How Lawyers Can Build Their Personal Brand in 7 Steps

A strong personal brand can differentiate you in the market, enable you to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and give you a competitive edge. As a lawyer, the purpose of having a strong brand isn’t just about being well known in your practice area, it’s about leveraging the power of your reputation and expertise so that it helps you achieve your business goals.

Personal branding is all about standing out in the crowded field of law. If you’re committed to making a name for yourself in your industry, read on to learn how lawyers can build their personal brand and reputation.

Before you set out to build your personal brand, you must first define your niche. This niche must be relevant to your experience, background, industry, and target audience. Choose a niche in which you have significant expertise and are deeply passionate about.

How Lawyers Can Build Their Personal Brand in 7 Steps

Building your personal brand requires hard work, dedication, and creativity. It doesn’t happen overnight. For most lawyers, it takes decades to build a reputation and earn credibility. Identifying your niche is just a small piece of the journey.

Below are seven ways to build your personal brand in your niche.

1. Start blogging

Lawyers can create their own blog or become a guest blogger for reputable sites. What’s important is that you develop a unique voice that showcases your brand and expertise.

Publishing your own writing on the web is a good starting point to establish your brand. Your articles should not only display command over the topic you are writing about, they should approach the subject matter from a unique angle and provide information that is not offered elsewhere on the web.

Build your credibility and following in your niche by regularly updating your blog, syndicating content, and promoting your content through social media channels. Most importantly, focus on content that is relevant to your target audience and avoid content that is overtly self-promotional.

2. Get published

Another way to fortify your position as a leader in your industry and build your personal brand is to publish on topics related to your niche. Published content affords long-term exposure, builds trust and drives traffic to your site.

Write expert content in various forms. You can publish books, release eBooks, create guides and fact sheets, or contribute articles to well-known publications. Provide content that is of great value to your audience. Share innovative ideas, give helpful advice, simplify complex legal ideas; create something that educates and inspires other people.

Publish as often as you can and aim to publish in high-circulation publications and websites with a high domain authority. Every time you publish an article, promote it on social media to amplify your exposure.

3. Reach out to influencers

Influencers already have an established connection with their audience. They often have a large number of followers that respect them and heed their advice before making decisions. These influencers present new channels to position yourself and gain exposure.

Locate influencers in your niche to learn from them and build relationships. Follow them on social media and comment on their posts and tweets. Just be sure that when you post, you are providing new perspectives and meaningful insights, not just bland comments. This engagement allows you to build a relationship with the influencer and their followers. This is known as influencer marketing.

4. Garner awards and accolades

Awards, accolades, and honors can help build credibility and elevate your personal brand as a lawyer. The more impressive your background, the easier it will be to break into leading media outlets, secure coveted speaking engagements and build a large following. Create an honors and awards page on your law firm’s website to highlight your accolades, and link to it from your bio and home page.

5. Leverage content marketing

Integrate personal branding into a content marketing strategy to expand your reach. Content marketing is an effective tool to inform, educate, and increase your reach on search engines like Google and Bing. Content marketing can be accomplished in a variety of formats. You can write blog posts, contribute to publications, create infographics, author original research papers, conduct webinars, or upload inspirational or instructional videos.

To create an effective content marketing strategy, always start with a plan. Create a strategy to align brand positioning, target market, and your business objectives. Then, formulate a detailed plan for your campaign and organize it in an editorial calendar. This strategy can help you keep track of your content and maintain focus on your goal.

Keep in mind that your purpose is not to market your services or to create content largely for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. Ultimately, your goal is to present yourself as the leading authoritative voice in your niche. Optimize your articles with keyword phrases that your target market is searching to help drive traffic to your site.

6. Engage on social media

Everyone is on social media. Social media can help you amplify your personal branding efforts and grow your following. Build a following through social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. These platforms connect you with more people and allow you to engage with them easily.

Share your own and curated content with insightful commentaries. You can also broadcast live videos to reach your audience instantaneously. To fully take advantage of social media, create continuous high-engagement posts that build followers and broaden your reach.

7. Secure speaking engagements

One of the best ways to gain exposure is to speak at events and conferences in your industry. Being invited as a notable speaker also reinforces your position as an expert in your niche.

Regardless of the crowd and the event, always strive to deliver value. Make sure that your presentation has substance and will enrich the audience with new insights.

Takeaway

In today’s digital world, a lawyer’s personal brand is closely intertwined with their social media and content marketing efforts. It’s an on-going process that involves hard work, patience, perseverance and innovation. Follow these practices to cultivate a strong personal brand that showcases your expertise and differentiates you from the competition.

If you need some help creating content that is centered around providing valuable information to your clients, you’re not alone. It’s one of the reasons we have content experts on hand – to assist lawyers in becoming thought leaders through consistent, compelling content production. Contact us today for a consultation.