With a new year comes a review of the previous year’s successes and opportunities. It makes an ideal time to evaluate the marketing efforts your firm instituted over the past year and to establish a plan to evolve them based on where you saw the most traction. Below is LawBank’s guidance on how to audit your law firm’s 2021 marketing success and plan for an even better 2022.
Step 1: Run a Full Audit of Performance Over 2021
From organic social to paid ads and beyond, run a comprehensive audit. The only way to make informed decisions is to make them based on data. Don’t look at budget spend either. Consider team time and your own time as valuable too. Sometimes it even helps to consider the minutes you spent times your average rate. This exercise is helpful for seeing what to eliminate, what to outsource, and what to invest more resources into in the near future.
Step 2: Review Tabled Ideas
To begin, it is essential to think through ideas you might have had to table in the past due to budget constraints, lack of time, or lack of staff. If these projects are still of interest, these initiatives should be the first ones added to your priorities for the new year. Make sure to allocate enough funds in your annual budget to complete them in the new year. Additionally, if you did not have the time or workforce to complete the initiatives in the previous year, make a plan to hire the support you will need to achieve this year’s goals. This can include hiring part-time administrative support or even bringing in a project-based consultant. Either route you elect to go, you must also plan this staff expense into your budget.
Step 3: Set Clear Goals
The end of the year is also the perfect opportunity to update your marketing plan for the following quarter. In addition to revisiting the initiatives you had to table in the previous year, take ample time to create a holistic marketing plan for the following year. Ensure that your plan is “SMART” —Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. This means that your plan must have specific goals or projects, and you must be able to measure their success.
For example, if your marketing plan includes creating a new LinkedIn page for your business, you should plan to post a specific number of times per week and then measure the engagement of your posts so that you can track what types of content your followers find most valuable. Your plan should also be achievable by the team you have or plan to have in place. Setting goals that are too lofty for your team will only lead to projects being pushed out another year or being completed poorly due to a lack of time or people to help execute.
Your plan should be relevant to your law practice. For example, if you practice real estate law, it would not make sense to launch campaigns in the same way a personal injury attorney would. Finally, your plan should be timely. Each project should have an end date that you can work towards and track your progress against.
Step 4: Maximize Your 2022 Budget
Running an independent business means maximizing your marketing budget, even if it is a small one. There are several ways to do this, including investing in automation, programs that support your goals, or repurposing content. For example, you can invest in base plans of tools like Hootsuite, which enables you to schedule social media posts in advance so that you do not have to spend time logging in to your business pages and posting throughout the week.
Simply set aside time at the end of each week to create and schedule your content for the following week. Once this becomes a routine, the process is quick and seamless, allowing you to spend more time billing. Another resource that saves you money is Canva. Instead of paying a graphic designer to create your graphics for social media, newsletters, or other marketing materials, you can utilize Canva to create your own, saving you significant dollars. Finally, you can and should repurpose content. If you pay a copywriter to write a blog, you can break that blog down into a series of social media posts or even include it in a client newsletter. Being a smart marketer and business owner means maximizing your budget and making your tools work for you. If you do so, you can spend your time where it is more impactful while also growing your brand.
The beginning of a new year signifies the time to create plans of action. To be successful in 2022, you should evaluate your marketing accomplishments and opportunities from 2021. Allow those insights to guide your plan for the following year. Make sure to create a plan that is “SMART,” and maximize your budget, no matter the size of it. Make your tools work for you, and if you find yourself stuck, enlist the help of marketing firms that specialize in law firm marketing, like Denver Legal Marketing.
ABOUT LAWBANK
LawBank is the premiere community for independent law firms. Offering central locations in Denver and Las Vegas, LawBank hosts a collegial, shared office environment that helps attorneys boost their practice to the next level. Members benefit from a variety of amenities, including premium conference rooms, a copy center, and a professional receptionist, all at a simple flat rate. If you are seeking a community where your solo or small practice can thrive, contact LawBank to schedule a virtual or in-person tour
Authors: Jay Kamlet and Jordan Deifik
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