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Start a Conversation with GAVLAt some level, we are all intimately familiar with the concept of branding when it comes to marketing. Nike’s “swoosh” symbol and their slogan of “Just do it.” A certain burger chain’s golden arches. Branding is everywhere we look in society. It’s the graphics, icons, colors, shapes, symbols, slogans, and familiar jingles that are all over ads and billboards and everywhere we look on the street, on our phones, and on the highway. Branding makes us think about that pizza before we drive by the pizza place. It makes us plan to order from our favorite coffee chain before we’re awake enough to stumble out of bed. Branding, in short, makes us think about products and/or businesses in advance.
“Top of mind” is the term often used to describe the impact that branding has on us. Our favorite drinks and foods stay “top of mind” when we’re browsing the aisles of a grocery store. Similarly, products that we’ve recently seen compelling ads for and are curious to try may fight for that “top of mind” space. We may end up buying some of those items or even all of them. This is the effectiveness of branding at work.
Branding isn’t just reserved for products, either. Businesses that provide services, like banks, for instance, and even law firms, utilize branding to help folks remember their business during their times of need. While no one may ever want to hire a lawyer and go through the process of filing a lawsuit after a serious injury, they may decide to hire a certain lawyer over another when that unfortunate injury occurs because they’ve heard about a case that lawyer has settled or have had recommendations for that lawyer from friends. This is another example of the concept of remaining “top of mind” for the sake of branding. After a car accident, a family member of someone who’s injured may realize they should call an attorney, but aren’t sure who to call. The first lawyers they may reach out to might be the ones they’ve had recommended to them or that they have seen on commercials often.
How to Approach Branding as a Lawyer
Building a strong level of branding as an attorney can be complex. You need to strike that fine balance of wanting potential clients to know your name, recognize your name, and reach out to you when they need an attorney, but at the same time, you don’t want to come across as pushy. Again, no one enjoys having to hire a lawyer. You can’t market a law firm like you would a hamburger, and frankly, this is something that many marketing agencies don’t understand. No one likes an attorney who comes across like an ambulance chaser. Your goals should be to remain top of mind for those in need of your services without coming across as desperate for their services.
Here are some tips to build up your brand as an attorney:
Let the Reviews Flow
Make sure you’re taking advantage of reviews. Make sure you have a Google Business Profile up and running (and that it’s accurate!) and have your clients leave a review if you know they’re satisfied with their results. Good reviews look good everywhere, from your website to social media as well as to everyone who looks you up online. Need some tips on getting more reviews? We’ve got you covered.
Utilize Social Media
Everyone uses social media to keep in touch with long lost relatives and look at cute cat pics, but social media can be effective for making your online presence more apparent as an attorney as well. Successes look great on social media in the form of reviews, but also in the form of client stories. Talk about what you enjoy doing to give back to your community as a lawyer. Share stories from your clients. Become engaged with your local legal community. Talk about charities you give back to. If you become known in your community, that’s step #1 to becoming top of mind.
Use Multiple Platforms
Make sure you have a website and it’s as good as it can be (we can help with that too!). Use social media and other digital platforms. As far as ads go, it’s smart to take a broad approach. Digital ads are great for building brand awareness because so many searches take place on phones, PCs, and other mobile devices. If someone is looking up information about a potential claim they have, that’s an ideal time for them to see an ad for a lawyer that’s local to them. Video ads are seeing an incredible uptick in popularity. Remember to keep any ads simple. Showcase your face, your logo, and your basic information about how you can help. Mainstream advertising is still a valid approach as well. It’s often better to diversify than to use the same tactics over and over that don’t always yield results.
Keep Branding Consistent
It’s important to keep your branding consistent across channels. Our golden arches example from earlier only works because we all get the same image in our heads when we imagine those arches. Invest in a good logo for your law firm, keep colors consistent, and invest in a good designer or design team who can match your branding between your website, social media, ads, signage, and any other elements you want to make use of such as physical ads, stationary, swag, etc. The more familiar your photos and logos are, the longer you’ll stay in the heads of those who see your signage and marketing materials.
Take Many Photos
Invest in professional photography. This is one of the things we stress over and over again to new clients. People remember faces. People remember a good headshot photo. Hire a professional photographer, get good headshots of everyone working at your firm, and make sure to get good office photos as well. Action shots are also incredibly useful. Get shots of your lawyers well, lawyering. People remember details like this whether they’re looking at your website, your Google Business Profile, or your latest paid ad. Presentation matters.
Test What Works
Don’t be afraid to try different approaches when it comes to building brand awareness. See what works and what doesn’t. Just remember to keep your messages simple and professional and keep your photography prominent. It’s also a good idea to avoid gimmicks. You want your potential clients to trust you. Transparency speaks above gimmicks.
Branding from an SEO and LLM Perspective
One of the largest driving forces in having a strong online presence as an attorney or law firm is, of course, search engine optimization (SEO). This is what powers when your name shows up to anyone who looks you up on Google or via other search engines/search LLMs. Due to the prominence of LLMs and AI search engines these days, we are seeing a huge explosion in the importance of brand awareness.
What does this mean exactly? It means that you need an online presence to be seen as on online presence. If you don’t have social media accounts, never post blogs, never appear in newspaper articles that are featured online, don’t feature your reviews online, and don’t ask your clients to write reviews, there’s a great chance you’ll have a difficult time being found highly-ranked on Google if someone searches for an attorney near them.
It only makes sense when you think about it. When someone searches for “good personal injury lawyer near me”, how does Google know how to recommend one lawyer over another? How does ChatGPT know what a “good” lawyer means? Both platforms and those similar to them can only provide answers based on the data they have to work with. In both cases, that data exists digitally. It exists in your reviews, on your website, in interviews you’ve been a part of, in papers you’ve written, in podcasts you’ve appeared on, and in social media posts that you’ve created.
The term “good” here implies that a good lawyer is successful. A good lawyer has positive reviews. Newspapers and other outlets talk about them positively. Others in the legal community talk about them positively. The community itself views that lawyer in a positive light. What do all of these things have in common? They all have to do with branding. The more positive you’re seen online, the more positively you’ll appear online, and this means your firm will appear in front of others more often when they’re searching online.
This “ability to be seen” factor is what has always driven SEO, but now it’s more integral than ever. Law firm SEO strategies have always revolved around building up the firm’s brand and making sure that the firm and its lawyers had an online presence, but we used to mostly rely on keywords that were related to the practice areas the firm focused on. Those keywords are still important and we still use them, but we’re finding that more and more, brand mentions are becoming more important because they tell the ultimate story of visibility.
And what is a brand mention, exactly? It’s everything we’ve talked about. It’s having a social media presence. It’s being featured positively in online editorials and news outlets. It’s having positive reviews. It’s being featured in your community helping others.
“How many successful cases does this lawyer have? Are these lawyers good people? How are they giving back to their communities?”
These are the questions potential clients have. These are the types of questions branding helps answer.
To learn more about branding and how our services can help get you the visibility you need, don’t hesitate to reach out to GAVL. We’re experienced in helping lawyers just like you learn to navigate marketing challenges and conquer them one step at a time.
