Guide to Branding your Law Firm

In this article, we share our own experience on how to successfully conduct branding for law firms that stand above the competition.

Firstly, we will begin by addressing the following questions: What is your law firm's brand? What impression do you want to give to your clients and prospects when they think about your law firm's name?

With a growing number of law firms and increasing competition, law firm branding is essential in helping your firm stand out from your competitors.

Your law firm's brand is at the core of everything your firm does, and to build marketing that grows your legal practice. It's what work you do and how you go about it, and crucially, it's the purpose behind why you do this work. Your brand is a touchpoint for all areas. It's the first impression of your website and brochures, how you communicate with clients, and how you make clients feel.

A critical question to ask is how you would describe your law firm to someone who does not know anything about your firm, who you are, or what work you do. You can even look at this as a kind of elevator pitch.

You may begin with your firm's size, where you are based, and what areas of legal expertise you specialize in. You might share your lawyers' profiles and their experience, or you may give details about the types of clients your law firm supports.

However, to go about this task in a structured way for marketing purposes, you should first consider these questions:

• What differentiates your law firm from other firms in your geographic market?
• If I required a lawyer, why would I contact your firm?
• What is your firm's unique story?
• What is your firm's unique key message?

It could be that you offer exceptional service and your firm is always committed to clients and being available to them. Or, your firm may have a unique experience that other firms in the market do not possess. Another example could be that your firm has a reputation for holding an exceptionally high success rate in the courtroom.

Your brand is a projection of your firm's culture and outlook, forming the basis of potential clients' first impressions of your firm. First impressions count, so it's crucial to get it right. The way you present your brand also determines your position in the marketplace. Successfully branded law firms will benefit from branding that shows and creates; a purpose, values, principles, and a way of conducting work that stands out from competitors. These should be aligned with what your target audience is looking for. Is your target audience looking for quick results, work efficiency, quality service, an economical price point, a hands-on approach, an automated approach, or only the essential results?

What does branding mean for your law firm?

Law firm branding is a top-level process that includes more than simply creating a law firm logo and designing a nice set of brochures.

Brands are intangible; they can be experienced but not touched. They support shaping your clients' perceptions of your firm and your services. This is why your brand is the "personality" of your law firm.

This is why, even though developing a brand strategy may consist of redesigning the company logo, it is so much more than this. It is crucial to consider what makes your firm different, your values, your unique selling points (USPs), and the impression you give to potential clients.

A powerful law firm brand raises awareness effectively by directly appealing to your target clients' requirements and emotions in order to bring in potential new clients for your firm.

It should be noted that your law firm's brand and reputation are entwined, but they are not one and the same.

While your law firm's reputation is typically made up of reviews, testimonials, and word-of-mouth referrals, which is proof that your firm's work delivers results.

Your law firm's brand is made up of more than this. Your brand is responsible for sending clients a message about what they can expect when they select your firm, how they will be supported, what values your firm works according to, and what the overall client experience is like. In marketing, this relates to your "brand promise," which goes far beyond reputation.

Even though reputation is key in building relationships with clients, it is possible to hold an excellent reputation as a law firm and have a poor brand, for example, if you do not focus on your client's needs.

How do I start creating a brand for my law firm?

This process requires time and creative thinking; however, you should begin by thinking about what is unique about your law firm.

In many law firms, the culture, objectives, principles, values, and other matters that culminate into a brand and market position are apparent in the minds of senior management and no one else. When creating a brand, it is necessary to dedicate the time to share these ideals, to have focused meetings to explore questions about your law firm and distribute the results to all stakeholders.

The more planning and time you dedicate to this process, the better the outcome in terms of representing an accurate picture of your firm. By producing precise results, your firm will have the data at your fingertips to define your target market and create clear goals and objectives. Without this necessary planning, creating any sense of direction for your law firm's brand will be challenging. 

Establishing a brand for your law firm

Branding is crucial for any successful law firm. The first step in this process is to set up a meeting with all stakeholders. This exercise is designed to help define your brand. This will bring together your firm's USPs, culture, and personality that already exist but have not been defined.

It would help if you considered answering four different elements in this exercise, and it is best practice to start with your "why" first, as this sets the scene for all the other questions and gives your firm's work meaning:

• Why your firm conducts the work you do – what is your firm's reason for being or raison d'être?
• How does your firm deliver this work – what differentiates your firm from your competitors?
• What are your areas of expertise – consider the services your firm specializes in.
• How will you communicate this to your audience?

Then, once you have this core information, you can consider the following questions:

• Who is our law firm's ideal target client?
• What impression do I want to create for people looking at our law firm?
• How does the firm want clients to feel?
• What makes our firm different from the competition?

What are the ways that competitors are branding themselves?

Take the time to review your answers and identify inconsistencies. For example, if you are a family law-focused firm that aims to give target clients the impression that your firm is approachable, but your marketing material is crafted in a formal or passive tone and filled with legal jargon, this is a clear sign of brand inconsistency.

The first step in developing a brand concept is identifying these inconsistencies. It is important sometimes to challenge the views you currently hold about your law firm. This means you are working toward creating a better brand for your firm.

To create successful branding, it is crucial to align and bring together your business objectives, your target client's goals, and your firm's branding strategy.

A strong brand helps you build a strong connection with the type of clients that are right for your firm, which is crucial if you want to continue to grow your law firm.

What audiences do you want to appeal to and resonate with?

Be clear about who your target market is. If you are seeking to create a high-end or sophisticated law firm brand, but you are a no-win no fee injury lawyer, this may not be the best approach. In this case, the target audience for your service consists of people injured in a car accident who are on a budget. You will then need to create a new service offering to appeal to potential clients looking for a sophisticated, high-end feel, and you will likely alienate many potential and current clients.

When formulating a strategy for the brand you want your firm to project, it is always a good idea to focus on your ideal client and prospective clients and set the direction for branding that will resonate with this type of audience. Branding is fun, and it is tempting to create a brand for yourself, but keep in mind that you may not embody the vision of your ideal client. Keeping this focus will allow you to define a branding strategy with a better chance of successfully winning over new clients from the right target audience.

This is why it's crucial to be transparent and open about who your firm is and to pinpoint your firm's unique characteristics so you can build a brand. You should also develop an awareness of the marketplace and your competitors. Consider this; if all law firms in your location were to charge similar fees and have similar offerings, it is important to understand how to differentiate your law firm's brand.

Creating your law firm's brand concept

A crucial piece of branding your law firm is to write a brand statement. This could be a vision or mission statement, a concise explanation of who your firm is and what clients you serve, and includes messaging that describes your firm's unique approach.

Law firms who deliver this message effectively already have a profound and practical comprehension of who their firm is and their clients are. It would be best if you considered the below questions to help you in creating this brand statement; your brand should be:

Consistency across all client touchpoints. This includes your law firm's website, social media, and other platforms should all look the same in terms of mood and tone to establish clarity that they belong to the same law firm.

Clear and concise messaging. Any prospective clients should be able to easily and quickly understand what makes your firm stand out.

A realistic view of your target audience through a clear understanding of who your ideal client is and what type of law firm branding will work best to appeal to this client while still being on brand for your firm.

Points that differentiate your firm from your competitors. Your firm will benefit from identifying gaps in the marketplace and attempting to build and position a brand like no other firm in your area.

Creating branding elements

One potentially challenging aspect of branding elements for some law firms is where logos, color palette selection, design, and related factors fit into the overall brand.

However, branding elements consist of a range of touchpoints, which can be visual or aural. These aspects will influence how a potential client feels about your law firm, which can impact their decision when considering different firms. Once you have done the fundamental branding part and brand statement, you can compile a list of each branding element your firm already has at its disposal. This will allow you to analyze what is missing and still needs to be enhanced. Here is an example list of branding elements you may already have:

• The firm's website with an enhanced design and excellent user experience
• Firm's logo
• Brochures and marketing materials
• Customized emails tailored to each type of client
• Onboarding process
• LinkedIn ads
• Google ads
• Participation in networking events
• Branding elements you may need to consider adding or improving:
• A brand video to showcase on the website
• Attorney profile photos and bios
• Be more active with your firm's social media channels
• A more defined tone for your firm's brand
• Profiles on sites like Avvo, Justia, and Lawzana
• Press releases about your firm
• More content pieces to distribute across channels
• Increased client testimonials

The next step is evaluating each branding element to see how closely it resembles the desired brand for your firm. For example, it is not possible to position your brand as a "modern, approachable law firm" if your law firm's website is dysfunctional and dated. You cannot position your firm as sophisticated or high-end if your social media profile content consists of clickbait and shared links. You cannot be the choice for lawyers looking for an open, inviting workplace if going into your office makes your team feel intimidated.

This exercise takes the intuition and knowledge of your particular law firm to conduct this thought process objectively. Capture the views of your peers, marketing professionals, clients, and wider team to generate a broad, encompassing analysis of the situation.

Conclusion

After conducting all the branding work, you will have a good idea about how to describe your brand to the wider world and what branding elements need to be enhanced. Once you have this information, you can prioritize according to your budget and resources, taking into consideration the volume of work that it requires.

Building a brand can be different for all law firms, depending on where you are with your current branding. It could involve updating your firm's website, redesigning your logo, and marketing materials, or all of the above. It could involve a shift in strategy. You may need to reconsider the type of content you are creating for social media to make it more approachable, or you may need to set up your brand on select social media channels to begin to create an online presence.

All needs will differ for each law firm, so it is important to create a simple but detailed plan and assess the resources and budget available to take on this transformation effectively. Building a brand is a long and ongoing process. This process can take years to create a brand that matches what you have planned, and even after doing so, it requires care and attention to maintain your brand. However, the benefits are clear, as it will allow your law firm to stand out from the competition and acquire more clients you are looking to bring on board.

Lawzana offers lead generation benefits with all paid memberships, and we encourage you to keep your Lawzana profile up to date to maximize your chance of generating new leads. Lawzana provides branding, marketing, and web development services; if you have any questions related to branding for law firms or law firm marketing in general, please do not hesitate to contact our expert team at [email protected].