In an industry where subjects range from maritime law to cyber security and where accuracy and accountability lie at its heart, marketing can be a challenging subject for legal firms.
But by having marketing messages clear from the outset, and by becoming thought leaders in your fields of expertise, legal firms can achieve high quality and credible coverage through marketing.
Get the processes in place
It sounds obvious, but building a basic marketing toolkit and creating a slick approvals process could keep you one step ahead when it comes to marketing. Have some professional photographs taken of your experts and of your company to support marketing materials.
Have your firm’s headline figures and marketing messages regularly updated. Establish a clear approvals process for any messages going to press and ensure that it is swift, a backup if relevant people are away. And, importantly, ensure that your marketing team and/or agency has access to all of this.
Be ahead of the game
Having content ready to go and being ready to respond to stories is not just about watching the news and creating a comment after it has headlined. It is about looking ahead at forthcoming issues and having professional content ready to respond, no matter the result. Of course some stories are unforeseen, but a lot of content can be prepared in advance and ready to be released as soon as the big story hits.
Carswell Gould client Grant Thornton dedicated an entire section of its website to its Faces of a Vibrant Economy campaign, positioning itself as an industry expert on innovation, inspiring leadership and social purpose.
Know your strengths
Recognise your niche areas of expertise and have your specialists in those areas media trained and ready to go. Ensuring that the experts within your firm are media trained means that when an opportunity arises to comment, or be interviewed on a story in that field, you can immediately provide a professional and media-savvy representative from your firm. All of which helps build positive and credible visibility of the firm’s brand.
The media is regularly looking for experts to comment on topical stories. Having a bank of specialists from your firm media trained and available for comment can help to build your reputation as industry professionals in your niche areas.
Be thought leaders
A major study on thought leadership marketing by the Association of Management Consulting Firms found that for buyers of consulting services, thought leadership content trails only referrals as the most important source for finding consulting expertise. And with legal services falling within the same professional services bracket, this is relevant for legal firms too.
Research articles, blog posts, regular columns in publications, webinars and speaking engagements are all ways that you can use thought leadership to demonstrate your firm’s expertise. Sharing your knowledge will build a base of followers who will become familiar with, and trust your firm.
Carswell Gould client R3, The Association of Business Recovery Professionals, has built trust and a reputation as the voice of business recovery in the UK. The organisation’s promotion of best practice, industry research, reports and events have helped to establish it as the leading professional association for insolvency, business recovery and turnaround specialists in the UK.
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