The New Year is approaching rapidly and now is the time to formulate your 2022 marketing plan, not after the new year begins. Legal marketing spend was down the last couple of years. No surprise. But that trend is already shifting as firms ramp up their legal advertising. It is estimated that by the end of 2021 budgets will be up over 13% compared with 2020. At the same time, the demand for legal services is up 7.3%, according to Thompson Reuters. How does your firm take advantage of the increase demand? With a great 2022 law firm marketing plan.

What Is  A Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a document that outlines your marketing strategy for the coming period of time. A plan can cover a month, quarter or year. A one year plan is the minimum you should create. The plan will consist of your:

  • Objectives
  • Current Marketing Position
  • Identifying Your Target Market
  • Budget
  • Strategy to Achieve Objectives
  • Key Performing Indicators (KPI’s) to measure
  • A Timeline to Complete Tasks

For most law firms, the objective is to increase sales or revenue. But, how does that happen? A marketer needs to learn how clients became aware of them. It is important to know how they engaged with your firm. And how they converted.

Market Position

Understanding your firm’s position in the marketplace is a bit challenging. It is invaluable to speak with your clients to understand why they chose you. What do they think makes you and your firm better? You should also perform a SWOT analysis. Look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Target Market

Every law firm should have a client avatar. An avatar is a profile of their ideal client. A client avatar will include the geography in which the client lives, age, gender, income, behaviors etc. the more granularly you can identify the target audience the better.

Marketing Budget

Coming up with a budget can be a straightforward process. For many firms, especially in Personal Injury, it is a percentage of gross annual fees. At the same time, it should take into account the cost of advertising in your region. It is far more expensive to advertise in the New York City metro than Nashville. Depending on how conservative or aggressive your firm is your budget should be between 10%-20% of gross annual fees.

Marketing strategy will be affected by your budget. You may not have enough money to use broadcast TV. Or your market may not have many “cord-cutters”, making streaming video ineffective. Think about the concepts of Awareness, Engagement and Conversion. Where and how do prospective clients learn about you. How and where do they research you and how do they convert. Have strategies in place for each step.

Key Performing Indicators

With strategies and tactics established decide what to measure. There is a difference between a Key Performing Indicator (KPI) and a metric. A KPI demonstrates progress towards a goal. For a personal injury attorney, a form-fill requesting a consult is a KPI. The more form-fills the more likely new clients will be retained. A click on your website may have no bearing on new clients and increased revenue. If it does not influence client numbers, clicks are a metric.

Few goals or objectives are reached without a gameplan that includes a timeline. Look at your strategies and tactics and figure out the process for completing each. Put that process on a calendar so you know what needs to be done and when. Even if you are outsourcing projects, they still need to have a timeline.

2022 Law Firm Marketing Plan

A marketing plan can seem a bit daunting the first time it is performed. However, once you have done one you can follow the same process over and over. The old expression “a failure to plan is a plan to fail” is usually true. A well thought out marketing plan almost always yields positive results. As competition in the legal field heats up, a marketing plan has never been more important. If you need help with your 2022 Law Firm Marketing Plan, contact us through our website, or call (845) 547-2463.