Supposedly, spring is coming here in the northeast, though with snow and continued single-digit temperatures, it’s hard to believe.

But April will start tomorrow regardless, and if you’re spring cleaning your house, why not "spring clean" your content marketing as well? (It’s a cheesy metaphor, but bear with me). 

Last night, I was reading a post from Practical ECommerce that offered some content marketing ideas for April, using April holidays as a springboard. I was ready to discount this right off the bat as being not applicable to the legal industry, but it turns out that it may actually be quite useful…which serves as yet another good reminder as to why we’ve all got to stay open-minded when it comes to marketing and business development ideas. 

Of course, there are some suggestions that won’t be practical for lawyers. Although I’d love to see some content marketing pieces created around April Fools’ Day jokes, I doubt it will happen. Although…employment lawyers! How about creating some posts on April Fools’ Day jokes in the workplace gone wrong? I could see that working very well!

But in all seriousness, there are a couple of suggestions for creating content around unique holidays in April to get you thinking about how to keep your content marketing fresh and unique.  I should note that most of these are US-centered holidays, so for those of you outside of the US, take a look at your calendars for upcoming holidays and celebrations that may work well for you! 

Tip One: Focus on Your Practice Area

There are two practice areas that benefit from April holidays, and I hope you can guess what they are – Tax Law and Energy Law. 

April 15th is Tax Day here in the States, a dreaded day for many Americans. Why not use it as a way to keep in touch with your clients? We have a tax lawyer in the ILN who uses the weeks before April 15th to circulate "Tax Humor" emails, culminating with a final distribution on the 15th of April each year. 

It’s a lighthearted compilation of tax jokes, which serves to bring some levity to what can be a tedious process for businesses and individuals alike, and serves as a reminder that he is a tax lawyer (though he doesn’t actually do filings). What an excellent way to curate content. 

Some other ideas for content creation may include: 

• Important things for businesses (of a certain size) to remember as tax season approaches.
• Common mistakes made on tax filings.
• A collection of tax-related comics or get really creative and draw your own tax comics! 
• A tip a week for your niche clients for the eight weeks leading up to the 15th. 
• A podcast interview with one of your top clients on concerns going into tax season. 
• A Pinterest board with tax humor comics. 
• Share snippets from a presentation or Powerpoint that you’ve given in the last several months through Slideshare, blog posts, Instagram, Facebook, etc., leveraging existing content to create new content.

Earth Day is April 22nd, and can be a great opportunity for those with a green energy law practice. Even more than using it just for content creation, however, I see it as the chance to create a community-related event that highlights the firm’s expertise and involvement in the practice area. Perhaps planting trees, cleaning up a local park, etc – something that will get those in the firm and specifically in the practice together outside of the office to show the community how they are making the planet a better place. 

Then, you take that online: 

• Take photos of the event and share those on the firm’s Facebook page and through Twitter and Instagram, using the #earthday hashtag. 
• Try to get clients involved, especially clients in this industry. Record short interviews with those clients and share those through YouTube, Vimeo, or even Instagram. 
• You can build buzz beforehand, coming up with a firm-related hashtag and information for how others can be doing more to make the world greener as individuals – share these tips on all social media platforms, and through the firm’s blog. 
• Create a Pinterest board of Earth Day ideas, as well as a separate board for the firm’s Green Energy practice. Comingle some of the firm’s work into the Earth Day board. 
• Get the entire office involved in the weeks leading up to Earth Day, with some kind of prize involved – perhaps organize a contest for the practice area that uses the least paper or recycles the most waster in a certain time frame and track the progress through social media with photos to drive competition and promote the firm’s commitment.

There are any number of ideas you can come up with creatively to implement here for these two areas, as well as others. Keep an eye out year round to see whether there’s a "day" for your practice or industry area that you can "celebrate" and use to drive content creation and promotion to stay fresh. 

Tip Two: Focus on the Event

There is more to April than practice and industry-specific events though – and that’s true throughout the year as well.

April is also home to the following: 

• Administrative Professionals’ Day: April 22nd
• Take Your Daughter to Work Day: April 23rd

And some really unique and fun days: 

• Tweed Day: April 3rd
• National Walk to Work Day: April 3rd (first Friday of the month)
• World Health Day: April 7th
• National Stress Awareness Day: April 16th
• National High Five Day: April 16th (Third Thursday)
• Volunteer Recognition Day: April 20th

There are LOTS more, but those are a few of my favorites. These can be events that the firm commits to and focuses on as a whole, and gets everyone involved with – and they’re a great opportunity to develop content. 

• In advance, create buzz for that day: Start talking about it on social media, and circulate emails around the firm to get everyone prepared for what is expected of them that day. Will there be special events planned? Should they wear something specific? Do you want clients to be involved, and how will they be involved? How can the firm use the event as a way to give back to the community? 
   
• Identify which partners/associates/practice groups make the most sense in terms of creating and leveraging content. For Administrative Professionals’ Day, get your employment lawyers involved. Healthcare lawyers should be weighing in on World Health Day, etc. 
   
• Use as many types of content and channels as possible to be creative. Create a hashtag and tweet about the day on Twitter. Take photos in preparation for and during the events and post them to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Interview lawyers and clients for Instagram, YouTube and/or Vimeo and share those via social media and on the firm’s website. Give away related swag with the firm’s name and event hashtag on it. Share presentations or screen captures of individual slides that are related to the content. Create a podcast interview with parents and daughters on "Take Your Daughter to Work Day."

As with the first tip, the idea is to be creative and fresh – think outside the box of written, static content on your area of expertise to give a well-rounded and professional look at the type of things that you and your colleagues do as lawyers and as a firm to serve your clients and your community.