Assembling a Consistent and Targeted PR Program

Today, public relations is considered a cornerstone of any successful marketing and communications program and represents the key ingredient to building your company’s and products’ external credibility. When looking at what you want PR to do for you, take a step back and evaluate whether your company is indeed ready to leverage the power of what PR has to offer. Here’s a quick litmus test: Do you have a corporate or product strategy? Can you and your employees clearly articulate it? How are you positioned in the market? Versus the competition? Do you have a clear positioning statement? What are the main messages you want your customers, prospects and the media to understand? Who is your target audience? And where do they go for information, news and advise when it comes to legal technology? Don’t be afraid, I have yet to come across a company who has all this figured out, but understand that the more you know about yourself (company), your goals and how you can help ease your targets’ business pain, the more clear and effective your PR efforts will be.

Choosing the right tools

After your self-evaluation exercise, you are ready to put together the PR program. Keep in mind, that PR is never “one size fits all” and this is not an exhaustive list, so take the below recommendations with a grain of salt:

Press releases: Press releases are an important and effective part of any PR effort, but only if they achieve their main purpose of informing and alerting your audiences about relevant product news, corporate developments, partnerships or key personnel announcements. Press releases are NOT whitepapers, internal memos, technical product bulletins or marketing brochures. Writing a good press release is only half the battle; figure out who needs to get your news (do you have an extensive distribution list?), by when (are you aware of the media’s and publication deadlines?) And how (do you send out e-mails only or re-direct folks to your website to read the latest news?), and if (not often the case) you need to follow-up to provide more details and information. Also, don’t forget that once the new publications have hit the street, make sure you are aware of any press coverage you may have received.

Media Relations: Establishing relationships with news media based on mutual trust and understanding is the essence of successful media relations. Follow this advice and you will not only achieve desired results, but also become an invaluable resource for your media partners. Understand what is news: Follow trends and market developments and see how these affect the publications’ readership- your clients. Understand the business: Be aware of how the media outlets are structured and how their resources are allocated. Understand the people: Get to know the editors, their pet peeves, how they operate and when never to call them (D-Day). Finally, understand the process: How are stories developed?? What do I need to know about editorial calendars and deadlines? And who does what at the target publication?

Industry article development and placement: Based on proactive media relations activities, you can develop industry articles that the readers are interested in, while still meeting your interests and those of your clients. Analyze editorial calendars, talk to editors about the type of stories they are looking for, and put together a succinct article “pitch” that highlights your story idea. Do your homework upfront and you’ll be surprised how receptive the media can be to your ideas.

Case studies and testimonials: Nothing beats a third party endorsement, so spend some time talking with your clients about helping you assemble a success story. If done properly, your client will be more than happy to help you and you will have access to a marketing tool that can help your sales efforts but also form the basis for a story or article in a major legal publication.

Speaking opportunities: When is the last time you turned down a chance to publicly speak to your clients or prospect? When is the last time this happened? While nobody would turn down this opportunity, vendors are always complaining about not being given then chance to speak and contribute content to trade show and conference agendas. The main reasons why boil down to content and process; content because nobody wants to sit through an hour long product demo or sales pitch (face it, you have a bad reputation!) and process because not everyone knows who to talk to, how to present ideas and when to submit details. The latter is very much a similar process described above in the media relations section. Understand what’s news, the people, the business and the process, and you are that much closer to being on the program at the next show.

The Power of Information

While I have outlined several components of effective PR, the single most important element to achieving your PR goals, can be summed up with two words: stay informed! Read the legal publications you want to be covered in, join peer groups and associations such as LawNet to stay up on the latest legal news, attend the sessions at the next trade show, and don’t pass up the opportunity to network with your media counterparts, be it on the exhibit floor, or at an organized media event or social.

About the author

Jobst Elster, Vice President of Envision Agency, has ten years of experience in the business-to-business marketing arena, both on the corporate and agency side, with a focus on technology and software in particular. His areas of specialization include marketing strategy and planning, integrated marketing communications and all aspects of public relations.

PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW  

Andrew Z. Adkins III

Title/Positions

• Director, Legal Technology Institute University of Florida Levin College of Law

• Associate Director, Technology Services

• Executive Director, International Center for Automated Information Research (ICAIR)

Contact Info: 352-392-2278  |  Adkins@law.ufl.edu

Background: Independent Legal Technology Consultant since 1989; consulted with over 300 law firms, law departments, law schools, judiciary, court clerks, and legal industry vendors.

Industry Involvement: 

Proudest Professional Moment:

1. Chair, ABA TECHSHOW for 2000 and 2001

2. Recipient of the Judge Earl Zemer Memorial Outstanding Service Award, presented by The Florida Bar Technology Committee

Hobbies:

• Spending quality time with my family – 23 years with my wife; 20 year old daughter, 17 year old son (hint: They grow up quickly)

• Outdoors – Hunting & Fishing, Boating, Hiking, Nature

• Music – Guitar, Mandolin, Laptop Steel, Singing (Country Music, Oldies, Contemporary Christian)

• Writing – “You Can’t Get Much Closer Than This,” World War II non-fiction (to be published Fall 2004 or Spring 2005)

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