The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years presents great opportunities for law firms to elevate their marketing and business development initiatives. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are powerful marketing tools for the busy attorney or legal marketer. However, for those new to AI, learning how to use it may feel daunting.

With a basic understanding of how ChatGPT operates and some foundational prompts, law firm marketers can leverage this tool to streamline marketing and business development tasks while saving time and money.

Before delving into ChatGPT prompts to support your law firm’s marketing initiatives, it is important to understand the basic principles of how generative AI tools like ChatGPT and other chatbots work, as well as how to avoid common pitfalls that can produce unintended (and potentially damaging) results.

How ChatGPT Works: The Basics

ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM), a type of AI that continuously learns the relationship between words and phrases from the vast repository of text-based data that existed on the internet when the model was trained. From this massive data set, LLMs can understand the use of human language from the context in which it’s used. This allows the model to create a complex map of relationships between words and phrases, called a neural network. The process for developing these neural networks is called “deep learning.”

LLMs’ capacity for deep learning and creating sets of neural networks at scale is what allows ChatGPT to produce responses to text prompts that are more sophisticated than traditional search engines like Google. It is also the reason why ChatGPT delivers personalized results unique to your queries based on your prompt history and response preferences.

Tip: ZDNET’s comprehensive breakdown of how ChatGPT works is a great resource for understanding the computer science behind this innovative technology.

ChatGPT for Legal Marketing

ChatGPT’s architecture allows legal marketers to “mold” its responses to a law firm’s brand and marketing objectives. For example, ChatGPT can interpret your firm’s brand and style guidelines and best practices (such as tone of voice, for example) and generate content for your blog that matches your firm’s style. In fact, you can feed ChatGPT examples of previous blog posts and ask it to generate a new one based on the language style it analyzes from the provided examples.

Make sure you thoroughly review and proofread all AI-generated content for mistakes and never feed it confidential information such as client or case details.

With these fundamentals in mind, below are five simple prompts to get you started with using ChatGPT for your law firm’s marketing and business development.     

Prompt #1: “Summarize the following court decision in a few sentences.”

An important component of law firm brand building is sharing your insights and analysis of court decisions in your practice area. It is an essential part of Builden’s Marketing Infrastructure Model that ensures your thought leadership efforts gain maximum attention. When using this prompt, be sure to include a link to the decision or copy and paste the text into the prompt box so that ChatGPT can analyze it.

Once ChatGPT produces a concise summary of the case, you can use this newly generated content to add your own insights and key takeaways. You can also follow with another prompt asking ChatGPT to format the summary in your firm’s language style and to trim or expand the content to turn it into a blog post, social post, case study or presentation.

Prompt #2: “Draft a social media post promoting our firm’s victory in the following case.”

Alongside your thought leadership pieces, your firm’s social media presence should regularly promote your accomplishments, especially client victories. This ChatGPT prompt is an excellent way to condense long-form content describing a case win and converting into a social media post. As with the previous prompt, we recommend providing ChatGPT with your firm’s style guidelines and best practices so that it can efficiently produce content that’s ready to be shared (after it’s proofread and checked for accuracy). 

Prompt #3: “List target SEO keywords for my law firm website in order from lowest to highest keyword difficulty/search volume [link to website].”

In today’s digital world, search engine optimization (SEO), or the practice of optimizing web content to boost search engine rankings, can help drive traffic to your website.  ChatGPT offers a quick shortcut to keyword research if you lack the time and resources to conduct full research.

With this prompt, be sure to include the link to your firm’s website. ChatGPT will search your site and analyze your content, practice areas and industry focus before producing a list of keywords you can implement as part of your SEO strategy. Use this list as a starting point in optimizing your firm’s website and future web content.    

Keep in mind that any SEO metrics, such as search volume and keyword difficulty, that ChatGPT provides are simulated and may not reflect the true value of those metrics. It is best to verify these simulated metrics with another SEO tool such as Ahrefs and SEMRush to develop an informed keyword strategy.

Prompt #4: “List 10 blog topic ideas for my [practice area] law firm in [city/state].”

Keyword research is only the beginning of the myriad of ways you can leverage ChatGPT for law firm SEO. Another way to use AI to streamline SEO strategy is to use ChatGPT to brainstorm a list of thought leadership topics tailored to your firm and practice area.

Using the prompt above, ChatGPT will provide recommended topics based on what will be most compelling to your audience and most competitive in search rankings for your geographic location. This is one of many examples of ChatGPT using context to deliver responses tailored to your needs.

Another variation of this prompt is to omit the mention of your main practice area and location and replace it with a link to your website. ChatGPT will analyze your website and identify topic gaps that can be filled with optimized blog content. Both variations of this prompt are a great way to generate ideas for thought leadership pieces while advancing your SEO goals.

You can also run an SEO website audit using the SEO Audit Tool from DIAP Media (which is a simple ChatGPT integration) using the same prompts as the original ChatGPT to deliver more advanced SEO analysis and reports.

Prompt #5: “Draft an outline of a seminar/webinar presentation on [X] topic.”

If you have an upcoming speaking engagement and are looking for assistance in creating your presentation, let ChatGPT do the heavy lifting by using this prompt. When you’re pressed for time, ChatGPT is a fantastic resource for brainstorming the foundation of your presentation’s content.

You will want to customize what ChatGPT generates to suit your needs and preferences, in addition to double-checking for informational accuracy and proper citation. Nevertheless, this prompt is especially useful when you are in the throes of writer’s block and need a solid starting point for creating effective and engaging content.

If you are drafting presentation materials to submit to a bar association for CLE credit approval, you can use ChatGPT to help ensure your materials meet your jurisdiction’s CLE credit requirements. ChatGPT can analyze your materials and compare them with the list of requirements from the state bar’s website before you submit your CLE application. 

Streamline Your Legal Marketing with AI

ChatGPT is a revolutionary resource for legal marketers, business development managers, attorneys and law firm leadership. When used effectively, ChatGPT can maximize efficiency, optimize your marketing strategies and support your firm’s goals, helping you grow your law firm’s presence and success.