In Part One, we looked at how attorneys can leverage PR to establish positive perceptions about their firm or brand within local communities. Recall that public relations is all about creating and maintaining strong public perceptions about you and your brand without paying for advertising.

For an attorney and his or her firm, these publics —AKA “key stakeholders,” include:

  • Current and potential clients
  • Colleagues / the Bar
  • Current and potential employees
  • Other law firms (potential referrals)

For most practicing attorneys, the groups of potential clients and referrals are the primary concern because they directly contribute to the bottom line.

Reputation Management and PR

PR professionals help with brand building and brand awareness to establish perceptions that you are trustworthy and highly skilled. How you achieve building up your brand is essential to your reputation.

A well-oiled PR program manages your reputation so that people in need of your legal services are compelled to hire you. Therefore, each PR program and action should have bolstering your firm’s reputation as its core objective.

Wide-scale PR Strategies

As Seen In

One strategy to cement your brand into the minds of consumers and bolster brand reputation is to tie it to a known media brand with an “As Seen In”, “As Seen On” or “As Heard On” section.

There are two major benefits to this strategy:

  1. You are associated with a well-known media brand which transfers a level of comfort and trust to you and your law firm in the eyes of consumers.
  2. Showcasing your features and mentions in media with As Seen In/On titles appeals to other journalists in the media who are considering linking to your existing content. Such authoritative links are important for SEO and search engine visibility.

Many firms dedicate an entire page on their website to their features in the media. Some will title the page “In the News” and include summaries and links to the full piece, along with branded images and logo badges under an As Seen In section.

What if I am not yet featured or quoted in a media outlet? No problem. You’re public relations professional can help you acquire media mentions, interviews and features.

One effective tool a registered public relations specialist has at their disposal is a platform called HARO (Help A Reporter Out). This popular national service connects vetted journalists with PR professionals who represent clients that may be of interest to media outlets looking to source their stories.

Press Releases and Pitching the Media

We explored how useful press releases can be for promoting traditional and electronic books in Part One, but they’re also an effective tool for promoting …

  • Continuing Legal Education courses

  • Your teaching role in a CLE seminar

  • A high-profile /controversial case win

  • Firm announcements

  • New partners and new hires

The modern, digitally distributed press release overlaps with SEO in three important ways for attorneys: #1 associating name with firm when you hire a new associate, #2 establishing firm location when you move or open a new office and #3 establishing brand name when you take on a new partner.

You will need a widely distributed press release to help ensure search engines like Google know you have a new office, a new firm name and law partner, or that a newly hired attorney is now an associate at your firm.

In addition to the press release, there will be other SEO steps involved with these major business changes that should be handled by a local Search marketing firm. (You can give us a call as this is a major function of our services here at ClikTru.)

 

Certain announcements like sponsoring a local youth team are best to publish on your website and your LinkedIn page. Others, such as establishing a scholarship or making an endowment are perfect for the modern-day press release —which also receives social media visibility.

Your authority and expertise in a practice area is premium subject matter for a press release that will help position your brand as the top expert in your markets. For instance, if you are teaching a seminar or course, or speaking somewhere relevant to the field, you should send out a properly formatted, well-written press release.

Your PR professional can also craft direct pitches to journalists and editors at media outlets about your firm’s efforts. Direct pitching greatly increases the chance that your news is picked up for featured publication.

If you would like to learn more about how public relations can help your firm stay profit-healthy, contact ClikTru now to see how we can help.