Legal Writing

Well Done

I’m working on an article about whether an attorney should start a blog. Part of it has to do with the ROI of a blog, and I’ve asked a few attorneys with blogs for their comments, and those comments all say this: the ROI of a blog is no quick thing.

What’s required is persistence. To get any ROI, you’ve got to keep writing interesting things for your blog. You’ve got to do it very regularly (at least at first), and you can’t slack off. You’ve got to maintain a sincere effort.

Ditto for law firm newsletters. If your firm or practice group decides to publish a newsletter, then it won’t do you a lick of good unless you are determined and persistent.

Too often, firms start newsletters that could turn out to be very worthwhile, but then they ease their efforts — attorneys are too busy with billable work to write articles for newsletters; the marketing department’s got too much to do with or without the newsletter; there was too little response to the first three or four editions of the newsletter for anyone to get jazzed about its potential.

And that leaves the field open for those few firms that are willing to make a sincere effort and stick with it.

One of those firms is Fisher & Phillips LLP, a labor law firm that publishes eight newsletters.

One of those newsletters, Labor Letter, is published monthly (the others are published only slightly less frequently).

What are some of its award-winning* qualities?

• It’s attractive
• It’s informative
• It’s timely
• It’s published regularly
• It’s written for the target audience

If you’re thinking of starting a newsletter, look at the results of the efforts Fisher & Phillips put into theirs, because it’s a newsletter that makes their efforts worthwhile.

Full post as published by Set in Style on December 02, 2009 (boomark / email).