However, more often than not, even lawyers who appreciate the value of a newsletter as a marketing tool fail to publish one. Such lawyers often claim to lack idea of what content is fit for a newsletter and where to get it. But what they fail to understand is the audience of newsletters and their information needs. If they did, it would not be hard to see that their claims are unfounded.
Law firm newsletters are not targeted at fellow lawyers. Rather, they have for audience clients and prospects who are laymen and whose understanding of the law is limited.
All you need to do is offer information and tips on the law relevant to their situation and business. To be able to do that well, you need to have an in-depth understanding of your target clients, their personal concerns and businesses. It will help if you have a narrow niche market as, then, it is easy to collect and utilize information on them.
According to the law firm Marketing Coach Krista Baker, the content of a law firm newsletter should entail a mix of tips and explanation of the law plus comments on how recent legal developments affect the clients' life and business. In the article 10 Ideas on Newsletter Content, Krista gives the following incisive ideas on what to include in newsletter content:
- The content of your law firm newsletter should be dictated by your clients needs.
- The newsletter should have a section dedicated to dissecting legal industry news and what they mean to your clients' business.
- Have a section giving your opinion on recent legal issues of concern to your clients.
- Consider giving the newsletter an international focus especially where your clients are involved in foreign trade.
- Include explanatory articles on different legal topics and keep to simple English while at it.
- Consider tackling case histories by hypothesizing a current client problem and explaining how to solve it.
- A newsletter may, also, be used to raise awareness of educational activities the lawyer is involved in that may benefit the client e.g. to promote seminars where you have been invited to present a paper.
- Inform the client about any useful publications e.g. articles, books etc whether authored by your law firm, government agencies or even other lawyers.
- Use the newsletter to promote law firm events e.g. entry into a regional law firm alliance and highlight how they boost the firm's services to its clients.
- Lastly, spotlight community events the law firm's lawyers are involved in e.g. public interest campaign.
There is no doubt that the above ideas are enough to get you started on a law firm newsletter. In a word, be generous and relevant in giving information in the newsletter. Indeed, even if one decides to outsource preparation of the newsletter to a professional writer, the above tips are useful in giving instructions and assessing the work done.
Authored by Paul Musyimi, the Lead Researcher at the Kenyan legal research firm, Practical Research.
