Recently, 9Sail founder and CEO Joe Giovannoli sat down with several leading experts in law firm marketing to discuss something on everyone’s minds this time of year– budgeting for the next fiscal year. With money on the mind, the group discussed ways to plan ahead for their law firms’ marketing budgets, and how to make the money work for everyone. Joe spoke with Laura Galeano, Esq, Chief Business Development and Marketing officer at Bilzin Sumberg; Andrew (Andy) Laver, Chief Marketing and Business Development Executive at Porzio Bromberg & Newman, P.C.; and Lynn Tellefsen-Stehle, Revenue Consultant at Nexl. Read on to learn tips, key takeaways, and tricks to manage your own law firm marketing budget.

Key Takeaways

• Legal industry-standard marketing spend is between 1-3% of the law firm’s revenue with some firms spending 7-10% reportedly.

• Utilizing data is key when it comes to planning your marketing budget, and you should determine if you want to use ROO or ROI from this year’s budget to lead you toward next year’s plan.

• Thinking ahead for the year should include potential spend on initiative completion and recruiting– build that into your budget, and communicate your marketing strategy as part of the onboarding process for lateral hires.

• Communicate with the attorneys at your law firm to ensure that funds are being used on strategies that your attorneys are engaged with and excited about.