e-Marketing Edge

E-MARKETING EDGE

Marketing to the Media

Reaching the press with technology.

By Larry Bodine

Larry Bodine is a strategic marketing consultant who advises law firms across the United States on
marketing strategy, offers marketing coaching and provides business development training at
lawyer retreats. He can be reached at Lbodine@lawmarketing.com.

For marketing purposes, media training for lawyers can pay off big for their firms, and technology makes training available without having to send your staff to a remote conference. A recent Web audio conference titled “A Marketer’s Guide to Media Training for Attorneys” serves as a prime example of how the Internet has made live media training available without having to leave the office. The audio conference included a panel of experts whose comments were broadcast on March 15, 2005 by Law Journal Newsletters Web Audio Conference. “Don’t ignore the power of the press,” was the main message, while each panelist gave tips on how law firms can use the press to promote their firms.

Media trainer Marsha Redmon, a former journalist, lawyer and current president of M Group Communications Training in Potomac, Md., presented at the Webinar and said one of her clients invested $40,000 in media training and public relations, and reaped $1 million in new business. Also at the online media training session, renowned marketer Diane Hamlin, principal of Hamlin Strategy Group, said the firm where she used to work picked up an extra case after being quoted on the front page of the Financial Times regarding a filing of an unrelated major class action lawsuit.

Using technology such as Webcasting is a great example of how the Internet can be used to promote a law firm to the media. Software companies have been using Webcasts for business development for years, and it’s a good technique for law firms to adopt. Two law firms serve as great examples: The Chicago law firm Winston & Strawn runs “eLunch briefings” Webcasts, and the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding presents Webcasts to clients. You also can hold a press conference to make an announcement to the media via the Web.

How to Get the Word Out

In a Webcast, the law firm presenters simply upload their Microsoft PowerPoint slides to a host, such as Infinite Conferencing, making them available on the Web. Reporters and others then are given the Web address to view the slides. The presenters and reporters all dial a call-in number so reporters can hear the comments and ask questions live. It’s a highly efficient method for getting news out to the media, and it’s a nascent trend that is sure to grow. In addition to Infinite Conferencing, additional host sites include Microsoft Office Live Meeting, ECI Conferencing Services and WebEx. Costs vary with each provider, the number of attendees and features used, and actual usage.

Similarly, online press release distribution services such as Business Wire and PR Newswire offer law firms the opportunity to upload press releases, to indicate which geographic areas or topic-related publications they wish to target, and to send the release out via mass e-mail. It’s much cheaper than hiring a public relations agency and much less time-consuming than printing out press releases and mailing them via snail mail. But developing a marketing plan targeting the media takes a little training and know-how on the part of all the members of your staff. That is where audio Web conferences, such as the LJN Web Audio Conference or online media training courses found at www.training-classes.com, can help.

Finding the Big Story

Firms should use technological resources to spread important firm news whenever possible. Before presenting a Webcast to clients or prospects, talking to the press or even sending out press releases online, lawyers and legal staff should be prepared to adequately represent the firm. “Every lawyer has one big story they can be interviewed about,” Redmon said during the Webcast, advising attorneys to keep in mind what big legal issue will affect clients down the pike. “We always find something a lawyer can talk about — more than just, ‘I closed a deal’ or ‘I won a case.’”

Redmon highlighted several ways to make a lawyer quotable. First, she noted that lawyers tend to think about their own perspective, not the audience’s perspective. “They must ask from the reader’s point of view, ‘What’s in it for them?’” she said.

Second, it’s best to stick only to two to three message points per interview. “I see many lawyers who never get quoted or get misquoted because they talk about 47 things in an interview,” she said. “They should make a statement, support it with a statistic and support it with an example to make it live, make it breathe.”

Third, keep quotes short and interesting. Sound bytes today are only between three to seven seconds for television, or 12 to 15 words in print, Redmon said. “The bottom line is that reporters want short quotes.”

What Reporters Want

In addition to thinking from your audience’s perspective, it’s important to know what reporters are looking for, Amy Spees, a former Daily Journal reporter in California, said during the LJN Web Audio Conference. The story must be timely, something that happened yesterday, not four weeks ago. “If possible, tell editors about court hearings they can attend and new court filings they can read,” she said.

Spees also provided a few tips on pitching a story to the media. First, if the story is stale, do a Google search to see where it has been reported before and find a way to bring a new angle to that publication.

Also, it’s a bigger deal if a court did something surprising, rather than what was expected. If you are taking a potential story to the news media, look at it from the bigger picture — how does it affect the business and legal community? Are there local and national issues you can bring out?

Lawyers must have patience when talking to reporters. “I didn’t understand a lot of the legal issues,” said Spees, who covered the law industry for more than two years. “The reporter really needs the lawyer to walk [reporters] through it, or point out the five pages that are important.”

Nowadays, bloggers are more often the targets of news announcements than print reporters. A law firm can generate a nationwide “buzz” about its announcement if it can persuade a prominent blogger to write about the firm’s news. This will interest other bloggers to pick up the story and spread it across the blogosphere.

Short-Term Goals

Hamlin advised marketers to begin a media program by focusing on short-term goals. “Once you have a little bit of success, you will have 1,000 people calling you up wanting to be quoted in the press,” she said. She offered the following advice:

Establish spokespeople.
Document all the press coverage garnered during the past year. If you have not been doing it, conduct some online research to determine what coverage has been given to your firm. Do a search for the names of all the partners in your firm as well.
Ask your firm’s management for a specific focus and what the priorities are. This will be useful when you have to say no to a lawyer who wants you to pitch a story idea.
Ask the reporter to include the firm name in the story. Some papers will refuse to do this, but you still should ask.
Embrace media training. Be sure to include your practice group’s spokespeople, such as the executive committee. Start to build junior partners into reporters’ loops.
Get attorneys in directories, such as chambers of commerce. Reporters refer to them.

It’s worth it to reach out to reporters to make a media program succeed. An effective media and public relations program can produce great results for law firms, and technology only helps. The key is to think like a reporter and to take advantage of online press release distribution services and Webinar technology to spread news and information to potential clients.

Attorneys can host a press conference via Web conferencing sites such as Infinite Conferencing.