Over the years I have had a surprising amount of law firm clients tell me that they aren’t bothered about securing coverage in the legal press. For these clients the priority is securing coverage in the national press and the trade publications read by their clients and potential clients.
But such an approach risks missing out on what can be a highly effective way to bolster a firm’s PR and support its marketing strategy – research suggests that there is a direct correlation between law firm revenue and mentions in the legal press.
Many firms do recognise the value of legal press for recruitment purposes. However, it can do so much more than just this.
What can the legal press give your law firm?
There are a variety of good reasons why your law firm shouldn’t ignore the legal press, including:
- It’s been estimated that around 40% of law firms’ media coverage is in the legal press. You are making it harder to secure coverage if you exclude your firm from that forum.
- The legal press is generally interested in reporting on predictable, “bread and butter” subjects such as lateral hires/team moves, salaries, firm profits, ESG/diversity issues and trends in legal services; all things which your law firm should be able to contribute easily.
- It may not be as immediately effective in terms of reaching out directly to prospective clients, but legal press coverage can assist your PR and marketing effort in a variety of subtler ways, like helping to enhance brand reputation and assist with recruitment.
- Appearances in the legal press by individuals in your firm can help establish teams as experts in their fields. This not only builds trust and reflects well on your brand, but also helps hugely when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. Everyone wants to work for a firm that they feel is going somewhere, regular media coverage is one way to achieve this.
- It sounds obvious but lawyers read the legal press. Remember that in-house lawyers, even if they are not always making the buying decisions for legal services directly, do have a big influence on how your firm might be perceived within their own organisations. In this way, the legal press could help you reach a large pool of potential clients.
- In comparison to the time and resources needed to secure national press coverage, which is highly competitive, it is relatively easily to build a relationship with legal press titles and journalists.
- Investing in relationships with legal titles and their staff could prove to good insurance against the risk that bad news does leak out one day. A legal journalist is more likely to take a sympathetic approach with a firm where a good relationship has been fostered.
My experiences suggests that those law firms willing to be more open minded and include legal press as part of their overall PR strategy will reap the rewards not to mention being in a much stronger position if they need to pull in a favour should a negative story break.
My advice to law firms then is this; ignore the legal press at your peril! If you do you will be missing out on a highly effective PR and recruitment tool.
How can I help?
Need some help with PR? Feel free to drop me an email to arrange a 30 minute complimentary call or take a look at some of the packages I offer law firms, accountancy practices and other b2b businesses.
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