How to build your speaking strategy before this year’s conference season

March 26, 2024

Legalweek. ILTACON. American Bar Association (ABA) section seminars. Sector-specific conferences. 

These eclectic events share two things in common: potential clients in attendance and invaluable speaking opportunities to reach them.

Leaders and professionals should consider joining the legal speaking circuit to amp up their profile and build their clientele. After all, speaking engagements are more than just additional CV bullets; they demonstrate authority and expertise to prospects.

However, lawyers and business leaders cannot expect panel invites based on reputation alone (unless they are U.S. Supreme Court justices or Fortune 500 CEOs). The average professional plebian can avoid the submission slush pile by approaching conference season like litigators: building a robust case with strong evidence of prior engagements and accomplishments.

Fortunately, a competitive submission does not need to feature a laundry list of prior speaking engagements — or any at all! What matters more is whether a speaker candidate made an effort to establish their expertise. Establishing third-party credibility through article writing, podcast appearances, smaller speaking engagements and more can give organizers the confidence and social proof they need to gamble on accomplished professionals with valuable insights.

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It’s in the (camera) bag: creating an in-house video program

January 29, 2024

Using video in your marketing strategy stacks the odds in your favor — and research proves it!

Multiple studies into buyer behavior demonstrate that people like to see companies use video. It helps them digest information faster and builds brand credibility and authenticity, translating to ROI at a much faster pace. Plus, 91% of businesses are already using video in their marketing strategy, according to one report.

So whether you are an architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firm encouraging your employees to grab more footage in the field or a law firm looking to demonstrate thought leadership with video content, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon, friends!

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Looking for a marketing and PR agency? Consider niche AEC specialists

October 23, 2023

If your company or firm’s marketing team needs a little extra help, or you’re starting from scratch and want to build brand awareness and credibility for your business, hiring a marketing and public relations agency can be a game-changer. 

Maybe you’ve already decided to hire an agency and have begun your search, but how do you find one that is right for your firm? Instead of turning to a jack of all trades who reinvents the wheel with every new client, consider hiring an industry specialist agency. 

This kind of agency (you may already know one!) focuses on one or a few particular sectors, such as the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry (we work with legal clients, too). Because these agencies typically represent clients in only a few focused industries, they offer a level of insider knowledge and experience compared to one representing a grab bag of clients with various needs and nuances. 

So, what are the benefits? 

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Tangible ways AEC companies can reach their target audience in the metaverse

January 16, 2023

Although abstract in nature, the metaverse is transforming the universal business landscape (and by extension the marketing field) in ways that have real-world implications. Despite the burgeoning trend of using augmented and virtual reality in marketing campaigns, many corporations have been slow to adopt this new technology. In doing so, they’re neglecting an enormous group of potential clients and employees (especially those younger cohorts). According to consulting company, Metaversed, earlier this year the population of the metaverse hit a major milestone, reaching 400 million unique monthly active users. 

Being a pioneer in any field can be risky, but with great risk comes great rewards. The key for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms will be to find their target audience before the market becomes saturated. Think of the metaverse as California in the 1800s. Everyone is rushing there for gold. You don’t want to be knee-deep in frigid river water, bumping elbows with all the other 49ers who missed their cue.

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Contributor networks and bylined article opportunities: What lawyers and legal professionals need to know

December 2, 2022

There are many ways to secure a byline in a key media outlet. While working with a legal PR agency is a surefire method to get in front of the right editors and reporters, it’s just one pathway to publication. Joining a contributor network can be an alternative way to break in — and your PR agency can help with that too.

Think of a contributor network as a bullpen of subject-matter experts a publication relies on to provide one-time articles or ongoing columns. Outlets usually open their doors to contributor network writers to offer practical, boots-on-the-ground stories and opinion pieces that supplement their staff-written stories. Once accepted into a network, lawyers and professionals usually have broad discretion regarding what they can write about, so long as they meet the outlet’s editorial standards and publishing cadence requirements. 

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The legal tech professional’s guide to legal tech podcasts

November 4, 2022

As any legal tech professional knows, staying abreast of the latest developments is critical to be competitive in an ever-changing sector. In another post, we wrote about the blogs and media outlets that cover legal tech. There are also a number of podcasts that also address this sector.  

Legal tech professionals should pull up their podcast app of choice and start browsing through the many offerings out there. Some podcasts focus on leveraging technology to empower and improve law firms, while others are more appropriate for those building a startup or working in-house at a company. 

Regardless of the legal tech podcasts you follow, you are bound to find information that will help you stay in the know and get on the radars of an audience hungry for business opportunities and partners. Here are a few that any legal tech professional should add to their playlist.

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How to leverage your next event sponsorship

August 5, 2022
Here are some tips for before, during and after an event to make sure every penny you’ve invested in sponsorship counts.

Sponsoring an event — whether an event discussion, seminar or workshop — is a great way to promote your law firm or legal tech company. By sponsoring and/or putting on an event, you not only align yourself in the marketplace with other thought leaders but you can also demonstrate your knowledge regarding a pressing pain point for potential clients. Inviting speakers and eventists is also a great way to reward clients with a marketing boost or make connections with key influencers. (Flattery will get you very far sometimes…)

Event sponsorships don’t come cheap, however, and often cost thousands of dollars. There’s also your time to consider in setting it up, holding the event, etc… Given these investments, it makes sense to try and get the most marketing bang for your event sponsorship buck. (You’ll also reduce any objections from the firm’s beancounters if you can demonstrate a strategy for achieving the best possible ROI.)

Here are some tips for before, during and after the event to make sure every penny you’ve invested in sponsorship counts.

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How to edit your law firm’s Wikipedia page: 3 golden rules

May 28, 2022

Just like death and taxes, if you’re a marketer, it’s inevitable that you’ll be asked to edit a Wikipedia page (or worse: create one).

It’s an understandable request given Wikipedia’s prominence on the web. The online encyclopedia continues to dominate search results due to its high-quality, up-to-date content on a vast swath of topics. Its pages are frequently referenced in links from other sites, one of Google’s predominant signals of authority. Google’s addition of snippets and knowledge graphs has further cemented Wikipedia in the top few results for nearly any given search. 

Unfortunately, errors are rampant on the site. Correcting inaccuracies, however, is not a simple matter. Any edits, especially those to business pages, have to follow certain rules in order to pass muster. If you do it wrong, there’s also a good chance you could get blacklisted permanently from the site. 

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11 ways attorneys can improve their chances of securing speaking engagements

September 13, 2021
11 ways attorneys can improve their chances of securing speaking engagements

Several years ago, I set out to become an industry speaker to promote Reputation Ink’s law firm public relations services to prospective clients. I’ve now spoken to many professional organizations at the local, regional and national levels and can attribute those speaking engagements to winning several new accounts.

Securing speaking engagements may be one of the most effective ways for attorneys to showcase their knowledge and get in front of prospective clients. However, the higher-profile speaking engagements are competitive and are often monopolized by just a few of the top professionals in any given industry. That’s why you must work hard to stand out.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned in my own process of securing speaking opportunities that any lawyer can use to book their own gigs.

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Why you should focus your marketing on one (or a few) industries

August 2, 2021
Why you should focus your marketing on one (or a few) industries

This article originally appeared in DRI’s The Voice.

We’ve all heard the age-old adage: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” There’s a lot of truth behind this quote: it can be difficult to know where you should invest your marketing dollars. Should you invest in media relations? Social media? SEO? Videos? Email newsletters? Webinars? Speaking at events? There’s a lot you can do, but what’s going to make the most impact?

When working with clients facing this question, I often advise them to pick an industry (or two or three, depending on the firm’s size and budget) and focus their marketing efforts there. Here’s why:

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