5 ways to make your legal copy shine
Why is legal copy so important?
It’s widely known that lawyers aren’t the best at getting their message across to the average Joe. However, it’s so important that legal content and copy is clear, straightforward and easy to understand.
Lawyers know their stuff and can describe it in great detail, but it doesn’t always mean that their clients ‘get it’. It’s often a time of high stress when a person needs to speak to a lawyer, so a clear, jargon-free message is even more essential. It’s also really important that the client trusts the person representing them.
It’s often worth engaging professional legal copywriting services to help with this: many lawyers can write well, but finding the time to to this and to learn SEO skills can be difficult.
It builds trust
Building trust takes time. By publishing consistent, clear legal content writing and copy, legal firms can develop trust, establishing themselves as a thought leader in their space. Blog posts, articles and regular emails that discuss topics in a clear, credible and digestible format are essential. They help to engage and empower potential and existing clients. Even when people don’t need a lawyer at that point in time, firms can build their reputation and trustworthiness by creating regular content that informs and advises, and that compels them to read more.
Five Top Tips
So, what are the five top tips for creating legal content writing that is interesting, stands out and benefits potential and existing clients?
1. Be clear
Write as you speak, using short sentences and paragraphs. Review the text and remove any unnecessary words. Be direct and to the point, and avoid legalese. No one wants to read pages and pages of incomprehensible jargon – they want to know what’s in it for them, so tell them.
2. Be compelling
Use images and videos where appropriate and post content that sparks the reader’s interest. Always keep the audience in mind: who are they? What’s their level of understanding? Most importantly, focus on what they will want to get out of your writing? What do they want to know and how can you give them it without over-complicating the matter?
3. Be friendly and approachable
Use an appropriate tone. Whilst you don’t want to appear unprofessional and still need to use some technical language, a warm and friendly tone is always better. Lawyers have a reputation for being formal, stuffy and unapproachable and this is the last thing that you need when you’re trying to win business. People need someone to explain things in a friendly tone. Your aim is to empower them because the information has been presented in a way that they understand.
4. Ditch the jargon
Get rid of the legalese and the corporate jargon. Define any technical terms in plain English and provide examples for complex ideas. It’s easy to quote chapter and verse and to include legal terminology that you’re familiar with, without considering or realising that clients don’t have a clue what it means.
5. If you’re struggling, get an expert in to help
In an ideal world, you should keep it fresh, regularly updating copy and content on your website and socials, and via email marketing. However, there often aren’t enough hours in the day and in the legal world, time is money: it’s not a good use of time using a fee earner to create copy. You could consider engaging legal copywriting services to help. They’re proficient in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and can help to build awareness of your company by helping your content to be picked up by search engines and prioritised over your competitors’ information.
Summary
At some point in their lives, most people need a lawyer. The last thing that they want is a lawyer who is unapproachable, overly formal or who uses technical language that they don’t understand. Law firms have a real opportunity to draft and publish clear legal content and copy, to help them to build a solid reputation. The power of gaining trust by giving information in a format that people understand, is huge: it significantly increases the chance of them using your firm in the future.
That said, lawyers also find themselves overwhelmed with maintaining their billable hours. What can often be seen as an administrative function, falls to the bottom of the list. This is a very short-sighted approach, as clear, credible content and copy can significantly increase business and accelerate growth. It’s advisable to sub-contract out this work to legal copywriting services, which is cheaper, quicker and more effective.
For a conversation about what ‘Clear and Credible’ can do for you, click here.
