Getting Published

Getting articles published in trade publications, magazines and newspapers have long been considered  important benchmarks for building reputation as thought leaders and experts in a specific market for all businesses.

When approached strategically, getting published can help you:

• Increase the law firm's visibility with key constituents.
• Begin building relationships with editors of publications, read by your target market.
• Enhance, continue building the law firms/attorney/associates reputation.

So where do you start?

If your firm doesn't work with a public relations firm, your marketing manager should be responsible for this task.

If you are doing your own marketing and public relations, then follow the guidelines below:

1. Come up with a couple of ideas that will be of interest to YOUR reader not you. Remember its all about your reader not you.
2. Identify a couple of publications your target market reads.
3. Review at least a couple of issues, before approaching the editor.
4. Approach the editor. Follow your cues from there.

Undoubtedly, there will be other competing interests for your time, understand that when done well, the article can be leveraged into other marketing activities, such as reusing the article into blog postings, republishing it in the firm's newsletter, utilize parts of the article as a basis of a speech or presentation.

When talking to potential legal clients, I've heard attorneys say "been there, done that, nothing came out of it". The problem is when I dig deeper, much to my dismay, typically I discover they have written only one article and had unrealistic expectations. With a bit more probing I discover aside from putting the article on the website, the firm does little else. But, one thing is clear there is a great deal of frustration and disappointment.

In order to avoid this sort of frustration law firms, associates and solo's need a cohesive marketing plan. A plan that gives the firm direction and  understanding of how all the pieces of the marketing pie come together. My partner Allison C. Shields of Legal Ease Consulting and I  put together an 8 week long teleseminar on "How To Grow Your Law Practice On A Shoe String Budget. You can purchase individual sessions,  or really get the most bang for your buck  by buying all the sessions. To find out more about how we can help your firm, please email me.

Comments

[Bruce Goldman]

As a senior editor at a national magazine, I wholeheartedly agree that article queries must appeal to the interests of the publication's readers, not just the writer's. To ensure that the proposed topic is on target and will make a good fit for a particular publication, it is essential, as Ms. Mahli has pointed out, that the writer be familiar with the publication's content, so perusing recent issues is critical. Otherwise, a query risks wasting the editor's time and thus alienating him or her, which is not the way to build constructive relationships with them.