When you work in the legal sector, business development activities are vital to your ongoing success but it can be hard to find the time to implement a clear and strategic marketing campaign for your firm. There are, however, some very effective marketing techniques that can leverage your existing activity to increase your profile with the public, the media and your clients in an efficient and timely manner.

We have outlined 6 key ways that you can bolster your firm’s presence below.

Law Firm Media Relations

We have moved beyond traditional media into the digital age. Hiring an agency for your firm can help you to secure coverage across both traditional and digital platforms, in a variety of national, local and industry outlets. PR can help you reach and talk to your target audience in a way that they can understand, increasing brand awareness for your firm. It can help you to share good news stories such as significant milestones or new hires with your key audiences.

Law Firm Rankings

Securing a law firm ranking can help to position your firm as skilful and credible in the eyes of your industry and consumers. The process of identifying and submitting applications to relevant law firm rankings such as Legal 500 and Chambers can take a significant amount of time and energy from your team. A good communications team can work with you to navigate the ranking process. This includes liaising with all key members involved, and helping draft the submission, where necessary.

Thought Leadership for Solicitors

A clear and strategic thought leadership strategy can position you and your solicitors as experts, not only in the legal industry, but within the industries in which their clients work.

A good thought leadership strategy should not be limited to legal press such as the Law Gazette, it should also include targeted pitching to regional and national press, and even sectoral trade press such as tech or financial publications. Using this strategy, you can ensure that you are developing your firms’ brand awareness on a national, local and niche level.

Talking to your audiences

It is very important to maintain communications with existing and potential clients. You can amplify your media relations and thought leadership strategies with digital communications. Be strategic with the avenues you choose. We would argue (in many cases) that a full complement of social media platforms, that includes Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, is not necessary. Instead focus on the platforms that will drive leads for your firm and deliver a ROI. To begin with, your digital strategy could include content for LinkedIn and an email marketing campaign.

Web presence

Your website is the visual shopfront for your firm. For many potential clients, it is the first port of call and they can make a ‘purchasing decision’ based on this website alone. For that reason, your website needs to be up to date and up to speed. Utilise your agency to help you draft SEO-optimised content that can help to increase your Google ranking. This may include drafting blogs and news pieces for the website, as well as advising on and developing white papers and lead gen campaigns. Google’s algorithm will penalise websites that are not mobile-optimised so this should be at the forefront of any developments to your existing website.

Utilising content to its fullest advantage 

By re-purposing one piece of content, you can sustain engagement with your audiences in a productive and efficient way. Representing content visually can extend the lifespan of a piece of information. You can achieve this by developing an infographic, a video or a webinar. Do note that if you are going to allocate a budget and time to this endeavour, you will need to map out a very clear strategy for their roll-out to ensure that you succeed in getting a return on your investment.

Post by Susie Horgan

Susie founded Springboard in 2011, and has developed the business into a leading, director-led communications agency. She has worked for over 20 years in senior marketing and public relations roles.