Lawyers: How Your Internet Presence Can Lock Out The Competition

What if you didn’t have to worry about your competition?

What if you didn’t have to worry about beating the rates they charged?

How much happier, less stressed, and more profitable would YOU be if your competition was essentially locked out of your target market and was rendered invisible to your ideal clients?

You could charge higher rates and still win the business. You wouldn’t have to worry about clients firing you for another lawyer. You wouldn’t have to spend every waking moment worrying about where your next matter was going to come from.

If this sounds too good to be true… think again. You can do it, and your internet presence can play a leading role in the process.

Here’s what has to happen. You have to position yourself and your firm in a “category of one.” In other words, you position yourself as a lawyer and a law firm without competitors.

You do this by establishing yourself as the unquestioned leading expert in your particular niche. You CAN’T credibly position yourself as the best lawyer in America. But you CAN credibly establish yourself as the most trusted, most credible, most respected, most knowledgeable family lawyer in your part of town – or whatever your geographic market is.

And if you can position yourself as the leading expert in your specific niche, the rest is simple. Here’s why: Because people prefer to do business with a trusted expert. When they’re hiring a lawyer, it’s because they are dealing with an important matter – divorce, immigration, estate planning, business planning, whatever the case may – and all other things being equal, they want to hire a trusted expert.

Consider – if you need a risky surgery performed, how are you going to choose the surgeon? You’re going to look for the best, most experienced, most well-respected, most credible surgeon you can find… right? And price is not going to be the determining factor… not when your life is on the line.

Position yourself as the leading expert in your niche, and price becomes an insignificant factor.

Note – some people simply don’t have the money and can’t come up with the money. They won’t be able to afford your rates. But it’s a bad idea to build your business around clients who base their buying decisions solely on price. If they hire you based on price, they’ll fire you as soon as they find someone cheaper. And for obvious reasons, it’s hard to maximize profitability when clients are extremely price sensitive.

So here’s how your internet presence can establish your credibility and your expertise.

First, your website needs to look great and function right. Nothing kills credibility quicker than a website that looks like you did it yourself 10 years ago… or a website with broken links, functions that don’t work, etc. Get it professionally designed and maintained.

Second, it should feature photos that make you look like a big deal. Get a good picture taken of yourself and your staff.

Third, it should feature video. Well-produced video is impressive. It’s also an effective way to build rapport with prospects and establish trust. (We’ve written more on the subject of video here.)

Fourth, it should feature content that you’ve created which “proves” your expertise. This includes blog entries, articles, free reports, and other forms of content. Writing knowledgeably on subjects that matter to your target market demonstrates your expertise just by existing… even if many people don’t actually read it. If you’ve written a book, that’s powerful as well, so draw attention to it.

Fifth, you need an active professional social media presence. It’s hard to position yourself as an expert without one. Like it or not, most key influencers in our culture are active on social media… celebrities, politicians, reporters, and so forth. You need a presence, and it needs to be well-designed. And you need to use that presence to share breaking news, analysis, content, and anything else that engages your audience and enhances your expertise.

Sixth, create a regular email newsletter. Use it to provide helpful information to your subscribers and to highlight important information that matters to them. This creates another touchpoint, and another chance to demonstrate your expertise.

Seventh, make sure you’re visible on the search engines. You can’t credibly position yourself as the leader in your market if you don’t even show up on the first page when someone Googles your name.

There are important non-internet tactics you’ll want to consider as well, such as writing a book, speaking and seeking media exposure – appearing on the radio, on TV, in the newspaper, etc. These strategies will be even more effective when you’ve got an effective online presence that can shine a bright light on what you’ve accomplished.

Position yourself as the leading expert in your niche and the competition becomes irrelevant.

Your internet presence can play a key role in making this happen. If you’d like more information on this process, we’ve created a Special Report which highlights key internet marketing opportunities that your law firm can leverage. You can download the report for free by clicking here.

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Daniel Decker

Daniel Decker is a co-founder and Partner at Spotlight Branding. In addition to helping lawyers stand out from the crowd, he spends his time writing, dreaming up new marketing strategies, and coming up with catchy subject lines. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys playing sports, guitar, politics, and Minnesota sports.