How To Make The Most Of Your Legal Marketing Budget
How To Make The Most Of Your Legal Marketing Budget
The 34 of gross revenue I recommend as a marketing budget? If that seems like a lot it is. Its not limitless however. Yet many highly respected firms squander marketing money by the truckloadoften in the same familiar ways. Dont let your firm fall into that trap. Here are prime examples of marketing vehicles or initiatives that you may have tried or thought about. Some if done well can pay big dividendsor if done poorly waste big money. Others are just a waste of money period.
Marketing events sponsored by your firm must always be considered good relationshipbuilding platforms. These include seminars open houses and the like. Personal followup is key to making them work. For seminars and similar events smaller is better. Consider a seminar series focused on a particular industry or area of the law where participants gather repeatedly. That way the followup is built in.
Advertising is rife with pitfalls. Studies show that it takes 7 to 11 impressions before somebody will recall seeing your ad. Consistency and frequency are essential! So are an attentiongrabbing design and a minimum of ad copy. If your practice is more consumeroriented such as family law then the Yellow Pages are worth the money. Onetimeonly and tombstone type print ads are not worth the money. Legal Directories are popular proliferating and pretty much pointless. Decisionmakers simply dont use them very much. Bottom linehold onto your cash.
Partners Pet Projects are rarely budgeted hardly ever consistent with firmwide marketing objectives and tend to consume vast quantities of money and staff time. When one comes up for discussion identify whether its a worthwhile charitable contributions or just a pet project. Examples of the latter include sponsorships of social events that have little or no relevance to the firms strategic objectives. Point to your strategic plan and just say no!
Make your firm stand out by sending gifts and cards around Thanksgiving or the first of the year. If you must send holiday cards by all means sign them personally!
Golf and lunch among other things are fine marketing activities highly conducive to relationship buildingprovided you play and eat with people who have the ability to hire or refer you. To do otherwise is not an effective use of your marketing time. The professions top rainmakers know this. They develop a systematic plan to build and enhance client relationships. The key word is plan.
About the writer: Drawing on over twenty years’ experience in branding and positioning Paula Black has advised law firms around the globe on everything from powerful and innovative design to marketing strategy and business growth. She is the awardwinning author of The Little Black Book on Law Firm Branding Positioning The Little Black Book on Law Firm Marketing and Business Development and The Little Black Book: A Lawyers Guide To Creating A Marketing Habit in 21 Days as well as founder and President of Miamibased Paula Black Associates. For more information visit http://www.paulablacklegalmarketing.com
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