Did You Miss Out on Getting Ranked?

We often receive queries about how to increase PR exposure, get onto industry ranking lists, and otherwise differentiate in an increasingly crowded market. Reputation may get you in the race, but it alone won’t help you win. I thought I would share some insights on how to be more visible and top of mind to your targets and prospects, and how to move up in third-party rankings. For some, these may be obvious, but you need to develop habits- you won't get ranked on client service alone.

Get Out There, Seriously.

Researchers, prospects and prospective clients want to see activity and that attorneys consistently have their thumb on the pulse of their industry/niche/practice. Whether that’s activity on a committee or association, speaking at 3 or 4 events a year, or writing op-eds and other pieces regularly, it’s important to stay top of mind in every way you can. What trends are you seeing? What are some key takeaways from your last deal? How can those lessons help others to avoid similar hurdles? Write about it! Talk about it! Share that wonderful stuff in your brain! Seek ways to add value to clients and demonstrate your prowess- your competitors are doing it every day. (Note, there are a ton of cheat sheets for this as well- see below for some Google searches- a shout out to Alina Vedernikova who is great with this stuff!)

 From a docket perspective:

Retail Cases To Watch In 2017

Trademark Cases To Watch in 2017

White Collar Cases To Watch in 2017

 From a trend perspective:

4 Capital Markets Developments To Watch In 2017

4 Real Estate Trends To Watch In 2017

California Legislation And Regulation To Watch In 2017

Improve Your Digital Footprint.

Whether it’s pitching for new business, or trying to be Chambers-ranked… if you don’t have it on your bio, it didn’t happen.  A survey by the Consumer Executive Board (CEB) of 1,900 corporate decision makers found that buyers are, at a minimum, 57 percent of the way through the buying process before they contact a potential supplier. Some respondents reported being as much as 70 percent complete with the decision-making process before reaching out to a vendor. You won’t even know of the opportunities you may have gotten because they will be gone before you even knew they started. It makes sense to ensure that your bio and LinkedIn bio accurately reflect current trends in the market, any clients you may have served (confidentiality issues aside, of course), and how you can/have help(ed) similar clients to anticipate and mitigate these problems. Due diligence is performed on us every day- and 79% of law firm website traffic or more is just to your bios. Prospects, clients and ranking agencies aren’t mind readers- so you need to make it easy for them. Even sharing articles twice a month out on LinkedIn (and to your target list of 5-10 clients) can demonstrate this prowess- that’s less than 20 minutes a month.

Communicate Wins to Marketing.

While it may seem counter-intuitive or perhaps cheesy to communicate wins, deal closings and the like- the reality is that your competitors do it every day. Some firms integrate this marketing permission into client engagement letters and are listing numerous deals on their site daily. When you go to submit, you need to showcase numerous deals, speeches, press and other activity… having blank spaces in your submission because you can only list 5 deals in a practice area won’t help. We all know the amazing work attorneys do on a daily basis- the more you can show the outside world (with all due respect to ethics and confidentiality), the better off you will be at rankings time (and more importantly, at pitch time, so you aren't chasing down experience across the firm!). Plus, sharing wins can yield a lot more phone calls from editors, which leads to increased exposure as well.

Your marketing teams are happy to help coach you on LinkedIn strategies, help you to draft a better bio, or help to uncover speaking and writing opportunities at any time. Use them!

Mike Mellor is the firmwide director of marketing and business development for Pryor Cashman LLP, a 160-attorney firm with offices in both NYC and LA. In this role, he works to identify and develop and execute omnichannel marketing and business development strategies to help drive new business for the firm and increase brand awareness. Mike’s nearly 20-year career has spanned various marketing and BD roles in law, consulting and in financial services, working at such firms as Paul Weiss, Katten, Deutsche Bank and KPMG. He can be reached at [email protected].