How to Create a Budget and Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm

How much should I budget for marketing?

Respectfully, I’ll give you the lawyer’s answer: it depends.

There are many schools of thought and percentages of 2% to 20% of gross revenue have been mixed together – not helpful. And, honestly, you’re getting ahead of yourself if you try to figure out an amount or percentage to spend on marketing without knowing the “Ws” – What, When, Where, Why, and Who.

So many times law firms approach us with what they think they should be doing from a marketing perspective, only to find that what they really need to focus on is very different. Once we learn details like their practice areas, clients, competitors, industries, and more (we ask the Ws), it’s revealed that where and how they planned to spend their marketing dollars is a long way off. to be the case and, therefore, the budget they had in mind. Knowing a handful of key things early on helps us get the law firm on the right track, determine a realistic budget, and make better use of its marketing spend.

What’s my point? Simple: don’t try to figure out a budget until you’ve spoken with your internal marketing team or external agency.

You may not know exactly what you want to do with your marketing plan, and that’s okay. Sometimes it’s better to know what you don’t want to do with your marketing plan. It’s more about understanding what you need, especially when determining a marketing budget.

7 things you need to know for your marketing team to determine a realistic budget and marketing plan

Where do you find your current job?

If you don’t know where you get your work or your current clients, you don’t know where to invest your money where it’s best for you. Do you document how the client came to see you during your admissions process? If you don’t, please start now. Create a list of “business sources” and for each new topic, assign one. Your list could be:

• Current client (new/additional work from a current client)

• Client reference

• ABC Networking Group Recommendation

• Dismissal from XYZ conference

• Association Membership Reference

The source of your business listing should be as accurate as possible. You need to know exactly where your business is coming from to determine how much budget to spend on maintaining effective referral sources, as well as determining where you have gaps so you can budget for those sources.

Most likely, your admissions process is automated and you can extrapolate this data. The problem we see the most is that information is not requested and documented during the admissions process. When someone tells you they found you from your website or LinkedIn profile, ask them how they found your online profiles in the first place – that’s the real source of business. Your website bio or LinkedIn profile provided a way to substantiate your referral and get them to contact you.

What is the area of ​​practice you are trying to promote/educate?

For example, a business lawyer might focus on a client retention plan as well as a plan to grow their referral sources/networks, both of which are relatively inexpensive to accomplish. Costs incurred are meetings with clients over coffee or lunch and attending events and conferences to network. They could also join a professional network and referral group; membership fees range from $1,800 to $2,000 per year. Additionally, their law firm might host a series of meetups or client appreciation events.

Alternatively, a personal injury lawyer’s business is mostly ‘once done’, so they can seek out a steady stream of leads and invest in digital marketing, billboards and print advertising. , all of which are considerably more expensive but generate more predictable results.

A few notes on print advertising. Of course, your budget for print advertising depends on the practice – a family lawyer will be found through print advertising more often than a labor lawyer on the management side. For business lawyers and law firms, print advertising may include directories and listings (such as offers to “expand” your Super Lawyers profile), advertising that accompanies sponsorship of a conference or a local or community event, magazine or newspaper about lifestyle, customer support featured, etc. Naturally, print advertising is about being seen multiple times, so it should be a past term with multiple occurrence engagement. Generally, if your ad appears only once, it’s not an effective spend.

What is the marketing makeup of your business?

Every law firm has its rainmakers, gate keepers and grinders, and attorneys who fall somewhere in between, and all of them are necessary for the successful implementation of a marketing plan. Be realistic about each player’s marketing abilities and desires. For example, if you’re going to run an inbound marketing campaign to get the phones ringing, make sure you have the right people assigned to make effective intake calls. If an attorney does the intake calls, what is your credit arrangement for that attorney (i.e., origin of closing the deal)? If you have your rainmaker in the market to work the keepers and grinders, how are you going to deal with crafting and working credits? Have you thought through the process and planned for when the rainmaker will hand over the new client to the practicing lawyer? Is it an expectation established from the start that the customer’s daily contact will not be the rainmaker?

Of course, there are hundreds of systems and processes your business could put in place. who you put where to execute your marketing plan. Placing lawyers in the marketing situations in which they are most comfortable and able to operate saves marketing budget and eliminates waste. Don’t try to force your introverts to work in the room at a networking event, and don’t keep your rainmaker behind his desk when he can be much more effective at acquiring clients.

Who are your champions?

There are several things to consider when thinking about the “who” of your business. First, you need to know who in your business”gets» marketing to understand why the plan is what it is and how the marketing budget is best spent. They don’t have to fully understand the intricacies and the day-to-day plan – they just need to understand (believe) that marketing is a necessity and be willing to support the business plan.

If you’re an inside marketer for a law firm, you know how important it is to identify the lawyers who support you and champion the marketing department. You will also need to know how to make champions among others.

Ultimately, the company culture should support the company’s marketing efforts, everyone within the company has a role in the company’s marketing efforts and your internal marketing team or external must have a seat at the table. If you have a supportive culture and a knowledgeable team, marketing budgets will be better understood and implemented more effectively.

Why do it?

The need for a marketing plan and a budget may seem obvious, but the why must be defined. “I want to grow my law firm/my practice” is fine – but why do you want to grow your law firm (and even that’s not specific enough!)? Is it because it provides a good life for you and your family? Is it because you are a senior associate and want to become a partner? Is it because you want to educate a specific group/area of ​​practice? Do you need more work to keep all the lawyers in the firm busy and productive? Again, you don’t necessarily need to know how you’re going to market, but you need to be able to explain why to your marketing team so they can establish an appropriate budget that directly aligns with your goals.

What are the marketing expectations of the lawyers in your firm?

Do you expect everyone to contribute to the company’s marketing efforts? If so, you will need to allocate part of your budget to training and support. Do you have a billable hours requirement and if so, how will you structure/count the hours your attorneys use to market? Are you ready to integrate a compensation plan for marketing hours? Are you ready to pay membership fees and conference registrations? The marketing expectations you have of your lawyers should be supported by the marketing budget.

When should this happen?

Are you ready to track and analyze results to truly understand the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing plan?

We see it every day: law firms spend valuable resources, time, energy and money to execute a marketing activity, and then… crickets. This is often because no one has considered the best time for marketing efforts. If you can’t determine that your marketing dollars have been a good spend for you, you’ll continue to spend money on the wrong tactics and miss productive opportunities because you’re out of marketing budget. You will also need to budget for support (time and/or money) from your marketing team to track and analyze your marketing efforts.

According to the US Small Business Administration, the average marketing budget for a law firm should be around 7-8% of gross revenue. However, recent surveys indicate that the legal marketing industry recommends 3-5% of gross revenue. I always come back to “It Depends” – it depends on your unique business circumstances and therefore asking and answering the W questions is key to designing a realistic marketing budget.