Reputation Management: Is building a personal brand important for law firms?
The legal industry is an extremely competitive industry. You need to make an effort to stand out and distinguish yourself from the crowd to reach your clients.
Lawyers learn how to be good practitioners by studying about the legal system and the regulations in law school. However, this is only one side of the coin. Lawyers are not necessarily taught how to promote themselves in public and prove their integrity and competence. Hence, they may not realize why personal branding is imperative for their career. They should, in fact, make themselves known to other people for clients to get to know them. As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos famously mentioned, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
The Growing World of Marketing
In today’s world, marketing is much more than just billboards and business cards. While this doesn’t mean that business cards are worthless, with the advent of new digital marketing strategies, the way people present themselves has shifted.
The rewards of personal branding are too significant to dismiss. There may be some lawyers who believe that creating a personal brand is unnecessary since law firms already have their own brand image and website. However, it should be emphasized that branding goes beyond one’s exposure to their law firm and the clients they interact with.
Your personal marketing strategy has an impact on your career growth. In today’s internet age, clients have a lot more options to choose from than ever before. Lawyers are a dime a dozen in practically every part of the country, and clients can search and find hundreds of attorneys online in just a few clicks. You risk being lost in the hustle and bustle if you don’t stand out from the crowd.
If you don’t keep up with all of the changes, the internet can make or break your practice. While you are not required to participate in social media or other online activities, several countries, particularly the United States, expect you to become digitally savvy.
Moreover, your online absence also says something about you. People will not trust you unless you have a solid history to show them who you are. And more often than not, clients will look for this record via online means.
So as not to miss out on this opportunity, you can start establishing your own personal brand right away with the help of Advantage Attorney Marketing! You may think that creating a website and managing your social media accounts is enough to kick-start your marketing strategy. But, in order to create an effective online marketing strategy, you must have specific types of content on your website that will generate leads and convert those leads into clients.
You can achieve your business objectives and broaden your reach with the help of the best law firm marketing agency for you. Advantage Attorney Marketing can help set up an effective legal content marketing strategy that will undoubtedly capture your target audience and new clients.
What Is Your Personal Brand?
Most people associate the term “brand” with companies that offer apparel, household products, and other things. Developing a readily identifiable brand inspires customer trust and helps a company to distinguish itself from the competition. Legal firms benefit from law firm branding as well, as it boosts the effectiveness of the entire marketing strategy. Taking the effort to establish and express your law firm’s brand can help you attract your ideal client while also building your organization’s online and community reputation. Here are some pointers to get you started.
Identify A Few Things:
- What are your basic principles and how are they reflected in your practice?
- What distinguishes you and your practice from the competition?
- What kind of experience do you want your clients to have with your company?
- What are your interests and personal strengths?
Do Not Stop With The Logo
It’s tempting to believe that a strong brand is nothing more than developing a compelling logo and then moving on. However, your brand should include much more than just aesthetic aspects. Consider your brand as a means of expressing your mission, beliefs, and your services to clients.
What would they get from working with you that they will not be able to obtain elsewhere? Legal services, particularly in metropolitan locations, are easily accessible to people in need. Make a list of things that make your law firm different from the competitor. From there, you can start thinking about how you can show your worth to a potential client.
Understand Your Clients’ Needs For An Attorney
Building a strong legal brand is based on two fundamental principles: Understanding what your clients want in an attorney and proving to potential clients that you can meet their needs more effectively and completely than other law firms.
Consider what your legal firm’s clients appreciate the most. Do you make them feel heard and valued? Do you provide your clients with personalized legal solutions? Are you recognized for not just providing them with competent legal service, but also for showing compassion and reassurance?
By articulating these distinct qualities and services, you can prove to people in the community that you truly care about helping them in resolving their legal issues.
Pick The Right Tools
Use external tools to help market an attorney brand, such as the following:
- involvement in professional events (first, as a participant, and later on as a speaker or a moderator)
- client events organized within the company
- article writing
- social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
- writing guest pieces for sites,
Of course, when it comes to promoting a personal brand, social media platforms demand special attention. Nowadays, anyone can build and grow their own platform – an account on social media. Influencers and opinion leaders on social media are effectively leveraging their reputation to benefit their own businesses.
Promote Your Brand Across All Marketing Channels
Consistency is essential for good branding. It’s time to show potential clients who you are now that you’ve built a clear and authentic brand for your law practice. Add or update the “About” page on your law firm’s website to reflect your values and mission. Create social media postings that have visuals and words that are consistent with your brand’s identity.
People will gradually become conscious of your firm’s consistent and recognizable marketing strategy, and they will come to see your brand as trustworthy, assertive, and welcoming. Even a modest change in brand identity can set your law practice apart from others in the community and encourage more clients to think of you when they have a legal problem.
Be Consistent
When a lawyer declares themselves to be an expert in a certain field, all of their public expressions (social media postings, publications, speeches) have to be consistent with that declaration. Otherwise, it is best to avoid making bold assertions.
There’s always the option of recommending someone else. This will demonstrate your market awareness and develop your relationships with the media and event organizers.
Maintain Integrity
The virtual and actual brands must be a match. It appears conflicting if a lawyer exhibits impeccable social media behavior but behaves cruelly in real life. Because of their image, the specialist has already raised some expectations. Your clients’ online perception of you should be aligned IRL (in real life).
Be Deliberate And Systematic
You must express yourself and continually remind clients, partners, and the media of your brand. This should happen on a regular basis, not only when inspiration strikes. You have a better chance of acquiring new assignments if you send out reminders on a regular basis.
Select A Content Marketing Strategy
To create and sustain your brand on top, you must appear on a lot of internet sites. This necessitates the creation of content on a regular basis.
Regular blogging is one of the best ways to spread your name out there, so your content should be spread throughout all social media platforms with your profiles. Doing so reaches people with whom you want to connect.
Internal tools are everything related to client work and engagement with colleagues. As a result, an attorney may establish a reputation as a trusted adviser, mentor, and even thought leader.
New clients nowadays hire a lawyer rather than a law firm. Because your reputation will hold more sway than any marketing strategy, you must build a unique lawyer personal brand.
Your personal brand not only shows people who you are and what your practice represents, but it also serves as a daily reminder to you to stay true to your vision and mission.
Marketing Strategies Designed for Attorneys
The internet business landscape is continuously evolving, and law firms can choose from a myriad of digital marketing strategies. Websites, social media management, and digital advertising are just a few of the essentials to building a brand online.
In today’s digital age, it’s hard to draw a distinction between your law firm’s online reputation and its on-the-ground reputation. The internet is extremely powerful. It has the potential to make or break your firm. You want your internet reputation to work for you rather than against you, and the right way to do so is to be proactive in managing your law firm’s online reputation.
The attorney marketing specialists at Advantage Attorney Marketing can help you in developing a positive online reputation for your law practice so that you can satisfy the needs of your target market while avoiding serious public relations issues. Don’t let a poor internet review of your legal practice be the first thing a potential client sees. Join forces with us today to receive efficient and effective attorney reputation management!
We deliver cutting-edge and tried-and-tested tactics, guided by a drive to make your law firm get discovered locally through our small law firm marketing professional services. Advantage Attorney Marketing can help you with all aspects of your online marketing, from simple SEO campaigns to sophisticated website construction and migrations. Call us now to schedule an appointment!
