BRANDING FOR LAWYERS IS SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE
RECAP FROM PRIOR WEEK
Last week we discussed giving back to, yourself! Giving yourself more time by automating and streamlining your practice. I listed and described how to use three different tools that makes your life just a bit easier.
THIS WEEK:
This week, I am thrilled to introduce to you my first interview guest, Karin Haggard of KHaggard Design. Karin was born and raised in Gothenburg, Karin brings the Swedish minimalist style to her work. A duel citizen on paper and in spirit, she merges the vibrant energy of the U.S. with the clean, sophisticated, and functional designs of Sweden. Karin found a passion for creativity and athletics early on as a competitive figure skater. She became a lover of golf and, after playing in the Scandinavian tour, came to the U.S. on a golf scholarship. Karin received a degree in Computer Art and Design and began developing skills in graphic design, web design, and programming.
Karin described to me that among her most important influences in her life was surviving a near-fatal motorcycle accident in her 20s. After breaking almost every bone in her body and going through a grueling recovery process, she is grateful every single day for the gift of life and an able body. Karin lives in San Diego and thrives on staying active. She feels the best ideas are formed when you leave your normal work environment and get outside. I agree 100% and have been participating in her #MAM Make a Move program here in San Diego. The goal of this group is to help each other improve our businesses and lives by creating a space for physical activity and contemplation with other like-minded, inspired business people. For one hour we do a brisk walk while brainstorming business ideas with each other.
Karin has definitely carved out a unique niche for herself within the branding world. She works with entrepreneurs who are ready to invest in a powerful, authentic brand. She is a very driven and focused business owner, branding specialist and a visionary who works well with business owners who themselves are driven, focused and passionate about growing their business. Her service is entirely holistic, not piecemeal or sparse. She and her team work hard to clarify vision, goals, and target market so clients can communicate their story and services with impact, precision, and personality. What really stands out about her services is that she digs deeper than most to see what makes a person, their passion tick so the visuals, messaging and spirit touches exactly the right audience.
The main reason I asked her on my show is precisely because of her dedication, discipline and focus on all she does within branding, in depth. As lawyers, we dig deep. Deep into our cases, research, our clients and we need to stay the path for sometimes very long stretches. Most of us have trained to read, understand and represent our clients in the best way we know how. This takes discipline, late nights, weekends, and each of us have experienced sacrifice – hopefully with a sense of great satisfaction along the way. Karin is one of the few online branding specialists that has the grit and discipline to easily match any driven professional, and get the job done. Branding for lawyers is not entirely like branding for most other professionals. First off, there’s never quite enough time to get all the assets, stories, and content needed, so we need to work in hyper efficiency mode with tight time lines. Second, there are plenty of regulatory parameters that we must be aware of and follow carefully.
REPUTATION AND BRANDING FOR LAWYERS
The notion of “personal branding” for lawyers feels awkward and, to some, meaningless relative to “reputation.” But there’s an important difference. A lawyer’s reputation is a critical component of her personal brand, but the terms aren’t synonymous. Branding requires a concerted, strategic and active effort to describe, position and promote how one’s areas of expertise are relevant and uniquely able to solve a client’s problems. It’s not just about letting your reputation speak for itself. It’s purposefully injecting your unique value proposition into the marketplace. Because reputation is something that happens to you, and brand is something you make happen, you are in control.
Ever wonder why the lawyer across the street with similar skills and experience obtains more opportunities than you? I’d venture to say that lawyer has likely focused her time on developing and positioning her personal brand so she is top of mind, visible on relevant channels, and taken the time to provide high value for her target audience. The lesson here? Don’t just rely on your reputation, build your brand.
WHY BRANDING FOR LAWYERS IS CRUCIAL
You may have noticed that the market for legal services is slightly competitive. To stand out, a lawyer must be mindful of both substance (expertise) and form (brand).
Think about how many times you’re asked what you do for a living, or what practice area you’re in, and eyes glaze over at your answer. How many pitches have you been involved in where you begin describing your background and your audience’s attention drifts toward email? How many people actually read from start to finish, let alone engage with, your firm website bio or LinkedIn page? If you are not offering a positive impression, a memorable mark, after an exchange, you are missing out on a grand opportunity to set yourself apart, uniquely.
A well-defined, developed and nurtured brand tells people know who you are and what you’re good at. They’ll know your strengths, the value you provide and the types of situations you’re uniquely qualified to assist with. Accordingly, you won’t have to chase as much business — it will start chasing you. You’ll have more leverage to charge a premium based on the know, like and trust you took the time to nurture through valuable content and positioning.
HOW TO BRAND LAWYERS – 3 GUIDELINES
Any great branding strategist will tell you that brands are not “created”, they are “developed” – a concept lost to some. Building a brand is an ongoing process and one that evolves over time. As we all do. The word of caution I’d offer here is that there is no blueprint that is any way a good fit for all professionals. Developing a visible position that is representative of who you are and how you offer your services is a personal endeavor. However, there are guidelines and benchmarks to keep on the path and moving forward…
1. AUTHENTIC. Be you! This is one of the toughest conversations I have with lawyers when we talk about their online position, visibility and branding. As lawyers we’re trained to think and act methodically, strategically and objectively. This often leaves little room for individuality or personal transparency. The best way to be authentic is to share your story on all your communication channels online or offline (as opposed to reciting your resume.) Give people something they can relate to and that they will care about – as human beings. Here’s an example to make the point: In response to “Tell me about yourself?”
Lawyer Larry: I graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and specialize in corporate bankruptcy law.
Lawyer Better: I was a junior in college when I realized how little journalism graduates earn out of school, so I rushed to apply to law school, knowing nothing about the practice of law. I got accepted into a mid-tier school, loved the challenge and curriculum, worked my tail off, transferred to and graduated from the University of Michigan. After graduation, I was supposed to be an M&A lawyer, but my first day of work was on Monday, September 17, 2001, and virtually every new associate in the firm was tossed into the bankruptcy department given the economic impact of 9/11. It was intense, terrifying, challenging and exhilarating.
Think you can guess which one (first) is entirely forgettable. The second shapes a relatable story and begins creating the know, like, and trust needed to nurture an ongoing relationship.
2. BOLD. Your brand story should be more manifesto than bio. Your story should include where you are in your life and career, and most importantly, where you want to go. It should be aspirational, passionate, and relatable somehow. Think of it as goal-setting. By being bold you’ll not only stake out new ground for yourself, but you’ll create vulnerable personal accountability, too. Your career objective is no longer abstract, but a vital part of your brand story.
3. UNIQUE. Large “full-service” firms that are all structured similarly, offer similar services and serve similar markets and industries have difficulty — with good reason — developing a brand that convinces audiences they are different in any meaningful sense. With that said, it’s not impossible, but it’s tricky. A narrowly focused expert, on the other hand, can move past generalities, hyperbole and embellishments and more easily develop an attractive brand. You are original — your story, and your brand should reflect this.
Spending time developing the story of what makes you unique is as much about how you conduct yourself as it is about what and how you communicate. In an industry that is largely conservative, conformist and commoditized, individual attorneys have an outstanding opportunity to develop a unique brand based on the client experiences they create, as opposed to the things they say about themselves. Through communication, education, and so many other experiences offered there are numerous ways lawyers can create unique, valuable experiences for clients that can set them apart.
Listen in on this weeks “Branding for Lawyers” interview with my fellow-Swede and branding expert, Karin Haggard of KHaggard Design to get additional insight, personality, and a few laughs…
The Social Lawyer show podcast.
WEEKLY TIP, TOOL, EASY TO IMPLEMENT STRATEGY
In this week’s podcast our guest branding specialist mentioned one of her very favorite client and project management tools, Trello. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, Trello is the most visual way for teams to collaborate on any project. You have the ability to dive into the details by adding comments, attachments, and more directly to Trello cards, so you can collaborate on projects from beginning to end. Trello is also one of the most easily integrated with many apps your practice already uses directly into your workflow. Power-Ups turn Trello boards into living applications to meet the unique business needs of your office. Finally, and best of all for the sake of streamlining your life, no matter where you are, Trello stays in sync across all of your devices.
My guest Karin also mentioned in our exchange that made a big difference to her as she built her business. First was “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, which challenges the notion of competition by arguing (successfully I believe), that lasting success comes from creating ‘blue oceans’: untapped new market spaces. The other mention was the classic “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” by Al Ries and Jack Trout. The premise behind this book is that in order for marketing strategies to work, they must be in tune with some quintessential force in the marketplace. Just as the laws of physics define the workings of the universe, so do successful marketing programs conform to the “22 Laws.” Each law is presented with illustrations of how it works based on actual companies and their marketing strategies.
IN MY NEXT EPISODE
We’ll talk about even more about branding and we’ll talk about what it takes to create your story, and how to place it for optimal, unique and meaningful exchanges.