Tips on how to build and establish yourself as the go-to source for the niche practice area that you serve.
When trying to build up your practice and differentiate your firm, your ability to serve a specific niche will greatly improve the likelihood of success, longevity, and success for your firm. When you can position yourself as an expert in your particular niche, you gain greater trust for your brand and you have few competitors going after the same clients.
Continued efforts at establishing your expert authority can have lasting results for your solo or small law firm. A recent study from Lucidpress found that “consistent presentation” can increase revenue by an average of 23 percent.
But how do you go about building authority within your niche practice area? Here are a few tactics that you can use to establish yourself as the go-to expert for your niche and grow your practice.
Pack Your Website Full of Valuable Information
Your website is your first point of contact for most potential clients and referral sources. As such, it should be a primary way of sharing and showing off your expert knowledge and experience serving that specific niche.
Law is a complex subject that people typically don’t know a lot about. But that doesn’t mean they are not going to be interested, instead, they are most likely going to try to do some research on their own before ever speaking to a lawyer. Your potential clients don’t want to be left in the dark, they want to be informed and educated. And they will value and trust those that are able to provide that information. As such, it will benefit you and your practice to add a blog or resources that help to bridge that information gap.
These content sources will also work like SEO magnets, drawing more visitors to your site. Keyword-rich evergreen content in your blog, general web content, and info pages delivers an SEO boost, improving your site ranking and authority for months or years to come.
Share Your Opinion, Voice, and Content
Your website isn’t the only place where you should be sharing your expertise. As an experienced leader, you are in a position where you have unique experiences and insights that are incredibly valuable to a lot of people.
That means you need to share your experiences in as many ways as possible. One easy way to do this is by taking advantage of all the different social media platforms. Your practice needs to be present and active on every single social media platform. All of your potential clients are already on social media, so what is preventing you from reaching them? Nothing!
Another strategy is to go out to networking events (When it is safe to do so again post COVID-19!) or even try virtual ones. The main point is to put yourself out there and meet other lawyers and professionals. For most lawyers, their primary source of new business is referrals. So the larger and more specific you can make your referral network, the greater return you should see in the form of new clients. So get out there, hand out business cards, and make sure you are very detailed and specific when describing your niche practice area. This way not only will your referral source know who your ideal client is, but when they come across your referral source, you will be the first person they call.
Build Strong Relationships with Complimentary Businesses/Industries
If you want to get your name and brand out there, then one of the best things you can do is work with other complementary businesses and industries that also serve your niche market.
One of the best ways to do this is to collaborate with industries and businesses that target a similar audience to your own without directly competing with your brand. If you can use your prestige and knowledge to gain trust with other businesses that serve your niche, then you will also gain trust with potential clients themselves. One way to create such a relationship is to build a collaborative content series (blogs, podcasts, videos, etc) with those businesses/industry leaders or influencers to leverage each other’s reach within the niche that you’re both serving.
Putting yourself out there and looking for collaboration partnerships isn’t easy. Guest-blogging is a good way to start that hard conversation with new potential content partners. Plus at the same time, writing blog content will build your online authority, giving you more social media mentions, backlinks, and brand awareness. Thus making it more enticing for someone to say yes to content collaboration.
There are so many ways to get yourself noticed within your industry, the only hurdle is actually stepping out of your comfort zone and doing the work. Establishing yourself as an expert in your niche practice area will boost your reputation, increase your referral rate and your overall revenue. Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back from taking your firm to the next level.
