OK, so I’m still writing about branding. I really can’t stress enough how important creating your own personal brand is to the ultimate success of your law firm. In flipping through one of my favorite books, Love is the Killer App, by Tim Sanders, he refers to The Brand Mindset, by Duane Knapp, for a discussion of realizing your DREAM of becoming a great brand.
In the acronym DREAM, D stands for differentiation.
Successful law firms need to find new ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors in order to build a great brand.
R stands for Relevance.
In order to really stand out and apart from the crowd, you must make yourself relevant to others. Keep your knowledge base constantly expanding and share your knowledge with your colleagues and clients. Think in terms of providing useful knowledge via your web site, blogs, podcasts or eNewsletters.
E stands for Esteem.
Esteem builds on relevance. We all want to work with people we know, like and trust. When you act in ways that build “know, like and trust,” you create high esteem. When people hold you in high esteem, they naturally want to work with you.
A is for Awareness.
The more you have to offer, the more people will be aware of you. The more people (clients, influencers) are aware of you the more business they will refer to you.
M is for the Mind’s Eye.
Being distinctive in a potential client’s mind’s eye, means creating Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA). As Sanders says, most people have a number of credit cards in their wallet, but 80 percent of their purchases are made with the card at the top of the wallet. Do all you can to create that type of awareness of who you are and what you do.
Check out Tim Sander’s blog at www.sanderssays.com.