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Forgive the reference to American politics but the adage and timing did seem fitting for this post, which is all about why every effective PR strategy starts with… the strategy.
A note – this post deals with creating PR strategies for law firms that are looking for PR support to help their growth. Crisis PR / reputational repair strategy creation is a topic for a future post.
Like anything worthwhile doing in life, PR takes effort. There’s no quick fix or piece of magic tech that will take away the grind. A strong reputation takes time and intent to build, and the foundation for this work should be an effective, measurable strategy.
We start with our mapping session, which is a half-day workshop with the law firm owners and senior team. We run through a series of exercise, ask a lot of questions and have some deep conversations on topics including:
The aim of the session is to not only build trust with our new law firm client and the senior team, but also to really start to build an understanding and feel for what the firm is about.
At the end of the process, we create a strategy that dovetails into the firm’s own growth strategy and includes all of the strategic elements of PR, marketing and brand that a law firm needs to kickstart its growth journey. The strategy also contains detailed recommendations on the tactics the firm should employ, deliverable by LexRex in total, in part, or by the firm’s existing marketing team.
Are all law firms really the same?
As an aside, I often hear comments from other suppliers to the sector that ‘all firms, really, are the same.’ Perhaps I’m speaking out of turn or perhaps I just do a good job of finding with and working with unusual or niche firms, but this has genuinely never been my experience. One of the reasons I enjoy working with law firms so much is that I do think that they are all slightly different and vary widely in terms of culture.
Of course, every law firm has its own culture and within that culture are the underpinnings of the firm’s reputation. That culture and reputation can be maximised in order to more effectively present the firm to ‘the market’ and make it attractive, or more attractive, to clients, potential clients and referrers. It’s also important to consider the effect of your firm’s PR on potential employees, particularly given the heat in the recruitment market currently within the legal sector.
If your culture stinks, fix it before you consider PR
A word to the wise though, PR isn’t about ‘spinning’ an alternative dimension to the reality of your firm. The only thing worse than doing nothing about your reputation is attempting to create a reputation that doesn’t reflect the reality of your practice. If you do this, you may succeed for a short time, but people talk. You’ll be found out, and the rebuilding work will be far more difficult.
If you have a poor culture, internal practices, delivery – work on your culture, internal practices and delivery. If you’re aiming for growth – these are fundamental issues and should be on your list of priorities anyway. A badly run small firm with a stinking culture is only going to grow into a badly run larger firm with a stinking culture. In my experience the firms with culture challenges really struggle to grow anyway. They tend to have terrible retention records, so they spend considerable time and budget recruiting, paying high salaries in an attempt to get people to stay, and then having to train their replacements. All of this leaving little time to even consider growth.
Why is a PR strategy important for a law firm?
It’s important to have a PR strategy in place if you are attempting to grow your firm, because in the same way that you are going to be very clear about how you grow – which practice areas you will target, whether you will require a ‘bolt-on’ team, if you will bring on individual lateral hires, your supporting PR also requires focus.
At this point I would also recommend reading Simon McCrum’s excellent series of books which explain very clearly the potential pitfalls of growth, along with incredibly easy to follow metrics that every law firm owner should understand and keep track of. He also says some sensible things about PR.
As an aside, I recently wrote a book review of Simon’s first book – The Perfect Legal Business, which went out to subscribers of our newsletter, Legal Resource. Become a subscriber today and I will send you a copy of the review.
How exactly will PR help my law firm as it grows?
Growing law firms will typically utilise PR effectively in some or many of the following ways (naturally it depends upon their growth strategy):
*Vastly oversimplified overview.
The above list just outlines some of the considerations and potential tactics you can utilise when you are growing a law firm. As every law firm is different and will have different priorities, it makes sense then that each firm will have its own strategy and tactical prescription.
Hopefully, this piece has given you pause for thought as you grow your law firm. Do get in touch for a chat if any of this resonates and if you like the sound of our approach.
Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex.
A non-practising solicitor she has been supporting law firms with their PR for over a decade. Get in touch with Victoria to discuss your law firm’s PR needs.
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