Your clients may write their check to your law firm, but they hire. . . wait for it. . . YOU.
They know you. When they call the switchboard, they ask for you. If you leave the firm, they will probably follow you. And when someone needs a referral, they hand them your card and say, “Here, call my lawyer”.
Not your firm. So, if you are marketing your firm, stop it. Market you.
When you send an email, it should be from you@yourname.com, not you@yourfirm.com.
If your firm has a blog, posts should be by-lined by you, the individual lawyer, not the firm. If you don’t want to take my word for it, here are seven reasons why you should be the author. And if your firm doesn’t have a blog, you should start one. You, not the firm. It should be hosted at yourname.com or yournamelawyer.com.
Social media pages and profiles, you guessed it, should feature you, not your firm. Your firm can have a page, too, but you should promote yours, not theirs.
This is not just for branding purposes. It’s also for self-preservation. If everything is in your firm’s name and not yours, what do you do if your firm dissolves or you leave? You start from scratch, that’s what you do.
Now, what if you own the firm? Same advice. Brand yourself. You can promote and brand the firm, too, but don’t forget to get and keep your name in front of your target market. Because people hire lawyers, not law firms.
