Inexpensive and Effective Marketing Efforts to Embrace in 2022

Some firms underspend on marketing, but just as many spend ample budgets on the wrong things — which is almost worse. This recent piece highlights common “spending traps” that eat up a firm’s marketing budget without actually delivering results, and a common theme in these missteps is the attempt to outsource marketing tasks to vendors who don’t really understand your business and goals. You spend a lot, but don’t have much to show for it.

Sometimes it is most effective to focus on a few simple — and inexpensive! — efforts your marketing department can handle itself. And it can be empowering to see what a difference these basic steps can make in raising the visibility of your firm’s lawyers. Here are some key areas to focus on in 2022:

Update your firm’s website bios. “Seventy-eight percent of in-house counsel rely on attorney bios when researching and hiring outside counsel.” Make sure your attorney bios are up to date with recent matters, links to thought leadership articles and speaking events, awards and all other relevant information. Think carefully about what matters most to clients, and emphasize those aspects of the attorneys’ work. This is your best opportunity to showcase what differentiates your team from competing firms. 

Help attorneys optimize their LinkedIn presence. Not everyone is interested in spending time liking and commenting on content posted by members of their LinkedIn network. That’s OK. But given the continued need for remote business development, it’s crucial for attorneys to keep their LinkedIn profiles up to date with awards, recent matters and commentary relevant to the industries and clients they serve. You can help support them in this by scheduling regular time to make updates. 

Evaluate the effectiveness of your firm website and request small changes to the way information is organized. How are pages loading? Is it easy to find the most important information? How is content organized, and could it be improved? Keep a running list of small requests for the IT department or outside tech support that can maintain your firm website as a useful resource for clients, recruits and reporters.

Update your firm’s email lists. Your email marketing efforts are only as good as your contact list that receives them. To treat your firm’s list with the respect it deserves, appoint a steward to manage it. Give that person the tools he or she needs to best maintain it and develop a plan for making regular updates. Also, consider how to capture new contacts at touchpoints along the business development process.

Prioritize particular channels. There are so many channels for marketing your firm’s services now, and trying to be comprehensive and use them all will only leave you feeling exhausted. So be strategic — identify two or three places your specific targets frequent (could be a publication, a conference, a newsletter) and focus your efforts on becoming more visible in that space.