A Legislation Firm’s Manual To Producing A Podcast

By Courtney Hudson and Megan Senese

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Regulation360 (December 23, 2020, 12:11 PM EST) —

Courtney Hudson

Megan Senese

2020: It has been a calendar year — and it is not even more than nevertheless.

“Pandemic,” “COVID-19” and “coronavirus” are terms that were new to most of us more than 9 months in the past, but now have infiltrated into our every day vocabulary. This 12 months has provided us new difficulties, new routines and new normals.

At the onset of the pandemic, firms required to determine how to reduce by means of a crowded electronic industry to raise their profiles and arrive at their clients. Regulation firms aggressively pivoted from in-particular person programming and customer situations to virtual webinars at a fast and furious speed.

As the inflow of invitations to digital activities, seminars and webinars poured in, facts overload took above, and inboxes turned inundated. For some firms, even the most loyal customers started to unsubscribe from mailing lists or outright disregard any communications.

Enter an additional new time period from 2020: “webinar fatigue.” Shortly after the globe settled into home places of work, or kitchen area tables, the current market grew to become saturated with content material, and webinar fatigue established in.

According to a latest report in The American Law firm, basic counsel shown higher fascination in podcasts as one particular of the most well-liked strategies for consuming content.[1] Developing a podcast permits legislation corporations to arrive at the audiences that favor a shorter audio structure above lengthy-form content or webinars.

Even though there is nevertheless a will need for long-kind content, podcasts are effortless for shoppers for the reason that the content material is swift to take in and can simultaneously be listened to whilst performing other responsibilities, like dwelling education for case in point.

So, how do attorneys continue to achieve their clientele and targets to deliver crucial legal insights? By getting artistic, adaptable, reliable and most of all, creating it easy.

Set a cadence.

As soon as a concept and subject are designed and selected for a podcast, make your mind up which structure will work best for the collection. Picking a podcast format involves pinpointing the size and frequency of when the episodes will be produced, and picking a shipping style, i.e., whether or not it will require interviews, a single host, more than one visitor, storytelling, and so forth.

Location a reliable format and episode length will allow listeners to know precisely what to expect, and how typically to expect it.

After the launch schedule has been solidified, commit to it, and commit to it entirely. The launch program will help appeal to and retain listeners, realizing they can frequently tune in on a distinct working day.

Consistency also applies to the internal recording agenda. Generating an interior recording timetable lets for rearranging subjects and visitors when breaking information hits the market, and priorities have to have to be adjusted.

Prerecording a handful of episodes also delivers the flexibility needed when a showcased guest encounters a scheduling conflict. Obtaining 3 to 5 episodes completely ready right before the start of the podcast collection will offer a head start toward acquiring the desired cadence.

Recognize an intellectually curious host.

Select a host who is not only interested in marketplace subject areas and lawful trends but is passionate about listening and conversing with different individuals and suggestions. The host’s follow specialty and level of seniority should align with the concept of the podcast.

For instance, an associate would be ideal suited to host a podcast sequence titled “By way of the Lens of an Affiliate,” whilst a companion may be much better positioned for a collection identified as “A Path to Partnership.”

The discovered host will make guests feel at ease and allow each individual visitor to glow by highlighting their brilliance on the subject subject. Listening to a host who is genuinely intrigued and informed on the subject areas retains the viewers engaged and boosts the likelihood that consumers will share episodes with other individuals who have comparable interests.

Do not halt wanting for market traits and the suitable friends.

Regularly monitoring lawful developments from external resources and possessing significant discussions with purchasers are excellent techniques to continue to be educated of field trends. Consistently reassessing which subject areas are significant and newsworthy, and which visitor is most effective positioned to produce that written content, is very important.

Pick an partaking visitor, either inner or exterior, with the ideal practical experience to bring a contemporary authorized perspective that has not been coated or reviewed in the marketplace. Additionally, tracking clicks and web page sights give beneficial insight into what sector topics the viewers is most interested in and enables for potential information curation centered on listener suggestions.

These issues will aid to be certain that a captive viewers proceeds to tune in to the podcast.

Be adaptable.

The pandemic demonstrated that to endure, organizations want to be nimble and swift. Podcasts can be simply curated to tackle the regularly modifying wave of topics, polices and feelings, building them an excellent way to connect latest authorized traits and news to shoppers.

Right before recording every single episode, set up a planning phone with the host and company to examine an define. They need to believe via the dialogue circulation, the most important factors, and how scripted the discussion will be. While each and every podcast episode really should be conversational in character, drafting a script or free outline helps information the dialogue and continue to keep it centered.

Even additional critical than being fluid with the subject areas is staying agile. Agility will allow attorneys to immediately change the aim of the subject matter centered on client priorities and organization goals.

Be reliable.

Even though currently being authentic might seem trite, remaining genuine to the firm’s model is critical for results. Authenticity should really continue to be the frequent thread all through the entire course of action — in figuring out episode titles, topics, and suitable down to the intro and exit audio.

Obtaining the acceptable deal with art, deciding upon a descriptive title, and adding a summary description of the series is an crucial key to letting the viewers know why they really should hear. Each and every episode’s title and accompanying writeup should communicate to the firm’s brand and goal audience.

For example, introducing intro and exit audio to every episode can increase some individuality and difference to established the collection apart from other people. Obtaining the equilibrium involving new ideas, recommendations and structure changes will be critical to stay accurate to the podcast and the firm’s identification.

Make it very simple for all.

Launching a podcast does not have to be overly difficult or bust the marketing and advertising finances. Discover straightforward recording and enhancing resources, commit in a sound editor to assistance polish the episodes, or outsource the whole post-generation course of action if that is an alternative.

One particular 30-moment recording session can rapidly be repurposed by the advertising section into half a dozen items of content material, absolutely utilizing the attorney’s shorter time invested on the episode. Examples of distribution channels incorporate podcast internet hosting internet sites, the firm’s website, LinkedIn, shopper alerts, blog site posts, and publishing complete transcripts of just about every episode.

2020 has been difficult enough. Make it strain-totally free for attendees to be a part of, simple for lawyers to participate, and even less complicated for customers to listen.

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Courtney Hudson is a organization enhancement supervisor and Megan Senese is a senior enterprise development supervisor at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, wherever they develop The Pillsbury Sector Insights Podcast. 

The views expressed are all those of the author(s) and do not essentially mirror the sights of the company, its clients or Portfolio Media Inc., or any of its or their respective affiliates. This post is for standard information and facts applications and is not intended to be and ought to not be taken as authorized information.

[1] https://www.law.com/2020/12/02/common-counsels-basic-inquire-for-outside the house-counsel-decide on-up-the-cellular phone-and-phone/?cmp_share&slreturn=20201123100119.

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