Another book interview with a great rainmaker. He said “the material you write is always out there working for you.” What he said. He explained further that he doesn’t write long technical articles, his experience was that he could write several short informative articles in the time it took him to research and write one technical piece.
If you know who your ideal clients are, submit to the publications they read. Create a target number of articles to write each month, then use a portion of your marketing time blocks to do the writing. You might brainstorm a list of 5 topics and then work your way through them.
Think about multi-purposing your writing. The same content might work for a blog, an ezine, or a newsletter. Or look at it the other way, can you take your blog content and create article? Make the best use of your content. Leverage- a concept an attorney has to love.
Don’t know what to write? Think about it from a client perspective. What problems do your clients have? What is it they want to know? What would they find interesting? And- very importantly- will they forward your material to others? Made to Stick is a book by Chip & Dan Heath. In it, they take a look at why some ideas get passed from person to person, and others don’t. The title comes from the notion that some ideas are made to stick. One of the rainmaker attorneys we are interviewing for our book project (Market You Must) had read the book, and it’s a favorite of mine. Urban legends are great examples of ideas that stick. (if you’re old enough, think gerbil and a famous actor in the emergency room…) If you’re still stuck, talk to some of your clients to find out what they’re interested in.
Write and submit an article by the end of this week; schedule writing time on your calendar. One technique that works for me is to have a writing accountability day with a partner. We call each other every 90 minutes to declare what we’re going to get done in the next 90 minutes, and then we report back. I am far more likely to write on those days, and it makes it more fun.
Go forth and write! Let your words do your marketing while you sleep!
barbara@successfullysolo.com
