The legal industry has always been promising. In fact, with the prevalence of the Internet, law firms can market their service more expansively than before. Now, it is not uncommon to find lawyers who offer online legal consultation and help abroad clients in proceedings.
If those stories inspire you and you plan to build a law firm from scratch, then here is a brief guide to help you. We will discuss the importance of law firm branding, developing clients’ trust, and making use of the outsourcing service.
Creating and Developing Your Law Firm’s Brand
Branding involves designing your firm’s logo. And the most commonly occurring mistake related to this topic is that the firm’s founders often undermine the logo’s importance by arguing that the service is all that matters. This thought is not entirely wrong and not fully correct either.
Even if your firm’s name consists of the practicing lawyers, such as M. Jaffe’s Law Office or Jaffe & Associates, the design of your logo must reflect a unique characteristic of your service. Otherwise, your clients may experience difficulties in remembering your business.
Your best bet for this step is to hire a capable logo designer who has experience in creating logos for law firms before. Ask for reference and portfolios to make sure that you trust the job to the right person.
Developing Clients’ Trust
Your administration staff must be capable enough to handle the records of your clients. New clients are based on luck and marketing, but the returning ones are the real result of your professionalism. If you lack that quality, then you may survive only for a while.
Next, you need to employ a system that allows an efficient workflow. All the lines in your office must work properly, and the practicing attorneys must be online and proactive in dealing with clients. As the head of the law firm, you also need to monitor your employees well.
Lastly, you should consider handling pro bono jobs to build a good reputation. Document it well and publish it so that it will contribute positively to your firm’s image. This strategy should be on your mind because the line that separates a lawyer from a devil’s advocate is thin in people’s eyes.
Making Use of Outsourcing Service
Outsourcing trends have helped startups to compete with big companies fairly. And in your case, you must know that there are plenty of tasks that do not need to be built as in-house facilities. You may have a big budget for your firm, and that is okay, but even if such is your condition, if you allocate your money for things that can be outsourced, the chances are that you’ll get left behind by others who use a more fast-pacing approach.
The tasks that are commonly outsourced by today’s startups are cloud computing (web hosting, data storage, and data security), customer service, and digital marketing. A special note on digital marketing is on the necessity of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If you attempt to hire specialized staff for SEO, then you have to allocate your money for a task that does not directly correlate with your expertise in the law field. That division will be a waste.
