Which profiles should your firm buy?

Our clients are being inundated with solicitations for premium profiles by various high-profile worthwhile directories in which the firm and lawyers have ranking and ratings. Are they worth buying?

Generally speaking, our answer is no, with one clear exception, that being Best Lawyers, as I explain below.

Our felling is premium profiles are overkill if a firm:

1. Has a solid blog in place.
2. Rewrites most all blogs posts to serve as a flow of newsletters/ single-topic alerts sent to an up-to-date comprehensive list of key clients and referral sources.
3. Rewrites blog posts to also be Updates sent to all LinkedIn Connections of the firm’s lawyers, and (most) all lawyers have robust LinkedIn profiles and a solid number of Connections— roughly several hundred at a minimum for partners and perhaps half that for associates.
4. Ideally, the lawyers would also be members of certain industry and alumni discussion groups on LinkedIn and they would use their discretion to post blog content there, as well. This is an advanced tactic your lawyers probably need training about.

The exception is the “global link” for your Best Lawyers. Absent paying for that, this year $200 per lawyer, no one can find your lawyers on that site. The traffic you get from Best Lawyers is trackable through Google Analytics.

If your firm has no blog, lacks frequency of contact with its clients and referral base about substantive legal matters and firm accomplishments, making up for to a degree by purchasing premium profiles is an option.