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Marketing a lawyer is essentially based on selling the solicitor as the product, so a biography is a critical element to marketing services. This article provides five ideas to ensure you get your bio absolutely right.

Developing a bio, which markets lawyers on websites or in printed material is often given very little consideration and usually completed in a hurry. Worse still are those that the lawyer hasn’t been involved in writing and another worker has had to scrape together from a resume.

If this rings a bell regarding your firm or biography then you have a very real flaw in your marketing strategy. You must be aware that marketing of lawyers, particularly those in repeat business areas of law, is based around the principle that the lawyer is the product. That’s why the staff 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 will wish to be aware of what they are buying!

It’s true that some firms base their marketing on a general sales pitch, or branding in one area of law, but generally, the success of a marketing strategy will come down to whether the client believes they are getting good value when they buy the services of the lawyer that is doing their work. So, hopefully having convinced you of the importance of a well-crafted bio, here are 5 tips for putting one together:

Quick Ideas for creating a compelling Lawyer Bio

Provide all the relevant information
It’s bewildering how many law firm websites have biographies of their team that neglect to include relevant information. And this doesn’t mean what law school you attended. Be sure you start the bio with a full name, your position within the company, the type of work you do, and any other firm responsibilities. And remember, 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 don’t have any interest what this means. So remember to include information that could be of interest to your client, not just facts that 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 bio and give you some feedback.

Your client is looking for a solution
Difficult as it may be for your ego to accept, clients are not charmed in you as individual. They are looking for whoever they believe can best solve their problem or most successfully undertake their project. So you need to give information that proves you’re the perfect person 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 concise. So try to cover this one with phrases like, “More than ten 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 help 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 personal to your bio. 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 should consider 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 practice shows that you are a real person with a real personality” and not the same as the numerous 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.