Your law firm’s website plays an important role in terms of marketing and reaching your target audience – and your content matters. Generating relevant and compelling content is the name of the game, but if you find yourself at a loss when it comes to choosing inspiring topics that resonate with your widest potential audience, you are not alone. Many firms find themselves recycling the same, tired titles time and time again, but you can do better, and we have some helpful hints to get you started.
Think Seasonal
The seasons hit us all the same, and they make a great anchor for developing content.
The Spring and Summer Months
With summer nearly upon us, your content should focus on legal matters that relate to summer living, including:
- With the kids out of school, there are summer child custody schedules to tweak, and child custody modifications are common.
- With warmer weather, we see more road trips, which can inspire a wealth of topics, including traffic accidents, road safety, travel routes, destinations, and much more.
- Summer means vacay, which lends itself nicely to articles about premises liability claims related to hotels, resorts, and pools.
- Boats and jet skis hit their stride in the warmer months, which makes articles that explore related accidents a gimme.
There are also the summer holidays to consider, which deserve some attention of their own.
Memorial Day
This year, Memorial Day is on May 27, and it tends to kick off summer break for all the kiddos out there. Memorial Day is a three-day weekend that brings family and friends together for beer, brats, and yard games (or some variant thereof), and it’s a great opportunity to visit and spruce up the gravesites of our lost loved ones – with a focus on veterans. Memorial Day, however, is also closely associated with some heavy-duty traffic accident statistics, including (according to the National Safety Council, NSC) that traffic fatalities spike over the Memorial Day weekend (compared to the weekends that bracket it). In other words, you can treat Memorial Day as a springboard for a wide range of related articles.
Fourth of July
The Fourth of July falls on a Monday this year, which – for many people – means a 4- or 5-day weekend. Fourth of July has everything that summer has to offer on tap, with some extras thrown in for good measure, including:
- Elevated car accident statistics related to increased traffic, increased impairment behind the wheel and increased distraction
- Water-related accidents
- Injuries caused by fireworks
Labor Day
Labor Day means back to school and the child custody concerns that are often sparked by this transition. There are also topics about accidents on school grounds and accidents related to children making their way to and from school – including bus accidents, pedestrian accidents, and bike accidents – to consider.
We can all relate to the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Labor Day – and all the other holidays – on a very personal level, which makes the summer holidays a great platform for blog topics. Don’t be afraid to give your blog entries and articles your own spin – it’s the best way to find your voice and to really speak to all those searchers who can truly benefit from your services. If you have a unique topic in mind, don’t back-burner it simply because it’s not what everyone else is doing – you might have a real winner on your hands, and when you speak from a place of authentic concern, it can have a profound impact.
The Fall and Winter Months
As temperatures and daylight hours decrease, there’s a lot going on – and there’s plenty to keep you busy in terms of content. Consider all the following:
- Winter driving risks
- Holiday travel
- Increased holiday traffic and traffic accident statistics
- Increased impairment behind the wheel
- Weather-related premises liability claims
- Holiday-related stress and the accidents it causes
These basic topics are the starting point for articles that can be woven into your own masterpieces of content – that also address your potential clients’ needs. Remember, too, that a well-polished title and outline – about a subject of your choice – is going to take you farther than a rote reinterpretation of the basics.
A Feast of Topics
If your firm focuses on personal injury, medical malpractice, workers’ compensation, or any combination of these practices, NSC has a treasure trove of potential topics on offer. Each year, they publish a Safety Observance Calendar that focuses on specific national health and safety awareness campaigns (replete with valuable resources for you to explore). For example, just a few of the many topics on tap for May and June of 2022 include:
- May is Motorcycle Safety Month, National Bike Month, National Electric Safety Month, Trauma Awareness Month, National Water Safety Month, National Building Safety Month, and much more.
- May 21-27 is National Safe Boating Week.
- June is National Safety Month.
- June 5-11 is National Trailer Safety Week (tractor-trailers).
- June 20 is National Ride to Work Day (focusing on those who commute to work on motorcycles and scooters).
This is the tip of the iceberg. If you’re looking for current content ideas, NSC has got you covered.
Keeping Your Content Fresh
In order to create quality content, you need great topics, but that – of course – is not the end of the story. The topic sets the stage, but your content has to deliver. Factors to focus on include:
- Creating a strong outline that flows seamlessly from your introduction to a solid conclusion
- Allowing the reader to hear your voice
- Inspiring your readers to take the next step in moving from potential client to actual client
Finally, don’t shy away from revisiting older content and jazzing it up. Polishing the title, tightening the writing, updating the statistics, and including an eye-popping example or two can breathe new life into work that is down but not out.
