BINGO! Tips for lawyers on avoiding a PR #epicfail...

The Conservative Party's post-Budget 2014 BINGO! poster illustrates the importance of understanding and getting under the skin of your key audiences more clearly than anything I could ever have put in words. 

I don't intend to examine where, how or why the party got it so wrong, or open up a political debate - but I think we can all agree it was a mistake.

So - how can lawyers avoid an #epicfail like this in their own marketing and PR activities?

Work out who you want to speak to

It's important to be very clear in this respect - no sweeping statements allowed - i.e. we want to speak to business people. Not good enough I'm afraid - you must be specific. 

Try something like: "Owner managers, finance directors and general counsel of SMEs in Manchester" or "People with a net worth of £250k and above, who haven't written a will/updated their will in the last 3 years, and live within 10 miles of Chester". The more tightly you can define who you want to communicate with the better, and the easier it will be to construct a strong PR and marketing strategy.

Get to know them

Find out what your key audiences read, what they like, where they hang out and what they do in their spare time. Heck - you might even be one of them, in which case, you'll know a lot of this stuff. I heard somebody say recently that you can sell anything to your friends, and I think it's a great quote - because it's true!

Presume nothing
For me, the biggest mistake of the above poster was that it presumed a lot - making sweeping statements about a mysterious 'they' and that offended people. 

So, when it comes to reaching your identified key audiences, put aside your preconceptions and be willing to get into their shoes. 

And if you can't do that - it could be time to rethink your target market.

By Victoria Moffatt

LexRex offers a wide range of PR and marketing services to law firms and businesses that support law firms, including strategic brand and PR mapping, media relations, social media training and consultancy, awards entries, legal directory submissions and a number of PR and writing courses.

If you would like more information about our services, please drop us a line via the above email address or tweet us @LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.

www.lexrexcommunications.com/

National Press Coverage: A 'Must Have' For Lawyers?

At the start of many a new business conversation or during a strategic legal PR mapping session with law firm clients, the question of national media coverage inevitably arises. Many lawyers want to know when they can expect to see themselves in The Times or on the BBC.

Now, for some lawyers, achieving national exposure delivers fantastic results. Slater and Gordon, for example, are doing a lot of work on this front and seem to be set to loosen Marilyn Stowe's 10 year+ grip on ITV shows such as This Morning and Lorraine. Certainly, the media profile that Marilyn has been able to grow via national broadcast and print PR is fantastic, and (I believe) drives a lot of new enquiries, and I can understand why a national consumer brand like S&G is intent on this course of action. 

'Mr Loophole' himself, Nick Freeman, is another lawyer who (a few years ago now) was able to generate strong national coverage and a reputation as the 'go to' driving offences lawyer for the rich, famous and ridiculously good at football.

But for many lawyers, especially those with a limited PR budget, going for national coverage at the expense of local or trade media may be a mistake. Why?

1. National coverage can be expensive and time consuming to achieve and is extremely unpredictable. It can take many months of pitching ideas before an opportunity arises, and often you will be required to drop everything to fit the needs of the show or publication - something that many busy lawyers find impossible to do.
2. Media coverage is never guaranteed. Broadcast and print pieces are frequently 'bumped' at the last moment and may never see the light of day - regardless of a 5 a.m. start, £150 ticket to London and 6 hours out of the office.
3. Further, it's important to remember that although national coverage will put you in front of a huge audience, it may not be an audience you actually want to engage. If you get this wrong, you could end up generating a wide range of new enquiries in an area of law that is actually unprofitable for you, fielding a high volume of calls with no prospect of a valuable instruction, at the expense of higher quality leads from existing clients.

This isn't to say that national coverage doesn't have its place and certainly, if you can secure an opportunity that helps to further your strategic PR goals, then its power and reach are not to be underestimated. But before you demand that your agency or in-house team get you on the 6.00 o'clock news - remember that your time and money may be better spent elsewhere.

Next time I'll write about the benefits of local media coverage, and why it could be worthwhile focusing your efforts on often over-looked publications and opportunities.

By Victoria Moffatt 

LexRex offers a wide range of PR and marketing services to law firms and businesses that support law firms, including strategic brand and legal PR mapping, media relations, social media training and consultancy, awards entries, legal directory submissions and a range of PR and writing courses.

If you would like more information about our services, please drop us a line via  via email: info@lexrexcommunications.com or tweet us @LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.

Legal Awards: Maximising the PR Opportunities of Winning

Legal Awards... Do you regularly nominate yourself or your firm? No? If not - why not? If you're otherwise into your PR and marketing, but you don't 'do' awards you could be missing a trick. Awards aren't for 'show-offs', they are for sensible lawyers who understand the value and importance of promoting their practice.

A note: if you think awards are for numpties who like to blow their own trumpets, and you believe that PR and marketing is a load of fluff and self-promotion, you should stop reading now - this post will probably just annoy you.

Is there an award for me?
Yes! There are lots of different awards for lawyers to enter.

There are the 'big boys' - such as The Lawyer Awards (submission deadline recently extended to Tuesday 25th February - so there's still time), The Law Society's Excellence Awards, and The Legal Business Awards which incidentally took place this week in London.

If you're not part of 'Big Law' or don't think you're quite ready for a national award, there are still loads of opportunities to be recognised for your expertise, niche, customer service or internal management structure (for example).

Local awards specifically for lawyers exist, for example check out Manchester Law Society's Legal Awards and The Yorkshire Legal Awards.

And if you or your firm has a particular niche or strength, there are also awards for you. Personal injury firms are well serviced by the Proclaim Personal Injury Awards and The Claims Innovation Awards. Conveyancers can take part in The Conveyancing Awards and family lawyers have the Family Law Awards.

Lawyers operating away from the major legal centres also have opportunities for recognition in local business awards. Typically run by Chambers' of Commerce, local networking groups or business publications - there are usually specific categories for Law Firm of the Year or Legal Personality/Professional of the Year. Alternatively, why not consider entering less obvious categories such as Start-Up of the Year, Most Innovative Business or Entrepreneur of the Year.

What next?
Presuming you've now entered yourself or your firm for an award (and for tips on drafting award entries check out this post), the next step is usually to await the shortlist announcement.

If you are shortlisted then *BAM* that's PR opportunity number 1. If the awards you've entered operate in conjunction with a media partner (usually a local or national business/trade publication) then you can probably rest assured that you or your firm will be featured in that publication with a piece covering all of the shortlisted candidates. At this point, it's worthwhile striking whilst the iron is hot and getting a press release about your shortlisting issued to other relevant outlets.

You could think about sending this to your local paper's business pages, local business publication, regional Chamber of Commerce or networking group for possible inclusion in their newsletter, or as a piece of member news for their website.

Of course, the above are suggested actions only, and you must either carry out your own research to ensure you're not spamming journalists with content they'll never use or pay a PR to take control of this side of things. Note - time spent carrying out good research is fundamental to strong PR, without it you'll just annoy journalists and limit your prospects of good coverage now and in the future.

Away from the media relations side of things, you should certainly publish the release on your website, and you may also wish to tweet about it, and share it via LinkedIn and your individual/firm's Google+ page.

On shortlisting, your chances of actually winning are usually pretty good. Odds of between 1:3 and up to around 1:7 (for national awards such as The Excellence Awards) are fairly typical and it pays to be well prepared.

Without being arrogant, there's absolutely no reason not to create and approve a press release before the big event. This has two benefits: if you do win, you can issue the release immediately to your target media, or first thing the following day (regardless of how hungover you are). Even if you don't win, you now have a handy precedent for use in the future.

In addition to PR and media opportunities, it's also important not to neglect the simple, but obvious, marketing opportunities that go hand in hand with an award win. To this end, don't forget to utilise any award-winner logos on email footers, across your website, in your marketing materials and throughout your sales process.

Remember to tell your clients about your success - a mention of the win, along with some strong images of the presentation, can be used in newsletters and on your website.

At the end of the day, if an award is worth entering, it's worth shouting about when you win.

For more tips on award entries, check out our three part series: Why Should Lawyers Enter Awards?

If you would like a copy of our Calendar of Awards for Lawyers, please drop us a line on info@lexrexcommunications.com


By Victoria Moffatt

LexRex offers a wide range of PR and marketing services to law firms and businesses that support law firms, including strategic brand and PR mapping, media relations, social media training and consultancy, awards entries, legal directory submissions and a range of PR and writing courses.

If you would like more information about our services, please drop us a line via the above email address or tweet us @LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.

www.lexrexcommunications.com/

New Year, Better PR?

Welcome to 2014, and to a fresh and exciting start. Here at LexRex Towers we're building up to an action packed January and we're excited about working with a number of new legal PR clients, and to developing some fantastic business opportunities sent our way recently by existing clients of the business.

This month, we'll also start implementing the 2014 PR plans we've created for our existing clients. For us, December is usually a busy month spent finalising strategies and agreeing targets and measurable ROI's with all of our clients.

But it isn't too late to start thinking about implementing a new PR campaign, as well as reviewing your successes and failures in 2013. Good legal PR is all about a number of different elements, including:

1. Understanding your strengths and USP's
2. Creating key messages that reflect these
3. Knowing your target audiences
4. Building campaigns around the key messages which reach the target audiences

It's also really important to plan and measure your activities. A PR plan should include not only your key messages and target audiences, but also a budget, a timeframe, a set of SMART targets and measurement criteria, and an over-reaching strategy with tactics to support this - such as media relations, social media, events, awards and legal directory entries. It's also imperative that the plan ties into and supports the firm's business objectives and targets, and is signed off and approved at the highest level.

It's relatively easy to create a PR plan in-house, but if you do decide to outsource your legal PR, or elements of it, an agency or freelancer worth their salt should always incorporate an element of planning into their brief. Ideally, this PR planning - or mapping as we call it here at LexRex - should happen right at the start of the campaign, and include a session with the management team as well as any in-house marketing support. Management support is fundamental to ensuring any strategy and plan is adhered to, and provides top level buy-in - which is a key driver to successful implementation.

So, here's to 2014 and to continued excellence in legal PR! The LexRex team wishes you all a fantastic new year.

Hopefully this post has provided a handy kick up the butt on the PR front, or at least given food for thought. As ever, comments and feedback are gratefully received.

By Victoria Moffatt

LexRex offers a wide range of PR and marketing services to law firms, including strategic brand and PR mapping, media relations, social media consultancy, awards entries, legal directory submissions and a range of PR and writing courses. If you would like more information about our services, please drop us a line via email: info@lexrexcommunications.com or tweet us: @LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt

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