Running a law firm today is nothing close to what it was 20 years ago. Back then, all you needed to have clients trooping to your office was years of experience, posting signs at strategic locations, and, for the most successful, running ads on tv, radio, newspaper, and magazines.
While these traditional forms of branding still have a place in today’s law firm marketing, they constitute a small percentage of what you must do. This guide offers insight into branding and styles that law firms must adapt to in today’s environment to stay ahead of the game.
Understanding Branding
Branding involves creating a unique identity for your business using visual and verbal elements, messaging, and marketing strategies. Your brand is closely tied to your reputation and helps a business build a rapport with its audience.
When done right, branding can help businesses communicate their value proposition and create a positive perception of your firm with the audience, helping you compete favorably with other firms that may have other advantages over you, such as years of experience.
Tips for Developing Your Brand Identity
Start With Establishing an Online Presence
Most legal services marketing today happens online, meaning if you do not have a solid online presence, you are setting yourself up for failure. As a result, you want to start by creating a website for your website. If you still have the old static website, replace it with a dynamic website optimized for mobile devices.
You also have to ensure your site is mobile-friendly, so it still looks good and is easy to use when people visit it on their smartphones. Having a website is one part of creating an online presence for your firm. You will also need an active social media presence to complement your website and direct potential clients to your firm.
Work On Your Websites Visuals
Almost every legal firm you know has a website. So creating one doesn’t give you an upper hand in the crowded market. But how you develop your visuals, such as graphics, photos, and website styles, can make a big difference. You could go for cheap web designers, but you may not get as much value from such a website, so working with a professional designer may be best.
Your choice of colors in your visuals is very critical. Neutral colors like blue, gray, and black go well with legal firms by conveying sophistication, professionalism, and elegance. If you are unsure where to get backgrounds to use in your branding, download free black backgrounds from websites offering the highest quality images, such as Freepik, with a wide range of styles.
You will also need to pay attention to the quality of your marketing photos. Hire a professional photographer and models to get the best images where possible. Alternatively, leverage websites that sell image copyrights or go for royalty-free images.
Curate Unique and Helpful Content
An excellent online presence and stunning visuals are the job half done. The other half is creating content that helps establish you as an authority to your audience. For content to help establish you as an authority, it must get in front of as many eyes as possible.
This makes search engine optimization (SEO) a critical part of content creation. SEO involves fine-tuning your content and website to ensure it has a better chance of ranking in the SERPs, and it involves things like keyword research, link building, and image optimization, among others. For the best results in SEO, it is best to work with an SEO agency.
Leverage the Power of Trademarks
Business names, logos, signs, and slogans are called trademarks and critical elements of building a business’s brand. So you have to be intentional at picking them from the beginning. But choosing your brand identifier is not enough. You may want to go a step further and register them for registration to ensure only you reserve the right to use them.
Besides helping your potential clients pick you out from the crowd, registering your trademarks allows you to use the registered trademark (®) symbol alongside your names and logos. As a result, you create an impression of professionals and, ultimately, potential clients’ confidence.
