Thought leadership is a better tool for positioning yourself in the eyes of your target audiences than your online bio or your LinkedIn profile and posts.
If you’re not regularly producing thought leadership content, you’re missing out on chance after chance to position yourself in real time in the minds of your target audiences the way you want them to see you.
No offense, but there’s a good chance that neither your online law firm bio nor your LinkedIn profile is up to date and providing your target audiences with the most up-to-date indications of the kind of work you’re doing.
That’s where thought leadership comes in.
Each piece of thought leadership you produce provides an opportunity for you to remind your current, past, and prospective clients and referral sources about the kind of work you do. This allows you to position yourself to be the one they call when they (or one of their clients) has an issue regarding the area of law that you practice or the industry that you serve — both of which you would’ve been addressing in your thought leadership by virtue of the topics you would’ve been discussing.
In other words, thought leadership provides real-time positioning.
It allows your target audiences to get a feel for the kind of work you’re doing right now and how you can help them with the legal or business issues they’re facing right now.
Here are five ways thought leadership is a real-time positioning tool.
Thought leadership positions you regarding the areas of law you practice
If you regularly publish thought leadership about the types of legal work you do—insider trading investigations, compensation packages for executives, tax ramifications of mergers and acquisitions, estate planning issues for high-net worth entrepreneurs, etc.—you’re positioning yourself as an attorney who practices those areas of law.
Simultaneously, you’re also positioning yourself as an attorney your clients and referral sources should turn to when they or someone they know has an issue regarding those areas of law.
Thought leadership positions you regarding the industries you serve
As is the case when you’re talking about particular legal issues within the areas of law you practice, when you talk about industry-specific topics, you’re positioning yourself as a go-to attorney regarding legal and business issues that arise within that industry.
If you’re regularly discussing executive compensation packages at technology companies in your thought leadership, you’ll be seen as an authority on that subject.
If you’re regularly discussing private equity deals in the healthcare industry in your thought leadership, you’ll be seen as an authority on that subject.
If you’re regularly discussing real estate issues for companies in the retail industry, you’ll be seen as an authority on that subject.
Thought leadership positions you as a problem solver regarding your clients’ problems
When your thought leadership covers best practices for handling a certain legal or business problem, or it compares and contrasts alternate ways of handling a legal or business problem, it’s communicating to clients and referral sources that you’re an attorney who can solve those problems for clients.
They won’t just see you as an attorney who’s generally knowledgeable about the area of law you practice or the industry you serve. They’ll see you as an attorney knowledgeable about how to solve the very problems they’re facing.
Thought leadership positions you regarding your views of the world that sync with your clients’ views
Thought leadership communicates to clients and referral sources that you have views of the world that are consistent with theirs.
For example, if you help clients with their regulatory issues and you often opine in your thought leadership about how governments tend to over-regulate industries, which stifles innovation and is bad for the economy, you’re signaling to past, current, and prospective clients and referral sources that you share their view of the world because, obviously, the corporations that are regulated would prefer that they’re not regulated as heavily as they are.
Same thing goes if you are a white-collar criminal defense attorney. If you often opine in your thought leadership about how prosecutors tend to overreach with their criminal charges, or they tend to throw evidence at the wall hoping that it sticks, you’re going to resonate with past, current, and prospective clients and referral sources who feel the same way.
Obviously, clients want to hire attorneys who see the world the same way they do. Your thought leadership can position you as an attorney who does.
Thought leadership positions you as a human being, perhaps with similar hobbies and interests as your clients
If you want to be seen as a straight-down-the-middle, all-business attorney, you can convey that through your thought leadership.
If want to be seen as a laid back attorney, you can convey that through your thought leadership.
If you have lots of hobbies and interests outside the law, you can drop hints about them in your thought leadership over time and make it clear you enjoy those hobbies and have those interests.
The tone and style you use in your thought leadership, and the way you weave in your personal interests or hobbies—or you don’t—communicates to clients and referral sources about who you are as a person.
For many clients and referral sources, when two attorneys they’re contemplating sending work to have similar qualifications, credentials, and results, the attorney whom the client or referral source likes most is likely to get the business.
Over time, your thought leadership can make the kinds of favorable impressions on your clients and referral sources that help you win those tie-breakers and solidify you as their go-to attorney for the areas of law you practice and the industries you serve.
Another tool in the collection
Thought leadership isn’t just a generic marketing and business development strategy. It’s a Swiss Army Knife.
It’s a marketing and business development tool. It’s a recruiting tool.
It’s a culture-building tool. It’s an advocacy tool.
It’s also a real-time positioning tool that reinforces in the eyes of your target audiences how you want them to perceive you regarding the work you do and how you could help them solve their legal and business problems.
Thinking about bringing on an outside writer to help your law firm strategize and create compelling thought-leadership marketing and business development content? Click here to schedule a 30-minute Content Strategy Audit to learn if collaborating with an outside writer is the right move for you and your firm.