Attorney Marketing, Become a Contributing Writer

As the world of journalism and media changes from a print to an online format, staffing budgets at media outlets are getting slashed. Simply put, people are not willing to pay for online news information like they once did for print media. With less revenue coming in, that means media outlets are relying more and more on contributing writers who are willing to write for free in exchange for the exposure to an audience. This presents a great attorney marketing opportunity.

Your Opportunity

Whatever your specialty in law, there are a number of media outlets and websites that could use your knowledge and perspective. Whether you are an expert in personal injury, intellectual property, business law, etc. you can find a media outlet to write for if you can write timely articles that are interesting to the readership.

Your purpose in writing is twofold. First, what better way to show off your expertise to your clients than having your articles appear in an industry media outlet that they read? Second, all the readers of the media outlet will perceive you as an expert that can help them and potentially call you and become new clients. Because you are providing free content to the media outlet, they are more than happy to include your email address at the end of every article along with a description of your background, and sometimes even a photo.

How to Do It

You may have a few media outlets in mind. If not, do an online search to find the top media outlets covering your field of expertise. Let’s say you’re a patent attorney specializing in electronics. You could search for patent and intellectual property media outlets as well as media outlets covering electronics. Next analyze the articles that appear in these media outlets and come up with a list of topics you think would be of value to their readers.

Next, find the email for the editor at one of the media outlets. Write an email outlining why you enjoy reading that particular media outlet, offer up several article ideas that you are willing to write, and then give your background as an expert. If you don’t hear something back right away, wait a while and send a follow up email a few weeks later. Do this for every media outlet on your list until you get your first article writing opportunity.

The Payoff

When your clients and potential clients see that you have written an article on a topic they are interested in that relates to intellectual property and the electronics industry, they are more likely to call and ask questions of you, the expert. Authoring articles that appear under your name could become the most productive part of your attorney marketing program and lend you instant credibility in your particular field of the law.