I attended a great program on content marketing yesterday at the monthly educational luncheon of Legal Marketing Association’s New England Chapter. The speakers, Robert Algeri of Great Jakes, and Doug Stern, a freelance writer, spoke about how to create excellent content to make your online marketing success soar. I was really interested in everything they had to say, but one thing really stuck out to me. They recommend using emerging issues as a way to define your content, keep it hot and in front of your audience. I agree with this completely. But what was most helpful was their simple, straight forward definition of an emerging issue. Here is what they had to say:

Emerging issues have three components:

• They are new.
• They are exciting.
• They are poorly understood.

The first two components don’t surprise me that much, but I hadn’t really considered the third component. It makes so much sense. When creating compelling content, focus on something that isn’t understood well because that is what will prompt people to search for more information. This is where thought leadership happens, right? Identifying these areas are where the marketing people really need to work hand in hand with their internal clients (aka lawyers in this case). Work together. Look at what is happening in the world, industries you serve, markets you present to and the people you know. Identify what you bring to the table but more importantly, figure out how you can solve a problem within an emerging issue.