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June 15, 2022

Your law firm branding guide

Today, people are exposed to brands everywhere, from looking at promo posts when scrolling social media to passing through display advertising on the streets. Even when choosing an advocate, clients are presented with many options. Hence, to make the client want to turn to your legal firm or private practice, you must build a stellar brand to keep your business on track.

Law firm branding is more vital than one might think. But first, let’s highlight the essence of the term “branding” to understand its necessity better. It might seem like branding is the total of design elements, such as the firm’s logo, colors, fonts, and other graphical features. However, branding includes much more than that — it represents the entire identity of your legal business and gives your business a vivid and authentic feel and look.

Today, people are exposed to brands everywhere, from looking at promo posts when scrolling social media to passing through display advertising on the streets. Even when choosing an advocate, clients are presented with many options. Hence, to make the client want to turn to your legal firm or private practice, you must build a stellar brand to keep your business on track.

You’re probably wondering how to build a solid law firm brand to attract more potential clients? We’ve collected some helpful tips for creating a robust law firm marketing strategy:

Create and tell lawyers’ stories

Successful branding doesn’t start with choosing colors and logos but with specialists standing behind the firm’s brand. So people (their characters and experience) are pillars for mastering brand awareness. One great experience cooperating with one of your firm’s lawyers can raise the whole company’s reputation in the client’s eyes. And each time a person thinks about a law firm’s brand, they will immediately recall the thoughts of that positive interaction.

Since brands are designed to evoke certain emotions in consumers, pay attention to how you interact with clients and what emotions your law firm strives to produce. After all, a brand is about feelings.

Storytelling helps you stand ahead of the competition

Good storytelling can boost conversion rates by 30%. Storytelling connects clients with your law firm’s core values. To ensure higher client retention, write and publish personal narratives of lawyers and attorneys, place them on a website or social media, and consider the context people would most remember. Professionally written stories help improve client engagement and website conversions.

Compelling stories introduced most naturally, such as previous case negotiations, challenges, successes, and victories, show what kind of person you are, what you offer, and how you can help clients solve their issues. This way, you attract clients more effectively than with facts and figures. It’s like putting yourself in clients’ shoes and delivering what they want to hear and what boosts their confidence and trust in your firm.

Also, consider what aspect of your personality and experience might be relevant to clients. For example, an estate attorney with years of experience drafting legal wishes and documents might share that expertise with the audience.

Don’t overlook the power of a law firm’s website.

This is where the first client’s impression emerges. It will be a professionally-crafted website if we think of one single means that can significantly impact your law firm’s performance. Hence, you must ensure your website conveys your company’s vision accurately, works quickly, and the content is coherent and well organized; otherwise, it will be a waste of time and money. Use the following guidelines to ensure your website content leads to desired marketing results:

Structure content for easy scanning

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, 79% of test users constantly scanned any new web page they encountered and grabbed some words and phrases on the fly; only 16% read word-by-word. Nielsen Norman suggests formatting your content so visitors can easily crawl your site and share the information representing your firm’s values. Here are some of the most reasonable formatting methods for making scannable texts:

• Compose attractive headlines and meaningful subheadings;

• Use bulleted lists;

• Highlight keywords or phrases (bold, hyperlinks);

• Use concise wording;

• Keep one idea per paragraph (include keywords in the first paragraph’s lines)

• Include graphs to split heavy blocks of text;

• Diversify content through the use of images, infographics, and videos.

Tip: Avoid writing introductory paragraphs that might be downright confusing. Instead, create your conclusion and provide information proving this statement, encouraging visitors to scan your site further.

Make your website a worthwhile investment in your law firm’s success with the vast experience of the Smotrow Design studio.

Create a client persona

How well can you determine your prospective clients’ values and pain points? If so, this will equip you with the necessary data to better market your legal services and identify any red flags on time. If not, you should create a client persona to tighten your marketing efforts.

What is a client persona? In a nutshell, it portrays the ideal client a lawyer expects to serve, including their demographics, background, objectives, challenges, and pain points so that you can align your client’s goals, needs, and pain points with the legal services you offer.

It is worth creating several personas: one client persona per each service you offer, and not necessarily you should do it alone. You can brainstorm ideas with your colleagues, clients, or marketing staff. As a result, everything from your website content to how you communicate your services will better match clients’ expectations and feel more personal to them.

Clarify your law firm’s unique selling point

In today’s competitive legal landscape, you must set your legal practice apart from the competition to stay among industry leaders. That means having a clear brand promise and expectations to attract potential clients. Your law firm should develop a unique selling point (USP) that illustrates the essence of your legal business and distinct qualities that alienate your approach from competitors.‌ Consider these tips to determine your law firm’s USP:

Make your USP in line with the existing caseload of your legal firm. Think of what types of cases you’re specialized in and what issues you can potentially handle in the future.

Take a closer look at your competitors. Before determining what differentiates your law firm, you should analyze how your competitors perform, their strong and weak sides, and what aspects of your practice you should focus on to outperform your competitors.

Involve possible solutions to your client’s concerns. Common bottlenecks might include high costs for legal services, covering sensitive issues, and the need for a prompt resolution to a complex legal case.

Show how experienced your legal staff is. If your firm lacks accurate descriptions of staff’s strengths and methodologies, you risk attracting clients who are not the right fit for your law firm type.

Summing up

Creating a solid legal brand is the foundation upon which clients will perceive you as a professional in the legal space. After all, successful legal branding makes your clients pick up a phone and call your firm after visiting a website or reading creative lawyers’ stories that relate to their expectations and values.

We’ve gathered a few valuable resources that will kick start your company’s marketing efforts as well as help you create an effective law firm’s reputation:

Digital marketing tips for law firms →

How a professional website helps law firms earn more money, attract clients and increase trust →

Tips on how to improve law firm efficiency →

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Elena Ivanenko

Author, Content Creator at Jusnote