The legal services industry is one of the most competitive niches. Established lawyers from famous and reputable law firms make it difficult for smaller and newer firms to find new clients. In a saturated market like the legal services industry, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition and stand out.
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Why Does Law Firm Branding Matter?
At first glance, law firms look the same: they take clients, help them with legal matters, and represent them in court.
However, when there are so many law firms, clients will choose the first to catch their attention. In most cases, older, more established, and more popular firms often get most of the clients. Since these established firms use their long history and reputation as a law firm marketing strategy, smaller firms should emphasize the other things that make them different.
For example, you can brand yourself as a compassionate law firm that handles delicate family law matters. Likewise, you can also present yourself as an aggressive and ingenious criminal defense lawyer who will protect your client at all costs. If what makes more popular firms stand out is their experience, you need to highlight the qualities your law firm has that they don’t.
In other words, branding is a crucial factor in differentiating yourself from an oversaturated market. When everyone does the same thing, you need to give clients a reason to choose you and not the other law firms that provide the same services.
3 Easy Tips On Building Your Law Firm Branding
In digital marketing, branding is anything that distinguishes you from other competitors. Logos and design are the most common examples. However, you can show branding in everything associated with your law firm, including brand voice, color schemes, symbols, words, etc.
Since branding applies to almost everything, it requires extensive planning. That said, here are a few ways to decide on a unique and attention-grabbing brand:
Tip #1: Decide A Brand Goal
In marketing, company or brand goals refer to non-monetary or non-profit objectives of a business or firm.
Of course, you want to get more clients, increase revenue, and boost your reputation, but those are monetary or profit-driven goals. A brand goal is similar to a mission statement that can be used to represent your law firm’s purpose.
For example, if your law firm focuses on representing women in Family Law cases, your brand goal might be to compassionately empower and help women with troubled family lives.
Your goals represent you and what you set out to do. While this might make you seem niche to some people, you will stand out and become more attractive to the right audience.
Tip #2: Define Your Target Audience
When you’re trying to stand out from your competition, you need to ensure that your unique qualities appeal to a specific audience. Again, people need a reason why they need to choose you over other firms that provide the same legal services.
Your logos, site design, content, and brand voice can all make your law firm more appealing to a chosen audience.
For example, if you’re trying to get clients from a younger demographic, you can write more laid-back blogs with slang and contemporary references. Likewise, you can make your site’s color schemes, design, and content match the more approachable feel.
If you’re appealing to business people who need help in corporate law, you can use a commanding tone, stronger color schemes, and more polished site designs.
Tip #3: Decide On The Look, Tone, And Feel
Now that you have a goal and an audience in mind, you can now apply your brand identity to almost every aspect of your law firm’s marketing strategies.
There are a lot of places you can add a touch of uniqueness to, such as:
- Logos. Choose a law firm logo that best fits your target clientele, brand goal, and chosen aesthetic.
- Tagline. Your tagline should reflect your brand goal and resonate with your target audience. Memorable taglines are a great way to associate your brand with a specific feel and identity. (i.e., Nike’s “Just Do It” or Apple’s “Think Different”)
- Site Design. Decide on the look and feel of your site design. It could be fun, laconic, professional, or intimidating.
- Color Schemes. Like your logo, color schemes can be one of the most recognizable things about your brand. You can put your color scheme anywhere, including on your website, social media posts, email templates, flyers, business cards, and billboards.
- Brand Voice And Tone. You can incorporate your voice and tone in every spoken and written text associated with your law firm. Depending on the tone you want, you can change the phrasing and wording of your social media posts, blogs, emails, and video content.
- Customer Service. How you cater to clients and potential clients can be a brand in itself. You can also incorporate your tone while communicating with users sending you emails and questions.
All these details can help you stand out, no matter how small or minor you think they are. Remember, branding is all about the entire package, so the look and feel of your online presence is equally as important as the content and legal services you provide.
Whether you’re just starting a law firm, new to digital marketing, or doing a complete rebrand, these are crucial factors to consider. If you’re hiring law firm marketing services to help you out, consider pitching in your own ideas to make sure the brand also reflects your law firm and your goals.
Bottomline
There are lots of great law firms out there. Some of them are even more well-known than most. With so many choices, a potential client needs a reason to choose you over the hundred other law firms available to them. You’ll want to speak to your chosen target market, grab their attention, and slowly gain their trust through content and optimizations.
So, make a recognizable brand that’s easy to pick out from the rest of the crop. A memorable law firm branding will be the first thing a potential client remembers, even weeks or months after coming across your website, content, or social media accounts.
Author’s Bio
JC Serrano is the founder of 1000Attorneys.com, one of the very few private enterprises certified to process lawyer referrals by the California State Bar. His marketing strategies have continuously evolved since 2005, incorporating ever-changing SEO strategies into lawyerleadmachine.com.