#201: Legal Marketing Tips (You Haven’t Heard Before)

Heather: Welcome everyone to the Life & Law Podcast. This is your host, Heather Moulder. Today we have a special guest. I want to introduce you to Janet Falk. She is a communications professional with more than 30 years of experience in-house as a consultant and at public relations agencies. 

As chief Strategist at Falk Communications and Research, Janet advises small law firms and solo attorneys while also leading workshops, FYI law firms, I would definitely snag her for these on media relations and marketing communications. And this includes topics such as client attraction, referral, follow-ups, associate recruitment, and how and why to generate news stories about ongoing litigation. Welcome Janet.

[00:01:59] Janet: Thank you Heather. I’m excited to be here and to speak with your audience today.

Heather: I’m very excited because we’re going to get a little bit later into some of the media relations stuff that I think is really interesting and juicy and intriguing to me. So audience be stay tuned for to listen to that one. I think you’re going to get a lot out of it, but let’s start.

Janet’s Background & Story

Actually, I’d like to go back a little bit and start a little bit with your story and how you even got into marketing and media relations. Was this something you knew from the beginning that you wanted to do? Did you get into it accidentally? How did you get here?

[00:02:33] Janet: Well, this is quite a backdoor story, Heather. I actually have a PhD in Spanish literature and taught at the college level and then through a program that was like an executive mba. I had an intensive experience studying accounting, finance Marketing strategy and career development. From there, I worked on Wall street and in my role as a securities analyst, I was analyzing not poetry, but instead financial statements to figure out how a company made its money and how they could be making more money. In this role, I spoke with investor relations professionals and thinking that I could move to that role because I understood how Wall street analysts thought and how they spoke and write. And I could speak back to them because that would be like teaching. I took a class in investor relations, and through what we now call networking, I got a job at the agency of one of my classmates. Since then, I have worked in a variety of public relations and marketing communications roles, sometimes in house, sometimes at agencies, and added more skills to my toolbox. So there you have it. I went from higher education to Wall street to nonprofit to working with law firms.

[00:04:03] Heather: It’s interesting to me. I love that you call it a backdoor story. I think a lot of people who end up where they’re really meant to be, and when I say meant to be, I mean finding ways to utilize their strengths and their gifts in the work that they do often end up there in a back door because we don’t often realize A, what our true strengths and gifts are initially, and B, how to best utilize them for others. So it sounds to me like if I’m just reading between the lines, you really do have an understanding of psychology, which we’re going to get into soon, and specifically how that impacts communications and how to better communicate with people using those principles. And it comes very naturally to you. That’s what I’m thinking. And so showcased itself. And slowly but surely, you worked your way into really amazing positions where you can then help others learn how to do this.

[00:05:01] Janet: Yes, I agree with you. You know, it starts with understanding who is on the other side and what is it that motivates them. What is their problem? How do you or my client, in most cases, represent a solution? But I will say that my years working in financial services definitely shaped my outlook to the point where I consider three questions, which is, how can this person or this company or this business owner save more time, save more money, and make more money using the insight that I or my client brings to.

[00:05:42] Heather: The table, which is probably why you pair so perfectly with lawyers, because we think like that as well.

Janet: Right, right, right.

[00:05:53] Janet: Because, you know, to my mind, what a lawyer does is keeps their client in compliance so that they don’t have to worry about tripping over some regulation and they can now focus on their business so they will stay out of litigation. They will save time, save money, and focus on running their operations and make more money.

The 5 Ways To Attract Business As  A Lawyer

[00:06:18] Heather: Yes, absolutely. So let’s start with kind of the basics of marketing for attorneys. You talk about there being five main ways that attorneys can attract business for business development. Can you break those five down for us real quickly?

[00:06:38] Janet: Sure. I like to think that we’re now in baseball season, so we can think about the baseball model. So the five ways are networking, speaking, writing, getting involved in the trade association of your target market, and then promoting yourself online.

Networking

So let’s talk first about networking. I call that get on base, because that’s where everything starts. I mean, when you think about it. Heather, how did you and I meet? Right. We have a mutual connection. Rachel Clar and. And she mentioned our names to each other. But networking can also be going to events. And I know that many people dread going to a networking event.

So my advice is, before you go to an event, and I just posted about this on LinkedIn, my advice is look up the organization that’s holding the event, identify who the president, the vice president, the marketing, the membership chair, and the program chair might be, and get in touch with them in advance. Send them an email if you can figure out their email address, or send them an invitation on LinkedIn and introduce yourself and say that you’re learning more about the organization, you’re going to attend the event, and you’re looking forward to meeting them because you want to become a member. So now you are building what I call a welcoming community. Before you walk in the room, there are people who want to meet you. They want to recruit you to be a member of the organization. So you needn’t fear walking into a room cold. You have warmed up the room. So networking, I call that getting on base. That is the first way of attracting new business and being in touch with others who can refer your business.

Speaking

Now, the second way is speaking. Here we are speaking on a podcast, which is a great opportunity to showcase your skills and your background. But there also are webinars, there are classes that you can give, there are lectures that you can give to the local economic development corporation, for example, to talk about employment issues or IP issues that are going to be faced by the startups that are part of the edc. So that’s another opportunity. Speaking. I called that. Here’s the pitch, which is what announcers say.

[00:09:10] Heather: Okay, so before you go to the third one, I want to point something out because you. You’ve outlined this, and I want to make sure people hear this when I talk to a lot of lawyers and mention speaking. There are a ton of very introverted lawyers out there who automatically recoil at the thought of speaking because what they seem to think of as speaking is going to huge conferences and giving speeches in front, in front of rooms of hundreds and hundreds of people. But you’ve already obviously delineated that that’s not the only way to speak.

You can do online speaking, you can do podcast speaking. You can also speak to local associations in smaller group formats. So do not lawyers limit yourself in that thought process because speaking can be very lucrative. And the fact is, just because you’re introverted doesn’t mean you won’t be a good speaker. I’ve talked about this before. I’ll link to other podcasts where I talk about this. But you can actually be an incredibly good Janetnd learn to utilize the networking benefits that come with speaking as well. Even better. So I just wanted to point that out because you kind of. You talked about that a little bit, but I want people to make sure they hear that.

[00:10:18] Janet: Yeah, I would point out that you don’t have to go it alone. You can team up with a client, find out the organization that your client is a member of, and wango a presentation that the two of you can do together. So not only will you be in touch with other clients, potential clients who are related to this business and this industry, but you will put your client in the spotlight and you will then shine. So that’s another win, win. And building a solid relationship with this client.

Heather: Excellent.

Writing

[00:10:52] Janet: We have networking and speaking. Now. The third way is writing. I call that keeping the box score. And that refers to having a newsletter. I think everyone should have a newsletter. If you can’t do it monthly, at least do it quarterly because then you will be regularly appearing in people’s inboxes. There’s also opportunities to contribute articles to the local trade association where you are a member talking about a legal issue that people need to be more aware of. You don’t have to only produce your own newsletter. You can be contributing articles to other outlets. And it could be legal outlets or it could be business related, related to the industry organization that you’re a member of. The local chamber of commerce.

[00:11:45] Heather: Yes, I would, I would actually say most lawyers I speak with around writing, that’s kind of their back, you know, that’s what they fall towards because they’re very comfortable writing. It feels less, you know, off-putting. They’re not putting themselves out there as much. So they think. But they often think of article writing for legal type Stuff like legal publications, and they’re not thinking broadly enough. So I’m glad you mentioned business journals, business associates. Like there’s business magazines. There are places for you to write that. You may not be thinking of that, by the way. They usually aren’t as intense and you’re not writing as big of an article. So it’s not as time consuming. That’s a good thing. Speak a little bit more about a newsletter though, because I find that a lot of lawyers do not do this and don’t even think that’s something they could or should do. As an attorney.

[00:12:40] Janet: Newsletter shouldn’t be so intimidating. My newsletter is monthly and it’s one article. And a newsletter doesn’t have to be, you know, four pages glossy, sent in the mail and so on. A newsletter has an email format that’s very easy to use. There are a lot of providers out there. I personally use mailchimp, which among public relations professionals is the preferred format because it’s so easy to use.

[00:13:08] Heather: It is easy.

[00:13:09] Janet: Once you have established how you’re going to lay it out, you can talk about an issue of the day, you can comment on somebody else’s business matter, you can comment on a case that’s in the news, you can talk about best practices, five do’s, five don’ts, you know, be aware of changes in the law and so on. There are a lot of topics that one can address. There can be case studies, you can do a profile of someone that people need to know more about. I would look to newsletters as a way of regularly getting your name under the nose of other people. And I would point out also that you can Write articles on LinkedIn, you can write guest blog posts for other people, and that way you capitalize on their audience and their readership. So newsletters are a good idea because you have control over how often it goes out and who it goes to. And of course you absolutely control every word in the content.

[00:14:10] Heather: Yes, absolutely. Okay, great. So what’s the fourth one?

Trade Association Involvement

[00:14:13] Janet: Okay, the fourth one I call Root for the home Team. That means get involved in the trade association of your target market. Now, I work with attorneys who have a small firm or a solo practice. I have joined two organizations to help me in this vein. One is a national women’s membership organization called Women Owned Law.

And that is women who are partners or who have their own firm or who have a solo practice. And women-owned businesses like ourselves who, who serve the legal market. And what do I do for this organization? Well, I have spoken to this organization a Couple of times. I am the editor of the member column. So every month I am getting a member of the organization to write an article, I edit it, and then if nobody’s available, guess what? I get to include my article. So this is an opportunity for me to get in front of the membership of this organization.

And I also encourage other women who I think would enjoy the organization to attend events. Now, that’s one organization where I have become very active. There’s another one here in New York City which is somewhat virtual, but mostly in person. It’s called Deliberate Solos. And it is for attorneys who by choice have a solo practice. And that could be trust and estates. They could be bankruptcy, or they could be personal injury or pellet, you know, a variety of practices. But the thing that unites them is the opportunity to engage with others who understand their circumstance of being a solo attorney. And here is something that I am also involved with. I have spoken to the group many times, the two groups. I also share an opportunity for, for writing. I subscribe to a list from the New York Law Journal. Whenever they’re having a special section which might be matrimonial or arbitration or litigation or real estate, I get a notice that the special section is coming up. And what do I do? I share this opportunity with the members of Deliberate Syllables, with the members of Women Owned Law, and I give them guidance as to how to write the article that they would like to submit to the New York Law Journal for publication in this special section. So the opportunity to get involved with the target organization of your market. Who are your audience? Where are they meeting? Join that group. They will welcome you. And believe me, you will be the only or one of a few attorneys who are members of this group, which represents a great opportunity for you to share your insight, whether it’s about intellectual property or zoning and real estate construction.

But not only that, when you are the only attorney or one of a few, you can help them with their contracts, you can help them with their leases, you can help them with, you know, a variety of matters that because nobody else is an attorney in that organization, they can turn to you for guidance. So root for the home team and get involved in the trade association of your target market.

[00:17:47] Heather: And I’m just going to note, we often think of what you’re saying as part of networking. I like how you’ve pulled it out into its own realm because it’s not just about going to events. It’s about real participation and service, service to those people. So this is where the service-based marketing that I talk about all the time really comes into play. So I love that you pulled it out separately. And it’s not just a piece of. Of networking.

Online Promotion

[00:18:17] Janet: Right. Okay, so let’s summarize. We have networking, speaking, writing, being involved in the trade association of your target market. And now the fifth way I call cover all the bases, and that is promote what you do online.

So when you’re going to a networking event or when you wear it to one and you learn something interesting, share that, Share that in your newsletter, Share that in your Instagram, on your LinkedIn account, on your Facebook account. When you are speaking at an event, you’re going to promote it in advance. Say, looking forward to speaking to the such and such organization about topic one, topic two, topic three, and here’s the link to register.

Now, what happens when I see this online and I say, oh, Heather Moulder is speaking at this event? I’m gonna go and I’m gonna sign up. Or I don’t know who Heather Mulder is, but I’m a member of this organization and she’s speaking. And I want to learn more about topic two. I’m going to look up her website and I’m going to learn more about this person or, oh, gosh darn it, I can’t make it on that date. I’m going to be traveling. I should invite Heather Moulder to come and speak to my organization because we would be interested in having her.

So this is what you do online. You promote what it is that you’re doing with your networking, with your speaking, with your writing, and when you’re belonging to this other organization. And then after the event, you’re going to do the same thing. Great questions that I got from the audience at the such and such event. And here’s what we talked about, and this way, you’re promoting yourself, you’re promoting your expertise, you’re promoting your firm, and you’re promoting the organization where you did the speaking and so on. So what you should be doing is trying all of these five things. Now, some of them are going to be more comfortable for you than others. And I understand, but you don’t know until you get up to that and swing for the fences, which one is going to work for you.

[00:20:27] Heather: That is definitely true. You need to know which one is going to work for you and then kind of go all in on that, or at least for now. I always tell my clients, you don’t have to do them all all of the time, but you got to pick something, get started somewhere in the marketing arena, see what you like about it, what you don’t, and figure out how to make that your own and then leverage it into other areas. Because once you do that and you get good at it and you get comfortable with it, it’s a lot easier to leverage it into other things.

[00:20:54] Janet: Yeah. And I would point out also that in today’s digital world, you know, when you are promoting these activities online, when you are speaking on podcasts, when you are publishing articles that appear online, when you have a newsletter or a blog and you are posting regularly, there is a long tail effect. Just the other day someone contacted me and I said, you know, I would like to know where it is that you heard about me, because I don’t know many people who live in Canada. And they said, oh, I saw you on this podcast. I checked. That podcast was from 2022.

Heather: Oh, wow. Yeah, Right.

[00:21:35] Janet: And so you want to make sure that whatever you are doing, you are promoting through your online accounts, because you don’t know when someone is going to happen upon them. And I want to point out also that in this age of artificial intelligence, what are the AI tools doing? They are scooping up, vacuuming up everything that they can find about you online.

So you want to make sure that you are belt and suspenders. You know, whatever you do online, you continue to promote it so that it will be found by the AI tools.

[00:22:14] Heather: And you get to curate what that looks like as long as you’re doing it. So, you know, you have control over that. So why not take as much control as you possibly can?

[00:22:24] Janet: Right, right. And I would point out that the way to have control is to anchor it back to your website.

Buyer’s Journey (& What To Pay Attention To In Your Marketing)

[00:22:30] Heather: Yes. Oh, yes, definitely. So I want to get into. Since we talked a little bit about psychology earlier, it’s clear that you understand buyer psychology to some extent. You talk about it in nuanced ways all over. You know what? Everything I see from you, and I’m a total geek about this type of thing to the point where I actually have an upcoming episode at the time of this recording. I don’t know when this. When this gets released. It will either have just been released or will be released soon thereafter. So be on the lookout, audience, to talk about some buyer psychology and how that comes into play in your marketing. But let’s talk specifically about what you call the buyer’s journey. Can you give the audience a big picture description of what that is and why they need to understand it?

[00:23:17] Janet: Okay, let me say that my approach is not the buyer’s journey per se. Heather. But I call it the confirmation process.

Heather: Well, yes, you get into that, but I want to know the buyer. So if you can kind of break down the buyer’s journey, and then we’re going to add your layer, which is the confirmation process. Correct.

Traditional Buyer’s Journey

[00:23:37] Janet: Okay. So the buyer’s journey starts with awareness.

Being a client becomes aware that they have an issue, whether it’s, you know, bankruptcy or divorce or real estate transaction. Then it moves to interest. So now they’re going to. They’re going to conduct some research to figure out who it is that understands that problem and how that person might be able to help them, and then it moves into action.

So the person is actually going to contact you and they’re going to learn more about you and figure out if you are the right person, the right resource to help them. And then it’s finally decision. Right. They’re either going to pick you or they’re going to pick somebody else, or they’re going to make a decision that they’re not going to do anything about it for the time being. So that is the standard formula for the buyer’s journey.

I tend to think that this is a sort of passive approach that many people take, that what they do is they keep feeding the buyer all this information, whether or not the buyer has taken any interest or any action. Just because I landed on your website one time and I may have signed up for your newsletter, it doesn’t mean I’m reading. It doesn’t mean I’m thinking about it. I’m just receiving all your information, and I may not be acting on it. I may not be reading it. I may be just. I do this sometimes with my friends. Don’t tell them. I open their newsletters and then I delete them because I have too much on my plate.

So I like to think of the buyer as not passively receiving all this, but instead taking a more active role.

The Confirmation Process (& The Need To Confirm Inside of Your Marketing)

I call this the confirmation process, and it has three steps. So the first step is the person hears about you in some way. They heard you speak at a conference or on a podcast. They read something you wrote. They read your name in an article and a quote in the news and so on. And so they want to find out, are you the one? Are you the person that I heard about? Maybe you were referred to them in some way. And I’m sure you’ll find this amusing, Heather, but there is another Janet Falk in the universe, but this particular one lives in the same town as my sister, and I’ve met her.

Heather: Oh, wow.

[00:26:00] Janet: Right. So so people want to confirm that I am the Janet Falk, that you are the Heather Moulder, the one that they heard about. Now, how can you confirm this? Well, first of all, you have your photo, right? Because many times, if they’ve seen you in person or they read an article about you, or you’ve authored an article, then your photo is displayed. So first they have your photo, but then you have some other qualifying information about you that confirms that, yes, you are an attorney and yes, you have this kind of background. So, yes, they are confirmed. One, you are the one that they heard about. Now, the second thing they want to confirm is that you have the skills and education and experience to help them solve whatever their situation might be. How do you do that? You have case studies, you have a description of your background. You talk about the industries that you’ve worked with. You talk about the kinds of clients and the problems that you solve for them and so on. So all this narrative description goes to confirm that you have the wherewithal to help them deal with their situation.

So now we have to recap. Confirm you are the Heather Moulder, I am the Janet Falk, and I have the skills and the background that I can help you solve your situation. So the third question is, do you have the trust and support and the credentials that people in your industry and your clients approve of? Have you spoken at conferences? Have you published articles in referee journals? Do you have testimonials? You know, are you an officer of the bar association? So these are ways that you can confirm that you are the upstanding person with these credentials that your peers and your clients value and they trust you and they want to continue working with you. So in your presence online, whether it’s your own website or your LinkedIn profile, you want to make sure that you are confirming on these three steps, you know, you are the person with this name. You have these skills and experience, and you have the trust and confidence of others who matter, whether they’re your peers or your clients. That’s the confirmation process.

[00:28:30] Heather: And I would just say. And you. You confirm by showing up regularly and consistently, right? By ensuring that what? That you are consistent. Also, I think consistency, people confuse sometimes. It’s not just consistently being there every day, and it doesn’t have to be every day, by the way. It’s really more about being consistent in some sort of realm, timing wise. But even more importantly, how you show up, what you’re talking about, how you talk about, what you’re talking about. Because if you’re all over the place people aren’t going to have a clue what you really do and how you help people. So this is why we talk about niching in the marketing world. That’s a reason for it. And it doesn’t mean it has to be super niche, but you need to at least make sense to people so that. Because if you’re talking about, you know, an IP case one day and then in a wills and estates the next week, people are going to be, what, what are you, a jack of all trades? No, you’re not the credible expert I thought you are.

[00:29:37] Janet: Exactly. Find what it is that you can most succinctly address and be regularly showing your success and your services and how clients benefit from, from working with you. And again, of course, the newsletter would underscore that.

[00:29:54] Heather: Absolutely. A newsletter would definitely help with that because you get to speak to those people every week, month, quarter, however you do it. And it’s the thing I would say about a newsletter that surprised me. And I’ve had my newsletter for years now, and it started, I think, monthly and then went to every other week and now it’s weekly. I originally thought, how am I going to keep this up forever, like, and for so long and every week? And am I going to run out of things to say? No, you really don’t. And over time you feel like you get to know your people because people will respond back to you and you’ll see what really resonates and what people like and don’t like and why. And you get a better sense of who your people are over time. And you know this by based on the clients that you’re working with day in and day out. And it is amazing, amazing to me how much information is always there for you to talk about.

Janet: Right, right. Not too long ago, I wrote a newsletter and it was prompted by a remark by a colleague who said, Janet, never fails to amaze me how you always come up with interesting ideas for your newsletter. And I went back and I reviewed more than 150 newsletters and I gave the backstory for 10 ways that I found inspiration.

Heather: Love that.

Media Relations (The Thing Few Lawyers Do Yet Should Do More)

So I want to get into kind of the media relations piece that you do. This I find incredibly intriguing. One of the first things you said to me when we got on our initial call was, I help lawyers get their cases, their litigation, what they’re working on into the news, like proactively on purpose. Which was very interesting to me because the vast majority of lawyers I know actively try to stay out.

So tell me a bit about why. Why would an attorney even want to be in the news?

[00:31:59] Janet: All right. In the case of when you have litigation that you’re about to file, when you can get a news story, it will put pressure on opposing counsel because the defendant will look terrible and they will want to contain the damage there. So if we have a mailman, I can give an example or we can.

Heather: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:32:23] Janet: Okay. So an employment attorney approached me and he said he had this sexual harassment case and it had to do with the television broadcast industry. Now, I’m sure you’re horrified to think that that would possibly go on in that industry, but it did. And so I worked with him, I reviewed the complaint and I drafted a press release. Now, he was going to file his complaint on Monday, and so on Friday, I told the client, you have to remove yourself from social media because people are going to come after you. So she did. And then I contacted reporters who cover the broadcasting industry and I said, I have an attorney client. He’s going to file a case very soon. It’s with a major player in your industry. Be on the lookout for a press release from me, Janet Falk.

So Tom’s Monday morning and at 9 o’clock they filed the case in court. And we took a link to the complaint and put it in the press release. And then we issued the press release at 11 o’clock so that it would be easy to access the complaint, which had these in incredibly salacious details of the sexual harassment.

Now, I went back to the reporters I had previously contacted and I said, now I can tell you this is a sexual harassment case. It’s about a major player in your industry. And the defendants are two actors on the television show, the show, the production company, the cable network and the parent company. I’m sure you know them, Heather Viacom.

So now the reporter is very interested in learning more about the case. And at one o’clock there was a news story on the website broadcasting in cable that said sexual harassment charges against Viacom and, you know, name the other defendants.

And then I was just doing other things in my office. I get a call at 5:00 from my client who said, janet, we’ve initiated settlement talks with opposing counsel, Heather. They filed the case in the morning, and before leaving the office that same day, they were starting settlement talks.

Now, what happened between 1:00 when the story appeared and 5:00 when I heard from my client, the employment attorney? I don’t know exactly, but I’m guessing that the sponsors who advertised on the show and on the network, who read the news story were very uncomfortable learning about these sexual harassment charges. And they called up the Viacom and the cable network and they said, we’re very unhappy. We’re looking at our budget for advertising.

And I believe that what might have happened next is the general counsel told the associate general counsel, make this go away.

Heather: Interesting.

[00:35:29] Janet: So if you are filing litigation, media strategy should be a part of your litigation strategy. And if you are defense counsel, you should anticipate that media strategy will be a part of litigation strategy by the plaintiff.

Heather: Do you think there is a role for defense counsel, especially if they feel that the charges are not fully accurate or, you know, where they could be more proactive in reaching out to reporters and trying to change the narrative a little bit?

[00:36:07] Janet: Well, they can’t be proactive before the case is filed. Right. So.

Heather: Right, right.

[00:36:11] Janet: But I think that they have a role to play and saying, this is a specious lawsuit, there’s no basis here, you know, this is frivolous, we’re going to contest this vigorously and so on. And they can be dismissive and try to put an end to it. I would point out, though, that not responding to an inquiry from a reporter results in. Spokesperson for the company was not available for comment. Phone calls from the company were not returned. And this means that, you know, Mary and Jo, public who are reading this news story are going to think they did it because they didn’t do it. They would be responding.

[00:36:53] Heather: That’s psychology at work. Folks like that is how the brain works. That is how we humans think.

So I do, I do believe there is a role that media plays and you need to understand it. And if you can use it to your benefit, you probably should. And if you are on the other side and really can’t, it doesn’t mean you should just ignore it and not get back to people, because people will assume, and they don’t assume the best.

[00:37:21] Janet: Well, not only that, but, you know, what I say to my clients is when you get an unexpected call from a reporter, you should ask them, what is this question about? And take their contact information because you want to be able to get back to them and say, I’d really like to speak with you now, but I’m on deadline or I have someone in my office make sure that I know exactly what it is you want to talk about. Because I have to get permission from my client to talk to the press and I want to be helpful to you. I have to know exactly what you’re asking me so that I can be fully informed and be able to answer your questions. Now, there’s no news story that can’t wait a half an hour, which is what you’re asking for, and you’re promising to get back to the reporter in a half an hour with answers to their question, having secured permission from your client to talk to the press. Because after all, this has to be in the best interest of your client.

Heather: Right.

[00:38:23] Janet: To talk to the press. So while you’re contacting the client and saying what glazes is going on here, then what do you think the reporter is doing? You think they’re sitting by the phone waiting for your phone call? No, no, they’re calling someone else. They’re calling the nosy neighbor, the disgruntled ex employee, the unhappy vendor, the regulator in the industry. You know, they’re finding another source. So don’t think that by not calling the reporter back or not responding that the reporter is going to ignore this vacuum. No, they have to find more information to round out the story. And I guarantee that the nosy neighbor and the disgruntled ex employee do not see the situation in the light that’s going to be favorable to your client.

[00:39:15] Heather: Yeah. And I would. I would add this. You’ve highlighted this already. But let’s make this clear. Lawyers are pretty good at procrastinating at times. This is not one of those things you want to procrastinate, because when a reporter calls and you say, okay, I would like to talk to you, but I need more, you know, get more information. I need to talk to my client. You can’t get back to them the next day or two days later, which is traditionally what a lot of lawyers do for this type of stuff. That’s too late. You actually do need to move on it quickly because the fact of the matter is they have a deadline and they’re going to get that story out and they’re going to say, we reached out, but they weren’t able to give comment. So what would you rather them say? Would you rather them say that? Or would you rather go quickly, get the permission you need, speak with them, give the side that you can give, and have them at least say what you want them to say? So you’re controlling your narrative.

Janet: Right, Right. You have to respond. You don’t necessarily have to answer all the questions.

Heather: Correct.

Janet: Respond.

[00:40:20] Janet: It could be that, you know, it’s an inflammatory situation and you have to be very careful. Maybe the judge is watching the situation very closely. Something that we’re seeing now in the Blake Lively case, Right. Where the judge is Already reminded both sides for talking too much to the media and so on. So, you know, you can say, I can only say so much because of, you know, the pending litigation or the pending investigation. You know, this is as much as I can say. But you will have said something, correct? Don’t want to be hiding. You don’t want to be not responding, because people do that as a negative.

Getting Started With Media Relations

Heather: So is somebody who’s listening going, okay, I could see where this, this strategy could help my clients. I want to be more proactive and get out in front. How do they even get started? Like, how do they identify who to reach out to? And then once they do, how do they reach out to somebody cold they haven’t ever talked to reporters before? What is your best advice for that?

[00:41:23] Janet: Okay, I like to say that reporters call the people they know. They don’t call an attorney that they’ve never heard of, because how would they even think to get in touch with someone that they don’t know who they are or what they do as a practice or why it would be meaningful to, to anyone else in that industry or in that geography? The tool that I use is called a media profile. And I can send you a link, you can include it in the show notes, okay? But basically, it is not your cv, it is not your representative cases, it is not your degrees, and it is not your published articles, as many as they might be. Now, what a media profile does is it provides your contact information and a very succinct description of your practice. It talks about the kind of industries and the kind of clients and the kind of problems that you solve. But what it also includes is what people need to know more about, what issues are flying under the radar that nobody is talking about, but that are going to have consequences for an individual or for a business owner or for a corporation. Because reporters know what already happened. They want to know what’s going to happen before it happens so that they can tell their readers, and then their readers will be at the top of their game.

So a media profile is going to provide this background, but it’s also going to highlight the. The topics that people need to know more about. And that can be just a simple list of a few bullet points in order to get the point across.

Heather: Okay.

[00:43:10] Janet: And it also could include a short quote about how a reporter might interview you, what you might say, maybe reflect a little bit of your personality and your interests and so on. And finally, it’s going to include the contact information of the person so that they can book a call with you, whether it’s your paralegal or your office manager or your public relations professional who represents you so that you’re too busy as an attorney practicing with your clients, you want somebody else to be able to schedule these interviews. So here you have described your background. You have highlighted things that people need to know more about, as we said at the top, to save time, save money, and make more money. And this will answer the three questions that a reporter would have. A reporter is going to say, well, why should I talk to you? Because there are so many other attorneys who have the same kind of practice.

The second question is, why should I talk to you now? What is happening now that’s new or different that people need to be aware of? And the third question, which goes back to my earlier point, why should anyone care about what you have to say? Because if they only knew what Heather knows, then they would save time, save money, and make more money. So that’s what a media profile does. It brings forward your background and your experience. It highlights the issues, and it makes the reporter think that you are going to be a worthwhile source to talk to this person. Now, how do you identify these reporters? First of all, you want to think about the publications where your clients are mentioned.

So are they in supermarket news or are they in plastics today, or are they in some other trade publications? And when you go through those publications, you will see who the reporters are and what topics they write about. Don’t be aiming for the Wall Street Journal or. Or Forbes or Fortune or New York Times, because those are further up on the food chain. You want to start locally with local city business magazine and the industry magazine, and then, you know, work your way up.

So that’s how you identify the reporters. But how do you get in touch with them? Right, you need their email address. So one way is to look at the publication itself. And many times online or in print, you will see the email address of the reporter. So that makes it easy. If it’s a magazine, you can look on the masthead, which lists all the reporters and editors, and it has their email address and oftentimes their phone number and oftentimes the particular beat or area that they cover. Many reporters have profiles on Twitter X, and they have their email address right there in their bio. Heather, why would they put their email address in their bio?

[00:46:13] Heather: So people will contact them.

Janet: Some people will contact them. They don’t want you broadcasting on social media that you’re interested in talking about X. They want you to talk only to them.

Heather: Yes.

[00:46:27] Janet: Okay. Now, oftentimes, reporters have their own website, and on their website, they publish their own articles that are previously appeared in the magazine or in the newspaper. And they have a page that says contact so that you can contact them directly. And if you can’t find a reporter in any of these venues either, in the article itself, on the masthead, on Twitter X, on their dedicated website, then you can ask a public relations professional who subscribes to one of the media databases if they can give you a little hint, if they can give you.

Heather: A boost or hire somebody like you to help them.

Janet: Well, hire somebody like me. And you know, I have access to those resources, obviously.

[00:47:14] Heather: Yes, yes. So if I’m hearing you correctly, if you are thinking this would be a good strategy, it’s time to start thinking about initially, well, how do I get out there? You know, the information that reporters would need to know about me so that they’d even see me as a credible source? And how can I start a relationship? Some of this is really just about the relationship. Don’t think in terms of, well, the next time I case or the next time, then I’ll do it. Start now.

Build those relationships. Be maybe a source for, hey, there’s this new regulation in this area. Can you speak to what this really means?

Be that person and then you form these relationships, which makes it a lot easier down the road. But if you get to a place where you do have something you’ve also given information on, here’s how to reach out. Find who to reach out to, figure out who, and then do the reaching out.

Janet: Right. So there are two ways of thinking about this. You know, one is introducing yourself as a source for comment about things that are happening in the industry or things that are happening in the news.

We can talk about that. You can piggyback on something that everybody’s talking about and thinking about. Or you can say, I have an idea for an article.

And you can get in touch with the reporter or more likely, the editor and say, this is something that I would like to talk more about. This is why people need to care about this.

Don’t write the article in advance, Heather. Instead, what you should do is say, I’d like to talk about this issue, and here’s how I will explore or confirm or look at the consequences of or, you know, deny the myth of whatever the topic might be. Please give me your word count.

So then you can write the article to precisely the word count that the publication likes. If you write something that’s 600 words and their limit is 500, then you’re going to say, oh my God, I got to perform major surgery, right? If you propose something and you’ve written 600 words and they say, heather, this is so great, can you also talk about this and that the other thing will give you a thousand. Oh my God. Now you really have to pump it up, right? But if you first propose the article and then ask for the word count, you only have to write it one time and exactly to the length of their.

Now, I want to point out something else here, which is why do you want to be in the news?

And it’s not only because you want to attract new business. There are other reasons why you want to be in the news. And it’s not only to put pressure on opposing counsel. You want to be top of mind with your referral sources. You want to be attracting talent. Because doesn’t every associate want to work for that firm that’s always getting in the news?

You want to make people aware that you are the attorney to talk about certain kinds of issues or certain kinds of circumstances. You want to build your personal brand in this very way. You want to keep in touch with all the people who are your contacts, people that you clerked with, people that you went to law school with, people who were at your former firm, people who were on the other side of the litigation or on the other side of the transaction, people who served on the bar association committee with you, people who were panelists with you at a previous conference. So there are a lot of people in your circles that are going to be looking for news about whatever it is that matters to them. And being seen in the news talking about this is a way that you can raise the flag for yourself and be known as the attorney who handles certain kinds of cases. It may be that you serve on the board of a non profit, you can be advocating for their cause, whether it’s for more money for public schools or the environment or some prison reform issue and so on. And just as reporters call the people they know. Who do conference organizers call?

Heather: Oh yes, they call the people that.

[00:51:37] Janet: They see in the news. I’ll give you an example. Years ago, I encouraged an attorney to write an article on the very obscure topic of directors and officers insurance.

And this had to do with backdating of stock options that was going on in Silicon Valley, this is around 2006, and he published this article and then he was invited to speak at a conference and then he got two clients.

So very clearly you can see the return on investment of publishing an article, being recognized as an authority to speak on a given topic and getting more business by speaking at a conference and so on. So there are a lot of reasons why people want to be in the news. And it’s not just to attract potential clients. It’s keeping in touch with many people in your circles, attracting, you know, employees, being in front of your referral sources and becoming known as the attorney who handles certain kinds of cases.

[00:52:42] Heather: Right. You become the top of mind person for that thing much more quickly and easily.

And people are much more likely to see it when it’s out there in that way. And you can get it out there. You can include it in your newsletter. You can get it out there on LinkedIn or Twitter or wherever it is that you’re, you know, you hang out online, you’ll want to utilize all of those avenues to showcase that you did this. And it’s just, it’s so easy to do. Why not do it?

[00:53:11] Janet: Right. I mean, this goes back to what we said, you know, promote everything that you do online. The example that I gave of the attorney who wrote an article, spoke at a conference, got more business and of course, you know, although we didn’t do it as extensively back in the day, you know, merchandise it by making it more available in the digital sphere.

[00:53:33] Heather: Yeah. There’s so many ways to leverage everything you do online that it’s.

I don’t know what the. Quite the way. The word that comes to mind for mine is a word that my. My child Noah says all the time, insane not to. And what he means is, why wouldn’t you. This seems so easy.

That’s what comes mind. Okay, I.

[00:53:55] Janet: Not to interrupt you, I call it content multiplication.

Heather: Yes, yes, that’s definitely what it is.

[00:54:01] Janet: Anything that’s written can become digital, can become audio, can become, you know, visual and so on.

Heather: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being here today. This was a wonderful discussion and I know the audience is going to get so much out of it. Why don’t you, before you leave, tell people where they can find you online?

[00:54:21] Janet: Certainly my website is. My name janetlfalk.com and of course I’m active on LinkedIn. I have a monthly newsletter. I have a lot of material available for free on my website.

[00:54:42] Heather: I encourage people to look there, and I will have links to her LinkedIn profile and her website in the show notes, so everybody will be able to find it. Thank you so much for being here today.

[00:54:55] Janet: My pleasure, Heather. It was a lot of fun.