With real-time technology and a profusion of client relationship platforms to connect data and spark ingenuity, legal marketing teams should communicate seamlessly and understand each other’s functions.

But what may be missing from the equation is something that doesn’t cost the firm a dime: conversation. In particular, PR practioners often feel isolated from their own marketing and business development peers because the industry is misunderstood or the manager has not demonstrated the value of PR to others.

PR should be part of a BD plan, not an afterthought...

Novices to PR think the industry is solely focused on “appearing in the news media.” While the media is one channel of PR, it is only a small piece of an overall communications strategy.

PR managers and communications leaders should be engaged from the very beginning when a law firm rebrands or creates business development plans.  Ultimately, how you are perceived via your website, collateral, events, and social media is explained through words and optics. In an already crowded field of professional services using content to differentiate, you don’t get many opportunities to move the needle. Strategy and consistency within the team matter.

How can PR and BD teams work together effectively?

Here are a few tactical tips to strive for in your marketing departments.

1. Communicate internally 

With permission from your attorneys, share your results internally with your various marketing teams to determine how they can best be repurposed. Does your firm have a system to track wins? With client permission, determine if the result can be shared externally.

2. Listen like a reporter 

When you attend practice group meetings, is there a public issue repeatedly surfacing that can be transformed into a campaign? Share that upcoming law or regulation change with your PR team.

...is there a public issue repeatedly surfacing that can be transformed into a campaign?

3. Pay attention to the rock stars 

If a particular lawyer is getting regularly assigned challenging projects, brought up in conversations by senior management and bringing in new business, consider that attorney for honors and rankings. If BD doesn’t share that insight with the PR team, you are missing an opportunity.

4. PR should be part of a BD plan, not an afterthought 

When your attorneys are developing their business development plans, media placements should be part of the strategy. Attorneys should set goals to include authored articles, presentations and expert source quotes in the media to demonstrate to clients they are on top of the law and understand the industries they serve.

Attorneys should set goals to include authored articles, presentations and expert source quotes in the media...

5. Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose 

For PR pros, when an attorney lands an authored article in a prominent publication, inform your BD team. Perhaps the article should be considered for inclusion in your next pitch proposal? Or, maybe the article should be sent to the client with a personal note offering a meeting to answer any questions the client may have about the article.

6. Brainstorm with unlikely partners 

There is nothing better than a good brainstorming session to generate new and creative ways to promote your firm. BD and communications should meet separately but strive to have a monthly team meeting to discuss the big ideas and whittle down a team approach to an upcoming campaign. You never know when the most unlikely member of your team may sprout a few seedlings that could grow into the next big idea. 

7. Get out from behind the computer 

Branch out beyond your own team. We are all barraged with emails. A request to an attorney can be perceived as “just another task they have to complete.” Pick up the phone or stop by the office of the attorney for face time. Engage with your internal clients like you want the attorneys to engage with their clients.  You may notice a picture on the wall or a book on the shelf that could strike up a conversation leading to your next PR idea. I once landed a writing opportunity for an attorney after noticing pictures of father and son annual golf trips to exotic locations. It became a business article entitled “Lessons Learned on the Golf Course,” which was published in a Denver newspaper.

Combining PR and BD is an effective strategy to help reach your firm’s long-term plans. We encourage our attorneys to cross-sell their services within their firms. We should swallow that same advice.

*

[Heather McMichael connects lawyers and reporters as the Media Relations Manager at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. She is a former television journalist and produced a documentary about a legal trailblazer that played on PBS stations across the country. For more information contact her at podcasts@listentolawyers.com.]