Digital PR in the legal industry

The legal industry has become increasingly competitive with over a third of potential clients beginning their search for a lawyer online. Given this, law firms must find a way to stand out online and increase visibility as much as possible. This is where digital PR can be incredibly powerful for boosting your firm’s online presence and reaching a wider audience.

For law firms, digital PR goes beyond just reaching a larger audience; it’s also about delivering the right message to potential clients. With digital PR, you can tailor your campaigns to specific publications and put yourself in front of your target audience. 

So how can this be done?

Leverage your expertise as a thought leader

As qualified experts in your industry, you can use your legal expertise to provide expert comment on trending news; whether this be a new change in the law, upcoming awareness days or a trending topic. Your legal expertise is invaluable to journalists who will be keen to use your unique insights to give more depth to a news story. By doing this, it will demonstrate that you have authority in your field, establishing yourself as a thought leader in the industry – this is incredibly important as a law firm to stand out from the crowd.

Being reactive to the latest news and trending topics is a great way to stay current in a fast-paced landscape but as with traditional PR, digital PR will also help you protect and improve your online reputation so it’s important to be timely, sensitive and accurate when making these comments.

Generate links from trustworthy, relevant websites

By having lots of authoritative and trustworthy sites linking to your site, search engines will begin to view your website in the same way. This will have a positive impact on your visibility and trust levels in the industry. 

By creating highly targeted media lists we can get your message in front of your target audience by pitching digital PR campaigns to specific journalists at these publications. For example, we can outreach to highly authoritative websites in the legal space such as Legal Cheek and Law Gazette as well as contact legal journalists at national news outlets like the Times and Evening Standard. Getting coverage in these top-tier publications will help you reach new audiences and drive them back to your website organically as you’re providing them with new information associated with your industry.

Building relationships with these journalists can be a gift that keeps on giving as you become a go-to source for their stories. By having a consistent voice and appearing in many of your target audience’s favourite online publications, they will look at your firm favourably.

Tailor to your industry

It’s incredibly important to give the right message about the industry you work in. Here at Distinctly, we work with different types of lawyers including criminal defence and family lawyers. While the premise of digital PR work is the same, the industries are very different and must be considered when approaching work. Here is an example of how we use digital PR for the family law sector:

Family law

Divorce and family law is a highly talked about aspect in the news space. It is therefore important for our family law client to maintain their position as a go-to source for advice and opinion.

Expert insight campaign

By looking at the latest ONS data on divorce rates, our legal client provided expert advice to help parents navigate international travel with children after divorce. This resulted in coverage with The Sun and The Oxford Argus as well as highly relevant family publications such as Family Grapevine.

Pitching legal expertise through reactive PR

Commenting on trending legal news stories can be an effective way for lawyers to establish themselves as a leader in the industry. Jumping on celebrity news stories in the space, our family law client, provided expert advice to parents who may be in a similar position to the celebrities going through divorce with children, demonstrating them as a trustworthy leader in the industry.

Key takeaways

• Digital PR can be an effective way to boost online visibility in the highly competitive legal sector.
• Through different approaches, you can share your law firms brand message , putting yourself as a highly trusted law firm in the sector.
• It is important to tailor to the industry you work in to ensure you are sharing your voice in front of your target audience, in the right way.

Learn more about our digital PR offering here, our holistic legal digital marketing offering here or enquire today.