Legal Marketing Blog

Although we lawyers were taught in law school that we could do brain surgery – if only the light was right, please don’t utilize a surgical knife when scrutinizing your coming year’s marketing budget.

As many investment advisors (oh yeah, we were taught we could do that too in our sleep) are telling their clients, now is a time to buy not sell. Well, for firms that want to take advantage of their competition, now is the time to avoid major surgery or selling short when it comes to the marketing budget.

Unfortunately, too many firms look at marketing as an expense, rather than as an investment in the firm’s future. Having said that, the budgeting process, if not well underway in your firm, undoubtedly will begin as year-end approaches. Michelle Golden has a few posts dealing with marketing budgets that are worth looking at:

• What’s In A Plan? Marketing Plan & Budget Development
• Plan Your Marketing Budget
• Marketing Spending on the Rise in Small Firms

The important point is to not amputate marketing from your firm’s budget at a time when your competitors are; rather, invest in your firm’s future now and let them try to catch up later.
 

Hey there Tom, thanks so much for referencing my posts. It is indeed budget season and we are hearing lots of groaning from marketers AND partners about pinches being expected. It's a good time for firms to remember that spending wisely means targeted spending (niche focused, specific prospect schmoozing, etc) and they'll get a lot more bang for their buck than with broad, sweeping ads, sponsorships and the like. Thanks again, Tom! Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

I realize that this post's title is "Now Is Not The Time To Cut Your Marketing Budget."

But I think it's a a foregone conclusion that firms will cut their marketing budgets.

The question is how deep the cuts are.

The smart firms will probably modestly cut and refocus their marketing budgets. Other firms will cut them dramatically.

yeah its kind of funny how when business slows down a little bit, companies try and cut their marketing budget, the meat and potatoes for bringing in revenue.
-jack

Thanks for the post, Tom.
It is always the marketing budgets that are cut...in all industries.

One thing we are finding, is that in order to cut marketing budgets, regular print advertising is taking a hit and firms are focusing attention on optimizing their online presence through SEO and Internet marketing. Foster Web Marketing has a great blog with ways to use social media and SEO to get the most from Web sites.

Thanks again for the post and informative blogging!