Law firm marketing is essentially based on promoting the solicitor as the product, so a biography is a necessary part of promoting services. This article provides five quick tips to ensure you get your bio just right.
Creating a bio, which markets a lawyer on web-sites or in printed material is often given very little thought and invariably completed in little time. Worse still are those that the lawyer hasn’t been involved in writing and another worker has scraped together from a resume.
If this rings a bell regarding your firm or bio then you have a very real flaw in your marketing strategy. Always remember that marketing for lawyers, particularly those in repeat business areas of law, is based around the principle that the lawyer is the product. This is why the employees page of a law firm website is generally the most popular page after the home or landing page. If you charge an hourly rate for your time, you are the ‘product’, and any prospective clients want to be aware of what they are buying!
It’s true that some companies base their marketing on a general sales pitch, or branding in one area of law, but generally, the success of your marketing strategy will be due to the client believing they are getting good value when they buy the services of the lawyer that is doing the work. So, hopefully having convinced you of the importance of a well-crafted biography, here are 5 quick tips for putting one together:
Quick Ideas for writing a compelling Law Firm Bio
Provide all the important information
It’s bewildering how many law firm websites have biographies of their staff that neglect to include relevant information. And this doesn’t mean which law school you went to. Be sure you start the bio with a full name, your position within the firm, the type of work you provide, and any other firm responsibilities. It’s important to remember that you’re not writing this for other lawyers to read.
As a lawyer I was very happy the day I was admitted to the Supreme Court in my state. But frankly, many clients won’t have any idea what this means. So remember to include information that may be relevant to your client, not just what will impress other lawyers. Certainly mention qualifications, positions on legal committees and the like, but unless it’s something your clients will understand and consider important, then leave it to the end of the bio. It may help to involve a third party. Have someone outside the legal industry read your biography and provide some feedback.
Your client is looking for a solution
As hard as it may be for your ego to accept, the client is not engrossed in you as individual. They are looking for a solicitor they believe can best solve their problem or most successfully undertake their project. So give them information that will convince them you’re the right professional for the job. In printed documents you should aim to include actual examples of how you’ve helped people, but online bios often need to be very short. So try to use phrases such as: “More than 10 years experience in”, “Recognised within the X business community for assisting with”, “A certified specialist in the area of”, or “Successfully negotiated more than 200 rural property contracts”.
Connect with the real world, not just the legal world
If your company or practice provides services that are based in a particular city or region you can improve your marketing efforts by demonstrating a connection to that community. Being recognised as a “local” by your prospective clients or demonstrating a connection with the region’s major industry eg. ” from a family with a long involvement in the coal mining industry”, encourages a connection with the reader.
Add a little personality
Don’t be afraid to inject a little personality to your bio. And this doesn’t have to be the standard “Married with 2.5 children”. By all means include personal information if it helps with point number 4 above, but more importantly, you ought to think about how you practice and the type of “client experience” you provide. Are you a ” fiercely determined approach”, a “collaborative practitioner focussed on keeping costs down” or a “down to earth, with a knack for easing clients concerns”. Finding a genuine point of difference in how you work communicates that you are a real person with a real personality” and not the same as the myriad of other lawyers who are busily marketing themselves.
John Gray is a practising lawyer and the Senior Marketer at John Gray Marketing, an Australian specialist law firm and legal marketing consultancy. If you are interested in law firm marketing, legal marketing and marketing for lawyers, contact John Gray today.