What's the ROI on Our Marketing Effort? I'm Glad You Asked

"Marketing" a law firm, to many partners (and some burned marketing directors, I can only imagine), remains in too many circles a dirty word.  Why is this, and what, if anything, can be done about it?

As someone married to a senior marketing and advertising executive, this parlous state of affairs troubles me.  Yet, undeniably, it is current reality.  Just check out this commentary on the situation in the UK, where the commentator finds the situation deeply distressing.   Example:  "Why should we do a brochure?  We're not a trade union!"   (The commentator is a marketing consultant, so doubtless eager to diagnose many nails, herself being a hammer.)

My reaction to the syndrome of marketing-in-the-doghouse in law firms is, as Cher famously said in "Moonlight," "Snap out of it!"  In other words, treat marketing as an organizational asset and competence as essential as finance, IT, or HR. 

Again I will remind you that a theme of this blog is that law firms should not, as a default condition of analysis, view themselves as intrinsically distinct from similarly sized service businesses.  So, if the question is, "Where does marketing belong [sub rosa:  if at all] in our firm?," the answer is to look at "best practices" in corporate-land.  Therefore, I commend to all managing partners and committees, and beleaguered marketing directors, this article from CMO Magazine about how to demonstrate ROI on marketing investments.  Or, guerrilla-warfare style, how to change the focus from ROI to one marketers can demonstrably win on mutually indisputable territory.

If you're still skeptical of marketing, remember this:

• "marketing" is simply information; if a potential client is unaware of your firm, its capabilities, or its relevance, they are not a potential client after all; and
• if you think marketing is only for the feeble or the otherwise challenged firms, remember the first rule of advertising:  "The worst thing you can do for a bad product is to advertise it."