Building My Brand

November 25, 2021

When I first started my law firm, I had to think a lot about what I wanted my "brand" to be. What values do I want to uphold? What mission statement should I use? How do I create a perfect logo? Here is what I did to create my law firm's brand. 

1. Create Your Logo 

Before I did anything else, the first thing I did was create my logo. If you want to create your logo yourself, I suggest using Canva. They have lots of templates that can help you with your design. Personally, I wanted someone to help me create my logo, so I used LogoPerfecto. They gathered information from me, sent me drafts, and helped me narrow down the options until I was satisfied. It took a while, but I was very pleased with the results. 

2. Choose Your Slogan & Values

The next thing I did was create my slogan and select my values. I thought a lot about this and eventually came up with something. The slogan I came up with is "I carry the load so you don't have to." My values are compassion, integrity, and reliability. I would think hard about what you want your firm to stand for while debating your options. 

3. Create Branding Items

Once I had my logo, slogan, and values, I needed to create some branding items. You can do this yourself or you can pay someone else to do it. I did a mix of the two. The package I purchased from LogoPerfecto included some basic materials, including a business card design and letterhead. However, I wasn't completely satisfied, so I asked my friend to help create some better designs. Since then, I have tweaked things as I needed to. Some branding items you might want to design include business cards, return address labels, social media banners, letterhead, and a logo with your address. 

4. Create Your Email Signature

After that, I needed to create my email signature. In my email signature, I included my information, my firm's information, my firm's logo, my Texas Pro Bono College logo, my Texas Bar College logo, my Calendly scheduling link, and my confidentiality statement. I drafted this all in word, saved it as a pdf, then saved it as an image. I then pasted the image into my outlook automatic signature settings. 

5. Create Your Website

The biggest hassle in creating my brand was designing my website. I initially tried to do it myself, but I needed some help, so my friend spent some time jazzing up the design. After that, my website underwent many renditions. I slowly added tabs, resources, downloads, and eventually a blog. It's important to remember that your website doesn't have to be perfect when you initially publish it. You can publish a basic page, then spend time vamping it up. 

6. Create Social Media Profiles

I then needed to create my social media profiles. I set up my firm with a Facebook page, LinkedIn page, Twitter account, and an Instagram account. I also created a Yelp page and a Google My Business page. Then I went even further and set up some accounts on Avvo, Justia, and Nolo. I suggest taking advantage of all the social media options in order to stay relevant. For instance, something I haven't done yet is make a Tik Tok account or create a YouTube Channel. These are the next steps I need to take in order to bring my law firm into 2021. 

7. Purchase Marketing Items 

Next, I decide to spend a little bit of money and purchase some marketing items. Some items I purchased included pens, mugs, notepads, and sweatshirts. It was important to me to have a few little items with my firm logo on it, to make me feel official. 

8. Blogging & Newsletters

Some additional things you can do to build your brand is begin blogging and sending newsletters to subscribers. So far, I have published a variety of blog posts and downloads for clientele. The next thing I need to work on is creating a newsletter each month to send to my subscribers. 

I hope that sharing my experience with you can help you in your endeavors. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any new posts!