Why Personal Branding Is Essential For Lawyers?

Introduction

Are you a lawyer who wants to leave a lasting impression and boost referrals? 

Do you want to get a new job? 

Have you ever thought about building a strong online presence? Then this article is the ONLY guide you need to establish an online presence and a personal brand as a lawyer!

We live in a digital world. The COVID-19 outbreak has made online networking and presence more important than ever for building connections and staying on top. Clients discover and assess lawyers online, which has become necessary in the modern world.

Law students learn how to be good lawyers at law schools by knowing the legal system and the regulations. Yet, this is the first step. They do not comprehend how to present themselves and prove reliable and skilful. 

They do not know why personal branding is essential for lawyers. You should undoubtedly let the world know who you are and what services you provide. You might ask yourself why personal branding is vital for lawyers. So let’s start with an impressive quote from Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Importance of Personal Branding and Online Presence

In this digital era, the way people present themselves has changed. Therefore, it becomes imperative to understand why personal branding is so important for lawyers.

It is difficult for the public to trust a lawyer without a personal brand. Take it on yourself and think about when you approached a random professional for services. We don’t. Right?

We usually choose businesses or individuals with a good reputation in the market or a history of serving the public. Hence not having a personal brand could be detrimental to the lawyer’s professional career.

Personal marketing strategy affects career development. The market for legal services is competitive, and many experts and trusted lawyers are around you. A personal brand is simply the difference between how you see yourself and how others see you. It shows how you are different from other lawyers and legal advisers. Keep in mind that business does not wait for anyone! So, start building your personal brand, define and craft your personal branding and stick to it.

The Figures speak for themselves!

The Legal Services Consumer Tracker of 2022, which helps show people the kind of legal services people choose, has projected that 43% of the total consumers shop around to find the right candidate with adequate legal expertise. This figure has seen an exponential rise compared to just 13% in 2021. Out of this 43% of consumers, 82% have highlighted that the existing reputation of the lawyer is an important factor considered during this process.

Further, searching for the right candidate online was the fourth-most important factor in reaching a conclusion. The first three were – returning to an individual they already associated with before, a recommendation received from family members or friends, and a referral which has been received from another organization. 

4 Reasons for Personal Branding

Every individual, especially a lawyer, has many reasons for developing a personal brand. Here are four of the main reasons:

It creates trust

Personal branding lets people associate with a brand or logo and trust the services provided under that name. In the case of an individual attorney, it can be the attorney’s name. It helps one attach value to the name under which one practice.

When people value the service, they will return to the same person in case of any suit. They might also recommend one to their colleagues or people who might approach them with a problem that lies within one’s area of practice.

It sets you apart

Today’s job market is extremely competitive. A large number of lawyers are working in different fields, and their number is increasing every day. If you want to avoid operating in the red ocean and stand out from other lawyers, you need to focus on your personal brand as a lawyer and strengthen it in different ways.

It increases your authority

Being seen and noticed is good, but not enough. If you want people to choose you to receive a service many others offer, you must have authority.

When a lawyer has a strong personal brand, his authority increases, which sets him apart from other lawyers. The more authority you have as a lawyer in your field of work, the more you will earn and the more you can upscale your services without fear.

Stronger personal brand, stronger relationships

The importance of networking and communicating with different people is not hidden from anyone. A lawyer is successful when he can build strong relationships across various fields.

If you have a good and authentic personal brand, you will attract like-minded people, and in this way, you can communicate with like-minded people. As a result, your referrals and recommendations will increase day by day, providing a significant advantage for your business. As a lawyer with a solid personal brand, you will not only receive opportunities, but you can also become a channel of opportunity for others.

10 Tips for Personal Branding for Lawyers

Content Marketing: People get attracted to good content nowadays. When a client visits a law firm’s website, he tries to check the articles published. The quality of articles creates the first image in the client’s mind. Thus it has become imperative for lawyers to keep good quality, relevant, and updated content on their websites. 

Networking: Lawyers must maintain good business relationships across disciplines. They can guide fellow lawyers in providing resources and guidance while dealing with cases. Through networking, they can represent their identity in the group of lawyers. The best way to do this is by attending meetings, legal conferences, and seminars.

Social Media Promotion: Digital marketing has become increasingly important. There are several social media platforms for professionals, like Twitter, Linkedin, etc., where lawyers share their ideas, thoughts, and expertise. It facilitates the building of relationships in the community. Additionally, it allows lawyers to be more accessible and available. Therefore, it is the most commonly used strategy in the current era of personal branding for lawyers.

Highlighting achievements: If lawyers receive a certificate for any event, or competition, of course, they should post about it on their social media. It is essential to showcase the victories in the community. Through these achievements, people start to trust their brand.

Highlight qualities: Lawyers should highlight their strengths and services in their introduction. However, there should not be too much information in the text that may bore the reader. Keeping it short and simple is crucial to making a good impression.

Associating with top law firms: The brand name of a tier-one law firm indeed adds a lot of value to the lawyers working there. When someone searches for a lawyer on LinkedIn and shows that they work for a reputable XYZ law firm, that lawyer is considered a knowledgeable and skilled attorney.

Writing books, magazines, blogs, etc.: It is a very convenient way to present an idea for the lawyers to mark their presence in the legal fraternity.

Determine the skill set and service: Lawyers should decide what kind of work and services they will provide to their clients. They should display the type of law they want to practice. For example, if someone practices bankruptcy, corporate, family, criminal, etc. It gives an edge over other lawyers who handle all types of cases. 

Do some pro bono work: We hear about lawyers doing pro bono work for social causes. It is an excellent way for lawyers to establish their brand name and mark their presence while helping others. For example, Mr. A fought for the rape victim without charging a penny.

Learn from the success of others: Lawyers must keep themselves updated with their existing competitors to excel in their field. It’s best to analyze the social media profiles of competitors and develop a marketing strategy based on them.

Personal branding for lawyers should begin at the very beginning of their careers. They can also start building a good network with their alumni base. It helps in connecting to the legal fraternity around them. After college/work, they should be active on professional social media platforms like LinkedIn and talk about their achievements, views on current topics, etc.

4 Critical Phases of an Attorney’s Personal Branding

In light of the importance of personal branding as a lawyer, you should begin building and strengthening your brand. The following are the four steps to building a powerful personal brand:

Phase 1 – Everything starts with self-knowledge

Personal brands are built around who you are, so the first step is knowing yourself well and what you are basing your brand on.

Identifying oneself better as a lawyer will help him build a more effective personal brand. This can be done by examining your strengths and weaknesses, and personal habits and considering your interests and desires.

To build a personal brand, you must ask the opinions of others. For example, you can ask your legal clients their opinions about lawyers, especially you.

Phase 2 – Identifying the target audience

As you build your personal legal brand, consider your target audience. Think about their knowledge, skills, behaviour, and performance, as well as their communication style and influence.

Phase 3- Be a good storyteller

The story you tell about yourself affects how people view your skills, knowledge, and work. So tell your story how you want your potential customers to hear it. If you are looking for personal branding as a lawyer, you must have an influential presence in the digital space. Use websites and social networks to spread your story and promote your personal brand.

Phase 4- Continuous evaluation and improvement, the key to success in personal branding

As a lawyer, evaluating your work regularly and improving it according to the results obtained and customer feedback is also crucial to developing your brand.

You must constantly evaluate how others perceive your personal brand and how your present matches what you have in mind.

A lawyer is successful in personal branding when he continuously increases his specialized knowledge in advocacy and other areas, such as marketing, and is always looking for learning.

What people get wrong about personal branding: The 5 Myths

Even though most people are aware of the advantages that personal branding is capable of providing to you, people are often hesitant to go down that path due to a variety of reasons. These are often the common misconceptions people have about personal branding, which must be cleared out. Some of the common examples include:

Personal branding is not for you: Irrespective of your profession, experience, nature, money, class, etc., it cannot be denied that personal branding has universal advantages. Personal branding is ‘personal’ to you and can render results for all. 

Personal branding means promoting your brand everywhere: There are examples of people simultaneously engaging on multiple platforms simultaneously, which helps them develop their brand faster. While this puts you in a pressured zone, it eventually boils down to your regular engagements, content quality, and focused marketing motto. This can build your audience, irrespective of the number of platforms you engage with. 

Personal branding is equal to brand appealing to everyone: While it does become appealing to create content capable of going viral on social media and appealing to all; however, the best way to go about personal branding is by targeting a niche audience. This can provide you with deeper connections with more engagement, rather than the generation of generic content that is once seen and forgotten. 

Personal branding must fit a set mould: People often believe you need to follow the mould created by other brand names. For instance, a lawyer might believe the content must be professional and have a serious tone. However, creating content that mirrors your personality and style is much more advantageous than just another stereotypical profile. 

Personal branding is the same as being self-centred: Personal branding helps you conduct your work with a stronger sense of ownership and promotion of your skills, which some might see as self-centred. However, the main aim of personal branding is to deliver value to others and to serve as an inspiration. Eventually, the outcome depends on how you conduct your personal branding. However, the misconception that all kinds of personal branding have a self-centred tone is completely baseless. 

Critical Personal Branding Tools for Lawyers

There are some essential tools for lawyers providing professional services to boost the value of their personal brand.

To begin with, Instagram is a tool that one should consider out of the social media platforms since it has recorded the most people engaging, especially since the launch of the Reels feature.

The next important tool is Google analytics. Google offers some excellent personal branding tools free of cost. This allows one to assess whether one’s strategy is working or not. For designing attractive posters, one may use Canva, or a professional alternative is Adobe Photoshop.

For editing video messages mentioned earlier in the article, one may use Openshot Editor, accessible to Windows users, or opt for FinalCut Pro if one is an IOS user.

Conclusion

Do Not Forget your Online Presence. Out of Sight Is Out of Mind!

Invest time in building your personal brand. Needless to say, there are many creative ways to stand out in the digital era. Of course, you need to take some trial and error at first, but there is no doubt that your efforts will pay off.

Online reputation management is necessary. It is worth mentioning that the first thing someone will do when they want to learn more about you as a lawyer is googling you. What they learn about you from a simple online search affects their decisions about hiring you. 

Legamart Can Help You!

In sum, be mindful of leaving a footprint in the digital landscape. After understanding why personal branding is essential for lawyers, try to narrow your focus on developing your personal brand and building your professional reputation. By publishing your articles on the LegaMart blog, you can strengthen your online presence, get the results you want, and maintain visibility with your clients. You can let people know about you through the LegaMart blog.

Are you looking to establish yourself in the legal community as an expert in a specific practice area? LegaMart weblog can help you. So, get started today!