How to Create Law Firm Branding That Stands Out: The Ultimate Guide

You must have heard the term `branding’ a million times, but did you know how branding can help you grow and expand your business?

Many feel that branding is all about choosing a fancy name and logo. Wrong! It is much more than that.

Branding is what sets apart your firm in the market, among all its competitors. While your business might be ‘all-work’, appearances go a long way in attracting customers. Consider it like a book—no matter what people say, you do judge a book by its cover.

What is a Brand and Why Branding is Important?

Your brand is link between you and your customer. A brand is essentially the personality and identity of your business. It is what forms the first impression of your business for potential customers and encompasses how it looks and sounds. It is how the market identifies your business compared to your competitors and will hopefully make you stand out.

Branding is the process of creating a brand and it is important as it involves clearly positioning your company or product in the market, devising a brand strategy, possibly creating your name, defining your company’s tone of voice and designing corporate and/or product identity.

The Importance of Branding

1.?????Branding Gets Recognition

When you think of Nike or Amazon or Myntra, the first thing that comes into your head is the brand image or logo. Branding gives recognition to the company. It creates an image in the minds of the consumers, with whom they associate the brand with. In fact, some brand names got so popular in their fields that the services came to be known by their names. For instance, do you know that Xerox is a photocopying company!

2.?????Branding Generates New Customers

Once a brand is strong, new customers are more likely to flock to it. It creates reputation and familiarity. Furthermore, professional branding that suits your business goes a long way—it builds trust with clients, potential clients and others. Branding that radiates professionalism gives off the impression that you are an expert in the industry.

3.?????Branding Increases Business Value

Branding increases the value of a business. By attracting more customers, good branding can give you leverage over your competitors in the industry. Clients tend to get attracted to a strong brand reputation rather than to a weak brand. Goodwill too is earned by a brand and hence, you see companies trying to gain franchises of popular brands.

4.?????Improves Employee Pride and Satisfaction

Strong branding can increase employee satisfaction as it would give them a sense of pride, stability and belonging to a well-reputed company.

Branding for Law Firms

With growing competition, and giants that already dominate the industry, it is important to stand out from the beginning. Branding is just one part of your entire marketing strategy. Thus, it is very important for a law firm to ensure that its brand stands out and conceptualizes its unique selling point; and then to market it strategically. Here are two key ways in which you can promote your firm:

a.??????Building a presence – figure out where your customers are—do they use social media, and if so, then which platforms are they on? What websites do they visit to gather information? Most people who search online for a business end up calling or visiting within 24 hours, which makes an online presence almost essential to carve a space in the market.

b.?????Content and advertising – Promoting your brand by delivering good content, such as blog posts, generating traffic to your website and increasing the brand’s authority. Further, paid advertisements on Facebook or LinkedIn could help in growing your reach.

Creating your Brand Identity

The steps and key points to take into account while developing the ideal brand for a law firm are highlighted below:

1.?Define your firm’s mission

Set out your firm’s mission statement. Why did you decide to go into this practice? What do you seek to achieve from the same? What are the kinds of clients you would want to attract? These are some of the questions which would help you decide the goals and objectives of your firm.

2. Define your ideal client

While serving ‘everyone’ at your law firm is the ideal answer, in reality, the firm’s mission is geared towards a specific subset of actors who will benefit most from the firm’s services. It is essential to identify those, their demographics, motivations, goals and challenges to best attract them.

3. Know your firm’s values

The defining trait of your firm is the values you choose to incorporate—these are the values that the firm’s reputation will attach itself to. To define your values, it is important to know the goals your firm seeks to achieve.

4. Understand your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Your unique value proposition (UVP) is a statement that showcases how you are different from your competitors. This is your core asset as it sets you apart from other players in the market.

The next thing to do when you have identified all your traits is to materialize them as your brand identity. This takes the form of the firm name, the logo, the colour scheme, marketing materials, stationery, letterheads, images, website and blog content. Let us examine a few things which set your brand identity:

a.??????Slogans and ‘brand voice’ –The slogans and catchphrases of a law firm must take into account the above factors—what your firm’s mission is and who your clients are. It should exhibit the values your firm stands for. This also includes identifying your ‘brand voice’—or the tone you want to use to set your message. It could be personal and compassionate, or fierce and aggressive, depending on the kind of work ethic of the firm and the goals.

b.?????Logo – At the next step, developing your visual identity comes into play. Knowing what your firm stands for, the visual representation of that is captured by your logo, your website, and your blogs. A logo embodies more than just visuals of the law firm. It is important to note that sometimes developing more than one logo is necessary, as the logo for the firm’s website might not be appropriate for printed materials and letterheads, or vice-versa. The logo should thus be dynamic, with ideally, a version that contains only an image, and one with image and text for different uses. A logo should have some meaning attached to the colours and designs it embodies.

c.??????Colour scheme – The colour scheme of a firm is equally important. Studies and surveys suggest that consumers take colour schemes into account while purchasing, as it increases their memory related to service, and increases recognition of a brand. Law firms usually tend to prefer bold and traditional colours, such as blue, black, and grey to showcase professionalism, rather than brighter and flashier colours.

d.?????Visuals: The role of visuals, thus, is more than just an aesthetic appeal to customers. Your logo, slogan, firm name, etc., is what consumers attach to the reputation. It should be unique and should capture the essence of your goal and services within its frame.

Role of SEOs in Branding

In the traditional sense, SEO, or Search engine optimization is a technique that helps you in targeting the right audience. With the help of the right keywords, you can `optimize’ your website traffic. Consequently, the exposure to your brand depends on this. A few of the key concepts of SEO which everyone should know are:

a.??????Familiarity – The more familiar a brand is, the more it gets ‘clicked’ on. Someone who recognizes your brand while searching for related information is more likely to click on it.

b.?????Keywords – Keywords that are specific to your brand help draw out more customers. While most law firms use generic terms like “personal injury law firm” and “best car accident lawyer,” you can filter out the competition by using terms that define your brand specifically for your SEO campaigns.

c.??????Titles, descriptions – Choose a title and meta description which is aimed at attracting large traffic. For instance, if you are writing a blog post on `personal injury', make sure that when your potential client searches for the term `personal injury, your blog post is visible at the top. This increases your visibility and helps potential clients notice you and your firm.

Framing Branding Guidelines

One of the best practices you can adopt while preparing a brand for your law firm is to be mindful of time. It is best to start as early as possible. The process of building a brand is one that requires care and consistency, as to a very large extent, the reputation of the firm is associated visually with this branding. Consumers associate the colour scheme, the logo, and the slogans to your firm, and thus, the stakes of developing the perfect brand are high. This is especially important to stand out from other competitors and carve a niche for your firm.

Your guidelines should thus take into account the following points:

a.??????The characteristics of your firm, emphasized in the content and advertising

b.?????The colour scheme and overall feel of the firm’s website

c.??????The ‘brand voice’ that delivers the message of what your firm incorporates

d.?????The type of niche or long-tail terms the firm ranks well for.

Best Practice to Adopt

Some of the best practices that can be adopted while going through this process are outlined further:

a.??????Understanding the market – Your choice of brand shouldn’t just end at what your firm is today, but what it aims to become, and the work you’re willing to do to get there. For that, it is advisable to make sure of a rock-solid understanding of what your market seeks, and how best you can position yourself to meet that need.

b.?????Engaging with the Market - Using the right keywords in your blog posts and websites helps you get more leads, and helps in gaining more prospective clients. Most customers learn to trust a new company through a blog post or an article rather than a traditional ad. It is ideal to share content about the firm to form a connection with potential clients.

c.??????Consistency in marketing - Once you’ve defined your brand, make sure that all your marketing efforts support that brand. This means checking for brand consistency in your blog posts, articles, taglines, media, etc. before you publish them.

d.?????Workplace behaviour – This also extends to consistency in actions and interactions. Supporting the brand goes beyond conventional marketing messaging. Everything from the office space to the way the staff interacts with clients and prospects should be tailored to the brand.

e.??????Attending to Customers – The best way to evaluate whether your brand message puts out to its customers what it wishes to is by listening to their feedback. Customers can provide valuable feedback on whether you live up to your brand promises. If not, then it is advisable to reassess. This involves a preparedness to evolve with customer expectations and market needs.

Conclusion

The branding of a firm is an essential step in building a reputation. It requires strategic thinking right from the beginning, a focused eye on details, good marketing skills, and an ability to reassess and evolve. The process is a long one, but as you shape your practice and brand image along with it, consistency follows suit, and the firm reaps benefits along the way. Identifying your goals, your mission, and the work ethic you choose to embody go a long way in developing and establishing your brand in the market.?

Need help with branding?

I can help you with branding strategy to generate more leads to get you more clients,?simply fill out the branding questionnaire provided below to receive a free proposal:

Branding Questionnaire (Google Form):??https://forms.gle/t7dMG77R6s9LJPy59?

Please click on the above link to open the questionnaire to submit your response. It will take approx. 10 minutes to complete.

These questionnaires will help you gather ideas and answer questions at a time that’s convenient for you. The more complete the questionnaire is (or the better you convey your project requirements), the better the result will be!?Once I have received your response - a?detailed proposal will follow!