What attracts potential clients to your firm over your competition? What thoughts and feelings do you want to evoke when others hear or see your firm’s name? What type of clients do you want to attract and resonate with?

These are the questions you need to consider when developing your firm’s brand. Your brand personality is what will help your firm stand out in a sea of legal options.

What is Law Firm Branding?

Think about your favorite product. What are some characteristics you associate with that brand? Whether you realize it or not, the thoughts evoked when thinking about that product are not an accident.

Developing a brand personality doesn’t just happen. Companies, including law firms, take deliberate actions to build brands.

While you’re not selling a tangible product, you still want people to associate your firm with well-defined characteristics and values.

Branding is an intangible communication between your firm and prospective and current clients. Your brand expresses your firm’s mission and values and represents who you are as an entity providing legal services.

The Benefits of Strong Branding

With the help of visual images and design, a strong branding strategy can communicate what makes your firm worth choosing over your competition.

Having the right legal branding strategy in place will help with firm recognition, communicate values and strengths, and illustrate your firm’s field of law.

Law Firm Brand vs. Brand Reputation

Your firm’s reputation and branding are closely linked. However, they are not the same thing.

The reputation of your firm is the result of what you have accomplished. Think of your firm’s reputation as a measure of your past success.

On the other hand, your firm’s brand is the tone that sets client expectations. Your firm’s personality and values are expressed through your brand.

Creating a Unique Brand for Your Firm

The process of creating a brand for your firm takes intention and time. The first step in creating a brand identity for your law firm is developing your brand voice.

Your brand voice is how you speak to your audience and requires defining the tone, diction, and syntax of your communications.

To determine your firm’s brand voice, consider the following:

-What characteristics do you want clients to associate with your firm?

-What keywords do you want to represent your brand?

-What impression does your brand give to others?

How is Your Law Firm Different?

When developing your brand identity, take some time to really consider how your brand is different from your competition. Identifying your firm’s unique attributes is an excellent place to start.

Your individuality is what clients can’t get from another firm. Telling your personal story can illustrate your compassion and humble beginnings and explain why you do what you do.

Sharing the history of your firm and the journey that led you to where you are is a great way to establish authenticity and trust.

Streamline Your Messaging

Once you have defined your brand voice, it’s critical to remain consistent across all platforms. Whether sharing a Twitter post, writing a blog for your website, or responding to a Google review, you must use the same voice in every communication.

This is important to remember when developing your brand voice. In order for your brand to be recognizable and represent your values, your audience must be considered when developing your brand. If your goal is to establish trust with your audience, you need to communicate in ways they will understand.

This does not mean dumbing down the language you use but instead aligning your message with your potential client’s expectations.

Actionable Steps to Build Your Brand

Developing a brand personality doesn’t just happen. While having a logo was once enough to define a band, that is no longer the case. Your logo is a visual component of your brand that can be used as a tool for recognition, but your logo is not your brand.

Use the following steps as a starting point for building your firm’s brand personality.

Establish a Strong Color Scheme

Colors can be used to elicit an emotional response. Visual elements are an integral part of branding, and using the right colors can assist in the storytelling of your brand.

Choose a color scheme that reflects your firm’s voice. Do a little research about color theory and emotional responses. Specific colors have been found to elicit trustworthiness; use this to your advantage.

Consider Live Chat

Building trust is a process. Offering live chat on your website is a great way to build trust with potential clients. Services such as live chat signal that your firm is accessible and allows clients to start a dialogue with your firm.

Get on Social Media

Social media is one of the best tools you have at your disposal for establishing your law firm’s brand voice. Use a variety of different platforms to post about your firm and engage with your audience.

Social media lets you get to know your potential clients and their needs. You can also use social platforms to drive your audience to your website, so stay active and post regularly.

Why Your Firm Needs a Brand

Your firm’s brand personality is a representation of who you are as an attorney and what your firm stands for. Your brand identity expresses what clients can expect when interacting with your firm.

Developing a unique brand personality helps your firm stand out from competitors and highlights your uniqueness. Brand trust isn’t freely given; you must earn the trust of clients and prospects by demonstrating your values through a reliable brand voice.

As one of the most important components of building a brand, trust establishes your credibility and your authoritative voice in the area of law in which your firm specializes.

People are more willing to pay for brands they trust. Establishing a brand personality for your firm has the power to grow your practice as you attract prospective clients.

A strong and trustworthy brand voice takes time and intention to develop, but can serve you long into the future. Once you lay the foundation with a brand identity, your marketing strategy can be easily maintained to reflect your firm.