The legal blog posts can be written in one of three formats: case law breakdown, future forecast or evergreen analysis. How to create a well-structured post on case law breakdown.
Let’s face facts. It is easy to overlook many legal blog posts.
They are long-winded, lacking structure and not designed to be read.
Do you want to write better blogs? Let’s assume you have the content down. This article is mostly about fashion. Online writing is all about style. Let’s get started.
These are four ways to get your readers to pay attention to your blog posts on legal topics.
1. Make your Structure Appealing
It’s easy to see it all the time. The most popular blogs follow similar formats and patterns.
It’s the same for legal thought leadership. According to my estimates, 90% of the blog posts found on law firm websites fall into one of these three formats. I call them the 1) case law breakdown; 2) evergreen analysis; and 3) future outlook.
Each template structure is different and you can use it to your advantage.
Law firm blogs need to be structured. Readers start by reading your content and, if they don’t immediately see the answer they are looking for, they move on.
We’ll be using the case law breakdown as an example. It is the most popular type of blog post. This structure can be used to outline your case law breakdown posts.
Let’s now see how this structure can inspire creativity and create an impact.
2. Make a big investment in your headline
Your headline is the most important word in your sentence. If no one clicks on your headline, it doesn’t matter how good your analysis. Here’s a framework that will help you to break down case law.
It is possible to play around with it. Here are some examples:
“3 Things Employers Should Know about the Supreme Court’s Vaccine Ruling To Avoid Liability”
“5 Reasons why the C-Suite may lose sleep over the SEC’s new ESG reporting standards”
Write a headline that is clear and not complicated. It should be obvious to your readers why they should click on your article in comparison to others that cover the same topic. This can be done by being very specific about the audience for the article. It is important to contextualize the article for a specific audience, such as “the C-Suite” and to name that audience in your headline.
Write for someone. Not everyone.
3. Invert Your Post (the Conclusion becomes the Intro)
When you are ready to create the body of your post, don’t make the mistake of beginning with what has happened and ending with the implications. This structure can be reversed. It can be turned upside down.
Instead of writing a boring intro, you can use
“On March 13, 2022 the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in the matter of Party v. Party . This was a 5-4 decision.
(Ugh. You already lost me.)
You can also try this:
“To avoid lawsuits and fines, there are three things employers should know about the Supreme Court’s vaccine ruling: (1) thing 1 (2) thing 2 and (3) thing 3.
Employers and their legal counsel should talk about adopting [policy 1] or [policy 2.] in light of the Court’s ruling. Let’s now take a closer look to what the Court said, and why .”
Can you see the difference? This approach will allow you to give the reader exactly what they are looking for in just a few short paragraphs.
4. Subheads can make your post skimmable
Make your post easy to read by organizing it in simple sections. These sections are separated by subheads which break down your main points more clearly (like I did in this article). If they only see long blocks of text, you’ll lose them.
Next, summarize and repeat in your conclusion. Voila! You have a well-structured blog post on case law breakdown.
Keep it simple. Keep it short and simple. This is what makes it easily accessible online.
Here’s your summary for writing a case law breakdown post
Nearly all blog posts can be arranged in one of these formats.
Your headline should be a focal point of your attention.
Reverse your post. The conclusion you believe should be written should actually be the intro.
Subheads make it easier to skim your posts.