Recently, BrightPro, a leading provider in comparative benchmarking for thought leaders and their content, conducted a short survey of more than 100 lawyers to determine how important thought leadership content is to their practices and how effectively they were able to measure its value.

How important thought leadership content is to their practices, and how effectively they are able to measure its value?

More than 80% of the survey respondents have been practicing for more than 10 years, and more than 50% have been practicing for more than 20 years. A third of the respondents practice at firms with more than 500 lawyers, another third at firms between 50 and 500 lawyers, and yet another third at firms with less than 50 lawyers. The findings were significant, but not surprising:

• When asked, “How important is being considered a thought leader to your practice?,” more than 70% of survey respondents considered it “important” (28%) or “very important” (44%).
• Yet, when asked if they or their firms measure the strategic value of the content to their practices, 52% said they don’t measure it at all, 31% don’t know if their firms measure it and 17% reported they measure it but only anecdotally.

When asked if they would like to know how they compare to other lawyers, more than 80% answered affirmatively. In fact, many suggested such a measurement would allow them to, in the words of one respondent, “improve our business development techniques, and adjust our time and budget accordingly.”

We speak often about the value of content marketing, but a recent piece in the Harvard Business Review truly nails it. The choice paragraph that we’ve excerpted below is part of a larger article by Dorie Clark, an author and teacher at Duke’s Fuqua Business School, titled “Get People to Listen to You When You’re Not Seen as an Expert.” This is precisely the mission of many law firm partners who want to build up their name in an area and, as a consequence, attract more business. The straightest path to completing that mission, Clark notes, is through content:

Creating original content is the single most effective way to develop an expert reputation.

[T]he best antidote if you’re lacking an expert reputation now is to start creating one ASAP. Creating original content is the single most effective way to develop an expert reputation. Though the best channel will vary (photographers and chefs should double down on Instagram, while it’s less helpful for attorneys and insurance brokers), blogging is a good bet for most professionals…Your content creation sparks a virtuous circle: because reporters looking for comment almost always start their articles with an online search, if your name keeps coming up as someone writing about the issues, they’re likely to contact you, reinforcing your expert reputation with third-party validation. [Emphasis on original.]

This is an excellent capsulation of the argument for content marketing, and we’re happy that the author put it out there for those yet to be converted.

Situation/Objective:

The national law firm of Ford & Harrison built its name on its labor and employment practice. Its reputation was firmly established, and needed little enhancement. But while recognized as a leading firm in its area, Ford & Harrison knew it could benefit from more continuous exposure to HR managers and other labor and employment professions who, given more frequent reminders of the firm’s expertise, would be more likely to engage it for their legal needs. The firm turned for HC to design a campaign to put Ford & Harrison front and center on the minds of its prospective client base.

HC puts popular culture to work for an employment law practice.

Analysis/Strategy:

A standard media relations campaign might have been an obvious choice for Ford & Harrison’s practice, but HC wanted to make a bigger splash for the firm. HC also recognized that Ford & Harrison, with its solid reputation for labor and employment work, did not necessarily need the credibility-enhancing effect of quotations in national media outlets or article placements in leading trade journals. Always remaining focused on our clients’ business goals, HC kept in mind the true business purpose behind the engagement: to provide repeated exposure to the firm and its abilities in the labor and employment area.

A legal blog could serve that purpose well, but HC realized that dry analysis of labor issues would not keep readers coming back for “repeat viewing.” The concept behind the blog would have to be a special one in order to earn a loyal audience among the nation’s HR professionals. Exercising our well-known creativity (and our remote control), HC came up with a unique, attention-grabbing concept: an employment law blog built around a NBC’s The Office.

Focusing the blog on pop-culture staple The Office would give the blog a very specific hook—something that HC builds into all of the blogs it executes for its clients. There were other several advantages as well. To start, it would make the topic of employment law accessible to the broad population of HR professionals, few of whom are attorneys themselves. The comedic topic would also allow Ford & Harrison to speak in a casual voice appropriate for its wide audience. And the sit-com tie-in provided the basis for a regular weekly blog schedule, an important factor in building a blog’s audience.

In order to ensure the blog received the attention it deserved, HC also proposed that it be hosted on a site independent from the law firm’s own website. This was an innovative approach to the publication a legal blog, but HC understood that given its business purpose, it would be far more advantageous to take the blog directly to its target audience than to hope it was discovered within the Ford & Harrison website.

Results/Execution:

The blog, called “That’s What She Said,” featured weekly posts following the airing of an episode. In each post, a Ford & Harrison attorney would estimate the amount of potential liability raised by the antics of Michael Scott and his Dundler Mifflin crew. After conceiving That’s What She Said, HC marketed it and brokered a partnership with M. Lee Smith Publishers to host it on their HR Hero site, a popular web destination for HR professionals.

Today, That’s What She Said has been covered in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, made annual appearances on the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100, and receives more than 12,000 unique visits a day. Years after Ford & Harrison first came to HC, it continually promotes the firm to its target market.