Branding your Law Firm
Information and Strategies to Promote your Law Firm
Essential Guide to Law Firm Marketing
By Margaret Grisdela, Legal Expert Connections, Inc.
- Focus your practice in specialized areas for sharper recognition
- Create a distinctive theme, characterized by a logo and accompanying tagline
- Select clients who will reinforce your brand image
- Maintain high visibility in your marketplace through personal appearances, publishing opportunities, advertising and sponsorships
- Build your brand into all promotional materials
- Cross-sell and Up-sell More Legal Services New!
- Measure Your Clients' Satisfaction New!
- Overview of the U.S. Legal Market
- Business Development Imperative
- Growing Your Practice
- Pick a Niche for Your Law Practice
- Know your Competition
- Branding your Law Firm
- Key Elements of a Successful Internet Marketing Campaign
The American Marketing Association defines "brand" as:
"A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name."
This barely begins to tell the story in today’s competitive legal environment. Reputation and recognition play a significant role in branding. Law firm branding answers the question, "What are we known for?" according to a 2000 article published by the legal consulting firm Altman Weil.
"Brand awareness" is a prized possession, frequently achieved only after expensive advertising campaigns. The physical expression of a brand is in the combined impact of a firm’s logo, tagline, web site, brochures and other promotional pieces.
Brand building campaigns can be orchestrated through large scale advertising and marketing budgets. They can also be incrementally achieved over the longer term through the delivery of high quality services by a professional legal team that operates in a customer-oriented environment.
Here are five simple ways you can build your brand, whether you are a sole practitioner or a partner with an international firm:
As you seek to achieve a state of brand recognition and once you arrive, promote your brand professionally and endlessly to reinforce your market position.
Obviously you will want to seek trademarks and service marks as appropriate to protect your position.
CLIENT Rainmaking is a continuous process built on a few simple steps that you can easily implement within your own firm. Now we can move on to learn more rainmaking fundamentals. Read our other articles at www.hg.org and check back frequently for new law firm marketing information
About the Author: Margaret Grisdela is the Founder and President of Legal Expert Connections, Inc., a legal marketing firm specializing in marketing and business development in the legal and litigation support markets. You can reach her at mg@legalexpertconnections.com.
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By Margaret Grisdela, Legal Expert Connections, Inc.
HG.org is hosting this new series of excerpts from the book “Courting your Clients": The Essential Guide to Legal Marketing,” scheduled for release in May 2007.
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