Mid-Atlantic Region

Content is King (Regional Conference Recap)

By Paul Dumansky
Proposal and Strategic Content Manager at Crowell & Moring LLP

Legal industry participants often face an uphill battle ensuring that the content they create is having the desired reach and impact. In their session, “Content Is King: Proactive Content Marketing in an Often-Reactive World” at the LMA Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, speakers Alice Simons (DLA Piper), Sean Sutherland (Kapowza), and Issara Baumann (Arnold & Porter) provided attendees with guidelines and success stories aimed at improving their ability to select and appropriately disseminate their content so that it leaves a lasting impression with their intended audience.

The presentation focused on three strategies that legal marketing professionals should keep in mind when it comes to content: (1) Avoid random acts of content – be intentional; (2) Go beyond the article – mix your media; and (3) Expand your PR horizons. With these guide posts in mind, the presenters walked participants through the process of proactive content marketing.

Developing Content

At the crux of content strategy is determining what to say, how to say it, and to whom. Marketers are usually quick to identify the “whom” (clients, prospective clients, industry members, etc.), and once the audience has been established, they should ask themselves three questions about their audience: (1) What do they need to know? (2) What do they read? (3) How do they consume content? Those generating the content should establish key differentiators that will heighten interest in their message and offer a unique point-of-view that similarly catches the attention of the message recipient. Marketers should talk to key stakeholders to ensure that marketing and communications are in alignment with the organization’s business objectives and sales-related efforts. Attorneys should be talking to legal marketers about the strategy and the content in advance.

Internally, in developing a proactive content marketing strategy, there should be stakeholder engagement, a discussion about roles, an emphasis on building relationships, clearly identifiable added value, open communication, and a focus on how to drive engagement.

Leveraging Content

When it comes to thought leadership, a lot of thought is usually put into developing the piece—often an article—while less thought is sometimes given to how the content can best be leveraged. Once pieces have been completed, firm personnel should make sure that they find a home on the firm’s website or blog, are distributed as a client alert and/or via the firm’s social media, and are sent individually to any clients or prospective clients through email. Additionally, efforts should be made to distribute material to a wider audience, potentially by placement in an industry publication, in an ABA blog or newsletter, or as a guest article in a national publication.

Articles are far from the only type of content that organizations should focus on sharing everywhere. Webinars, podcasts, videos, and conference speaking engagements are among the many forms of media that marketers can utilize to get in front of their desired audience. And once content has been shared far and wide, share further – utilize automated, multi-channel services such as JD Supra, Lexology, and Mondaq, which distribute the content to an even wider audience. Many of these services have different pricing tiers based on the size of the organization or firm, so it may not be cost-prohibitive to use them.

Going Beyond the Content

Desired audience members likely consist of internal colleagues (who can reach out to their contacts for potential cross-selling), external targets (people who may purchase the firm’s services), and peers. Attorneys and anyone else sharing content should be encouraged to take the extra step when sending to add a personal touch that both seeks to make a connection with that individual and to explain why the content being sent may be of interest to them. Also, when sharing content internally, give attorneys a reason to share the content: share some data points they may want to use when posting to LinkedIn or other social media. By taking these additional steps, target audience members will be far more likely to read or view content that is well-researched and that they know is applicable to them.

Success Stories

Toward the end of the session, the presenters spent time describing some of their “content successes” when they put these principles into action. Sean discussed his monthly podcast “Between Two Founders,” a nod to the popular Zach Galifianakis satirical talk show “Between Two Ferns,” which features a conversation with another business founder, often a startup. These relaxed and entertaining interactions between Sean and his guest run about 30 minutes, and Sean makes sure they are expanding their reach through news organization Technica.ly, as well as through their newsletter and social media channels.

Within the law firm world, Alice described a success that she spearheaded at her prior firm, which had a monthly, targeted webinar series titled “CFPB Bites of the Month,” where attorneys discussed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rulemaking, enforcement actions, litigation, supervision, and other snippets. Alice would then repurpose these webinars by converting them into “Top 10” articles to reach interested audiences who may be more prone to consume this content as written media. Per their monthly JD Supra analytics, these “Top 10” articles were the firm’s top read articles every month.

Pitching

In conclusion, the presenters recapped “tips and tricks” for successful pitching, advising attendees to “think like a journalist” when pitching their content, specifically: (1) Why this?, (2) Why now?, (3) Why should they care?, and (4) Why should this be covered in the media? It is particularly important to be kind to reporters – they can get overwhelmed with people pitching to them. Send quick emails and follow-up with phone calls. Take the time to get to know the reporter. Build the relationship and meet them in person, and make sure attorneys are building those relationships, too. They should be happy to be background on a case, even when they are not quoted, as this will give the attorneys name recognition when they pitch a guest article idea. In short, HARO – help a reporter out.

Alice further suggested identifying topics of interest to the publication and connecting with the writers in the areas relevant to the practice, before recounting an additional success story. Utilizing techniques gleaned from LMA’s webinar “Pitching 101 – Getting Your Lawyers Published and Quoted in Legal Media,” she was able to help successfully pitch an article to Law360 related to the CFPB’s efforts to “assert its leadership role in the patchwork of regulatory jurisdiction and prohibitions that govern the consumer finance industry.” As many of her then-firm’s clients were engrossed in all of the CFPB’s activities, this was a very popular article with these clients, and ended up being a big content win.

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In all, the “Content is King” session did an excellent job of outlining some of the best techniques that marketing professionals can use to make sure that their firms’ thought leadership is reaching the appropriate audience. By being intentional with content generation, mixing media to account for the variety of ways people prefer to consume it, and branching out beyond traditional press-related efforts, legal marketers can fully leverage their content in a way that produces positive bottom-line results for their firms.