How Getting Published Helps Lawyers Get More Clients

This week, a legal prospect called and saw a competitor's article in a trade publication. This certainly motivated this prospect into action. His question was simple: How does getting published help grow my practice?

Here's a written version of that conversation:

Establish your expertise and credibility. Writing  articles for trade publications, or your own newsletter draws upon your expertise in your legal practice area  by providing good relevant information that web site visitors/potential prospects  are looking for. These articles position you as an expert in your practice area  and demonstrates a level of authority which in turn, establishes trust.

Trust increases when your articles appear on web sites and newsletters with a loyal readership. When high-traffic, high-credibility web sites and newsletters publish your articles, you ride on the coattails of their existing relationships with visitors and readers.  Simply, your published work is  seen as referrals from trusted friends. We have had many lawyers forward SCG Newsletter FocusPointe! as a resource.

Articles provide the valuable “word of mouth” that gets people in your target market talking about your business. If your articles deliver solid, useful content, readers will recommend you and your web site to their friends and associates. In fact you can leverage a good article by converting it to a speech.

Finally since lawyers seem to be more familiar with advertising rather than public relations. Its important to clarify some differences. On a purely practical level consider if a law firm buys an ad, it will last a day, a week, or a month. If the firm wants to keep it longer, more dollars will come out of the marketing budget. On the other hand articles published in reputable publications  never seems to go away. Written articles can stay up indefinitely, sometimes working for years as effective client-attracting tools. Increase search engine rankings. 

If you're looking to transform your legal practice, get known, liked and trusted  in your target market,  get more clients, move them along the sales pipeline and become the go to firm try out  SCG Legal PR Network free for a month. Note the free month is  available ONLY for a limited time.

Comments

[Julie A. Fleming]

Your blog mostly focused on online or personal publications (such as blogs or newsletters), but I think it's important to also differentiate between those and professional publications (such as magazine articles).

Both of them have their advantages and disadvantages. Professional publications are better for establishing expertise and credibility because they require a third party to read your article and decide that it's worthy for the publication. The fact that a trustworthy source believes you to be an expert increases your value tenfold in the eyes of readers.

Personal publications such as blogs and newsletters don't have quite the same effect. Anyone, including people with absolutely no legal background, could start a legal blog, claim to be a lawyer, and argue about various points, and many potential clients probably wouldn't know the difference.

On the other hand, personal publications allow you to better gather an audience and help potential clients connect to you more. While they may read your article in the trade publication, they probably won't remember your name or even recognize that it was the same person if you publish another article they read. But they can subscribe to blogs and newsletters and follow you week to week.

While professional publications are certainly better for establishing expertise, personal publications are better for establishing a connection with your clients.