If you own or manage an immigration law practice, then you have a brand identity. Realizing how crucial branding is for your immigration practice is the first and most important step to boosting your lead volume and enhancing the quality of your prospects.

Below is a look at the role of branding in the field of immigration law and some key ways to strengthen the brand of your immigration practice.

What is Your Brand?

As an immigration lawyer, you offer a unique collection of services to your clients, and your practice has a brand – whether you have been serving clients for six months or six decades.

For instance, your firm probably has a distinct logo, a monthly newsletter, a nickname, or a catchy tagline that people associate with your practice. Logos, publications, nicknames and taglines are all facets of your immigration practice’s brand identity. They help distinguish your firm from your competitors and (hopefully) drive clients to seek your services.

What is Your Brand’s Equity?

Simply put, brand equity is the value of your law firm’s brand. Brand equity encompasses tangible aspects such as your current market share as well as intangible aspects such as the benefits your brand delivers to clients. Your practice’s brand equity is important because it directly influences brand loyalty, which is evidenced by repeat client visits and your referral business.

Your brand’s equity may not be easy to gauge, especially if your practice is in its formative years. However, there are some specific ways to help determine your immigration practice’s brand equity. They include the following:

  • Monitor your online reviews and ratings
  • Ask existing clients why they chose your immigration practice over others
  • Follow up with prospects who decided not to use your services to find out why they chose a competitor
  • Track activity and feedback on your social media sites

Key Ways to Strengthen Your Brand

Whether your brand equity is stellar or sluggish, there is always room to strengthen your brand. This process begins by defining your target audience, or the type of clients you hope to attract. For example, you may wish to focus on serving Latin American clients who immigrate to the United States.

Serving your target audience will require you to have a keen understanding of the laws and pain points facing those prospects. For example, boosting your brand as a specialist in Latin American immigration would require you to know the cultural barriers and other pain points facing people who migrate from Central and South America. Even better, you can reinforce your brand by customizing a five-step plan designed to help clients overcome those barriers.

There are additional ways to use branding to distinguish yourself from other immigration lawyers. Keeping a watchful eye on your competitors at all times is essential to your brand positioning. Here are four more ways to help you strengthen your brand:

  • Create helpful and relevant content that prospective clients can use to help resolve the legal issues they face
  • Highlight your strengths and the top ways your immigration practice can help your target audience
  • Design enticing posts and emails that current and prospective clients look forward to reading and sharing
  • Ramp up your social media presence by posting useful articles, promoting your events and publications and engaging with prospects

Notably, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) pays special attention to social media, calling it “a virtually inescapable way – and a golden opportunity – for law firms to attract business.” AILA lists Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram as key tools to help “build and gain brand recognition and market legal services.”

As you carry out the branding measures above, make sure you always deliver value and never lose sight of your target audience’s pain points. This will require your commitment to always be looking for effective, innovative ways to help new and existing clients achieve their immigration goals.

What to Do When Lead Generation Is Successful

As outlined above, a strong brand identity is critical to generating leads and building a strong reputation for your immigration practice. By following the tips above, you can reinforce your brand image and put your immigration practice on the path to success.

At a certain point, the only way to deal with the flood of new leads is to scale up. While a strong brand image can help your practice expand, another way to help scale up your immigration practice is to download the eBook, How to Safely Scale Your Immigration Practice. This complimentary eBook offers a comprehensive approach to expanding your law practice while avoiding common risks that sometimes plague law firms.

By safely and systematically scaling up your practice, you will exceed your revenue goals and turn that regular influx of high-quality leads into an influx of clients.