Law Firm Marketing Agency
Many firms believe that branding starts with choosing a company name and ends with creating a logo. However, a brand involves way more than that. Your brand identity sets the tone of how your firm operates, whether you are a large practice of over 50 attorneys or a small-town solo practitioner. It should reflect your firm’s overarching goals, its messaging, and even its target market.
When your firm makes the conscious decision to rebrand, it may be for a variety of reasons. Maybe you are trying to expand your practice to serve a larger base of clients and need to have a brand that targets a better audience. Or, you may feel that your brand is outdated and does not appeal to today’s market.
Whatever the reason may be, rebranding isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. Take it from us! While rebranding to Omnizant, we’ve learned that the best rebranding strategy requires a few key elements in order to be successful and go as smoothly as possible. A rebrand doesn’t only take time and effort, it also takes commitment and a strong, innovative team.
While rebranding can be an overwhelming and intimidating process, you don’t have to go at it alone. Not only did we just rebrand ourselves, but we have also helped numerous law firms, both big and small, through their own rebranding efforts.
If you have decided to rebrand, and aren’t sure of where to start, keep reading for some tips and considerations to help ensure a successful and effective transition. We are also here to support you if you need expert guidance at any point in the process.
1. Do the Research—Identify Your Firm’s Target Audience and Market
Before putting the work in to choose a new name, or to design a different look, you need to have a firm grasp on your target audience and your market. Gathering data from reviewing your competitors’ websites or collecting opinions from your customer base is just a couple of ways to develop an understanding of exactly what your customers are looking for when selecting a business that provides your services.
Knowing who exactly your original brand appeals to best and who it is competing against are integral parts of developing a successful rebranding strategy. Having the data will help highlight why some potential clients choose a different firm instead of yours and identify your own firm’s needs and long-term goals.
Google Analytics is a valuable tool for identifying your firm’s target demographics. This tool can provide you with insights into who exactly is visiting your website. With Google Analytics, you can have a further understanding of the demographics of your users, including their interests, age, and gender, as well as their geographical location and language. This data can give you an idea of which groups are more likely to convert than others. You can also get an overview of your visitors’ interests as well.
Having this data is extremely useful in identifying what is working and what isn’t working for your brand.
You can also use Google Analytics to identify users that fall into affinity categories and in-market segments. Affinity categories can be used to identify potential clients to see what exactly brought them to your site, and how you can make them more aware of your services and your brand overall. Identifying these users’ interests is key to understanding how you can adapt your brand to appeal to these users to lead them to convert to paying clients.
Users that fall in in-market segments are at a different part of the sales process, where they are more likely to purchase products or services within a specific category. Because users in this category are more likely to purchase your services, you can utilize this data to enhance areas of your original brand that already appeals to some members of your target audience.
Once you identify your audience, you can begin developing a rebranding strategy that will not only connect to your clients but will also give you an advantage over your competitors. If you are considering using tools like Google Analytics to help gather data that is useful for your rebrand, but need help understanding it, refer to our marketing experts at Omnizant to learn more.
2. Establish Your Firm’s Mission, Vision, and Values
Your firm’s mission, vision, and values are at the core of your brand’s messaging. But let’s face it: as time goes on and your firm continues to grow, your message is likely to change. It’s important to establish what you want your new brand to stand for and how you want to communicate this messaging to your clients.
When determining your firm’s messaging, it’s important to ask the following questions: What are we doing? How are we doing it? Why are we doing it? These questions will ultimately help you determine the messaging your brand needs to be effective and the tone your brand will take in its new design, content, and goals.
3. Perform an Audit to Determine What Changes Should Be Made
After determining that you want to change aspects of your business, you have to determine what changes need to be made. Start from the ground up. Look into all aspects of your firm to see what changes need to be made to have a successful rebrand.
Performing an audit can help you strategize a plan of action. Your plan of action should include what wouldn’t be consistent with your new brand, how you would fix it, and when changes will take place. After you have your plan of action, share it with your employees to ensure they understand the changes and why they are taking place, as well as their role in helping those changes take place. Keeping your employees in the loop is vital throughout the entire rebrand process.
4. Revamp Your Name, Logo, and Visual Design
Whether it’s a partial rebrand or a complete overhaul, your name, logo, and overall design help clients recognize who you are. Your name is the most recognizable part of your firm—it’s what your clients first see when they choose you and your services. And, once you change it, your new name will be the first change they notice.
It’s important to choose a name that represents your firm, and it should embody the public image you want to present to your existing and potential clients. Once you have a name you feel represents your firm and what you do, then you can look at other areas that need to change, like your logo and visual design.
Studies show that a well-designed logo and design influence your consumers. In fact, according to web credibility research done by Stanford, around 75 percent of consumers base their judgment of your business’ credibility on your website’s design.
Your website’s name, logo, and design are key elements for your online presence, so it is essential to have this presence consistent with any offline marketing materials, such as your business cards and stationery.
If you have any booklets or brochures associated with your firm as well, they should also be consistent with your new design.
Another important element is keeping your brand’s voice consistent on both your online and offline presence. For example, if you want your firm’s brand to remain approachable, the content and visual design must be consistent throughout. Elements such as tone, imaging, and even the type of font you use all play a role in your firm’s voice. Investing time, energy, and financial resources to cultivate your brand’s voice and tone will, in turn, help cultivate how users view your brand and may, in turn, influence decisions for your brand’s financial and reputational future.
Finding the right voice and visual design that fully represents your firm can be challenging. We have assisted several firms to find which logo and design best fit their practice and their particular needs.
5. Communicate Your New Brand to Your Market and Employees
Once you determine the changes you need, it’s important to make sure that your team understands them and their role in making them happen. Now that you have a new identity, your team members will need to collaborate to reflect it.
Once your team understands its role, set an official launch date and make sure to announce your brand changes to your market. Whether it’s drafting a press release, announcing your new brand on social media, or even on the radio, now is the time to make your new identity known and show that your team is ready to support your firm with the new brand guidelines.
Communicating your identity is also a great opportunity to explain why your firm needed the changes in the first place and what goals you plan to achieve with the new changes.
Keep in mind that there will be several places you would need to update your firms’ name and brand online, including social media. If you have any social media profiles online, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, update any imagery that isn’t consistent with your new brand, and make sure to include any new messaging you have as well.
You would also have to make sure your rebrand is known on your Google My Business listing, along with any other directories as well. To change your existing listing on Google My Business, you have to update your business name, address, and phone number. Once the changes have been made, Google will review your edits before publishing your new listing online. You’ll be notified once the listing is approved.
Ready to Get Started?
Many companies decide to rebrand for various reasons, including major companies like Facebook and Burger King. To adapt to their current goals, Facebook decided to rebrand the parent company as “Meta” to change the company’s focus to the metaverse. Burger King also partially rebranded their logo to their original logo.
Whether you are committing to a partial rebrand or are planning a complete brand overhaul, being honest with yourself, your employees, and above all, your clients are vital for a successful rebrand to take place. If you ever feel stuck somewhere in the process, consider our tips to help you strategize rebuilding your new brand identity. Our team at Omnizant is also prepared to answer any question you may have and are more than happy to guide you through the process.