Thought leadership and educational content are powerful ways to position your law firm as an authority on a legal topic, provide value to clients and prospects and bolster your reputation within a practice area. Once you’ve gone through the process of planning your event and creating its content, it’s time to promote your upcoming event to drive attendance.

Utilizing a varied mix of effective marketing tactics will ensure that you maximize the value of the event for your firm. Below are five helpful strategies for setting up your next webinar or seminar for success.

1. Optimize the Timing of Your Event

For both webinars and seminars, choosing the right date and time is crucial for reaching attendance goals and maximizing ROI. Consider your target audience’s availability to attend an event and schedule it at an optimal time that minimizes barriers to attendance.

For webinars:

• Be mindful of time zones and typical work schedules
• Avoid early-week or late-week time slots, when professionals are often busiest.
• Aim for mid-week, ideally around lunchtime or late afternoon, to increase turnout.

For in-person seminars:

• Send the save-the-dates well in advance to give potential attendees plenty of time to plan travel and time off.
• Research competing events to avoid scheduling conflicts for anyone looking to attend both events. For example, if a national trade association for labor and employment law attorneys is hosting a conference from June 1-3, it’s best to avoid scheduling a labor and employment law seminar during that same week.
• Avoid scheduling your event within 30 days of a major industry conference to avoid audience fatigue and ensure your content feels fresh.

Takeaway: Differentiating the timing of your in-person event from the competition will not only make your event stand out but will also ensure your audience gets a fresh perspective on your discussion topics and reduce the likelihood of topic fatigue.

2. Cross-Promote with Professional Partners

One of the easiest ways to expand the reach of promotional messaging is to partner with organizations or influencers related to your target audience. Partnering with a prominent industry partner can boost the event’s credibility and connect you with prospects who trust their endorsement.

If possible, aim to collaborate with other law firms or major companies that work in the industry to help spread the word. Have your partner, in exchange for cross-promoting your event on their platforms, offer to use yours to promote their business. Also, consider inviting individual influencers and notable subject-matter experts to serve on a speaker panel or moderate a discussion at your seminar in exchange for cross-promoting the event on their social media.

Takeaway: Invite thought leaders and subject-matter experts to serve on a speaker panel or moderate a discussion at your seminar in exchange for cross-promoting the event on their social media.

3. Deploy a Targeted Email Marketing Campaign

Your law firm likely has a large repository of current and prospective client email addresses and other professional contacts. While using this email list may seem self-explanatory, a strategic approach will help capture more interest in the event.  

The most critical component of your email outreach is to segment the invite list:

• Target the most relevant people in your contact list to ensure your audience is interested in engaging with the content.
• For seminars and webinars, this means targeting contacts based on the practice area(s) related to the event topic.
• Segmentation allows focused promotional efforts on those who are most likely to register and attend the event.

Next, personalize your promotional emails:

• While it may be tempting to send one mass email, personalized greetings and tailored content increase the chances of your email being read.
• Use the recipient’s name and highlight content that specifically appeals to their interests.

Finally, include a clear call-to-action:

• End your email with a short, effective phrase like “Register Now,” linking directly to your registration form.
• A direct link reduces steps for the reader and encourages them to take action and register.

Tip: Keep these segmented lists carefully organized — when you organize a future event on a similar topic, you can reuse the list for your new email marketing campaign.

4. Highlight Your Event’s Speakers

Speakers are often a major draw for events. Knowledgeable presenters with noteworthy credentials lend credibility to the event and build trust with your audience. Promote them as a central feature of your event’s social media outreach.

Maximize your social media strategy for your event by leveraging multiple stakeholders. This includes:

• Firm employees, especially attorneys in the practice area related to the discussion topic
• Event attendees
• The law firm’s own social media channels
• The speakers themselves.

To make promotion easier and consistent:

• Create a uniform graphic for each stakeholder to use in their social post, highlighting the speaker, their background, event title, date and time of the event —include firm branding for consistency.
• Provide suggestions for the caption of each post with a clear call-to-action to (e.g., “register now”), for stakeholders.

By showcasing the speakers across multiple platforms, you increase the number of potential attendees who will be exposed to the event and target them with effective messaging that will appeal to them, even if they are unfamiliar with your firm.

Takeaway: Make it easy for others to promote your event by giving stakeholders branded graphics and suggested post language featuring your speakers.

5. Leverage Your Stakeholders’ Professional Networks

People are more likely to engage with messages from someone they know and trust than with a generic marketing email. Tap into the connections your attorneys and speakers have cultivated to expand the reach of the event.

Encourage speakers and attorneys in the practice area to:

• Identify contacts that they believe will be interested in your discussion topics
• Reach out personally with a tailored message that highlights why the event is relevant

Remember that the speakers and attorneys know more about their contacts, so their outreach is more compelling. For example, if the attorney and their contact worked together on a matter related to a discussion topic, they should reference the shared experience in their outreach. Personalized outreach like this increases the chance of registration and attendance.

Takeaway: If contacts were already included in your broader email campaign, a personal follow-up serves as a powerful way to reinforce the invitation.

From Planning to Impact

Hosting seminars and webinars is a great way to establish your law firm’s presence, bring in new clients, and engage current ones. By following the strategies and best practices outlined above, you will maximize the marketing and business development opportunities your events bring for your firm.