Marketing Your Law Firm With a Cohesive Visual Identity
Every law firm needs a visual identity, or is it a corporate identity or brand identity?
The terms tend to be used interchangeably. However, for this blog, we’ll use the term visual identity.
Visual identity is all the graphic information and imagery that expresses what your brand is and differentiates it from all others. Put simply, it describes everything clients can see.
No matter what term you’ve heard, it is crucial to have a cohesive visual identity when marketing your law firm.
What is a visual identity?
A visual identity is a combination of several graphic and visual elements that, together, create an atmosphere and helps define the personality of your brand. Typically this is achieved through a combination of colours, graphics, imagery, and t of course, your logo.
For many law firms, their visual identity is the window into their firm, and it becomes the distinguishing mark of who you are for your client’s and prospective clients.
A visual identity is not as complex as branding, but a solid and cohesive visual identity plays a massive role in your brand strategy.
Why is visual identity important?
Visual identity is not something that you can throw together in a few hours. There are countless reasons why it is crucial to emphasise the importance of creating a recognisable and cohesive visual identity for your law firm.
Here are four of our top reasons to fully commit to a carefully considered visual identity.
Easily recognisable
Ensuring your clients recognise your brand helps create brand awareness and loyalty. It also helps audiences recognise specific attributes and associate them with your law firm.
Ensures your brand will stand out from competitors
Visual identity helps create a real stand out for your law firm amid other firms offering the same services.
Deliver your USP
Your USP is delivered in multiple ways, including your business model, client services, digital presence, and visual branding.
Delivering your USP effectively through your visual identity means you’re attracting and reaching your ideal target audience.
Communicate your values
Your visual identity can showcase your beliefs and values as much as any mission statement. The imagery speaks far louder than words.
What aspects make up a visual identity for your law firm?
We’ve established what a visual identity is and its benefits, but now let us discuss what exactly encompasses your visual identity.
Colour
Your law firm’s colour palette is crucial to your entire brand. Colours can influence emotions and behaviours.
And you don’t choose only one, but typically you’ll choose a corporate colour palette with a range of secondary, accent colours.
Logo
There is an assumption that your law firm’s logo is the most essential part of your visual identity. We might disagree but it’s certainly important and forms a central part of your overall identity. As such, it should be designed by experts, not the result of a well-meaning in-house competition (yes we’ve come across this approach in the past)!
Images and Graphics
In today’s digital era full of social media posts, emails, and online adverts, your law firm’s graphics and imagery need to be well-researched, relevant and original to really support your marketing campaigns.
Typeface
Fonts, typography, typeface – whatever term you’ve heard, your typeface is something that will influence your audience. Don’t underestimate its importance in helping establish your firm’s personality and identity.
Remember, your chosen typeface will appear everywhere…on your website, letterheads, business cards, presentations, webinars, brochures, and emails.
Implementing your Visual Identity
Once you’ve agreed on all the components of your visual identity, you will need to think about creating a set of brand guidelines to provide essential guidance on how to correctly deploy and use the visual identity.
And finally, one of the best ways to ensure those guidelines are followed correctly is to think about investing in a brand guardianship programme.
Talk to us today if you’re struggling to cohesively present your brand and visual identity across multiple platforms, countless offices and different locations.