A Template for Your Strategic Marketing Plan

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BUILDING YOUR STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN

Youre already doing it positioning your law firm for new business growth. Perhaps you find

networking at community events beneficial, or have created a knockout Web site, or maybe you use anonline listing to target potential clients. So marketing your practice is already in progress.

This Strategic Marketing Plan shell is designed to support and strengthen your marketing efforts. Fill inthis structured outline to formalize your plans for growth. By setting clear objectives, expectations, andthe course of your marketing program, youll be able to judge the effectiveness of your marketinginvestment and recalibrate as necessary.

To use this Strategic Marketing Plan document: simply add or cut and paste your specific firm and marketinformation. Whether you work on this plan alone or as a team, its a good idea to distribute to keymembers of your law firm in order to ensure consistency in your marketing approach. Refer to thisdocument on a regular basis as your marketing plans evolve.

Best wishes as you map your continued success.

Strategic Marketing Plan

Your Firm Name Here

Date:

Author: Your Name Here

Strategic Marketing 2


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Table of Contents Page

Financial Summary & Marketing Budget..................................................2

Situation Analysis......................................................................................3Strategic Objective.....................................................................................3

Marketing Strategy.....................................................................................4

Promotional Marketing Mix........................................................................4



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Financial Summary and Marketing Budget

Law Firm Financial OutlookReview and summarize your past, current, and planned law firm financials. Explain reasons for growth ordecline. What internal or external factors are contributing to your situation? Do you require additional

resources or human capital to achieve your goals?

Firm Tracking 2004 2005 2006 04-05 CAGR* 05-06 CAGR*

Revenue $00.00 $00.00 $00.00 00% 00%

*CAGR Compounded Annual Growth Rate

Law Firm Marketing Budget and ResultsBriefly summarize your current marketing budget. How do you determine your spend on marketingprograms? Is current-level spend appropriate or is additional marketing funding required to meet yourbusiness development goals?

Summarize financial results from current marketing programs and set return on investment (ROI) goals.Is your return greater than your total investment? Do you have a formal way to track and report in-comingcases as a result of your marketing programs? How can you improve your internal process for collectinginformation about the way new clients have located your practice?

Marketing Tracker & ROI Calculator 2004 2005 2006

Total Marketing Spend(E.g.: Print Advertising, Web Site, Online Marketing, ClientSeminars, Directory Listings)

$00.00 $00.00 $00.00

# New Clients(From Marketing Efforts)

00 00 00

Total New Client Revenue

(From Marketing Efforts) $00.00 $00.00 $00.00

Return on Marketing Investment(Total New Client Revenue/Total Marketing Spend)

0:1 0:1 0:1



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Situation Analysis

Assess your current marketing situation. Try to answer these questions by focusing on any keytrends, market opportunities, or lessons-learned that might help shape the direction of your marketingplan.

OverviewWhat are you doing now to generate new clients? How well it is it working? What are you doing well?What needs improvement? Have you achieved the goals youve set for your firm so far?

CompetitionWhat is the competition doing? How is the competition affecting your business?

CustomersAre you landing the types of clients that you want? What could you do to better reach the types ofprospects that you are most interested in?

Strategic Objective

Set objectives. A clear vision of your goals and objectives will give you more than just direction. It willgive you a marketing framework that you can build your law firm around. Be clear, be specific, and set atime frame for implementation.

Think about the following items as you construct a strategic marketing statement for your firm:

What business goals are you working to achieve?

What is your timeframe to meet specific milestones?

Samplesthese are just starting points, feel free to expand explanations to several paragraphs asnecessary:

Scenario 1: At the Miles & Summer law firm we primarily handle divorce cases. We aim to shift andexpand the structure of our practice in order to take on an additional 30% of cases based in real estate.We anticipate that this will be a two year processgrowing the number of real estate cases steadily overthat period.

Scenario 2: We have recently added two new associates at the Miles & Summer law firm. As a result ofthe additional manpower we are expecting a 40% boost in law firm revenue over a three year period. Inyear one, we expect to see a 10% lift as the new associates become acclimated, in years 2 and 3 weenvision steady growth to reach the 40% mark.



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Marketing Strategy

Determine your marketing strategy. Focus on details as you summarize your marketing strategy. Whois your target market? How will you distinguish your firm from your competitors? What type of brand will

you have? How will your firm be positioned? Consider the following:

Target Customers: Who are your new business targets as you strive to reach your strategicmarketing objective: new clients, current and former clients, other attorneys in and outside ofyour practice area, or other professionals, contacts and centers of influence within yourcommunity?

Brand Positioning: Decide on the nature of your brand. What kind of personality will youpresent to the world? How do you want clients to feel emotionallywhen they relate to you? Howwill they recognize you? How will they remember you?

Competitive Stance: What Is Your Unique Marketing Advantage (UMA)? One of the mostpowerful forces in marketing is the ability to differentiate yourself from your competitors. In asentence or two, state a compelling reason why a client should hire you instead of going to the

firm across the street. That becomes your UMA. Key Initiatives: What are the top five key initiatives that you must implement this year to drive

your law firm business growth forward? These initiatives can include your branding direction,marketing outreach, pricing positioning, new directions for the law firm like adding additionallawyers or paralegals, or a shift in location.

Promotional Marketing Mix

Identify your promotional marketing mix. Specifically, what methods will you use to grow your firm?Some examples are advertising, Internet, public relations and seminars. How will these tactics tie directlyinto your marketing strategy and key initiatives?

1. Online marketing (such as Web site content or upgrades, search engine optimization, onlinebanners and sponsorships)

2. Print or online legal directories

3. Print or online yellow pages

4. Client meals and entertainment

5. Event sponsorships/community events

6. Giving or hosting seminars

7. Public relations/media outreach/writing articles

8. Local or outdoor advertising (such as local billboards, print ads, TV, or radio ads)



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10 Ways Social Media Could Be Benefitting Your Law FirmPosted on March 18, 2013 byStephen Fairley

When it comes to marketing, I believe in measuring everything. The

conundrum many marketers have when it comes to social media is how

to measure it since social media delivers as many if not more intangibles

than it does tangible things like clicks, likes and visits.

If your law firm is already participating in social media, you may want to

consider these 10 ways that your firm could already be benefitting:

1. Brand building. Since social media is your unfiltered voice, you havea great opportunity to build your brand.

2. Community. Social media is all about cultivating a community and

engaging in a dialogue with prospects and clients who will tell you what they need and want from your firm. This is a

great way to gather meaningful market research.

3. Exposure. I talk about the Law of 7 all the time it takes a minimum of 7 exposures for a prospect to decide to

make a purchase. Social media gives you a number of different avenues for getting repeat exposure.

4. Authority. Social media helps you establish authority in your area of practice.

5. Influence. As you build your authority, your influence grows and the larger the audience, the greater the

influence.

6. Traffic. Social media drives traffic to your website or blog, giving you an opportunity to gather contact information

so you can engage directly with prospects.

7. Relevance. Prospects and clients are already checking to see if you are represented in social media whether or

not you realize it. You risk being viewed as behind the times if you are not engaging them on major social media

sites.

8. Mindshare. You will probably never know how you are affecting people on social media, but you can bet you wonthave any chance of gaining mindshare if you dont engage at all.

9. One-up your competitors. There are lots of lawyers who are still not participating in social media, which provides

you with a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

http://www.therainmakerblog.com/2013/03/articles/law-firm-marketing-1/10-ways-social-media-could-be-benefitting-your-law-firm/http://therainmakerinstitute.com/team.htmlhttp://therainmakerinstitute.com/team.htmlhttp://www.therainmakerblog.com/2013/03/articles/law-firm-marketing-1/10-ways-social-media-could-be-benefitting-your-law-firm/http://therainmakerinstitute.com/team.html


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10. Big wins. If a social media contact refers you on a big case or you get a call from a major media outlet to

comment on something youve posted, thats a big win. They dont happen often, but when they do, they make your

social media investment incredibly worthwhile.


A Template for Your Strategic Marketing Plan

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