Practice Management

Letters To The Editor

By chucknewton

Good grief, it has been a long time since I have done this, but many years ago I use to do it.  I was in a small town at the time.  But, Susan Cartier Liebel over at Build A Solo Practice has reminded me that letters to the editor of your local papers (weekly and daily) have good PR value.

I am not really sure they are effective in my line of work because my practice is limited to a very define area the terminology of which is mostly understood only be other attorneys.  But, you should not neglect letters to the editor if you practice in other areas, and especially if you represent consumers, such as in family law cases, probate, bankruptcy, personal injury and the like.

Get in on the debate.  Susan's post better defines the technical aspects of preparing such letters, and I will not review these here.  What I can add, however, is that some newspapers will allow you to identify yourself as a lawyer and some will not.  Whether the paper (or magazine or blog for that matter) does or does not allow you to promote yourself, the letter can still be a very effective tool if you follow the network marketing solutions that Susan and I and others propose.

This is true because you can use the letters printed, and the fact that your opinions were included in the paper on your blog.  You can promote this via email and fax broadcast to your referral sources.  You can promote this fact in a newsletter.  You can make copies of the editorial with the Newspaper's masthead and distribute them and make them available to clients.

So Susan is write (I like that play on words), letters to the editor represent a valuable tool both directly and indirectly if promoted correctly and to their maximum benefit.

Full post as published by Chuck Newton on January 27, 2008 (boomark / email).