It’s difficult to overstate how profoundly COVID-19 has impacted the legal industry. While many would argue that the profession is long overdue for some disruption, others have struggled with the growing pains. Nevertheless, savvy attorneys may find that the pandemic has brought some much-needed clarity to their legal marketing efforts.
In this article, we’re going to address some of the aspects of legal marketing that are ripe for change after COVID. Let’s get started!
Basics of Legal Marketing
Law firms are creatures of habit. They like to follow proven paths to success – often basing individual marketing decisions on survey findings and the decisions of neighboring firms. Unfortunately, clinging to last year’s budget or strictly dictating marketing spend as a percentage of revenue will leave you unable to grow and innovate.
Yearly budgets can facilitate short-term thinking. While it’s tempting to increase marketing spend by a fraction of a percent each year and move on, this practice will not generate business growth. In fact, it could make it nearly impossible to develop and launch innovative, multi-year programs.
Crossing Barriers After COVID
As a result of the pandemic, it’s become much harder to justify massive spending on face-to-face meetings, industry events, travel, and even office space. On the other hand, there are limitless possibilities for those who decrease spending in these categories so that the funds can be redeployed!
Here are some potential changes to consider:
Change #1: Shift Strategy
The pandemic offers your firm an opportunity to redefine and rebrand itself. Whether you’ve had personnel changes over the last year or simply noted a shift in the needs of your clients, there’s never been a better time to assess your capabilities, skills, experiences, geographies, industries, and client mix. This could be the time to narrow your focus or even establish and differentiate yourself in a new specialty.
Change #2: Rethink Ongoing Commitments
Does your law firm have a certain set of immovable expenses? Pet projects, sponsorships, and annual events can become a permanent line in the budget with sufficient support from the partners – even if they’ve proven to be nonproductive to wildly unstrategic. This year, the pandemic offers an opportunity to question the establishment.
Change #3: ROI is King
You must transition from budgeting based on intuition and focus on budgeting based on demonstrated Return on Investment (ROI). If you’re unsure which marketing tactics have produced the desired ROI, it’s time to start developing measures to track your progress. By defining objective measures for success, you’ll position yourself advantageously for next year’s budget meeting.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading! We hope these tips have given you some insight into how you can adjust your law firm’s legal marketing efforts in the wake of COVID-19. Although we never anticipated this pandemic, we can leverage these new insights into long-overdue transformations. If you enjoyed this article, let us know on social media!
Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns. At First Legal, we’re here for you from File Thru Trial™!
