Time to spring clean your PR?

After a long winter the signs of spring are definitely here! With daffodils and tulips popping up all over the place and the evenings staying lighter for longer, it's a great time for taking a good old look around you.

The same goes for your PR. If things are going ok it can be easy to accept a 'status quo' and keep on with the same course of action. But is 'ok' really getting you the results you need?

In this post we hand over to LexRex account manager Kate, who gives three top tips on ‘spring cleaning’ your PR.

Have a ‘spring awakening’.
Any good spring clean means a thorough look at things you don’t always get chance to consider. From time to time it is an immensely valuable exercise to reassess what you're doing and why. After all, you don't do PR for fun; it's to achieve an objective. PR mapping is a useful process that looks at each area of a law firm, how each can meet a PR agenda and how these can work together as a whole. If you use an external PR agency, get them to come up with some new ideas. It can also be a worthwhile and revealing exercise to ask a number of PR agencies to come in and showcase what they could bring to the table.

Brush up on the basics. 
Now you’ve looked at the bigger picture, it’s time to get back to basics. Are all of your current systems working the way they should be? Are you making the most out of the activity you’re currently undertaking? If there are areas you feel you could improve on, you shouldn’t deny yourself the opportunity to improve. Training can not only help to improve skills but can also improve efficiencies. There are many tools out there now that can help PR and communications professionals and training can open your eyes to these.

Consider something different. 
The days when PR was just about press releases and well-placed sponsorship are long gone. There are a whole load of things law firms can do now to raise their profile; from blogging to social media, awards to email newsletters. The key is to be consistent in your approach and integrate each activity with the other marketing and communications you're doing to create a cumulative effect.

April is not only the early days of spring, it’s also the start of the new financial year for many law firms. So if you’ve renewed your budgets and have capacity to invest in outsourced PR activity, or else want to invest in training to help improve your PR skills and efficiency, we’d love to chat to you!

Rekindling the Love: A guide to getting the most out of your legal PR agency...

Do you love your law firm's appointed PR representative? Do you share your deepest thoughts and wishes for the future of your firm with the team on a regular basis. No? Why not?

You should do really, as you are paying that company or consultant to represent your business - so it follows that they should be as passionate about it as you are.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, we share our top tips for ensuring the chemistry with your PR agency is exactly as it should be. And if it's not - we offer advice on what you can do to remedy this, and how to recognise when it's time to move on to pastures new...

1. Question: Does your PR consultant/team really 'get' your firm and what you are trying to achieve? It goes without saying that the content they produce is legally correct*, but does the tone of the copy reflect how you would describe the business? If you can't hand-on-heart say that the messages your PR is putting out there reflect exactly how you want your firm to be represented, then it's time to consider taking one or more of the following steps...

2. Talk: If your representative is labouring under the false belief that everything is hunky-dory, then it's your responsibility to arrange a review to discuss where improvements can be made. Don't put this off - as with any relationship, talking helps to disperse resentment and prevent the rot from setting in. Don't allow niggles to become terminal.

3. Mapping: As part of the above, consider asking your PR to undertake a mapping process. This is should be something they do on an annual (at least) basis anyway. Done well, brand mapping draws out key messages, business objectives and targets and at the very least - should facilitate a discussion about what has and hasn't worked and what to aim for in the future.

4. Focus: Understand your representative's strengths and ensure that these continue to align with your firm's needs. If your focus is on media relations, but you have selected an integrated consultancy that prides itself on excellent social media strategies and delivery - it may be time to rethink where you spend your budget.

5. Review: Just stopping to take the time to think about where improvements can be made to an existing relationship can prove to be both insightful and empowering. Strong observations can be made simply by reviewing what your PR set out to do, against what is being delivered, and these may be very powerful in helping you to decide upon the best course of action when looking to the future.

*And if it's not - time to get the experts in. We're the experts, obviously.

By Victoria Moffatt

LexRex is a specialist consultancy providing strategic PR and marketing support to law firms and businesses that operate within the legal sector. Our services include media relations, social media support and training, award entries, legal directory submissions and online/offline copywriting.

If you would like to know more about our services, please drop us an email on info@lexrexcommunications.com.  You can also tweet us LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.

What is Legal PR? Part 3: Everything Else...

What is Legal PR?

In parts 1 and 2 of this series, I covered media relations and social media. This, the third instalment, describes some of the other supporting services we provide to clients on a day to day basis.

Awards: many lawyers recognise the value of being 'an award winning law firm', when it comes to attracting new clients. Others are cynical about their value, and some feel they are handed out 'willy-nilly' to mates and sponsors of the organising body.

Now it's certainly the case that not all awards are born equal. However, that's not in itself a reason to dismiss them in their entirety. The Law Society Excellence Awards for example are fairly judged, neutral and well respected. Others, are unfortunately less so. If you're interested in a case study on our awards service - here's one.

My advice when it comes to awards is: don't dismiss them out of hand, but take professional advice on the ones to enter and those to skip. Of course, it goes without saying that submissions must be well drafted and compliant with the T&C's of entry...

Copywriting: we also draft outstanding content - standalone commissions such as updates to clients' websites, ongoing and regular content for technical client blogs, as well as newsletters, white papers, reports and of course the media relations content described in part 1 of this series.

Events: everybody loves a good party, and we are certainly no exception to that rule! We provide consultancy and detailed party planning for our clients. Our past events have included conferences, birthday parties, launch events, breakfast seminars and hosted events for our clients' clients.

Directories: their mention typically prompts multiple eye-rolls across all departments, nevertheless the Legal 500 and Chambers directories continue to have a hold over the legal profession. For the haters out there - as well as for those who recognise the value in a ranking, but find it difficult to find the time or vocabulary to draft their submissions - we jump right in and do the hard word.

So that completes the series on Legal PR. I hope you found it interesting and if you learnt something new - let us know by leaving a comment!

By Victoria Moffatt

LexRex is a specialist consultancy providing strategic PR and marketing support to law firms and businesses that operate within the legal sector. Our services include media relations, social media support and training, award entries, legal directory submissions and copywriting.

If you would like to know more about our services, please drop us an email on info@lexrexcommunications.com. You can also tweet us LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.