How to Write Legal Content That Attracts the Right Clients

Apr 10

11 min read

Legal content marketing is the practice of publishing useful, accurate material, such as articles, guides, checklists and explanatory pages, so that people with a legal problem find the firm at the moment they are seeking help and form a reasoned view of its competence. For a small firm it is among the few forms of marketing that compounds over time. A well-constructed article continues to be found, read and relied upon long after it was written, and each one is a standing demonstration of how the firm thinks.

The difficulty is that most law firm content fails for the same reason: it is written for the wrong reader. It is addressed to other lawyers, or to nobody in particular, or it recites the law in the abstract without engaging with the decision the reader is trying to make. It attracts the wrong audience, such as students, competitors and people who will never instruct a firm, and it generates enquiries from people whose matters the firm cannot or does not wish to take on. The aim of legal content marketing is not volume of traffic. It is the right enquiries, from people whose problems match the firm's expertise, who arrive already informed about what the firm does and what it charges.

This article sets out a disciplined method for producing content of that kind. It covers defining the client, choosing subjects, structuring and writing the piece, staying within professional advertising rules, managing risk, and measuring whether the work is producing instructions. It assumes a small team with limited time, so the emphasis is on a repeatable process rather than a large programme.

Legal content marketing begins with the client, not the topic

The most common error is to begin by asking what the firm knows and wishes to say. The better question is who the firm wants to act for, what they are worried about and what they do before they pick up the telephone.

Define the ideal matter and the ideal client

The firm should write down, in a short paragraph for each, the three or four types of matter it most wants more of. The definition should include the kind of client, the typical value or complexity, the stage at which they usually seek advice and the characteristics that make a matter profitable and rewarding to handle. It should equally record the matters it does not want: those outside its competence, those which are unprofitable at the rates the firm charges, and those which carry a disproportionate risk of complaint.

This exercise has an immediate editorial consequence. Content on a topic that the firm does not wish to handle is an expense with no return, however much traffic it attracts. Content on a topic where the firm is strong, and where the fees are sustainable, is an investment.

Map the client's questions in the order in which they arise

A person with a legal problem does not begin by searching for a lawyer. They begin with a worry expressed in ordinary words: whether they are allowed to do something, what happens if they do not, how long it takes, what it costs, whether they need professional help at all. Content that answers those questions in plain language meets the reader early and builds familiarity before the decision to instruct is made.

A useful technique is to review the real questions the firm has been asked over the preceding months. Enquiry emails, intake notes and the first ten minutes of initial consultations are an excellent source. The words clients actually use, rather than the words the profession uses, should be the words of the headings and opening paragraphs. This is also what search engines match against.

Choosing subjects for legal content marketing that attract instructions

Not every topic repays the effort of writing. The firm should evaluate candidate subjects against four tests.

Relevance to an ideal matter. Would a person who needs the firm's service be searching for this?
Intent. Is the reader trying to solve a problem, or merely curious? Questions beginning with how to deal with, what to do when, and what is required for tend to signal a practical need. Questions about the history of a doctrine generally do not.
Authority. Can the firm write about this with real experience, including the procedural details that only those who have done the work would know?
Durability. Will the content remain accurate for a reasonable period, or will it require constant revision? Procedure-led content tends to last longer than commentary on a pending bill.

Types of content that tend to work

Several formats have proved useful to practising firms, and each answers a different stage of the client's decision.

Process guides. A guide to what happens, in order, when a particular transaction or dispute proceeds, with realistic timeframes expressed as ranges and conditions and not as promises.
Cost and fee explanations. Many prospective clients cannot find any information about how lawyers charge. An honest explanation of the factors that drive cost, without necessarily publishing rates, builds trust and filters out those who cannot afford the service.
Decision guides. Content that helps a reader choose between options, for example whether to settle or proceed, whether to incorporate or trade as a sole proprietor, or whether to mediate first. These show judgement, which is what clients are really purchasing.
Checklists and document lists. A list of what the client should bring to a first meeting, or the documents needed for a particular application, is practical and frequently saved and shared.
Errors to avoid. An account of the mistakes the firm repeatedly sees, with the consequences and the remedies, which demonstrates experience and speaks to anxiety.
Frequently asked questions. Short answers to specific questions, each with a clear boundary stating when professional advice is needed.

Content that tends not to work includes news summaries that repeat a press release, statements that the firm is committed to excellence, and general overviews of an entire area of law that could have been written by anyone.

Writing the piece: structure and substance

Open with the answer or the stakes

The first paragraph should tell the reader that they are in the right place and give them the substance, or a clear sense of what is to come. A reader who must wade through two paragraphs of throat-clearing about the importance of the subject will leave. State the problem, state the short answer and then explain.

Write at the level of an intelligent non-lawyer

The reader is the client, not a colleague. Terms of art should be used where they are the correct term and explained on first use in a clause or sentence. Latin phrases and procedural abbreviations should be avoided unless the reader will meet them in practice. The test is whether a capable business owner or householder could read the piece, understand it and act sensibly on it.

Be specific

Generic content is indistinguishable from the thousand other pages on the same topic. Specificity is the firm's competitive advantage. Instead of writing that the process can take some time, describe which step is slowest and why. Instead of writing that documents must be in order, list the documents and identify the one that most commonly delays matters. Specific content is credible because it can only have been written by someone who has done the work.

Use worked examples with care

Examples clarify, but they must be honest. A hypothetical should be described as hypothetical. A client story drawn from the firm's own files must not disclose anything that could identify the client, and in most cases should not be used at all without the client's informed written consent, because the duty of confidentiality continues to bind even where names are withheld and the facts are distinctive. Any numerical illustration should be expressly labelled as illustrative arithmetic and not as data about the market or the firm's results.

State the limits of the content

Every piece should make clear that it is general information and that the reader's circumstances may differ. This is not merely a disclaimer for its own sake; it correctly frames the content, helps to avoid an unintended retainer and invites the reader to seek advice on their facts. It should be followed by a plain next step: the type of matter for which the firm can be approached and how.

A structure that works

Element	Purpose	Practical guidance
Opening paragraph	Confirm relevance and give the short answer	Use the reader's own words and state the key point in the first two sentences
Process or analysis sections	Explain what happens and why	Use short headed sections that match likely questions
Costs and timing	Set realistic expectations	Give ranges and conditions, never guarantees
Pitfalls	Demonstrate experience	Describe the mistakes seen in practice and how to avoid them
When to take advice	Qualify and convert	Describe the circumstances in which a lawyer is needed
Limits and next step	Protect the firm and invite contact	General information statement and a single clear contact route

Staying within professional advertising and conduct rules

Legal content is advertising in the eyes of many regulators, and the rules on solicitation, advertising and publicity differ widely. Some regimes permit factual, non-misleading advertising; others restrict comparative claims, testimonials, references to success rates, descriptions of specialisation and the use of particular titles. A firm should read the rules of its own bar association, law society or regulator before publishing, and should apply them to every piece, including its biography pages and social media posts.

Without attempting to state the rule in any particular jurisdiction, the following general risks deserve a check on each piece.

Misleading statements. Content must not state or imply that the firm has qualifications, experience or results that it does not have. Claims to be the best, the leading or the most experienced are ordinarily unsafe because they are incapable of verification.
Guarantees and success claims. Statements about outcomes, including the amount that a client will recover, should be avoided. Past results are not a reliable predictor, and publishing them may be restricted.
Client confidentiality. No identifying detail, no case story without consent, and no commentary on current matters.
Testimonials and reviews. Check whether they are permitted, whether they may be solicited and what must accompany them.
Specialist titles. Check whether the firm may describe itself as a specialist or whether the term is reserved.
Cross-border content. Content that is accessible in several jurisdictions may be treated as advertising in each. A statement of the law of one jurisdiction should say clearly which jurisdiction it concerns.
Unintended retainers. Content that answers a specific reader's question, particularly in comments or messages, can create a duty of care. General information should be separated from individual advice.

The firm should designate a partner to approve each piece before publication and should keep a dated copy of what was published. If a regulator or complainant later queries a statement, the firm will need to show what it said and when.

Accuracy, currency and review

A legal article that is wrong is a liability, and one that was right but is now out of date is quietly becoming one. Every piece should carry a date of last review, and the firm should maintain a content register recording each piece, its author, its approver, its date of publication and the date on which it is next due for review. Pieces which depend on statutes, rules, fees or procedures that change should be reviewed more frequently.

The firm should apply the same discipline to sources that it would apply to advice. Statements of law should be traceable to primary sources: statutes, court decisions, rules of court and official guidance. Commentary should be drawn from reputable publishers, journals and institutional reports. Marketing material produced by vendors and unsourced statistics repeated across the internet should not be relied upon. Where a number cannot be traced to a reliable source, the correct course is to describe the effect in words or omit it. Invented or unverifiable statistics in a law firm's content are a particular embarrassment, because the reader expects the firm to be careful with facts.

Distribution: putting the content where the right clients are

Good content needs to be found. The firm's own website is the foundation, because it is the one channel that the firm controls. Each article should have a clear title in the reader's language, a concise description, headings that reflect questions people ask, and internal connections to the firm's service pages so that a reader who has finished the article can see what the firm does.

Search engines reward pages that satisfy the query, load quickly and are well organised. A page that thoroughly answers one question will typically outperform several thin pages on variations of it. The firm should therefore concentrate its effort on a small number of substantial pieces, each focused on a single primary subject, and should avoid duplicating content across pages.

Other channels have particular uses. A short email to existing clients and referral sources, drawing attention to a new guide, keeps the firm in mind among those most likely to refer work. Professional networking sites suit content directed at in-house counsel, accountants, estate agents, financial advisers and other professionals who refer matters. Short summaries can be adapted for presentations to community or business organisations. Whichever channel is used, the underlying piece should live on the firm's own site, and the firm should be sparing with channels it cannot maintain.

Measuring legal content marketing results

The firm's measures should follow its objective, which is instructions of the right kind, not page views. A simple scheme tracks the following in sequence: whether the pages are being found, whether readers are engaging, whether they are making contact, whether those contacts are suitable and whether they become clients.

The most valuable single practice is to ask every new enquirer how they found the firm and to record the answer on the matter record. Over time this reveals which pieces and channels produce suitable instructions and which produce noise. Where practicable, the firm should compare the quality of enquiries that reference its content with those that arrive by other routes: how many were within the firm's practice areas, how many accepted the fee estimate, how many instructed and how profitable the matters proved to be.

A low-traffic article that regularly leads to well-matched instructions is more valuable than a popular article that produces none. Equally, a piece that attracts many unsuitable enquiries should be rewritten to state more clearly who the service is for, what it costs and what it does not cover. Content can be used to deter as well as to attract.

Building a sustainable publishing routine

Consistency matters more than intensity. A small firm cannot sustain a daily publishing schedule, and attempting one leads to thin and hurried content. A realistic target is a modest number of well-researched pieces each quarter, supported by a routine of updating existing pieces.

Keep a topic bank. Whenever a client asks a question that the firm answers more than twice, add it to a list of potential topics, with the date and the words the client used.
Allocate the work. The attorney with the relevant experience supplies the substance, which can be done through a short recorded conversation or an outline of the key points. A competent writer or editor shapes it, and the supervising partner approves it.
Use a template. The structure above, with a checklist of accuracy, confidentiality and advertising checks, shortens the process and reduces errors.
Schedule reviews. Record the review date at publication and diarise it.
Repurpose with discipline. One substantial guide can yield a client checklist, a set of answers to common questions and a short note for referral sources, each pointing back to the guide.

Practical next steps

Write a one-paragraph description of the firm's three or four most desirable matter types and of the matters it wishes to decline.
Review the last six months of enquiries and list the questions and the words clients used, then rank them against the four tests of relevance, intent, authority and durability.
Select three subjects and write one substantial piece on each, opening with the answer and including process, cost factors, pitfalls and when to take advice.
Read the advertising and publicity rules of the firm's regulator, produce a one-page pre-publication checklist and require partner approval for every piece.
Create a content register with author, approver, publication date and review date for every piece, and sources for every statement of law.
Add a field to the enquiry form and matter record recording how each client found the firm.
Review results each quarter, update the best-performing pieces and rewrite those that attract unsuitable enquiries.

How practice management software supports the work

Content marketing succeeds when it is connected to the firm's records of enquiries and matters, so that the firm can see which sources lead to instructions and which matters prove worthwhile. A practice management platform such as Legalytech allows the firm to record the source of every enquiry against the client and matter, to store approved templates and content checklists alongside other firm documents, and to report on matter types and fee income, so that decisions about what to publish rest on the firm's own evidence.

This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Practitioners should consult the rules of their own jurisdiction and regulator.