When it Comes to Business Growth and Law Firm Marketing - Choose Profitability
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A recent posting on Market Watch said, “If it isn’t a recession, it sure feels like one.”
It does not matter what financial analysts label the current economy. What matters is that credit is more difficult to get, new clients may be harder to find and existing clients may be slower to pay.
Yet it is still possible to flourish today.
The key is to make choices that make sense (whether in business growth or law firm marketing efforts).
Below are some choices I recommend.
Choose profitability. There are times to set aside profitability in order to invest in the growth of your law firm. And there are times (like today) when you need to maintain cash flows.
If you cannot grow AND increase profitability at the same time, choose profitability.
Focus on profitability. Ensuring that your firm survives (and perhaps flourishes) in down times means you may need for deemphasize less profitable parts of the “business” of your firm.
To do that, consider the following questions:
- What areas of practice are the most profitable? Deemphasize those that are less revenue-rich.
- Which are your highest margin clients? Is it time to pass on those clients who require a great deal of resources but deliver little in revenue and referrals?
- Review outgoing expenses – services, law firm marketing tactics, personnel. Those that do not increase profitability may need to be cut or replaced.
Invest in law firm marketing, but only the sort of law firm marketing from which you can see a solid line between action and income.
To do that, track the response rate you get from individual law firm marketing activities, and then choose wisely.
For example, if you invest your law firm marketing dollars in law firm directories, track the number of new clients and associated revenue you gained via this medium.
If the answer is “very few new clients” or the revenue from them does not warrant the investment made, it may be time to reduce your participation or replace that law firm marketing tactic with another.
The bottom line
Those business growth and law firm marketing activities that are not paying off should either be modified to increase the margin, reduced to a minimum allowable level or replaced with another provider or tactic.
