Count The Cost Of Creating Before You Start Building: Funding Your Marketing Plan
We know from extensive research that it takes at the very least 7-10 meaningful touches to move someone through the sales process to get them to the point where they are ready to buy from you.
If your marketing plan only has enough steam in it to produce five meaningful touches, it will be as if you had never touched them at all.
5 touches aren't enough to break through past all of the marketing efforts made by other attorneys vying for your potential client's time and money... including your biggest competitors.
Don't let those clients slip through your fingers by short changing your own marketing efforts. Which brings us to the question - How much is enough to invest in your marketing efforts? There are several questions to consider before you get your answer:
What practice area are you in? Some practice areas require significantly more time and money to market (litigation and personal injury to mention two).
What are your profit margins? The larger your margins, the more you can invest on marketing and new business development. Some practice areas have bigger profit margins (litigation) while others are notoriously lower (residential real estate).
What are your annual revenues? It is not unusual for successful law firms to spend between 15 percent and 40 percent of their annual revenues on marketing.
Are you targeting other businesses or individual consumers? Anytime you are marketing directly to consumers, your marketing budget must be bigger because of the intense competition for consumer's pocketbooks.
What is the size of your competitors? Obviously, trying to take market share from Wal-mart as opposed to a beauty salon would require a much bigger marketing budget. Analyze your competition; what marketing materials do they put out? How are they positioning their firm?
How sophisticated are your competitors when it comes to marketing? Typical companies in service-based industries and professional services (like law firms) are a lot less sophisticated than other industries.
How much time can you devote toward your marketing plan? The more time you can devote, the less money you have to spend. For example, if you use direct marketing, and are able to follow up with a phone call, you spend less on mailing costs.
Are you marketing directly to the end user or through a referral source? Marketing to the end user of your services is more difficult than working through an established marketing channel like a referral source.
How long is the typical marketing-cycle? How long does it take a prospective client to make a decision after they have all the information they need? The longer the cycle, the more money you spend staying in touch while they contemplate their decision.
What's the geographical size of your prospect base? For many professional service firms, like doctors, lawyers and accountants, it is usually limited from five to 25 square miles.
What is your average fee per client? $500? $5,000? $500,000? $5 million? Services less than $500 require different marketing strategies than $5,000 services. Typically, higher fees require you to provide additional evidence as to your credibility, and necessitates the need to educate your client as to the benefits of hiring your firm.
What's the lifetime value of your average client? How much does your average client spend with you over a given time frame?
- When you have that final number you know how much you can afford to spend on landing each client before it negatively affects your profit margins.
- Alternately, If your average client only uses your services once and never returns, then you will need to use lower cost marketing strategies to reach them.
- Consider factors to increase the value of each client. For example, developing simple, yet seemingly extraordinary customer service strategies will extend the "life" of a client and create referrals, thus increasing their value.
Once you have had a chance to review and analyze these variables for your firm, I invite you to immediately TAKE ACTION by using the information you gather to complete or revise your marketing plan in the next 30 days.
If you would like more direction in writing or implementing your marketing plan contact me for additional resources.
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