The art of blawging

Blogs have proved to be hugely successful in the consumer world and are rapidly gaining gravitas in the corporate sector. When planned and implemented with careful consideration, a blog can be a powerful addition to your marketing toolkit. By Larry Bodine

In April 2004, Chicago-based lawyer Dennis Crouch decided to start a professional weblog – more commonly referred to as a ‘blog’ or, in it’s legal guise, a ‘blawg’. This niche destination, which he called the ‘Patently-O’ patent-law blog (http://patentlaw.typepad.com), featured patent cases, claim-drafting tips and book reviews. It was initially aimed at an extremely narrow audience of lawyers.

Fast forward to 2006 and the same blog now receives around 30,000 visits each week, and has attracted a significant amount of new clients and business.

By definition, a blog is a website. A firm can have both and they will complement and send traffic to each other. The difference is that a blog has a concentrated scope – it covers a single aspect of law and new content is ordered chronologically, with the most recent item at the top of the list. Blogs also have a ‘personal voice’ and typically reflect the analysis, insight and opinion of the writer, although professional blogs discuss a substantive topic and do not include personal material.

Reasons to start blawging
Law-firm marketing departments can benefit greatly from the introduction of a blog, which, alongside their other campaigns and business-development processes, can be a cost-effective and valuable marketing tool. They are also easy to set up and use and you do not need to know HTML code.

Cost effectiveness
The cost of starting and maintaining a blog is usually much cheaper than hiring a developer to create a website for you.

High visibility
Blogs tend to attract visitors quickly because they are predominantly text-orientated and are updated on a regular basis, so search engines tend to place them towards the top of search results rankings.

Multiple contributor capability
Blogging software programs allow multiple authors to update content, meaning, for example, that a law firm can launch a practice-group blog and enlist numerous authors to share the writing duties, ensuring that the content is always up to date, accurate and engaging.

Content flexibility
A blog can be about anything – there are no set rules. A law-firm blog can be used to convey viewpoints and news, as well as for marketing announcements, client newsletters, legal updates and answers to common client questions.

A good blog can instantly give the author credibility. Journalists often read and subscribe to blogs in their everyday research, so a well-informed and maintained blog could result in more press coverage for the law firm.

The blawging megatrend
The ‘blogosphere’ – all blogs combined – started in March 2003 and has doubled in size every three months. According to Technorati.com, there are over one-million postings every day, which equates to around 33,000 per hour.

With at least 1,240 law-related websites across 205 legal categories, the effect of a well-planned and effectively maintained blog on a law firm’s marketing programme can be immense.

Tips for effective blogging
There are countless abandoned blogs, which have ended up redundant because the author bungled the job. I recommend the following to law firms that are looking to invest time and resources in starting one for marketing purposes:

Use you firm’s existing branding so that the blog has the same look and feel of your website. This may require hiring a professional blog developer;
Make it interesting and readable. Post about relevant daily news, a new opinion or regulation, an emerging trend or a contrary viewpoint – as well as making marketing announcements. Make it fun to read and convey practical information;
Come up with a catchy title and make sure it includes your firm’s name;
Promote the blog as much as you can. Send a print or e-mail campaign to all your clients announcing the blog and place a link on your website home page;
Turn on the ‘commenting’ feature. This allows clients to offer feedback on your posts, creating an interactive and engaging environment;
Post at least twice a week. A blog is supposed to be actively involved in its topic and as up to date as possible;
Keep it concise. The ideal blog post is three paragraphs long – it makes the point, states an opinion and offers a link for more information;
Keep the web address you start with. When you move a blog, you can lose readers who’ve bookmarked or subscribed using the original URL. Accordingly, think through carefully what you want the blog address to be.

Law-firm success stories
International firm Preston Gates & Ellis launched its ‘Electronic Discover Law’ blog (http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/) during 2005. In the first month alone, it had more than 70,000 hits. Today, it has hundreds of e-mail subscribers and countless others, who receive content via a really simple syndication feed. Subscribers include leading policy makers, federal judges and in-house counsel.

“The blog has become a core element in our marketing and business-development efforts, and has already delivered a return on investment many times over in helping land new clients,” says David Bowerman, business development manager at the firm’s Seattle office.

Smaller firms, too, have blogs. It took around ten minutes for US-based lawyer Andrew W. Ewalt to set up a blog and step onto the cutting edge of marketing. Within 30 days he had a top listing on Google.

Following ten months of blogging, he has now built a niche web destination giving practical advice to his clients, posting two to three times per week. Traffic to the blog is gradually increasing.

The main lesson to be learnt from the examples mentioned above, is that any firm (or lawyer) can create a blog to generate new business – and the concept is currently thriving.

Bear in mind, however, that the attention – and user traffic – usually goes to the early adopters, not those who wait and decide to join the trend a year later. So, if your firm has a particular strength that sets it apart from the rest of the marketplace, set up a blog before someone else does.

Larry Bodine is a law-firm web and marketing consultant specialising in technology, marketing strategy and personal coaching. He can be contacted at: lbodine@lawmarketing.com. His legal marketing blog can be viewed at: http://legalmarketing.typepad.com/.