What is a personal brand, and why would an attorney need one? Your personal brand is what differentiates you from other lawyers. It’s how you establish authority as the go-to person in your practice area or location.
When clients and prospects have hundreds of lawyers to choose from, a personal brand can’t be just an afterthought–it’s a necessity.
The good news is that you already have a unique set of traits and expertise that you can tap into, whether you’ve consciously thought about it or not. Let’s walk through five steps to get your personal brand nailed down so you can start using it for more effective business development.
Rather watch all the steps via video? Check out our Personal Branding 101 series on YouTube here.
Step 1: Attributes
The first step in developing your personal brand is identifying your attributes. These are the characteristics and qualities that you want to be known for and distinguish you from other attorneys. There are three distinct groups: personal attributes, general attributes, and skills attributes.
Personal attributes are traits like empathy, resourcefulness, compassion, and humor that you demonstrate (you guessed it!) in a personal setting. What is your personality known for, or what do you want it to be known for?
General attributes can seem similar, but they’re how you operate in a professional environment. For example, maybe you’re always collaborative, analytical, or creative at work. These are the traits that you want to be known for professionally.
Skills attributes are how you identify as an authority within your professional environment. Maybe you're a great negotiator, or you understand the ins and outs of the Clean Water Act, or you're the premier trademark attorney in your region, etc. This can be anything unique to your practice.
By combining these three pillars of attributes–personal, general, and skills–you will come away with the “known-for” qualities that you want to have associated with your personal brand.
Step 2: Positioning
After establishing your attributes, you’ll turn to positioning, which is how others see you and how you present yourself to the market.
First, you need to define where you are now: What is the nitty-gritty about your practice, your clients, and your competitors? Do a self-evaluation of your current practice as it stands now, and then compare it to where you want to be in five years. What changes have you already made, and what will you need to adjust? Knowing where you are and where you want to go is key to brand positioning.
Next, you need to get aspirational. You’ll ask yourself several questions about three areas of your business:
You may still need to work out some of this but think about where you want to be in five years and let that guide your answers. When you put together these items–your target audience, key differentiators, value proposition, and story–you’ve created your brand position.
Step 3: Brand Promise
The next part of developing your personal brand is the brand promise–basically, your elevator pitch. You have your brand attributes and brand positioning, which means you know who you are and how you want the market to see you. Now, you have to deliver it.
At the end of the day, what problems are you trying to solve and for whom? It’s important when thinking about your brand promise to establish a hook. For example, try out the difference between these two statements:
“I'm a real estate lawyer who works for XYZ firm.”
vs.
“I help real estate developers keep their projects on track.”
That small change encompasses your brand attributes as well as your brand positioning. You want to start a conversation that invites more questions and creates intrigue.
Your promise is not that you're a lawyer. Your promise is that you help clients solve their issues.
Step 4: Channels
Now, what do you do with all of this? It’s time to extend your brand. To do that, think about your channels for distribution.
It’s not about being trendy or trying the latest platform. Look at where you might find your primary audience, and the range of opportunities may surprise you. Industry events, community organizations, networking meetings? What does your audience read, watch, listen to? Make a list of all the touchpoints where you might find your target audience.
For example, if you’re a corporate attorney, your target market is probably in-house general counsels, other businesses’ C-suite execs, and referral sources, like other lawyers, accountants, etc. Listing a bunch of Google Ads probably won’t hit your target market, but you know what might? LinkedIn posts and industry events. Conversely, if you're a divorce attorney, your audience may not be using LinkedIn or listening to your podcast. Where are they? Likely Instagram or Google.
Step 5: Amplification
The final step in your personal brand journey is amplification. How do you amplify your brand across the channels you’ve just identified? This part may be the simplest because it only comes down to two things: consistency and authenticity.
You may struggle with different aspects of this. In Big Law, for example, they’ve got the consistency down pat. They have in-house teams who help generate content, they know the channels and strategy, and they can help lawyers stay consistent.
This also means that Big Law can struggle with the authenticity aspect of amplification. It's hard to maintain a consistent brand voice across thousands of attorneys, so implementing strict guidelines helps with that. But in our experience, uniformity removes some genuine connection. A great way to get past this is to take advantage of video content and speaking opportunities where individual attorney personalities can shine.
On the other hand, lawyers at smaller firms may not have strict brand parameters around what they can or can't say, so their authenticity comes through. But they may struggle with the consistency side of things because they don't have a big machine behind them to produce content.
In that case, lean on the things that you enjoy most about marketing so that you stay top of mind. If you're already going to a conference, try to get a speaking slot. If you're involved in community groups, make sure that you take leadership roles. If you write an article or get media coverage, make sure it's not just your firm sharing it, but you are too with your own angle.
Fractional Law Firm CMO’s Katherine Wilson, JD 💡 has outlined the entire personal branding process for lawyers in our five-part video series here.
