How Much to Spend on Marketing
According to the latest research by BTI Consulting Group in Boston:
- Among AmLaw 200 firms, the average budget was 2.5 percent of revenue in 2005, an increase from 2.3 percent in 2003. That worked out to an average $3.1 million. At AmLaw 100 firms, it was 2.2 percent, up from 2 percent in 2003; that corresponded to an average $9 million.
- AmLaw 100 firms dedicate nearly $56,500 per equity partner to the marketing budget. For AmLaw 200 firms that number is $33,000+ per equity partner.
- According to the survey, in 2005 law firms had 31.9 attorneys per full-time marketer in AmLaw 100 firms and 35.5 attorneys per full-time marketer at AmLaw 200 firms. Put another way, AmLaw 100 firms averaged 8.7 partners per full-time marketer and AmLaw 200 firms averaged 13 partners per full-time marketer.
The title of the study is "Benchmarking Law Firm and Business Development" and appears in the current issue of Strategies magazine (viewable by LMA members only).
As a business coach who works with law and other professional firms, I read this posting with interest.
So many law firms appear generic, without any obvious areas of specialization. I wonder what kind of marketing ROI increases they would see if they used more resources to develop their core marketing message, differentiation and marketing niche?
Here's an article that talks about all that good stuff:
http://www.business-sanity.com/articles/crucial_steps.html
As a marketing professional myself too, I also found this article very interesting. I agree on the comment made by Susan Martin. Being there so many "full-service" undifferentiated law firms out there in the market, since it is obvious that they are becoming more interested in playing a major part in the legal marketing arena, they would benefit even more from their efforts in marketing if they started positioning themselves as experts in a specific area of the legal field.