Very few law firms have clearly constructed and document brand identities, and consequently they find it near impossible to communicate a clear message that differentiates them from their competition. The messaging instead tends to be too safe and generic, and above all attempts to speak to absolutely everybody, meaning that in reality it communicates to nobody.

The main thing to therefore consider is who is it that truly represents your core audience. Of course you can offer your legal services to everyone, but who represents your absolutely ideal client, because this is the audience you need to taylor your message to. Forget everyone else.

For example, it may be that your law firm really excels in working with owner managed businesses. By establishing this fact, you can then begin to craft a message that really resonates with that audience. Of course I would encourage you to conduct your own research, but my personal experience has shown that most business owners tend to look for the following two things when selecting their solicitors:

• Commerciality – this is the number one thing that they care about the most. They are not interested in your expertise, but what your expertise will mean for them commercially. Are you able to articulate the monetary value your input will represent? This focus on the bottom line needs to be woven into every sentence of sales and marketing copy.
• Sector expertise – the other thing that they tend to really value is an understanding for their world. Can you talk the language of law firms and appreciate the opportunities and pitfalls of their industry? This sector insight is particularly important on the website, so you must consider how the navigation is broken up into sector (ideally no more than 8) and ensure that you demonstrate your sector expertise on each of these pages, by listing those solicitors who specialise with these kind of companies and testimonials from brands that you have worked with inside those sectors.

Once you have clearly defined your audience you then need to create a content strategy around it. For example, if a key sector for your law firm is the financial sector, then you would want to develop a content framework that engaged people in that industry. You might have a pillar on financial strategy, for example, or on industry trends. You would then need to engage with experts in those fields to capture their insight.

Once you have this content and the relationships with these key experts, you will find your social media activity all but handles itself. You will have amazing content that genuinely engages your target audience and enables you to build a real community for your law firm in a way that your competitors could only dream of.

The final channel worth mentioning for law firms is the search engines, as that’s where the majority of customers will begin their research phase. As a general rule you have two options:

• Either focus on owning a large part of the local legal search market
• Or target industry niches on a national basis

Whichever you choose, you need to ensure that you create as many rich landing pages as possible that target specific key phrases (whether geographical or industry) and ensure they contain as much detail as possible, with information such as:

• Address and google map integration
• Customer testimonials
• Service details
• FAQ’s
• Details of the experts within that particular department

Not only will this rich detail improve the user experience and conversion rate, but will also have a significant impact on your Google rankings. You can also ensure that the content is appropriately marked up via Google’s search console so that the search engine can easily interpret the content.

However, these rich landing pages will only be taken seriously if the domain is able to demonstrate it is a trusted brand that adds value to its audience, which is precisely why the brand identity and content strategy (including social media) is so important as outlined above.