12 Brand Recognition Strategies for Legal Practices

If a legal practice can highlight how it’s making a difference in society, that can help with brand recognition. ~ Jibran Qazi, MCPD

---

What is one good brand recognition strategy for legal practices?

To help you get your legal practice well-recognized, we asked legal professionals and marketing leaders this question for their best strategies. From using social proof in your marketing to highlighting a social issue related to your practice, there are several strategies that legal practitioners may adopt to best sell their brand and stand out among their peers.

Here are 12 brand recognition strategies for legal practices:

• Use Social Proof in Your Marketing
• Choose a Niche and Establish Authority
• Create a Slogan and a Corporate Image for Your Law Firm
• Establish Yourself and Your Firm as an Industry Thought Leader
• Create and Claim All Business Listings
• Use the Faces of Your Company Leaders in Advertisements
• Identify With Your Clientele and Appeal to Their Emotions
• Create Shareable Content
• Go On Air
• Network and Build Relationships With Other Professionals
• Offer Support to a Respected Charity or Local Business Association
• Highlight a Social Issue Related to Your Practice

Use Social Proof in Your Marketing

Incorporate social proof in your online marketing strategies to increase brand discovery and recognition. Share your customers’ reviews and testimonials on your social media pages, as well as on your website. Social proof of how well you work with other clients convinces potential customers to give your legal practice a try.

Encouraging your customers to post honest online reviews is also a great way of facilitating user-driven marketing, where your customers are the ones marketing your brand on your behalf. Social proof is more organic, relatable and compelling compared to other forms of marketing and brand recognition strategies.

Joe Flanagan, 90s Fashion World

Choose a Niche and Establish Authority

There are plenty of law firms out there that have great lawyers, several years of experience, and can hold their own when it comes to roughing it out at court. But despite these strengths, only a handful of them can lay claim to impressive wins. In this highly competitive industry that is the legal practice, there is no doubt that high-profile cases and emphatic wins lead to an impactful brand strategy. So even when it comes to brand recognition, the way forward is to establish authority in a thoughtfully chosen niche and proclaim each win so that it gains maximum traction and attention in the industry.

Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.

Create a Slogan and a Corporate Image for Your Law Firm

Each company or brand has its own personality and must stand out from the rest and for this, the corporate image is essential, because it must serve, not only so that your potential clients know you and identify with your values, but also to differentiate you from the rest. competition.

You may be wondering: “Is the corporate image the logo?” Yes, but not only that, the corporate image is made up of many more things: your corporate colors, your fonts, your presence and image on Social Networks. And it is not only made up of graphic elements, but also of things that affect your own personality: the way you dress, express yourself, speak, and communicate with your clients and colleagues. And along with all these graphic elements, you can create a slogan that supports them and helps communicate your brand.

Ilija Sekulov, Mailbutler

Establish Yourself and Your Firm as an Industry Thought Leader

Establishing yourself and your firm as an industry thought leader not only gives your firm credibility, but it also helps to increase your online presence. This in turn makes your brand more recognizable because people are seeing your expertise and knowledge rather than just online ads. You can publish informative articles on your own blog or find sites to guest post, and you can also look to become a source who’s quoted in articles as well. All of these things help to raise brand awareness for your firm and position you as a leader in your industry.

Mark Pierce, Cloud Peak Law Group

Create and Claim All Business Listings

Ensure you have full control over all your business listings across the internet. The most popular sites you should check are Google, Yelp, Yellowpages, Yahoo, and Bing. You want to make sure your business information matches up across all these platforms, including the official name, contact information, and how you market yourself.

David Aylor, David Aylor Law Offices

Use the Faces of Your Company Leaders in Advertisements

Legal practices have a large market; everyone. At one time or another, in most people’s lives, they will need the services of a legal practice. Most people never need an attorney for anything criminal-related. In fact, most people use attorneys for things like writing a living will, civil cases, or assisting in obtaining the correct permits in a municipality. So standing out to everyone can be hard. That’s why using a face can make a significant impact. 

Using the lead partner’s face or faces in advertisements is an excellent way to build brand recognition. Too many firms look and sound the same, and it can confuse people. But, humans connect with faces and they remember them. Much more than a name. So, if building brand recognition for your legal practice is a priority, consider some professional headshots for your advertisements. Better yet, a commercial starring the partner(s)! 

Jeffrey Zhou, Fig Loans

Identify With Your Clientele and Appeal to Their Emotions

If you want to resonate with the right clientele – the kinds of clients you want to represent – you need to know how to appeal to their emotions. The important part to keep in mind is that you have to share their values and intentions, otherwise you come off manipulative.

At our firm, we have a diverse team of attorneys and administrators – starting at the top. Our personnel reflect the diversity of our community in Southern California. Roughly 90% of our workforce is bilingual. Our founders are African-American and Jewish-Iranian, respectively, and our attorneys are active in the local Black, Jewish, Latino, and Middle-Eastern communities. We walk the walk when it comes to diversity and we are honored to represent those who have been marginalized and oppressed and we work tirelessly to attain the highest compensation for them. We have built an iron-clad brand as an empathetic, professional law firm.

Alan Ahdoot, Adamson Ahdoot Law

Create Shareable Content

One of the best ways for legal practices to gain brand recognition is by sharing their knowledge and expertise with the world and giving advice through shareable content. By offering a course or creating short videos or tips that explains how to deal with certain situations, step-by-step guides for filing a lawsuit or tips to ensure you’re rights are protected, how to choose a relevant lawyer for your case, or even how to find out what your rights are this will build trust, create shareable content that will be spread, saved and create brand awareness and recognition for your legal practices.

Jordan Fabel, ApprovedCourse

Go on Air

Reach out to journalists and offer to share legal insights when it suits their topics. Local and national news programs often include legal commentators to enhance their discussions concerning criminal, family, and social media law. Sharing your insights on TV, radio, and podcasts demonstrates your legal expertise to a broad audience. This not only serves to brand recognition but can also attract potential clients.

Maria Shriver, MOSH

Network and Build Relationships With Other Professionals

One good brand recognition strategy for legal practices is to focus on building relationships with other lawyers and professionals within the legal community. This will help you get your name out there, and enable you to generate client referrals from within your network quickly and cost-effectively.

Michael Green, Quick Cash Homebuyers

Offer Support to a Respected Charity or Local Business Association

Offer support (financial or pro bono) to a respected charity or the local business association (e.g. chamber of commerce) to put your lawyers and your brand in front of people in context with the kind of work you do, and in association with a respected brand. You get the recognition of doing the work, and you also get the halo effect of another’s good brand position.

Be sure to work with the other company/organization to do respectful and appropriate content marketing, e.g. share on social media, promote to their email list, speak at their events, host a table of their fundraiser, etc.

Stephanie Miller, Victory Song Marketing Consulting

Highlight a Social Issue Related to Your Practice

The legal field interconnects with several important social issues. Legal practices often specialize in one particular area of law such as employment discrimination or criminal defense. If a legal practice can highlight how it’s making a difference in society, that can help with brand recognition. For example, a law firm that deals with employment discrimination can show how they prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). They can uplift the voices of their staff and clients on their website, social media, and more. 

People will begin to associate the brand with innovation and social change. It’ll put the legal practice in a positive light by showing the necessary steps it took to reach the point of being a driver of social justice. Partners can regularly speak openly on these issues on social media to create a dialogue, position themselves as thought leaders, and bring more people to seek out legal services from the firm.

Jibran Qazi, MCPD

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.