Why Content Is Still King, But Style Is The Queen
A few weeks ago, I read about a case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit about a dispute over $4.85 million in insurance proceeds. The issue at the heart of the case is whether the language of professional liability policy covers alleged gross negligence related to auditing work done by a consultancy.
The policy’s definition of covered management consulting services reads: “Services directed toward expertise in banking finance, accounting, risk and systems analysis, design and implementation, asset recovery and strategy planning for financial institutions.”
The insurer denied coverage, arguing that the phrase “for financial institutions” modifies the entire set of services and therefore the definition does not apply to the auditing work done for the client of the consultancy: a food distribution company.
The company argues that auditing is part of accounting, and that in order for “for financial institutions” to modify—and therefore limit—“accounting,” the definition would have to include an extra comma (after the phrase “strategy planning”) like so: “Services directed toward expertise in banking finance, accounting, risk and systems analysis, design and implementation, asset recovery and strategy planning, for financial institutions.”
The Florida district court agreed with the insurer. The food distribution company appealed to the 11th Circuit. At this point, the parties are now arguing about waivers of arguments on appeal, failures to cite applicable precedent (believe it or not, there is actually more than one U.S. Supreme Court case addressing grammar rules and the implications of omitted commas), and interpretation of insurance policies.
But the essence of the dispute is over one (allegedly) missing comma.
Now, it’s unlikely that a misplaced comma in your marketing and business development communications will land your firm in court, but it might be costly nonetheless.
Audiences perceive and judge your firm based on your marketing communications. Sloppy content—lack of attention to basic grammar rules, excessive use of jargon or inconsistent language, shifting tone and style, and erratic formatting such as inconsistent use of capitalizations, headers and italics, underlining and bolding—is distracting and reflects poorly on your firm.
A lack of consistency will also confuse audiences—71% of organizations surveyed on the value of brand consistency said inconsistency is the main cause of audience confusion, according to Inc. You’ll have a harder time converting a confused prospect into a client.
This is why a content style guide is essential. Clear, consistent content will always benefit your firm, and a comprehensive style guide helps ensure consistency and show attention to detail (which is table stakes for most clients in hiring lawyers and firms). Firms that adhere to editorial style rules produce clearer, more accurate content with a distinctive voice and appearance. Clients, prospects and referral sources, in turn, realize that they can rely on the lawyers and the firm to provide clear, insightful content that’s easy to follow and understand.
For law firms, which often comprise a number of lawyers, each with their own unique way of writing and speaking, a style guide is vital to building a single, unified brand voice and style. Regardless of the author, all marketing and branded content and thought leadership—bios, website pages and pitch decks, as well as blogs, alerts, newsletters, FAQS and other resources, and the like, should be written in the same tone of voice and mindset
To be clear, we’re not talking about taking away people’s personal style—there’s still a lot of room in a law firm’s tone and style for individuality. There’s also room for different types of content to have different styles and tones— as long as it’s consistent with brand voice and style.
For example, client success stories and case studies can be told in a lighter, more conversational or story-telling manner, while client-impact alerts talking about industry or legal developments can take a more straightforward, “newsy” approach. A white paper or resource guide can cover much of the same topic as FAQs or a “what you need to know” piece, but the structure, tone and depth of information may differ. Likewise, informational videos will differ from videos focusing on firm culture or client experiences.
A style guide not only ensures consistency across marketing and communications, but it provides a blueprint for everyone involved in content creation, from the firm’s marketing professionals and lawyers, to outside writers, designers and technology folks. There’s no need to wonder about how something should be presented, and there’s no time-consuming back and forth about grammar rules and the law firm’s content style.
So what should your style guide cover? A comprehensive style guide can standardize everything from grammar rules to your brand’s voice.
First, the basics. You don’t necessarily need to start from scratch—most of the firms I work with use an established style, usually the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. This style bible for many news organizations is a good starting place and can be tweaked accordingly. For example, AP Style does not capitalize titles, but many law firms capitalize the titles of partner, counsel and associate.
Your style guide should, at minimum, address the following editorial elements:
Grammar. This includes preferred grammar rules (serial comma or no serial comma?), punctuation and capitalization preferences,
Spelling and vocabulary. Which do you use, attorney or lawyer—or are they interchangeable? Is there a difference between a practice, a group and a team in your firm? International law firms may want to specify, for example, when American English vs. British English should be used. What about industry-specific terminology?
Formatting. Guidelines for formatting should address fonts, type size, headings, subheads and line spacing, among other visual considerations.
All content produced across your law firm should use a consistent voice and messaging. Your style guide should define the firm’s:
Voice. When should informal and formal language be used? Should you refer to people by their first name or last name on second reference? When do you use titles and honorifics? Do you write in first person or third person point of view, or does it depend?
Target audience. Who are your firm’s target audiences and how should content be tailored to those audiences?
Values. Outlining your firm’s mission statement, vision and history will help keep content creators, especially outside writers and designers, focused.
Guidelines for evolving multimedia and social media content and practices should also be addressed to promote consistency. Elements to consider include:
Communications and conflicts policies. Policies and approval processes for branded content, articles published in outside media, speaking engagements and presentations, and speaking to the media.
Social media policies. Guidelines for posting on various social media platforms include content, character limits and image usage.
Image and multimedia. Spelling out where images and video content can be sourced will help head off ethics issues. Formatting and captioning information should also be outlined.
SEO best practices. Provide guidance on optimizing content for search engines. This includes defining keywords and meta descriptions.
Your style guide doesn’t need to include every detail, but should provide a comprehensive collection of rules for internal and external content creators.
Finally, keep in mind that your style guide is an evolving document. Be sure to designate individuals responsible for updating the guidelines as needed and disseminating them to new hires and new outside contractors.
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