Valeria Nunez del Prado, Head of Legal Business Development at Market My Market, has built her career by staying curious, spotting what’s next, and turning digital strategy into real growth. After moving to the U.S. at 11, graduating from Florida International University with degrees in International Business and Marketing, and discovering SEO during a college internship, Val quickly became hooked on the challenge of helping businesses rank, grow, and stand out online.
Now, Val brings that same energy to MMM’s legal marketing efforts, where she’s focused on building ROI focused strategies for an increasingly competitive industry. From earned media and PR to AI visibility and emerging tools that track trends and competitors in real time, she’s helping legal clients show up in the places that matter most. In this spotlight, Val shares her path into SEO, what makes PR so powerful for clients, and why staying both passionate and self-aware is one of the best career moves anyone can make.
What’s Your Background?
I moved to the U.S. from Peru in 2005 when I was 11, and I’m fully bilingual, so we can execute every SEO strategy in both Spanish and English! I went to school in Miami and graduated from Florida International University. I double-majored in International Business and Marketing.
Before Market My Market, I worked for another marketing agency, and that’s how I got started in the world of SEO. I started as an intern while I was a senior in college, discovered SEO, and worked directly with the agency owners, which gave me a keen eye on how to grow and operate a business. I became a total SEO nerd and was handling all the ranking improvements for websites. I went from ranking websites to rebuilding and growing the whole account management team, and then I became the Head of Sales and Marketing. I was ready to make a shift, and Market My Market seemed like a great fit!
Describe Your Role and Time So Far as the Head of Legal Business Development at MMM.
It’s been great to dive back into legal marketing after growing our dental vertical. The last eight months have been focused on bringing on new legal clients and setting ourselves apart, since it’s a super competitive market with so many legal marketing companies. We’ve been building a lot of cool tools, and one of the biggest changes that’s come out of this work is our earned media/PR. This has such a strong impact on AI overviews and getting enterprise legal accounts established as experts in their fields.
What is PR and How Does It Benefit Our Clients?
Search is changing, so when AI platforms like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude give you an answer to a question, they need to pull their information from somewhere. For example, if someone asks Google or an AI platform what they should do after getting hurt in a car accident, it may tell you to contact an attorney first and cite a major firm that’s been featured in Forbes or the Daily Mail because they appear to be a credible source.
With earned media, we create category leaders and insert our firms or dental practices into these conversations by pitching them as subject-matter experts on trending topics. That’s how we increase AI overview and visibility by getting earned media mentions that aren’t paid.
Because we are an SEO agency by nature, I would say 70-80% of earned media mentions link back to their site. So, it gives our clients’ websites insane pushes. Imagine the type of link-building you get if you do a follow link back from Forbes! That’s completely organic. Just to give an idea, we had a podiatrist client with a brand-new domain. We ran a PR campaign on a brand-new domain that went completely viral, and it went from being ranked nowhere to being on page one for near-me terms in under 30 days.
The other factor is trust. Imagine you’ve been listed on Yahoo, Daily Mail, Forbes, The New York Times, ABC News, or The New York Post. You can now grab these logos and start adding them to running ads on social media, your website, and your PPC campaign. When someone’s trying to choose between lawyers, they may feel more inclined to trust the one they’ve seen all over the news.
What’s Been the Most Rewarding and Challenging Aspects of Your Role?
The most rewarding part has been seeing our team come together and how Market My Market stays on top of AI. With everything I’ve learned and the tools we’ve built, we can make a big difference for our clients. Right now, we’re working on Expert Talk AI, which pulls trending topics from TikTok and Reddit, and a tool that notifies us in real time of what competitors are doing on their sites, so we never miss a move our clients’ competitors make.
The biggest challenge has been recreating our inbound lead system, getting our name out there, and showcasing that we’re a powerhouse in the legal marketing industry. Creating the marketing materials and momentum has been a bit challenging, but the tools and materials we’re creating are going to help with that.
What Do You Like to Do When You’re Not Working?
I’m an SEO nerd, so I’m constantly following trends on LinkedIn. I have an AI prompt that periodically emails me the top five things that changed in the legal field. I’m so passionate about marketing as a whole and consumer behavior!
I also love travelling whenever I get the chance and spending quality time with friends and family. Major foodie too! I’m big on communication, meaningful conversations, and in-person relationships. I also play tennis and pickleball, and I’m really good at ping-pong!
What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self or Someone Who Wants to Accomplish What You Have Accomplished in Your Career?
Stay curious in your industry and have a passion for what you do. If you don’t like a certain field, even if you studied it in school, it’s okay to pivot. You’re going to be doing what you do for a long time, so I think you should truly enjoy it.
Second, work on self-awareness. I did a lot of personal development and loved reading on leadership and human relationships. No matter what you do with AI or other technology, you should understand your strengths and weaknesses and how to be self-aware of them when you communicate with other people.
Also, when I was 18, 25, and 30, I shot a video of myself saying where I wanted to be in five years. Looking back on those is so surreal and shows the power of manifestation. Don’t limit yourself because, realistically, what’s stopping you?