Branding a professional services firm might sound confusing, but it is not impossible. Once you understand the principles, you can apply them in a blanket manner to your enterprise and start getting the results you want. 

Professional service companies, like lawyers, accountants, and consultants, all face considerable headwinds right now. The combination of pandemics and disruptive technology is making regular business difficult. The survivors will most likely be those who create compelling brands that convince well-to-do clients to part with their cash. 

But how do you do this? 

We know what you’re thinking: you’re a professional services firm, not a sports drink brand. You’re not in the business of creating jingles and brand images. 

Well, sorry to break it to you, but you actually are – there’s no fundamental difference between a professional services company and any other. Just like everyone else, you have to make your mark on the market. And you ignore this reality at your peril.

Spell Out Your Purpose

Before you engage in any branding at all, you need to spell out your purpose. Your company needs to stand for something. 

You can take a couple of approaches here. The first is to take a moral stand. This type of thing is popular among legal firms. 

The other is to address a pain point – something that clients struggle with regularly. Consultants prefer this route. 

Which direction you go in depends on your business. But ultimately, you want to be known as the person who does “X.” 

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Get Your Leaders On Board

Without the support of your organization’s leaders, your attempts to brand your professional services business will never get off the ground. 

Branding in this context is a highly personal endeavor. If the top brass isn’t interested in the idea, then it won’t fly. You can have all of the logos and jingles you like, but you won’t have the professional commitment to back it up. 

Publicize Your Work

Branding is fundamentally about creating ideas about who you are in the minds of other people. All the visual stuff is fundamentally incidental. 

Elite Lawyer Management is a company that manages law firm publicity campaigns. They point out that publishing content in media outlets is by far the most successful strategy for building trust and engagement. When you’re a part of a news or journal article, you suddenly become relevant to the national conversation. 

Talk To Your Employees About Your Branding Ideas

If you have employees, you’ll want to talk to them before finalizing the type of brand you want to achieve. Often, they will have excellent ideas on the direction you should take since they understand conditions on the ground. For instance, they might point out that customers always seem to have the same pain points, and that marketing to address them could help tremendously. 

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Talking to the rank-and-file is essential for another reason: you want to know whether they are willing to carry out your ideas. It tells you whether they’re fundamentally on-side or not.

Creating a brand for a professional services company, therefore, can be a challenging process. But at heart, it really isn’t all that different from any other firm.