If you can commit the time, generating publicity for your firm is one of the best things you can do to create awareness and attract new clients. Here’s how:

Be an expert.  Not in the legal sense, but in the marketing sense. The media flock to experts. They put them on the covers of magazines; you see the experts quoted every night on network news programs. Experts have columns in the newspaper. They are sought after for their commentary and background and the media wants to go to experts as soon as there’s a breaking news story.

Create a targeted media list. Target specific media outlets very narrowly. Don’t go after all of them out there because if you’re pitching your message to 5 or 700 media outlets, you’re going to have to go out there with a one-size-fits-all message and that’s not the way to do it. Media people don’t want the same story that everyone else has.

Start by narrowly creating a list of targeted media outlets --your top 25 media hit list.  For those of you who only do business in your own community or in a particular region, you might only have a media hit list with 10 media outlets on it. That just makes your job easier, because it’s all about creating relationships, and if you only have 10 media outlets on your list, that’s very doable. You can form relationships with 10 or 15 people. You can’t form them with 300. So target very narrowly.

Target trade publications. If most of your clients are in a particular industry – or you want to build a client base in a particular industry -- you want to get into the trade publications in that particular industry.  Many of you have business journals or business magazines in your own community and they frequently quote attorneys and do stories on legal issues, so add those to the list as well.

Read the rest of the series;

9 Proven Ways to Get Publicity for Your Law Firm, Part 2 of 3

9 Proven Ways to Get Publicity for Your Law FIrm, Part 3 of 3