“Your brand story is the message that creates a powerful emotional connection between your company, customers and the general public”
Introduction
When promoting your business, audiences are much more inclined to connect with a good story than a good product. Nowadays, customers are attracted to brands they can relate to and that interest them. In other words- brands with a great narrative to tell. In order to brand a law firm properly, you need to create a brand story.
Brand story for a law firm is the narrative of your company and an important part of your brand identity. It represents who you are and what you stand for. It sets the stage for interactions customers have with your brand. Hence, a good brand story should encompass the values and ideals your brand represents. Furthermore, it should humanize your business, making sure people can connect with it.
Great brand stories allow smaller retailers to attract new customers, even without a big marketing budget. By telling a story and connecting with the reader, a storyteller can actually generate trust in the reader. That story is important because it resonates with your employees and with customers. That way it cultivates a community of brand advocates who stand behind and support your story.
Before you begin, keep in mind that you’ll eventually want to create your own website, content and other marketing assets. That way you can provide a home for your brand’s story and a place for people to interact with it.
However, the reality is that you have 6 seconds to tell your brand story and make a connection with your customer. A short opportunity to give your customers reason to care and to want to learn more about your offer. Therefore, your message needs to communicate simplicity, clarity and alignment.
In short, a great brand story should be:
- Meaningful
- Personal
- Emotional
- Simple
- Authentic
To start, here are the top five guidelines to create a compelling brand story:
1. Determine Your Why
When writing a brand story for a law firm, start with defining your Why. Use these questions to help you discover your Why:
- Why do you exist?
- How do you contribute to the world?
- What is your mission?
- What motivated you to start your business?
Think about the story around why your brand exists in the first place. For a start, define a higher purpose for your brand, one that people can relate to. This means defining what drives your brand and how it benefits others. You will attract more customers by giving them a reason to connect with and support you.
When buying a product, people are usually trying to solve a certain problem or enrich their lives in some way. Therefore, figure out how to do this for them in a way that makes them feel good about themselves, and their decision, in the process. Furthermore, find a personality for your brand.
Think of what characteristics can be used to describe your brand and the people involved in it. Your brand identity is an extremely important part of growing your business overall and should influence your brand’s style, colors, brand name and marketing efforts.
2. Know Your Service
To know your brand story, you must also understand how and where your service fits into it. To figure out how your service fits into your brand story, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the quality and price point of your service?
- Does your service solve a problem or make a consumer feel a certain way?
- How is your service different from competitors’ products?
3. Understand Your Audience
To understand how to build a brand story for a law firm, you first need to know your target audience. This way, you’ll be able to craft the narrative that’s most likely to speak to the customers you’re after. Knowing what their passions and pain points are can help you determine how your brand story fits into their lives.
Start with answering the following questions:
- What is at stake if a consumer doesn’t buy your product?
- Who is your current customer?
- Who is your ideal customer?
Narrowing down to your ideal customer is essential to carving out a brand story that will resonate. Don’t try to appeal to all customers, but instead speak directly to your target customer. In targeting everyone, you will get a few, because very few products are everything to everybody. Once you have your target market pinned down, think of what your brand can do for them. Moreover, what language will grab their attention and what methods you will use to communicate with them.
4. Choose the Right Format
The most important goal for every piece of content is to communicate your brand story as efficiently and effectively as possible. Therefore, choosing the right format is vital. Identify the best format for your story before you dive into content creation, as the format will influence the way you craft copy. Some of the most popular storytelling formats are articles, Case Studies, Data visualizations, E-books, Infographics, Motion Graphics, White papers, Video etc.
5. Build your narrative
Define the important aspects of your identity and its message, turning it into a story that will resonate with your audience. Construct a compelling narrative that captures people’s attention. Start with a conflict or struggle that your brand seeks to solve or overcome. Describe what caused you to take action. In general, audiences want to know what made you start your brand.
Next, you should describe how your brand works towards that vision. How do you plan on accomplishing your goals? This part of the brand story should highlight what your brand is doing now, and how it will continue in the future. Finally, explain how your products will impact people’s lives directly, and in the context of the bigger picture. How will it make their lives better? Furthermore, how will it improve the world?
6. Compose your brand story
A big part of making sure a brand story for law firm is seen as authentic and consistent is your origin story. Why did you decide to start your business? Talk about your mission and your passion, and how they influence the way your brand operates.
An honest story of someone going through the struggles of starting a business can be a great way to connect with your audience. Your origin story can really personalize your brand, connecting a human face and story to a brand. Present yourself not as just a company, but a person with goals and a mission, in order to establish trust.
To start, it’s always better to show rather than to tell. For example, focus on how your brand helped a specific person. You want your audience to connect with this person and know how your brand tangibly improved their life.
Next, when trying to form a relationship with your audience, you want them coming back again and again. Hence, write an ongoing, long-term story arc, rather than a short story. Think up some challenges that your story’s hero can struggle with but ultimately overcome.
Finally, make your values part of your brand story. Demonstrate why they are important and how you intend to abide by them. Keep your message consistent in all your different marketing avenues, and your brand will be seen as authentic.
During this step, you can use Gustav Freytag’s pyramid that follows an arc and ends with a resolution.
7. Tell your brand story in an effective way
Whatever story you decide to tell, it’s crucial to make sure that your efforts are having the desired results. Monitor how effective your story arc is at bringing traffic to your site. Be sure to keep an eye on your grammar as well. Sites such as My Writing Way, ViaWriting or the State of Writing can help ensure your grammar is correct. While you can use services like BoomEssays and Academized to make sure your content is well-written and proofed.
8. Share Your Brand Story
Once your brand story is complete, find the right platforms to broadcast it. For example, post a series of videos on YouTube, create social media posts, publish press articles and more. Optimize each media form for its platform in order to accurately communicate your cause and gain attention. In other words, create relevant content for each outlet.
Include your website in this step too by creating a dedicated About Us page. Introduce your audience to your business through brand storytelling. Show your customers what your law brand has to offer. Bring people in by creating a long-term story arc, being consistent and showing them what you care about.
Moreover, encourage your people to share your story by making it easy to do so. Publish to your blog or email list, test your social sharing buttons, optimize your content for SEO, etc. Finally, plan on updating your story periodically, along with your brand improvement.
Conclusion
By creating a high-quality brand story for a law firm, you’ll be able to develop lasting relationships with your customers. Furthermore, your brand story is as important for your marketing team as it is for your customers. A well-written brand story will help them come up with advertising ideas and campaigns that are aligned with your primary goals and purpose.
However, writing a great brand story requires time and effort. You need to share your history, values, passion, and ambitions in a way that will best establish an emotional connection with your target audience. Start with understanding your competitors, customers and employees and be clear on what defines your business and makes it unique.
What’s more important, your brand story needs to be honest and consistent. It must align directly with your mission statement to enable you to effectively establish a connection with customers who are genuinely aligned with your business. Finally, write a brand story for a law firm that is focused on long-term growth rather than short-term potential. That way you will have a strong brand story and establish a successful business strategy.