Establishing a brand is imperative for developing a successful law firm. A brand includes everything from your logo to your firm’s brand voice. The array of visual markers within a brand helps to communicate your purpose, values, and morals to the public. Below is a list of suggestions for navigating the challenging but crucial process of creating and maintaining a brand.
The DOs of Branding
- Maintain Brand Consistency
- The most useful tool to achieve this is a brand guidebook. These guidelines define the standard uses and flexibility of your law firm’s brand. By organizing it into one continuous document, the guidebook provides a necessary reference for your team members as well as your clients.
- Intracompany Brand Identity Awareness
- This is a complicated way to say – make sure everyone at your firm is familiar with the rules established in your brand guidelines. For example, it is important that when a member of your team is creating a client presentation, it uses the color palette and design style of your brand. Failing to do this makes your firm appear apathetic and undependable.
- Focus on Providing Value on Social Media
- The content on your social media accounts should extend beyond the service your law firm can provide. Users on social media platforms want to see engaging and entertaining content that provide value to their lives.
The DON’Ts of branding
- Obsess Over Your Competitors
- While it is important to keep up with the trends in the legal industry, don’t get too caught up in what other firms are doing. This may cause your firm to forget or stray away from your own branding goals and values. Also, promoting a unique style will accelerate your firm above its competitors.
- Be Afraid to Make Brand Improvements
- Adjusting elements of your brand identity is a potential strategy for improving the success of your law firm. If data collected over an extended period indicates that your branding has a low engagement rate, you may consider making small branding improvements.
- Bombard Social Following With Sales Messages
- Social Media Specialist Virginia Van Kampen emphasizes that “people do not log in to their social media account with hopes of being bombarded with constant sales messages about your business. They WILL tune out your posts, or just unfollow you altogether”. Dedicate your paid media to selling your service, not your social media.
Conclusion
A law firm’s brand identity is key to communicating your values and capabilities to a broad audience. Dedicating time and attention to establishing strong brand guidelines will help your law firm outshine your competitors and leave a memorable impression on potential clients. Here is a review of the DOs and DON’Ts of branding:
- DO
- Maintain Brand Consistency
- Intracompany Brand Identity Awareness
- Focus on Providing Value on Social Media
- DON’T
- Obsess Over Your Competitors
- Be Afraid to Make Brand Improvements
- Bombard Social Following With Sales Messages
References:
Read the references for this article to learn more about these branding suggestions and more.