The Write Stuff

Law firms, like all businesses, need to market their services. That recognition came a bit later to the legal community than some others, but few attorneys today would argue that waiting for your virtues to be discovered is an effective way to compete for new clients and retain existing ones. Even clients who already know how good you are, because you have represented them effectively in the past, need periodic reminders of your skills. “Out of sight out of mind” doesn't work all that well in a great market; it can be devastating in a bad one.

Buying advertising space is one way to promote your firm, but it is also expensive. Papering premier publications with your press releases is free, but also very difficult. Most of the publications in which you would most want to appear don't use that many press releases ' and they tend to bury the ones they do use. Besides, who is going to read and remember that your firm has hired, promoted, congratulated, or offered a partnership to someone? Except to other members of the firm or their immediate families, all of these announcements look alike; they will register barely, if at all, with the clients whose attention you are trying to attract.

A far more effective way to get your firm's name “out there” is to produce bylined articles, written by members of your firm, discussing timely, relevant topics of interest to the companies or individuals whose business you have or would like to acquire. Like press releases, these articles are “free” in the sense that you do not have to pay the publications that publish them. And there is no better way to demonstrate your firm's expertise in a practice area than to have someone write knowledgably about it.

Free Advertising

Unlike press releases, which most publications view as a necessary evil, guest articles are often welcomed. The real estate trade publication I edited for many years produced mammoth “special supplements” virtually every month, for which we regularly solicited (and sometimes begged for) articles written by industry experts. Surprisingly, few of the companies we approached recognized the value of these opportunities. Those that did reaped multiple benefits, beginning with the free advertising produced by the tag line at the end of every article: “This article was written by John Smith, a partner in the law firm of Smith, Jones, and Smith. SJS, with offices in Plainville, specializes in real estate and every other area in which your company might have a need for legal advice.” You would have to pay a lot for an ad that conveyed the same message. And this sort of indirect advertising is particularly effective, because instead of stating, “We're terrific,” it allows prospective clients who read your articles to reach that conclusion on their own.

Producing guest articles on request, or offering to write them, pays off handsomely in other ways as well, including the likelihood that reporters and editors who see the articles will recognize your expertise and use attorneys in your firm as sources for the news and feature articles they write.

You have probably noticed that reporters seem have a few favored sources they quote all the time. These industry experts have positioned themselves at the front of media rolodexes by demonstrating that they are credible, reliable and knowledgeable in their fields. Writing bylined articles is one very effective way of positioning a firm and its attorneys in that way.

Bylined articles also have multiple uses. The article an attorney writes for the local business weekly or community newspaper might also appear:

• On the firm's Web site (which always needs fresh content);
• In the firm's print or electronic newsletter; and
• In “thought you might be interested in this” letters or e-mails, providing an opportunity (other than a bill) to contact existing clients and perhaps to illustrate expertise in areas other than those with which the firm's clients are familiar.

Inside or Out

Firms that decide to produce bylined articles have two options:

• Write them in-house; or
• Hire someone else to write them for you.

The obvious advantage of the in-house option is that it doesn't entail any out-of-pocket costs; the firm's attorneys do the writing. The disadvantage is the firm's attorneys do the writing, and they may not view producing these articles as a top priority – or as a priority at all. While the marketing benefits are significant, they are less tangible and less immediate than the benefits of billable time spent working for existing clients. Also, the demands and unpredictability of servicing clients can make it difficult for attorneys to produce articles quickly or on a consistent schedule. This is particularly true at smaller firms where attorneys are almost always over-extended and view any non client-related activity as a drain on billable time.

Finding attorneys who are willing to write and have the time to do so is only part of the challenge; you also need to find attorneys who can write well. Most attorneys think they write well and some of them actually do. But an attorney who can write a brilliant legal brief won't necessarily be able to write an article that an audience of non-lawyers (or even lawyers for that matter) will enjoy reading and understand.

Ghost Writers in the Sky

For these reasons, some firms decide it makes more sense to hire a professional wordsmith to “ghost write” articles for them ' that is, to produce articles that will appear under the “byline” of a member of the firm.

Typically, the designated author will brief the writer on the topic, provide or direct the writer to support materials (briefs, court decisions, regulations, etc.), and then review the finished article ' a process that requires far less of the attorney's time than actually writing the article would entail. Using freelance writers, a firm can produce as many articles as it wants ' or is willing to pay for ' without significantly cutting into the firm's billable time, and without pressuring attorneys who either don't have the time to write or who prefer to spend their time doing other things.

Just as all attorneys are not equally skilled at writing for a non-legal audience, all professional writers are not equally adept at handling legal subjects. If the firm's attorneys are going to have to spend hours correcting and rewriting the ghosted articles, they may as well write them in the first place. You want to make sure any writers you hire can talk to attorneys, understand what they say, and produce clear and engaging articles on subjects that are complicated and often somewhat dry.

You will have to pay for these articles, of course. Like attorneys, professional writers expect to bill for their time. Billing practices and amounts will vary, depending on the skill and experience level of the writers and on the length, difficulty and frequency of the articles you commission. On average, you should expect to pay as much as $100 per hour or more for the best writers; you can pay much less, of course, but as in most areas, you get what you pay for.

A contractual arrangement in which you commit to a specified number of articles over a designated period of time will almost always be less expensive than a per-assignment arrangement with one or more writers. A writer who works with your firm over time will get to know your attorneys (and vice versa), develop a smooth working relationship with them, and acquire a good working knowledge of the issues you target. The result should be high-quality articles requiring relatively little effort or time from your attorneys. That, in any event, should be the goal, and one measure of whether this arrangement is working effectively for you.

To get the most from your bylined articles, whether you produce them in-house or otherwise:

• Select topics that spotlight the practice areas and skills you want to promote.
• Choose your authors ' both in-house attorneys and freelance contractors ' carefully. Producing poorly written articles is worse than not producing any articles at all.
• Get maximum mileage from every article. Put them on the firm's Web site, in its newsletter, and in the mail. If you go to the trouble of writing an article or paying someone to write it, make it work overtime.
• Establish a regular article production schedule and stick with it. Like any marketing effort, the benefits of bylined articles are cumulative. Producing one article, or a few of them sporadically, won't do much. Posting and publishing articles regularly, and in multiple locations, will get your firm's name in front of clients and prospective clients and keep it there.

Producing bylined articles will require an investment of time or money or perhaps both, but it is an investment that will pay off quickly in marketing benefits that more than justify the commitment and the cost.

[Editor's Note: Law Journal Newsletters regularly accepts bylined articles for all of its titles. For a complete list of titles, click on the Newsletters tab at left. For more information, or to send articles for consideration, write to [email protected].]

Law firms, like all businesses, need to market their services. That recognition came a bit later to the legal community than some others, but few attorneys today would argue that waiting for your virtues to be discovered is an effective way to compete for new clients and retain existing ones. Even clients who already know how good you are, because you have represented them effectively in the past, need periodic reminders of your skills. “Out of sight out of mind” doesn't work all that well in a great market; it can be devastating in a bad one.

Buying advertising space is one way to promote your firm, but it is also expensive. Papering premier publications with your press releases is free, but also very difficult. Most of the publications in which you would most want to appear don't use that many press releases ' and they tend to bury the ones they do use. Besides, who is going to read and remember that your firm has hired, promoted, congratulated, or offered a partnership to someone? Except to other members of the firm or their immediate families, all of these announcements look alike; they will register barely, if at all, with the clients whose attention you are trying to attract.

A far more effective way to get your firm's name “out there” is to produce bylined articles, written by members of your firm, discussing timely, relevant topics of interest to the companies or individuals whose business you have or would like to acquire. Like press releases, these articles are “free” in the sense that you do not have to pay the publications that publish them. And there is no better way to demonstrate your firm's expertise in a practice area than to have someone write knowledgably about it.

Free Advertising

Unlike press releases, which most publications view as a necessary evil, guest articles are often welcomed. The real estate trade publication I edited for many years produced mammoth “special supplements” virtually every month, for which we regularly solicited (and sometimes begged for) articles written by industry experts. Surprisingly, few of the companies we approached recognized the value of these opportunities. Those that did reaped multiple benefits, beginning with the free advertising produced by the tag line at the end of every article: “This article was written by John Smith, a partner in the law firm of Smith, Jones, and Smith. SJS, with offices in Plainville, specializes in real estate and every other area in which your company might have a need for legal advice.” You would have to pay a lot for an ad that conveyed the same message. And this sort of indirect advertising is particularly effective, because instead of stating, “We're terrific,” it allows prospective clients who read your articles to reach that conclusion on their own.

Producing guest articles on request, or offering to write them, pays off handsomely in other ways as well, including the likelihood that reporters and editors who see the articles will recognize your expertise and use attorneys in your firm as sources for the news and feature articles they write.

You have probably noticed that reporters seem have a few favored sources they quote all the time. These industry experts have positioned themselves at the front of media rolodexes by demonstrating that they are credible, reliable and knowledgeable in their fields. Writing bylined articles is one very effective way of positioning a firm and its attorneys in that way.

Bylined articles also have multiple uses. The article an attorney writes for the local business weekly or community newspaper might also appear:

• On the firm's Web site (which always needs fresh content);
• In the firm's print or electronic newsletter; and
• In “thought you might be interested in this” letters or e-mails, providing an opportunity (other than a bill) to contact existing clients and perhaps to illustrate expertise in areas other than those with which the firm's clients are familiar.

Inside or Out

Firms that decide to produce bylined articles have two options:

• Write them in-house; or
• Hire someone else to write them for you.

The obvious advantage of the in-house option is that it doesn't entail any out-of-pocket costs; the firm's attorneys do the writing. The disadvantage is the firm's attorneys do the writing, and they may not view producing these articles as a top priority – or as a priority at all. While the marketing benefits are significant, they are less tangible and less immediate than the benefits of billable time spent working for existing clients. Also, the demands and unpredictability of servicing clients can make it difficult for attorneys to produce articles quickly or on a consistent schedule. This is particularly true at smaller firms where attorneys are almost always over-extended and view any non client-related activity as a drain on billable time.

Finding attorneys who are willing to write and have the time to do so is only part of the challenge; you also need to find attorneys who can write well. Most attorneys think they write well and some of them actually do. But an attorney who can write a brilliant legal brief won't necessarily be able to write an article that an audience of non-lawyers (or even lawyers for that matter) will enjoy reading and understand.

Ghost Writers in the Sky

For these reasons, some firms decide it makes more sense to hire a professional wordsmith to “ghost write” articles for them ' that is, to produce articles that will appear under the “byline” of a member of the firm.

Typically, the designated author will brief the writer on the topic, provide or direct the writer to support materials (briefs, court decisions, regulations, etc.), and then review the finished article ' a process that requires far less of the attorney's time than actually writing the article would entail. Using freelance writers, a firm can produce as many articles as it wants ' or is willing to pay for ' without significantly cutting into the firm's billable time, and without pressuring attorneys who either don't have the time to write or who prefer to spend their time doing other things.

Just as all attorneys are not equally skilled at writing for a non-legal audience, all professional writers are not equally adept at handling legal subjects. If the firm's attorneys are going to have to spend hours correcting and rewriting the ghosted articles, they may as well write them in the first place. You want to make sure any writers you hire can talk to attorneys, understand what they say, and produce clear and engaging articles on subjects that are complicated and often somewhat dry.

You will have to pay for these articles, of course. Like attorneys, professional writers expect to bill for their time. Billing practices and amounts will vary, depending on the skill and experience level of the writers and on the length, difficulty and frequency of the articles you commission. On average, you should expect to pay as much as $100 per hour or more for the best writers; you can pay much less, of course, but as in most areas, you get what you pay for.

A contractual arrangement in which you commit to a specified number of articles over a designated period of time will almost always be less expensive than a per-assignment arrangement with one or more writers. A writer who works with your firm over time will get to know your attorneys (and vice versa), develop a smooth working relationship with them, and acquire a good working knowledge of the issues you target. The result should be high-quality articles requiring relatively little effort or time from your attorneys. That, in any event, should be the goal, and one measure of whether this arrangement is working effectively for you.

To get the most from your bylined articles, whether you produce them in-house or otherwise:

• Select topics that spotlight the practice areas and skills you want to promote.
• Choose your authors ' both in-house attorneys and freelance contractors ' carefully. Producing poorly written articles is worse than not producing any articles at all.
• Get maximum mileage from every article. Put them on the firm's Web site, in its newsletter, and in the mail. If you go to the trouble of writing an article or paying someone to write it, make it work overtime.
• Establish a regular article production schedule and stick with it. Like any marketing effort, the benefits of bylined articles are cumulative. Producing one article, or a few of them sporadically, won't do much. Posting and publishing articles regularly, and in multiple locations, will get your firm's name in front of clients and prospective clients and keep it there.

Producing bylined articles will require an investment of time or money or perhaps both, but it is an investment that will pay off quickly in marketing benefits that more than justify the commitment and the cost.

[Editor's Note: Law Journal Newsletters regularly accepts bylined articles for all of its titles. For a complete list of titles, click on the Newsletters tab at left. For more information, or to send articles for consideration, write to [email protected].]