds and smells the same, you don’t need to do much to stand out.

And hey, if you do serve pizza in your waiting room, don’t put pineapple on it. That’s just weird.

Get more referrals by being more referrable

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Image, Online Marketing

Objection, calls for speculation

September 22, 2021 by David M. Ward

I saw a video the other day that ticked all the boxes. It was clear and concise, delivered the information viewers needed to know, and didn’t waste our time with anything else. One viewer said what many of us were thinking: “Nice, simple and straight to the point.”

Which is what we should all aspire to achieve in our websites, our letters and emails, our articles, briefs, presentations, and all our communication.

William Howard Taft said, “Don’t write so that you can be understood, write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.”

Clarity is equally important in our bills and invoices.

A bill shouldn’t be merely a list of how you spent your time. It should be a narrative that describes your effort.

Spell out what you did in plain English, and what it means for the client. Use active verbs and specific nouns to describe the process you used to deliver the results you obtained, even if (especially if) those results aren’t yet fully realized.

In school, teachers told us to “show your work” instead of merely reporting the answer. They wanted to see what we thought and did and why.

The same standard should apply to your bill.

Show clients your work; help them see and understand what you did and why. If there isn’t room on the actual invoice, add a cover letter and spell it out.

Don’t make clients guess what you did or what you meant. Explain it to them as if they were a child. Or your teacher.

How to write a bill your clients want to pay

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Fees and Billing, Writing

Psst, wanna buy a used blog post?

September 17, 2021 by David M. Ward

I didn’t write it, it doesn’t say anything new, but I’ve saved a blog post for future reference and I am recommending you do the same.

13 Brilliant Ways to Repurpose Your Content & Save Time is an excellent roundup of that very subject.

It’s written for authors, but the information applies to anyone who uses content to promote their business or practice.

I’ve used only one method. I’ve turned blog posts into books and used those books to generate more traffic to my website. I get more visitors, more subscribers, and more clients, and I didn’t have to write anything new.

This post reminds me that there’s a lot more I can do.

If you don’t do any content marketing, seeing what’s possible might encourage you to start. It’s a simple way to use what you know to help people find you and find out how you can help them.

One more thing. The content you repurpose doesn’t have to be your own.

You can point at someone else’s blog post or article or video, for example, and tell people about it.

Like I’ve done with this post.

Filed Under: Content creation, Web traffic, Writing

A stupidly simple source of content ideas

August 31, 2021 by David M. Ward

You need ideas for your blog or newsletter. No worries. Just check out your competition’s websites and see what they’re writing about.

Their sites are a potential goldmine of content ideas, written from the perspective of a lawyer speaking to prospective clients.

Read through their blogs, see if they’ve covered any topics you haven’t covered. . . and. . . cover them.

You can also look for articles on subjects you have covered and see what they did differently. You might get ideas for new posts or updates on the subject.

You might agree with a post, write a similar post, and provide your own examples or client success stories.

You might disagree with a post and explain why.

If a lawyer wrote a short post, you might write a longer one and explain things they didn’t talk about.

If they wrote a lengthy post, you might write a shorter post, or a series of short posts on each of their sub-topics.

If they are in a state or country with different laws or procedures, you might write an opinion piece on why your jurisdiction should follow suit.

While you’re on their site, check out their blog comments. See what their visitors like and the questions they ask. The odds are your visitors have the same questions.

If they have a newsletter, sign up for it. They may offer additional content to subscribers that you can’t access on the website.

In short, a visit to some of your competitor’s sites is a simple way to get content ideas. Probably more ideas than you can shake a stick at.

More ways to find ideas for content: here

Filed Under: Blogging, Content creation, Newsletters

Not too hot, not too cold

August 18, 2021 by David M. Ward

When it comes to communicating with your list(s), whether through a newsletter, blog, social media or any other mechanism, you have to ask yourself, “How much is enough?” and “How much is too much?”

How often should I contact them? What is a good length or word count for my articles or posts or videos?

Because if you send them too much or too often, you might overwhelm them and lose them. They might unsubscribe or they might stop reading or listening and responding.

But the same can happen if you give them too little.

If they don’t see value in what you send them, or they don’t hear from you often enough and forget who you are, they will leave or tune you out.

That’s not necessarily fatal, however. The only metric that really counts is the amount of business you get from your articles or posts.

How many new clients, repeat clients, up-sells and cross-sells, and referrals is the only thing that matters. Everything else is nice to have but not essential, even if you could track it.

Opens? Clicks? Shares? Engagement? Hard to track, and if you have a small list, usually not worth the effort.

Capice?

Still, you don’t want to overwhelm people with too much information, any more than you want them to stop following or listening to you because you send them too little.

You also don’t want to make more work for yourself than necessary.

You want to build a “relationship” with them, so that they come to know, like and trust you, and eventually hire or refer you. You do that by providing valuable and interesting information, and making it good enough that they look forward to getting your next.

What makes it good enough? It doesn’t need to be brilliant or exhaustive. It simply needs to be interesting and relevant to your readers.

As for quantity, when it comes to a newsletter or blog post, I suggest you publish or post once a week. Often enough to keep your name in front of your list, but not so often that anyone tunes out or you can’t keep it up.

And keeping it up is important because you never know when someone will be ready to hire an attorney or has a friend who needs one.

You can publish more often than once a week. Whether or not you should do that depends on your practice area, your market, and you.

You need to find a happy middle ground, one which keeps people reading and responding, and allows you to publish regularly, without taking up too much of your time.

As for length, a few paragraphs or a few hundred words are enough, and certainly not too much. You’ll never overwhelm anyone by sending them something they can consume in 2 or 3 minutes.

Shorter posts are easier to write and take less time. You can do everything in less than an hour a week.

Not too hot, not too cold. It’s just about right.

How to build your practice with a weekly newsletter

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Email, Newsletters

Two birds. One stone.

August 16, 2021 by David M. Ward

You: “I want to help my best clients and referral sources but I’m not always able to provide referrals.”

Also you: “I need more ideas for content for my blog and newsletter and social media.”

Me: Pay attention to what your best clients and referral sources are doing and talk about that in your blog, newsletter, and on social.

When they have news or post new content, when they announce an upcoming event or get an award, when they run a promotion or launch a new product or service, share it.

Re-post their news release or article. Share their links. Ask them questions and quote them.

They get free publicity, traffic, leads, and new business.

You get free content for your blog, newsletter, and social media.

Also you: your best clients and referral sources see you promoting them and helping them and most of them will want to do the same for you.

Actually, that’s three birds with one stone. But who’s counting?

How to take a quantum leap in your practice

Filed Under: Content creation, Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Relationship marketing