What are the five steps to creating a marketing plan for your law firm? | Internet Legal Solutions Inc.

Creating an effective marketing plan is essential to the success of your business. It can generate awareness, educate prospects and customers, and generate new business for the company. But there’s more to developing a marketing plan than adding all the cool new advertising techniques you’ve learned on YouTube to a PowerPoint presentation. Follow these five steps to create a marketing plan for your law firm that will make a big impact.

1. Understand your business goals

A marketing budget doesn’t start with marketing, it starts with business goals and objectives.

A marketing plan that aligns with company goals will directly support the company’s goals for the year, as well as its growth.

Questions to ask:

• What does the company hope to accomplish in 1, 3 and 5 years?
• What objectives has the firm set itself for the coming year?
• What problems does the company’s management hope to solve?

2. Create marketing goals

Determine how marketing can help the company achieve its goals.

Clearly explaining how the marketing department contributes to business goals shows the value that marketing brings to the business.

Questions to ask:

• How can marketing help the company achieve its goals?
• What does the marketing department hope to accomplish in 1, 3 and 5 years?
• Where is there room for growth?

3. Select the right marketing strategies

Use both proven and innovative marketing initiatives when creating your marketing plan.

Use your ideal customer profile to select marketing strategies that will provide the best marketing value for the money you spend.

Questions to ask:

• What’s happening in your industry?
• What innovative ideas are being implemented outside your industry?
• What are the untapped opportunities?
• What competitive advantages do you have?
• What activities best create awareness, educate your audience, and communicate the value of your business?
• What projects bring you closest to your goals?

4. Figure out what success looks like

Define key performance indicators (KPIs) that link your strategies to your marketing goals.

KPIs are quantifiable data that are used to identify specific campaign objectives, indicate progress during a campaign, and measure effectiveness at the end of a campaign.

Questions to ask:

• How do you link marketing performance to established business objectives?
• What indicators accurately assess the results of marketing initiatives?
• How will you get the data to monitor your KPIs?

5. Analyze and adjust

Measuring and tracking the performance of your marketing initiatives is critical to your success.

The execution of the marketing plan is not the end. It’s crucial to evaluate the results of your initiatives and make the appropriate adjustments to meet or exceed your goals.

Questions to ask:

• What are the projects that bring you the closest to your goals?
• Which initiatives are underperforming and should be adjusted or eliminated?
• Where have you had a great return on investment?