As a regular contributor to Lawyers Alert, Jaffe PR provides valuable insights into reputation management for law firms of all sizes. Its website tips of the week and blog pieces-four examples of which are excerpted here-address how best to foster your image and promote your firm's image to build more business.
The business opportunity you never knew you lost
Michael Webb / mwebb@jaffepr.com / 214-212-2187
Legal professionals often struggle with how much of the social media hype to heed, adopt or ignore. If you are debating whether or not to have an online profile, the decision is about to get easier thanks to new research indicating online absence can be very detrimental.
BTI Consulting Group's 2011 survey of buyers of legal services, "How Clients Hire: The Role of Legal Directories and Online Lawyer Profiles," confirms what we know-referrals are the single best source of law firm introductions.
The new news in BTI's research is that the use of technology is increasingly important to in-house counsel after the referral. Specifically, 70 percent of in-house legal counsel and staff use social media profiles or legal directory listings to identify, evaluate or validate credentials of outside counsel.
Say, hypothetically, a colleague, client or professional associate refers you to a potential client. That in-house decision maker heads to the Internet to learn more about you and finds your bio on your firm's website. But a search of Google.com, legal directories or social networks comes up empty.
This potential client wants more information to make a hiring decision and your information isn't there. According to the survey, the absence of an additional online presence/profile may cause more than half of potential clients to hesitate.
So if you opt out, they may as well. The process occurs without your involvement and a business opportunity can be lost without you ever knowing it existed.
If you choose not to create an online presence beyond your law firm's website, you do so at your own risk. Take your online reputation in hand and create a professional profile on a reputable business/legal resource.
Public Reputation Management Tip, July 27, 2011
Does your law firm's logo break through the noise barrier?
Terry Isner / tisner@jaffepr.com / 302-519-8895
Even if your firm hasn't changed all that much in the past few years, the world has changed around it. Today we are bombarded with the fresh, the new, the shiny, the three-dimensional, the interactive-let's call it the "Internet effect." We're all challenged every day with so much visual noise, it's important to make a statement that breaks through the clutter.
Look at your firm from the outside in. Your logo is as much a reflection of who you are as how you are perceived. Consider the current visual vernacular for some of the most iconic brands out there, like Apple, perhaps the most influential visual brand today, or the new Pepsi, Google and Starbucks logos. All of their visual identities share a buoyancy, three-dimensionality and simplicity that translate well in different media-on packaging, in advertising and, perhaps most importantly, on the Web. Their lively, simple imagery is what breaks through the clutter, and their cutting-edge designs both attract notice and demand respect. They have designed logos that are so recognizable, so synonymous with their brands, that even a passing glance lets us know who they are.
You need a logo that will capture what your firm stands for right now and for years to come, a logo that not only sets you apart from competitors, but places you ahead of them in prospective clients' minds-and you need it to be right. So ask yourself: Can you honestly say that your law firm's logo breaks through the noise barrier?
Jaffe PR Blog, June 7, 2011
Consistent PR can help you become recognized as an expert
Deborah Schwartz / dschwartz@jaffepr.com / 301-897-8838
Law firm promotion only works as it gathers mass. The cumulative effect of your legal marketing and PR efforts results in critical mass, which in turn leads to credibility for your firm, and helps draw in new clients and new legal matters. A perception can be built, and solidified over time, making an attorney "the expert" or one of the key "go-to people" in that field of law.
Consistent PR means submitting press releases, articles and third-party expert opinions incessantly, and making targeted phone calls. You never know when an editor will decide to run your piece or suggest you as a credible expert to a reporter. Obviously, concentrate on news sources that are specific to your industry. Work with your marketing director or publicist to develop a list of press outlets, including blogs and other forms of social networking.
A few things to remember about consistent legal promotion efforts:
- Submit releases or third-party comments at least once a month. You want to build awareness and get your name, and your firm's name, remembered.
- Follow up on the PR pitch four to five business days after sending.
- Follow-up contact can be by email, but the telephone (the old tried and true mode of dealing with press) still works! Remember, it's all about relationship building: that's how you get quoted eventually.
- If you get an interview, be nice. Treat the press as you expect to be treated yourself. The secret is to be available, timely, interesting, informative and quotable. You are the expert. Your goal is to help the reporter understand the legal issues and developments.
Awareness takes time to build. Consistent promotion is a discipline that does not pay off immediately, but eventually it does bring positive results.
Jaffe PR Blog, March 29, 2011
Need a law firm marketing plan yesterday? Follow these seven steps
Sue Remley / sremley@jaffepr.com / 804-304-2894
You received the command from the executive committee: "All practice groups will submit a legal marketing plan by X date." What now? Delete the email, screen your calls and avoid the managing partner?
Why not follow these steps, which have proven to be effective for practice groups across a wide range of professional services firms?
Step 1: Meet with senior management and learn first-hand how they expect your practice group plan to mesh with the law firm's business development plan.
Step 2: Break into small working groups and consider these key issues:
- Audit all former and existing group materials: legal marketing plans, drafts, group meeting minutes, firm and practice brochures and other collateral materials, along with law firm SEO keyword lists, any PR, published articles, social networking efforts, etc.
- Review the group's expertise, current business operations, existing client base, competition and current marketplace issues.
- Develop a list of legal marketplace needs and "demands."
Step 3: Using these group findings, develop a simple matrix linking group expertise to marketplace needs and demands.
Step 4: Develop a realistic wish-list of logical client types and make two lists of prospects: one of existing firm clients and one of others to whom you have some connection.
Step 5: Develop goals for a certain amount of time for success and something else you can count-i.e., number of clients or dollars.
Step 6: Create a plan for each prospect and "go for it."
Step 7: Monitor and evaluate the plan on a regular basis.
These simple steps will help you focus and create a marketing plan for your law firm that can be quickly implemented and show results.
Public Reputation Management Tip, May 24, 2011