In the saturated and competitive legal market of present day, it’s just not enough to be the very best at what you do to keep bringing in new business and to stay top of mind with clients, prospects and referrals.

While sitting at your desk churning out excellent work product day after day, week after week and month after month may yield the loyalty of a select group of clients and colleagues, most lawyers will find it hard to grow their practices in a truly meaningful way like this over time.

The good news is that there are many tactics available to lawyers at any stage of their careers – such as content marketing, social media, public speaking and volunteering, among others – that will enable them to build a stronger personal brand and achieve the ultimate goal of revenue generation.

If you want to raise your profile and have more success in marketing yourself and your company, here are five things to do to raise your visibility, bolster your personal brand and ensure you get more value from the time you are spending when it comes to marketing.

1. Networking (in person and online)

2. Speaking (at conferences and holding your own webinars)

3. Writing (blog posts, client alerts and getting placements in trade publications)

4. Trade association participation (taking a leadership role in your industry organization like serving on a committee)

5. Digital presence (being active by utilizing social media, email newsletters, podcasts, videos, etc.)

You don’t need to do all of them – or all of them at the same time (please don’t!) – rather, do the ones that you enjoy doing and you’ll be better at them.

But it’s not enough to just do these things.

They say if you build it they will come – well that’s not really true unless you market what you’re doing.

Remember, how well you COMMUNICATE what you’re doing is as important as what you’re actually doing.

So, you can write the best content and speak at the most prestigious conferences, but if you aren’t promoting them (using social media, email marketing, your web site, etc), you’re not maximizing the full impact of the time and effort you are spending on these activities. It’s just smarter marketing and getting more ROI from them.

Also, if your blog posts and client alerts aren’t getting as much readership as you would like compared to the amount of time you’re spending writing them, and your webinars aren’t getting as many attendees as you believe they should, social media can help with spreading the word about them.

You really need to be using LinkedIn to promote your content, especially in a crowded field such as legal where there are a lot of people who do what you do.

In addition, don’t underestimate the power of email marketing.

I believe email is the most direct and effective way to reach clients and prospects – as long as your contact lists are clean, updated and segmented.

A Word About Podcasts

Being on a podcast or having your own podcast really does work to help you reach new audiences, build your brand awareness and connect with like-minded professionals (and prospective clients) while demonstrating your value and knowledge, so do some research to find out which ones make the most sense for you and pitch yourself to be a guest!

Seize the Day

Don’t wait for opportunities to find you, instead proactively seek them out yourself. Perhaps there’s a conference in which you are interested in speaking, or a publication for which you would like to write – don’t be shy about asking how you can get involved in it.

Several of the lawyers with whom I work (as well as yours truly) have gotten lucrative speaking engagements and byline article opportunities simply by asking for them. You never know if you don’t ask! What’s the worst that can happen? Someone says no. Trust me, you’ll live and it’s statistically impossible for you to hear no 100% of the time.

What do you think about these five marketing activities? How have they worked for you?