Learn how establishing a personal brand can help catapult your law firm’s overall brand identity!
A personal brand is an original combination of skills that makes you who you are while giving you a chance to stand out. It is the way you present yourself to the whole world. Effective personal branding will differentiate you from your competition and build trust with potential clients.
Nobody is exempt today from personal branding—not even doctors, bankers, financial planners, and certainly not lawyers.
Many attorneys believe they don’t need personal branding because a law firm already has its own brand identity. Although they should think of their branding, the solo attorney must think of it more.
Creating the business, organizing and setting up an office, marketing, networking – these are just some of the many tasks that solo lawyers need to tackle all on their own.
Tell Your Story
Your story is the most potent part of your brand. Who doesn’t like a good story? This is why storytelling is so compelling and influential in traditional marketing. Good stories tell not only who you are but create an emotional and human connection.
Think of yourself as a “business.” Think of how to positively portray that to business partners, potential clients, etc. Determine your goals but don’t get caught up focusing on those that other people would like you to. Make sure those goals are authentic.
Your expertise and unique positioning through an inviting brand story are the best ingredients of powerful personal branding.
Brainstorm what and who inspires you, think about your strengths, hopes, and weaknesses. What defines success in your life? How do you measure success?
Create Your Website
What do people do when they need legal assistance? Around 70 percent of them will look for law firm websites.
Even as a small solo law practice, you need a website. Your website makes your first impression about you—so make it a good one.
Nobody says it must be complicated; you can use hosting services and sample website design at reasonable prices.
A website will do many things for a solo attorney – you can build a specific character that compels clients to invest their trust. Another thing – you can create blogs to help people solve some simple legal problems.
Website Personalization
Another great thing you can do is website personalization. It is the process of creating customized experiences for visitors to your website. Rather than providing a broad experience, website personalization provides visitors with unique experiences modified to their specific needs and desires.
Personalization is a new concept, but it brings a lot of benefits to consumers:
- Better overall experience
- Improved relevancy of content
- Faster interactions with the brand
- An easier way to find relevant services
People Will Love To Read Your Blogs
Many new clients will find you thanks to your blog. It will allow you to showcase knowledge in your practice areas as well as your personality. When meeting you, new clients will feel like they already know you and you are the one who will help them with their specific problems.
Use your blog to:
- Educate others
- Write about topics your clients are interested in
- Demonstrate who you are as a lawyer
- Help clients find answers to their questions
Author Box Brings Value
An author’s bio box introduces the writer of the article or blog post published on your website. You might be thinking that people are only interested in what you write but not who the writer is. An author box allows you to connect on a deeper level with your readers, which, in turn, will boost your credibility among the target audience.
Use an author box plugin and easily organize content for your readers. For example, if you are not the only author on your blog section, readers might want to follow the content written by a specific author. They will click on the author’s bio box and see all the content they want.
Be Active On Social Media
People are spending around two hours a day on social media. You can catch people’s attention by building your personal brand online via social media. You may use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And for free. Follow these few next steps:
- Keep your social accounts up to date.
- Use social scheduling apps to help you.
- Post frequently but not too much.
- Create content that will interest your audience.
- Engage with followers via direct messages.
- Write comments, answer questions.
- Join relevant online groups.
Use cross-channel marketing – today’s consumers are more than ever aware of their behaviors and expectations. The best practices for multichannel marketing you should use are consistent messaging, capturing leads, and measuring channel success.
Instagram for lawyers
As with other social networks, solo attorneys can use Instagram to build brand awareness within their local community. By using Instagram posts, IGTV, and stories, you will put your name in the mind of future clients.
Linkedin Is A Perfect Place For Professionals
Google search is the first thing potential clients will undertake. Along with the bio on your website, your LinkedIn profile should be at the top of Google search results.
Any lawyer who wants to attract new clients and be recognized as a leader in their practice area should have a strong presence on LinkedIn.
Use it properly, and you will grow your practice using this network. Take the time to optimize your profile and engage with connections, and you will garner attention from the target audience.
Use your headline and tell your prospects who you are, what your job is, and what you bring to the table.
Write details about your university degree, articles you have written, awards you have won.
Stick to your schedule—better write post longer updates such as articles as they get more exposure from LinkedIn.
Visibility Is Crucial
Your frequency and consistency don’t matter if they aren’t visible. Share your message on the most visible platforms in the most visible ways.
Keep a consistent image to help avoid confusion. You will achieve this with a combination of the following:
- Use a logo designed around your name consistently.
- Put the same profile picture on all social media accounts.
- Use the same background/cover images too.
- Choose a specific color scheme and use it in media and ad campaigns.
Lawyers are expected to be professionals, so both photos and posts should support that image. Stick to information that will be useful to your potential clients and help them get to know you, your specialty, and your background.
Testimonials And Reviews
People might believe you if you say or write a good thing about yourself, but it is much more convincing if other people do it instead. The best thing to have is someone else “selling” your services.
In an era where all people, from family to colleagues, are connected via social media, testimonials and recommendations have never been more important in building a personal brand.
According to statistics, over 90 percent of individuals will trust a recommendation from an acquaintance, and 70 percent will believe in a recommendation from someone they never met.
When lawyers use clients’ testimonials as a marketing advantage, they must make ethical considerations. These considerations include testimonial solicitation, prohibited statements, and confidentiality.
When asking clients for testimonials, you can ask vital questions to help them form testimonials, such as:
- What do you value the most when working with me?
- What makes me different from other lawyers and firms you have worked in the past?
After collecting your testimonials, you can then place them on
- Your website
- Social media pages
- Use them as a part of paid ads
Before using and posting the testimonial, take a few minutes to check them out and decide which supports your firm’s marketing goals.
Reviews
Word-of-mouth was always the best way to build a returning clientele. Today it is still the key for generating business, but there is another word for it – “reviews.”
You can present your law firm and yourself with dignity and class, no matter how good or “bad” your online reviews are. Listen carefully to what people say about your services and do your best to improve the part they were not satisfied with.
Additional Tips
Write a proposal and take the perfect opportunity to showcase why your firm and you are the best solutions for potential client problems.
Without the proper proposal template and without knowing what your proposal has to say, including the appropriate design, you can end up losing that client.
Think Of Using A Customer Data Platform
Use a smart data platform that doesn’t require any technical skills of an IT unit. The customer data platform will provide you with information about your customers – their interaction with your website, marketing campaigns social media.
To summarize everything we wrote about personal branding – it will help you show your knowledge, ability, and progress, open the door to new clients and increase business success.
Author:
Nina Petrov is a content marketing specialist, passionate about graphic design, content marketing, and the new generation of green and social businesses. She starts the day scrolling her digest on new digital trends while sipping a cup of coffee with milk and sugar. Her white little bunny tends to reply to your emails when she is on vacation.
