The Law Firm Marketing Minute

The #1 Risk for Small Law Firms [and How to Avoid It]

• Spotlight Branding • Episode 829

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🎯 Operating without a marketing plan is one of the biggest risks small law firms face. Smike, Sarah, and Megan break down why skipping this crucial step leads to wasted resources, frustration, and missed opportunities. Learn how even a simple strategy can help you grow, stand out, and stay ahead of the competition.

📌 Key Takeaways:

  • A marketing plan isn’t just for big firms—it’s essential for growth.
  • Simple, consistent strategies can deliver better results than one-off splurges.
  • Start by defining your objective and reverse-engineering your plan from there.

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Speaker 1:

What do you think? The number one, the biggest risk that they're taking is for not having.

Speaker 2:

I think they're going to throw money at the wall and not not know what they've been throwing money at.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Law Firm Marketing Minute, the go to podcast for solo and small law firms who want to level up. I'm your host, mike, and I'm excited for you to join me this episode. All right, without further ado, let's dive in. Hello everyone, welcome back to the Law for Marketing Mint. As always, I'm your host, smike, and today I'm joined by well, you just saw one of them two weeks ago Sarah over here, our marketing director director, but we also have Megan, our VP, here at spotlight branding. Welcome to both thank you.

Speaker 1:

Obviously you two make a great duo for this topic, mainly because you know it's, it's marketing plans, and Megan likes planning.

Speaker 1:

Megan likes planning and and Sarah likes marketing. So you know it's just the right duo there. And I want to start off because I want to preface this with, I would say, a majority of small law firms, just based on the stats out there, believe that they don't even need a marketing plan. Like to begin with, I think it was like something like only like a third even have like a marketing plan, or at least something documented, right I?

Speaker 1:

mean that they said the worst kind of plan is no plan whatsoever. Yeah, what are your initial thoughts on that, or have you heard that before?

Speaker 3:

sounds like a horror movie, does it's terrifying, I mean? I guess the question is is like, no matter what kind of job you have or plan you have for your day, do you actually get up and typically just say oh, I'm just going to do whatever I want today, whenever I won't I don't know very many people that live that way, so it'd be sounds like a very chaotic way to live yeah, I'd be stressed out.

Speaker 1:

I don't know.

Speaker 3:

It makes sense to me, though, I mean they went to law school.

Speaker 1:

They didn't go to it makes sense that they don't have one.

Speaker 2:

It makes sense. No, it doesn't make sense to not have one, but it makes sense that, yeah, that it wouldn't come first thought you know, um, I didn't go to law school, so my first thought isn't to have things in legal order, I went to marketing school. So yeah, here we are. We are in a marketing agency so it worked out for you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it did so in terms of a let's talk about a small law firm that doesn't have a marketing plan to begin with, which is, as we just discussed, probably a majority of the people listening.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, what are?

Speaker 1:

some signs that they've gone off track, that if they want to do, you know, make a marketing plan like what are?

Speaker 3:

what are some of the?

Speaker 1:

signs that they should kind of um, uh course. Correct, like what are the things that they're looking for, if they're going to create a marketing plan like from scratch what are the things they're looking for?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so basically like they don't have any idea how to make a marketing plan they don't know.

Speaker 1:

What do you put in the marketing?

Speaker 2:

plan, so like how to start them? Yeah, yeah, so like whatever.

Speaker 1:

What are the? When I say, what are the signs that they're looking for? It's more like okay, how do I know if a is already off track and he's not, or well the first thing to start with with any marketing plan or any plan in general, is the objective.

Speaker 2:

What are we trying to achieve? Because then that needs to sort of loop back around to did we achieve it? And then you know, then you can tell if the plan has been successful or not. So I had a professor at University who every time an objective, a smart objective, of course smart, and we can what's smart stand for for those that specific measurable actionable. What's the r? Realistic, realistic and timely. And then timely, of course. Yeah, realistically argued it's like realistic or relative yeah, relative to what you're doing.

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, yeah, I think that's huge I love it, but I do think it's kind of like start from the end. We talk about that and Mark, our owner, he's hardcore about some reverse engineering. But I'm always very much like hey, start at the end, what do you want, what's the objective? But then breaking that down into bite-sized pieces right and I know that. Mark makes that Right now is the best time to do that, because there's about to be a new year. That starts.

Speaker 2:

So it's a matter of like. Okay, what do you?

Speaker 3:

want at the end of next year? All right, what do you want each quarter? What does that look like monthly? What does that look like weekly?

Speaker 2:

And so I'm very much the kind of person that's like all right objective for sure and then break it down into bite-sized pieces.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah. So when you say, you know, break it down to bite-sized pieces, what are you talking about, like a day-to-day, or are you talking about week-to-week?

Speaker 3:

I mean, I'm a day-to-day kind of girl. I know not a lot of people love to operate that way. That feels very rigid and structured and that's okay. But you know structure's there for a reason. It's typically so that you can get that stuff that has to be done done and and then you have the freedom for everything else. But I would probably say, at least get some quarterly structure happening so that you know what's going to happen within the monthly stuff. And I think that's how we do our marketing plan.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely yeah. So month to month, like, yes, you start with what do you? Where do you see yourself in December 2025? And then work backwards from that.

Speaker 3:

What do I need to do to achieve that? And break that down into 12 bite-sized pieces and then you have yourself a monthly, you know climb for the year, yeah, and then we're always, once we do that backwards, we're always looking ahead to about 90 days out, right, yeah, so you've got to constantly, you know, work backwards but then constantly look ahead because it's going to need some adjusting, it's going to need some rerouting. Um, we're getting back on track yeah, yeah, um.

Speaker 1:

So I I'm just kind of putting out like an assumption here because, like I said at the beginning, most small law firms don't believe that they need a marketing plan but they're probably aware that larger firms have a marketing plan, so it's probably they might have like a mindset that like, oh, like I, I don't really I'm not big enough to have a marketing plan, like I'm not in that game. So to say so, it seems as if having a marketing plan is their way of sticking out from the crowd right now, right from the start.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, 100 percent, I mean, and marketing doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be outsourced. You could start with, obviously, once again, your objectives, but, you know, say it doesn't fit within a budget, because you should probably have a broad idea of what you're wanting to spend to right within a marketing plan.

Speaker 2:

But if it doesn't fit right.

Speaker 3:

Then. And there there's also this idea of like. When you're planning, you prioritize right, so like what's a non-negotiable or something that needs to be done in order to accomplish your objective within your marketing plan, Okay, well, if you can do those yourself, guess what? You're gonna have to do those yourself for a while. And then eventually you prioritize things that hopefully you can outsource or you can rely on other vendors to take care of for you. But doing nothing at all is not going to get you any closer to the objective right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you mentioned budget. So I feel like that's probably why. Again, just assumption, but I feel like that might be a reason why a lot of small law firms they don't have a marketing plan because they think like, oh, like I don't have a big budget like a bigger law firm.

Speaker 1:

So I'm just going to throw it wherever the day. Whatever the day brings, I'm just going to put some here and put some there and that sort of thing. So for budget where, what are we looking at in terms of where their budget is best spent?

Speaker 2:

like for for their small law firm where it's best spent um that would depend. That would depend highly on their objective and what they want to achieve.

Speaker 3:

And their practice areas. And their practice areas yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, we see, you know some law firms on the radio or they're using traditional type marketing activities. I think that you know the bare minimum should be a website. You should have a social media presence For sure should be a website.

Speaker 2:

You should have a social media presence, For sure. And then all you know the big stuff. I would leave that to the big guys. To have billboards to have, because you're also not going to be able to keep it up. If your budget is small, you might be able to afford a billboard once and that's not going to do anything. But if you can do social media consistently, if you can have a website consistently, that's going to serve you better in the long term hey there.

Speaker 1:

We're going to get right back to the episode in just a few seconds here, but I wanted to share this opportunity that's exclusive for podcast listeners or, if you're watching on youtube, exclusive to you as well. If you book a strategy session with us using the link in the podcast description or YouTube description In the notes section, all you got to do is type LFMM for Law For Marketing Minute and if you decide that we're a great fit and we decide you're a great fit for us, you'll have no monthly payments until January 2025. Pretty crazy. So go ahead and check the description. All right, let's get right back to the episode Mark has mentioned before. Mark, our owner, for anyone listening, has mentioned before that, in terms of budget, a good place to at least start is like was it 10%? I believe it is.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean, that's the bare minimum. I would say right, I mean as a marketing company but also in previous careers I've been in, we've always been around that 20% range and that's not even a marketing company previously in my career. But 10% is definitely probably where you at least need to start and be sure that you're allocating that to some type of marketing initiatives, yeah, and the percentage makes sense, because the percentage means that as you grow, so those are marketing Correct. Yeah, it scales with you.

Speaker 1:

So in terms of so those are marketing correct. Yeah, it scales with. Yeah, so in terms of, um, not knowing exactly what the next year is going to hold, what 2025? Is going to hold? What is that like for lawyers? Like, well, I don't know what 2025, 2025 is going to bring.

Speaker 2:

I think most lawyers will know where they want to be in a year like where do? They want to see growth. Where do they, you know, if they've been in practice for a few years and they've sort of kind of hit a wall at a figure and they're saying I want to see a 25 increase in revenue.

Speaker 2:

Um, by doing that, I need this many more clients um these type of cases and they can start defining things about like, what do they want, and working from there. So I actually spoke to one of our clients yesterday who spoke about you know, the type of clients that are coming in, and that he wants to see more of this type of client and what we did for him was start writing blogs and social media towards those things and he's seeing traction there. So you know that it that sounds simple and almost like, well, yeah, duh, but it's. You know you have to start with. What do I want?

Speaker 1:

well, okay, so to that. What if they don't know? They know what they want, but they don't know how to get there.

Speaker 3:

I mean call somebody listen to a podcast listen to our podcast. We do that right, like we, we give away the secret sauce.

Speaker 2:

But I mean obviously, I'll give you my emails. Let me, I was like that was for everyone listening.

Speaker 1:

That was a quick little like toss-up question for the shameless plug.

Speaker 3:

It's not even that, though it's like my god, dm me on linkedin.

Speaker 3:

I will tell you yeah, I think that there's a lot of free resource our marketing plan resource there's no shortage of free information out there, but honestly, I mean even look, some people might be turned off by having even just like a sales demo or a free strategy call with a marketing company other than just us, right, but the thing is is like you get on any of those calls with anybody you're going to learn something, or you're at least going to find out what direction you should go.

Speaker 3:

Yeah Right, definitely, absolutely, you might not be able to afford them, or you're just like you might be overwhelmed, but they have literally just given you free direction. Yeah, which is worth thousands of dollars.

Speaker 1:

Yeah direction.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, which is worth thousands of dollars. Yeah, within 30 minutes um, so just like ask somebody that that does know, because I don't feel like there's many people out there that are going to um hoard their knowledge.

Speaker 1:

They're willing to share it yeah, especially today's day and age, I feel like it's it's, it's a much more giving. Yeah, society which is which is weird, because then you got people that are like apocalyptic and they're like no, we are living in the end times.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you've got to give to receive right.

Speaker 2:

It's a season of giving yeah, it's Christmas, yeah, so okay.

Speaker 1:

So, to you know, continue on that path. Let's give the listeners the you know the kind of information that they need in terms of what can get them where. So you know the kind of information that they need in terms of what can get them where. So you know, you've got different marketing activities, you got events, you got social media blogs, you know, etc. And and we talk about penciling in. Right, don't be afraid to pencil in and don't be afraid to change things. Yeah and whatnot. What's what are we looking for in in january quarter, quarter one, I should say say, of 2025?

Speaker 1:

Let's give away our personal secret sauce here. What are we doing in Q1 to set ourselves up for success?

Speaker 2:

We have a lot going on Nice. We have a lot of events.

Speaker 3:

We've got our buckets.

Speaker 1:

That we're like yeah, explain buckets real quick. Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

Speaker 3:

I think you should probably identify your buckets Obviously like, yeah, Explain buckets real quick. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I think you should probably identify your buckets Obviously, put everything you'd want to do on there and pencil in what it might cost. But you might have to erase some right and we even do that sometimes Like this isn't going to fit in this quarter, but you need to have your buckets that are going to get you to the objective that you feel is going to move the needle, the best Right Within the budget, like the best ROI of the budget.

Speaker 3:

So have your buckets of like events or social media social media, you know, just branding in general so you have to have your buckets and then go from there, Fill up the ones that are going to cost the less but also have the most impact.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, gotcha. So to continue on the RQ one. What, what's it look like?

Speaker 2:

you said our q1 has. So, within our buckets, we have a lot of events going on. In q1, a lot of conferences tend to happen, um, at that in january, actually, there's nothing. There's not a lot of conferences in february, for some reason, um. But january and march heavy on the events. Um, of course we have our newsletters and our uh e-blast going out. Uh, that's consistent throughout the year. Um, our social media, of course, has a huge presence and that's again consistent throughout the year, and then we may have little blips of things that will not be consistent throughout the year.

Speaker 2:

But you know we have some partnerships that may just be for Q1. And then we may have a different partnership for Q2. And that's just reaching our target audience in, you know, different target areas.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I also think that Q1 is a big drop for us. Um in print, we don't do a lot of print throughout the year, but we'll be dropping our trends report, which is something that we do every year and um plug no, I mean like that launches in q1 and so I think that that's going to be huge. It's one of those things that we survey all these attorneys and they get the feedback and guess what? Who does that benefit?

Speaker 3:

that it benefits attorneys yeah um, so I think that's something that's unique to q1 that we don't do the rest of the year typically is print real quick.

Speaker 1:

Uh, her watch went off. Uh, the last episode she was on her watch, yeah, uh, twice and you know it doesn't go off like all day long.

Speaker 2:

I'm kind of like hey, is this thing working?

Speaker 1:

and then yeah she, she set a timer for uh.

Speaker 3:

You know, uh, give me an excuse to get it her time walk is going all for her and within her marketing flavor yeah, so I didn't plan my day like that actually no shame in that uh, so a lawyer

Speaker 1:

that has bare minimum time to to spend on on the marketing themselves. Obviously, they can outsource Another shameless plug. They can outsource. And even if it's not a spotlight brand, just be you know, don't drive yourself insane, don't stress yourself. But for the ones that are like you know, like I know my brand better than anybody and I'm going to do it, you know this way, what do you say to to them? I mean, you know, I, I listen, lawyers are great people, but they, they, they do have an ego at times, and everyone does, but don't we all?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I would say, though, that, like I'm not a lawyer, so I can't go to court and represent myself and I can do the research and I can go and argue my case. Now, if I was convicted of something serious, I may want to get a lawyer. I'm not going to try to do it myself. But, quite frankly, I'm the kind of person that, even if I got a speeding ticket, I'm getting a lawyer.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going to try to do anything myself. I'll leave it to the expert, and that's sort of my feeling when it comes to there's a lot of marketing that you can research and try to do your own and an expert can help you even do those things on your own, and I would. I would just consult an expert anyway, get those things maybe even planned and sorted and then you can take some of them yourself to do. But I would get with an expert.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I'll get a little woo for just a minute, because it's kind of like let me relate it Right. You're going to not go tell a potential client that they can do this case themselves, are you?

Speaker 1:

So let me break it down.

Speaker 3:

Like you're a lawyer and practicing law is a form of art, just like marketing is. Marketing yourself is a form of art. Just like marketing is. Marketing yourself is a form of art. And what's great about let's just use Spotlight Branding as instance, because that's what we do every day is that we have writers in-house who know the technical skills of communicating in a certain way to represent their clients, right, just like lawyers represent their clients, and so it's a form of art, and I think that you should leave the skill set to the artist out there, and so I think that that's kind of what it is for me, and it's just like. I don't think lawyers would be like, oh you can do this yourself and represent yourself when you have to go do this.

Speaker 3:

You know mediation or anything like that. So I would tell them the same thing Like you shouldn't be marketing yourself in the actual technical work of it. Like allow somebody who learned how to do it, knows the art, to really like represent you in a better way, right?

Speaker 3:

plus, lawyers are perfectionists and sometimes done is better than perfect. So they sit and wait and wait and wait and they're like I'm around the blog and then I'm gonna revise it again, I'm gonna revise it again and that's later. It's still not out there and not only that.

Speaker 2:

Like I mean a lawyer, they read and write a lot. I'm sure you know most of law school was just reading and writing and setting up cases and all of that, but that does not make you the right person to write a blog. A blog is as you said. It's an art form and copywriters understand how to take the information and the knowledge that you know and make it into something digestible for average Joes like us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, someone's going to want to read and something's going to want to read. Yeah, for lawyers who don't think that they need a marketing plan. Going back to them. What do you think the number one, the biggest risk that they're taking is for not need a marketing plan. Go back to them.

Speaker 2:

What do you think the number one, the biggest risk that they're taking is for not having I think they're gonna throw money at the wall and not not know what they're even throwing money at, because a plan also organizes what you have planned on your budget and you know this month I'm spending x amount and you know, so on and so on, and if you have something coming up in july, if you're just kind of willy-nilly all over the place doing stuff, you're not keeping track of what's going on, what you've done, how much you've spent, and it can just end up being chaos.

Speaker 2:

And you know, you ask someone at the end of the year like, what did you do marketing wise?

Speaker 3:

and it's like oh, I did all these things and nothing worked.

Speaker 2:

And it's like, well, you didn't really plan for it.

Speaker 3:

You just kind of said, oh, look something, throw money at it yeah, you can't be angry at anyone but yourself at the end of that right, it's like you go and you hire someone, or you have someone helping you build a marketing plan. They're already going to bring a form of organization that you lack because you don't have a marketing plan, and so like you're able to either troubleshoot hell, get mad at them, Like I mean.

Speaker 3:

but at the end of the year, if you don't have a marketing plan, the only person that you can be mad, angry, confused with is yourself, because you lack that. You lacked the planning, the organization and the operation of it.

Speaker 1:

How far out should you plan a marketing plan?

Speaker 2:

I would say you have a loose 12 month plan and then you really firm up your quarters. So you know, the 90 days out should be firm, very firm. And then you can change things out because, the other thing. Marketing is dynamic and things do tend to change. So, you know you could have tried something, or you had a strategy that was going on January and February and it may change July and August, or you may want to put something else in place of that or something. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

What would you consider being like the bare minimum for a marketing plan, Because obviously you said that we have a lot going on in Q1. That might ruffle some, you know it might shake some people's bones? Yeah, because they're like oh my gosh, like I need to have a lot going on. Well, yes or no?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're a marketing agency, so we have a lot going on we market ourselves. Yeah, we're a marketing agency, so we have a lot going on, we market ourselves. And so I would think for within the legal space, your bare minimum is that online digital presence, having a newsletter, without a doubt, like looking at our list of things that we offer. That would be the bare minimum for me for the recommendation shunter client. Like you need to have a newsletter, you need to keep in touch with your, your core audience.

Speaker 3:

You have a contact list and they're just sitting there yeah, an evergreen plan to stay top of mind so that people know you exist, they know you're out there. Um, so I would definitely say have your evergreen stuff that's always on and always going, but maybe on a quarterly, have like some type of quarterly initiative as a lawyer, I mean you're you're busy.

Speaker 3:

People have to go to court constantly, or they constantly have meetings or they're traveling. Maybe it's like once a quarter you know you want to network, put that on your plan. Maybe it's like once a month. You know you want to do a webinar or something. You know have something bare bones, but always have an evergreen going so that you know you're not turned off at any point yeah, exactly, you're kind of just doing marketing in your sleep, yeah, so this time, of year is, you know, is always seen as well.

Speaker 1:

I would say this time of year and like January right, are always seen as those refresh you know times and whatnot. Is this the perfect time to start a marketing plan, or any time now?

Speaker 3:

is the best time, because I mean I think a little late, but, yes, do now, before january one it's like what I was planned three months ago.

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah no I think now is the best time, I mean even in my personal life. Now is the time where most people start looking at what do I want to achieve in 2025? What do I want for my personal growth, for my family, and I have a list already. That's like these are the things I want to accomplish in 2025. And I'm getting ready because January 1st the plan starts. So if you start planning in January 1st, the plan starts. So if you start planning in January 1st, then you've lost a month.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. So let's, let's end here with a fun question. It's going to really work on that creative, creative minds here. Okay, so the Grinch has become a lawyer, all right.

Speaker 2:

Jim Carrey Grinch. Whichever Grinch comes to your head, right.

Speaker 1:

Because you know my kids prefer the cartoon.

Speaker 3:

Not the original cartoon like the newer one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't know why I mean the Jim Carrey one is by far the greatest. Although the original one is pretty good too, but anyways. So the Grinch has become a lawyer. Okay, and you're tasked with creating a marketing plan, let's just do Q1, right? Okay, you've got to do the whole year.

Speaker 3:

What kind of?

Speaker 1:

marketing activities very specific to Grinch.

Speaker 2:

We all know Grinch, what's his objective To steal Christmas. His objective, well, no, he already stole Christmas, right, yeah, it's Q1. He's already done that you know.

Speaker 3:

He's trying to turn a leaf right.

Speaker 1:

Because he apologized, he brought his presents back.

Speaker 3:

His heart's all big now. That's right, that's right. So his brand right is.

Speaker 1:

You know his heart is. He's got a big heart now and his objective is for Q1, is just to get as much outreach as possible because he's starting fresh.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's almost like saving face a little bit for the people that didn't come to the town square and sing kumbaya with the rest of the who's right, right right he needs to reach all these people that's right and he needs to see his email address oh for sure you know definitely needs a newsletter yeah, for sure yeah, he definitely needs to write some blogs so that he can, you know, express how you know, the hot three times its size feels and all the things he wants to do.

Speaker 3:

Maybe he should get some social proof, some consistent social media so that people know he's not falling off the wagon.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he has a consistent presence, oh, presence.

Speaker 3:

Some video cues no, no, no he can't have a consistent presence.

Speaker 2:

That's a trigger word for the.

Speaker 1:

Grinch, anything else before we close up here, anything that we didn't talk about, anything that kind of comes to mind.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I think the biggest thing is is the speed of the leader, is the speed of the team. And if you want a mechanism, there it is, you know. So, whatever pace you're going at on creating this marketing plan or running your business or the success that you're wanting, you better make sure that your speed matches your objective at the end of it. Yeah or otherwise, once again, you're gonna be sitting there mad at the end of it, and the only person you'd be mad at is yourself.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, yeah, you're gonna get lost left behind, yeah, so the first, the start that everyone listening here, if they haven't created one, their start is number one identify their objective.

Speaker 3:

Correct Objectives.

Speaker 1:

No more objectives. Know where you want to go. Yep.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Well, I appreciate you guys being on the podcast.

Speaker 1:

This was a fun one and I'm sure you'll be on future podcasts as well, cool.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

And everybody listening, thanks for listening and have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.