In developing an effective Web presence for your law firm (a presence that actually brings in business!), writing biographies for your attorneys can be daunting.
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| How to Write an Attorney Bio that Brings in Clients |
Why feature attorney bios on your site? You want visitors to be able to really connect with the people they would be working with, before they decide whether they’ll pick up the phone and call you. A profile that your visitors identify with—one that speaks to the concerns they have about hiring legal help—will make it more likely that they ring you up. On the other hand, a dry, legalese-filled bio can kill the deal before it starts.
Research has shown that as much as 56% of visitors to a law firm’s Web sites will visit the attorney profiles. If half of your prospects will judge you by your work here, you’d darn well better put in the work to develop a great bio!
Before you start, get the right mindset
Most attorney profiles fail to connect with their readers. The reason is simple: lawyers have different ideas of what’s important than their would-be clients do.
In many cases, attorneys have the impression that their prospects are making decisions about who to hire based on criteria like who’s won the most cases, or whether the attorney attended an Ivy League school.
The reality, though, is that clients often select attorneys based on things like likability and trust—they don’t care that you can recite the complete municipal code of Springfield, USA forward and backward… they want to know if you can help them solve their problem.
In that case, it’s important that each attorney’s bio works toward that goal of building trust, and persuading the reader that yes, you can solve their problem. If you need to make room, you can always cut short that laundry list of credentials—no one but your mother will ever read it, anyway!
Creating a great attorney bio
Now that we’ve talked about some of the factors that can cause your attorney bios to fall on their face, let’s look at a few ways they can be improved.
Create a great lead-in.
In a lot of ways, marketing your law firm on the Internet is similar to writing a great news story. Success at either depends on making a great first impression. You have just a couple seconds to engage the reader before they lose interest (and, in the case of the Web, hit the Back button).
With that in mind, make sure your first sentence is attention-grabbing and unique… not generic and dull. Consider:
- What makes you stand out among other attorneys? What are you especially great at? (This doesn’t have to be technical skill—maybe you’re great at explaining things to clients, or helping them handle unexpected fees.)
- What types of legal issues do your clients generally face?
- Are there any newsworthy legal issues that you have resolved?
- Be personal—really personal.
Please, I beg you… fight your natural instincts to focus on the boring stuff—your practice areas, licenses, and schools. There’s a place for all that, but it’s not where you might think—stick this at the veeeeeery bottom of the profile, after the reader has finished getting to know you.
As much as 56% of visitors to a law firm’s Web sites will visit the attorney profiles. Instead of focusing on your education & technical qualifications, let the reader get to know you—what areas of law are you passionate about, and why did you choose this profession? What kinds of clients do you love working with most?
This is the kind of information that will help build rapport with your prospective clients. That’s difficult to accomplish if your bio doesn’t give a sense of your personality and perspective on life.
Consider answering these questions in your bio as a way of showing who you are:
- What do you like the most about your areas of practice (or the business of law in general)?
- Which case did you find the most rewarding to work on?
- What is your favorite law-related quote and why does it resonate with you?
- What types of community-based events do you participate in?
- What role does your family play in making you great at what you do?
One word of caution… you can talk about generic things like how many children you have or what sports you enjoy watching, but those generally don’t contribute to giving the reader a picture of how you can uniquely help them. If you include this information, be sure to supplement it with the kind of stuff that positions you as a great solution to the reader’s problems as well.
Become a narrator.
Everyone loves a story. Not only do they love them, people remember stories much better than a cut-and-dry set of facts.
Consider, then, using your bio to tell a story. Case studies can do the trick here, but avoid the temptation to be too technical—what you’re really looking for is a case story that will again demonstrate who you are and how you can help the reader (even if the reader’s case isn’t the same as the one in the story).
These stories can be told effectively in a few simple, concise sentences—you certainly don’t want them to drag on—but you can also add a link to a more detailed case study for readers who are interested in the details. The critical pieces to the narrative are a brief description of who the client was, what problem they had (and how that problem made them feel), and how you provided outstanding value to them in solving the problem.
Convey your character.
Although it is certainly the case that some attorneys are more skilled than others, laypeople often view attorneys as having about the same level of legal skill—if you’re certified, you’re “an attorney,” the same as the next guy.
(I know, I know—I can hear your cries of protest, but that really is people’s perception. You can fight it by educating clients, but you should also be prepared to deal with people aren’t yet educated. Bear with me here…)
Given that view, it is not surprising that many people choose attorneys based on their character—attorneys they like and trust.
One way to convey your character to readers is to empathize with them. For instance, you might talk about the story a client told you about an unscrupulous attorney who charged a lot and delivered little. Your reader can almost certainly identify with that—if they haven’t experienced it personally, they’ve heard stories themselves.
By calling out those lawyers who give others a bad name, you’ll show your reader that you’re firmly on the side of “the good guys.”
Get personal, and get social.
What happens if someone reads your profile and it resonates with them? How can they connect to you in person? (Obviously they could call the office, but suppose they aren’t ready for that yet.)
Having links to your social media accounts—Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.—from your attorney profiles gives prospective clients one more way to get in touch with you (and one more way for you to build rapport with them).
If you want to take this to another level, you can include a video on the bio page. A short “video business card” can give you the chance to briefly talk passionately about the work that you do—with the enthusiasm and passion you have in real life.
Remember, it’s not all about the bio.
Similar to writing a great news story, success depends on making a great first impression.
While your attorney profile is an important piece of the online marketing puzzle, it’s not the whole picture. Your would-be clients are looking at a million aspects of your Internet presence to decide whether you’re the kind of person they want to do business with.
With that in mind, remember that a great bio alone isn’t enough to win the business of prospective clients. In addition, make sure the Web site on which that bio appears looks professional, clearly explains what you do & who you help, and suggests the “next step” that interested prospects should take.
There’s a lot to consider in creating a great attorney profile, but using the tactics above, I think you’ll find that the bios you create attract clients and win you business. Good luck!
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