By A. Antonow
Published: December 6, 2010
In addition to overhead and the usual expenses associated with a law firm, successful attorneys also need to stretch their budgets in order to cover marketing costs. Law firm marketing can mean everything from a multi-million-dollar state-wide marketing campaign to a more modest endeavor. The final result must be the same, though: making the most out of every marketing dollar to bring in more clients and more money.
Whether your budget is small or large, you will need to pay for these marketing tools for your law firm:
1) Face-to-face meetings. Despite all the enthusiasm over virtual marketing, viral marketing, and social media marketing, few things will replace the face-to-face meeting with clients. Virtually all law firm marketing companies agree on this. Quite simply, even though meetings with clients take time (and money) and usually allow you to meet one potential client at a time, meetings are the most powerful way to turn a potential client into a paying client. This is why they continue to be so effective. There is no substitute for marketing and promoting yourself in person, and that means you will need budget for cover transportation costs, food (if you are taking clients to dinner), and related costs.
2) Paid advertising. All successful attorneys pay for some advertising – whether it is a large Yellow Pages ad, banner ads on websites, bus wrap ads, billboards, TV spots, or other forms of advertising. Paid commercials and ads have been proven to work and help you build brand recognition.
3) Professional help. Above and beyond paid ads, you will also need to pay for marketing endeavors, such as blogs, social networking marketing, search engine optimization and more. You may not be paying directly for these services, the way you do with a paid ad, but you will generally need a web design company, copywriter and a law firm marketing consultant or company to help you develop your online and marketing presence.
How much can a law firm expect to pay for these three areas of marketing? A good rule of thumb is to base your marketing budget on a percentage of your law firm income and to consider experience levels when forming your budget. For example, if you are a newly-minted attorney or are just starting out with a new firm, about 10% of your revenue may be a good guideline. Ten percent of your income (or expected income) will help you compete with more experienced firms with client lists already in place but won’t sink so much money into marketing that you’ll be in the red for a long time.
A more experienced law firm may choose to spend 3% to 9% or so, depending on the client list. The more clients are in place thanks to experience and a continued presence, the lower that number can be, since clients are already being generated thanks to previous marketing efforts. A savvy law firm will not usually let marketing budgets drop to below 2% of total revenue, however. Even the most successful law firms in the world still need to keep developing and enforcing brand identity while bringing in new clients.
Different law firms develop different systems for covering marketing costs. Some dock a percentage off any incoming revenues and relay the money into a marketing account. Some law firms develop a financing system with one law firm marketing company that oversees the firm’s marketing and advertising efforts. Law firm financing can also help cover the costs of marketing as well as other operational costs. Once there is a budget and marketing plan in place, it is much simpler to determine where the money will come from because it is easier to determine how much money needs to be raised for marketing efforts.
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