The goal of authority marketing for lawyers is simple. You want to be the first name that comes to mind for the type of legal work you provide for a specific audience.

Most people think of this in terms of building a referral network that’s responsible for most, if not all, of a law firm’s business in a particular practice area. That is valuable, but it’s a very old-school way of thinking about authority marketing.

A better approach is to look for ways to expand your inner circle of referral sources – people who trust you and refer you without hesitation. This would allow you to get business from a larger, more diverse circle of referral sources.

If you’re like most attorneys, you have precious few dependable referral sources. If one of them stopped feeding you business, it would probably be more painful than you realize.

The marketing options for law firms are endless. So is the amount of people trying to sell you those options. Naturally, they assume all lawyers are rich (if only) and have stacks of hundred-dollar bills set aside for marketing.

That leads us to the million-dollar question. How do you sift through what you’re being told you should do to market your business, and hone in on what actually works?

Most attorneys only consider two models when they’re trying to grow their law practice. They either do everything themselves, or they hire an employee and delegate.

Neither model will get you very far. If you try to do everything yourself, it’s pretty much impossible to grow. If you don’t have staff or only have part-time staff, you won’t be able to delegate very much.

When it comes to legal fees, most attorneys figure out a way to charge clients when they start their practice. More often than not, they establish a fee structure, usually billable hours, based on what every other practice does.

Aside from the occasional increase, they don’t think about it. They set it and forget it.

It’s time to turn off the cruise control.

A lot of attorneys aren’t sure if it’s even possible to grow their practice. They’ve hit a ceiling and they’re not sure why.

Are you experiencing something similar?

I want to share a framework we use for describing how practices grow, and hopefully in the course of understanding this, you’ll discover exactly what’s limiting your practice.

This is the Practice Growth Pyramid.

Every self-proclaimed digital marketing guru-rockstar-ninja-jedi-expert on the face of the earth will tell you that your brand sucks – because they want you to buy a package to get you to the top of Google. Guaranteed!

So… what is your law firm’s brand? Have you ever actually thought about it?

Spare me the clichés about trust, honesty and expertise. Is that all you’ve got?

Most lawyers have very strong opinions about how they want to present themselves online. But there’s usually a disconnect between what lawyers think is important, and what potential clients and referral partners think is important.

Most lawyers obsess over their websites. That’s where they devote all their time and energy.

Sure, websites are important. You have to have one. But a website is only one of many components of your online presence.