How to Write Better Client Alerts: 10 of the Best Tips

Client alerts are a staple of law firm marketing. These timely updates help firms demonstrate expertise, stay top of mind and guide clients through regulatory shifts and legal developments.

But too often, client alerts are dense, jargon-heavy and published after the moment has passed. Instead of building credibility, they become another unread email in an already crowded inbox.

The good news? With the right approach, client alerts can do far more than summarize a new law or regulatory development. They can strengthen client relationships, support business development and reinforce your firm’s authority. Here’s how to make them more strategic, readable and impactful.

1) Don’t just Report the News: Add Insight 

The most common flaw in client alerts isn’t poor writing. It’s a lack of analysis.

Too many alerts simply restate what happened — a new regulation, a court ruling, a legislative update — without explaining why it matters. Clients don’t need a summary they could find elsewhere. They need interpretation.

Effective client alerts must go beyond reciting legal developments and add a journalistic twist: What changed? How does it affect the client’s business? What should they do next?

This is where the simple question “So what?” becomes essential.

After summarizing the development, pause and ask:

• What does this mean for our clients right now?
• What risks or opportunities does this create?
• What practical steps should they consider?
• What might happen next?

The strongest client alerts translate legal change into business impact. They connect the dots between the law and real-world consequences, helping readers make decisions with confidence.

In short: focus on your client’s business, not just the law.

2) Aim to be the first (and definitely not last)

Client alerts are about news: a change in the law or a new regulation, for example. If the change is significant enough to warrant a client alert, the media will likely cover the topic and other law firms will issue alerts about it. If you send yours out a week or so after the news happens, your clients are already hearing about it. They’re seeing headlines. They’re receiving competitor alerts. They may even be asking AI for an explanation.

If your alert arrives a week later, it doesn’t feel thoughtful. It feels late.

Speed sends a signal. It communicates that your firm is paying attention, understands the implications and prioritizes client service.

Create a system that enables your firm to distribute alerts the same day (or the day after) news breaks.

• Quickly identify developments that matter
• Assign the right attorney immediately
• Draft efficiently with a clear structure
• Get necessary approvals without unnecessary delay

If you can’t get the alert out fast, skip sending one and instead spend time on creating the processes that will ensure you won’t be old news next time. The firms that consistently publish timely alerts reinforce an important message: “We are on top of this and we’re looking out for you.”

“Cranking out a client alert while the news is still urgent sends a clear message: We’re on top of the issues that matter to you.
What better signal could a law firm send?”

3) Develop a Client Alert template

Speaking of systems and processes, consider creating a template that you use for every client alert. A consistent structure helps lawyers focus on analysis instead of format and makes alerts easier for clients to scan.

A practical client alert template might look like this:

• Headline
• Section 1: What’s changed
• Section 2: What it means for you
• Section 3: Actions to take
• Section 4: Read more (optional)

For most alerts, attorneys should primarily use the first three sections and only include the fourth when they want to provide added context about the new law, policy or case for clients interested in the nitty gritty (which is rare). 

A repeatable structure prevents the most common client alert mistake: overloading readers with background while underdelivering on advice. (See point #1 above.)

4) Segment your audience and Write for them

Great emails feel like they were written just for you, the individual reader. If you get an email in your inbox that seems like it was meant for someone else, you’ll either ignore it, or even worse, hit the spam button. 

Before drafting a client alert, identify and segment your email audience.

Not every client needs every update. An energy company doesn’t need health care regulatory news. A private equity executive may not care about a hyperlocal zoning development unless it affects a deal pipeline.

Create distribution lists in your marketing automation or email system based on shared characteristics, such as their industry, practice area, role or location. The more specific and relevant your alert feels, the more likely it is to be opened, read and shared.

5) Write an action-oriented, compelling headline

Great headlines are critical to winning the email marketing game. Without a headline that turns a browser into a reader, your email will go straight to the trash bin. So what makes a great headline?

• They use action-oriented words
• They are short and concise (for email subject lines, keep it to no more than nine words and 60 characters)
• They are attention-grabbing

In The Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Powerful Headlines, Neil Patel recommends using the “four U’s” for writing attention-driven headlines:

• Make the headline unique
• Be ultra-specific
• Convey a sense of urgency
• Be useful

Compare:

❌ Regulatory Update on Environmental Compliance
✅ New EPA Rule: What Manufacturers Must Do by July 1

The second headline tells the reader exactly why they should care and whether the alert applies to them.

6) Get rid of the legalese

In today’s lightning-fast digitized business world, stuffing content full of legalese is a death knell. In The Top 9 Media Mistakes Lawyers Make, Steven Gallo offer this advice: “Most readers, viewers and listeners aren’t lawyers. Even if they are, you want to be conversational. Avoid jargon, acronyms and latin legal terms whenever possible … talk in a way your grandmother could understand (assuming your grandmother isn’t Elena Kagan).”

If your alert reads like a court filing, it won’t get forwarded to the CEO or CFO. It won’t spark a conversation. And it won’t reinforce your firm as a practical business advisor.

Plain language doesn’t mean oversimplifying complex issues. It means doing the heavy lifting for the reader. Translate statutory language into business implications. Replace jargon with direct phrasing. Shorten sentences. Use active voice.

7) Make the Alert scannable

Along with stripping the alert of legalese, aim to make your content scannable. What does this mean, exactly?

Busy executives skim emails between meetings. They scroll on mobile devices. They decide within seconds whether something deserves deeper attention.

If readers can’t quickly identify why an alert matters to them, they move on.

To address this wild-beast-like behavior, we must create content that is scannable (think subheads, bullet lists, etc.) and visually appealing (no more white papers, but highly visual e-books). 

Write in a way to enable readers to quickly discern whether it’s worth engaging with the content on a deeper level. Use formatting intentionally:

• Subheads
• Bullets and numbered lists
• A summary at the top
• Visuals
• Short paragraphs
• Pull quotes
• Formatting such as bold or italics

Think of your alert as layered content. At the top layer, a reader should be able to understand the issue and recommended action in under a minute. Deeper layers can provide additional context for those who want it.

And remember: brevity builds credibility. If an employment regulation changes, your client doesn’t need a history lesson. They need to know whether it affects their business — and what to do next — ideally in fewer than 500 words.

When possible, “think small.” Instead of packaging multiple developments into a long quarterly report, break them into focused, timely alerts throughout the year. Shorter, targeted updates are easier to digest and more likely to be read.

8) Consider producing audio or video instead of relying purely on the written word

As we get busier and busier, more and more people are consuming different forms of content, including podcasts, webinar clips and short-form video.

Consider repurposing significant alerts into:

• A two- to five-minute video summary
• A short podcast-style briefing
• A LinkedIn video post
• A webinar recap clip
• A quick Q&A format

Video and audio introduce something written alerts cannot: voice, tone and personality. Prospective clients don’t just evaluate your expertise, they evaluate whether they trust you. Seeing or hearing an attorney explain a development can humanize the firm and strengthen the connection.

Repurposing alerts into multiple formats also improves distribution. A written alert may reach inbox subscribers. A video summary may perform well on LinkedIn. A short audio clip may be embedded in a newsletter.

“A busy lawyer may find carving out a half hour to record a podcast or video much easier than dedicating the time and focus that writing requires. And, a savvy ghostwriter can take the audio or video file and turn it into written content. #winwin”

9) Review analytics and make adjustments

Today’s digital technologies offer insights that marketers previously only dreamed about. With email, for example, you can measure how many people opened the email as well as how many of those clicked the links in the email, which links were clicked and who clicked them. Any modern email program will provide these insights. But the secret sauce isn’t in the knowing; it’s what you do with the information. 

Review performance patterns regularly. Which subject lines generate higher opens? Which topics drive clicks? Do shorter alerts perform better than longer ones? Are certain industries more engaged than others?

Use these insights to refine your approach over time.

More importantly, look beyond surface-level metrics.

Open rates and clicks measure engagement. They don’t measure business impact.

To understand return on investment, firms should connect client alerts to downstream activity. Consider:

• Reviewing CRM data to see which contacts consistently engage
• Tracking whether recipients request follow-up calls
• Monitoring whether specific alerts lead to increased inquiries
• Including a “source of matter” field when opening new matters

Client alerts can influence business development in subtle ways — sometimes reinforcing relationships over time rather than triggering immediate matters. But without intentional tracking, firms miss the opportunity to learn what’s working.

(For more on analytics and measurement, read “How to Measure the ROI of Your Law Firm’s PR.”)

10) If you can’t create quality content, don’t create any at all

Finally, if you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all. 

Lawyers are judged by the quality of not just their legal writing, but also emails, engagement letters and client alerts. As general counsel can easily receive multiple client alerts on one topic, the bad ones stand out — and not in a good way.

Client alerts offer a window into what it would be like to work with your firm. If the communication feels confusing or self-serving, readers may assume the same about the client experience.

If your firm cannot commit to producing timely, relevant, well-structured alerts, it may be better to skip them altogether than to publish content that diminishes your brand.

Done well, client alerts reinforce trust and authority. Done poorly, they erode it.

If you’d like to improve your law firm’s client alerts, contact me at [email protected] or 904-374-5733.

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