As a marketing or practice manager, you’re placed in a difficult position every single day. Asking your busy professionals to write quality content so you can post it on your firm’s blog, add it to your newsletter or place it in an industry publication. While it’s an important part of marketing, it’s a big ask for your fee earners to find a few hours to devote to non-billable work.
But if they can spare 30 minutes or less a month, then one (or all) of these four methods will help you create more quality content.
Video and audio is a great way to create content over multiple platforms, quickly and easily. Simply pick a topic and video the expert talking about the key issues and how they might impact your clients. Depending on where you want to use the video or audio, you may want to bring in a professional to tape it in high quality. Otherwise, you could use your own camera or microphone, or one of the many apps that are now available online.
If you want to publish the video on YouTube or use the audio for a podcast, it may be helpful to have someone internally interview or ask an experienced interviewer.
One of the biggest benefits of this process is that the video or audio can also be transcribed and used to create blog content. This content could be produced by a specialist content writer or even a junior member of your team with a flair for writing. So with just 30 minutes of your partner or lawyer’s time, you could have a YouTube clip, podcast and a few blog posts. This is a method that we’ve used and it’s proved to be quite an effective use of time for everyone involved.
2. Be interviewed
Some people find it easier to talk about their area of expertise rather than writing it down. That’s where interviewing them can come in handy. A member of your team or a writer simply interview the expert and asks them to talk about the topic of their choice. This can then be transcribed easily and inexpensively by a transcription service.
With this information in hand, a writer or team member can put together one or more articles that can then be published under the expert’s name. After all, it’s still their content, someone else has just lent a hand putting it down on paper.
We’ve done this quite often with clients and it tends to work best for thought leadership content rather than highly technical issues.
3. Write notes and delegate
If your content is more technical, whether it be case notes or commentary on a specific area of legislation, then it may be more effective to write notes. These can then be handed over to a team member or a writer with legal experience to put the dot points and references into a format that is useful to your clients and visitors to your firm’s website.
Experienced professionals delegate research and advice writing all the time, so why should your marketing content be any different. If you already have a style guide for your firm’s voice this can also be used to make sure the writer creates content that is consistent in tone and style.
Before publishing, simply ask your in-house expert to review the content to make sure it’s in line with their position and you’re ready to go.
4. Invite guest writers
One of the most overlooked opportunities to create quality content is to get someone else to lend their voice. It’s often not considered an option by professional service firms because they tend to portray themselves as experts on their own website. But, just because another expert writes on your firm’s blog, doesn’t take away from your own expertise. In fact, it can bolster it. And it takes less than 5 minutes to make the call or send an email.
For example, if one of the salient points in your firm’s proposition is your ability to connect clients with experts in other fields or jurisdictions, then why don’t you demonstrate this. A guest writer from a different jurisdiction or an area that you don’t specialise in can provide interesting and useful information that your client’s value. If the content is on your site, it also gives your client’s more reason to keep your firm as their first point of contact rather than shopping around.
The other benefit of having guest writers on your blog means you can leverage their networks and social media presence to promote your blog and potentially even share it on their newsletter.
These simple ideas are used every day by many other firm’s and businesses to help them improve the quality and quantity of their content. Each new piece of content brings more potential clients to your door. So why not try it yourself.