5 Steps to Mastering Your 2024 Law Firm Marketing Budget

Master your law firm marketing budget for maximum ROI

One of the most important and often frustrating tasks for law firm marketing professionals is creating and managing the firm’s marketing budget. You need to ensure you have the funds to accomplish your marketing goals and use those funds effectively to generate new business for the firm. With so many different factors to consider, budgeting can be a daunting task. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help you master your marketing budget for maximum ROI.

Step 1: Look Back Then Move Forward

Before planning your budget for the upcoming year, look back at the previous year. What worked and what didn’t? Did you accomplish everything you set out to do? If not, why not? By looking at your past performance, you can identify where you need to make changes and where you can build on your successes.

Step 2: Define Your Spending Categories

Next, define the categories that your budget will cover. These categories will vary depending on your firm and your marketing goals. Still, some common types include web and SEO, social media spend, events, sponsorships, individual budgets for the lawyers, business development, and more.

Step 3: Allocate Your Funds

Once you’ve defined your categories, it’s time to start allocating your funds. This is where things can get tricky, as you must balance your budget across all your categories while ensuring you have enough funds for each. Consider marketing goals, ROI, and historical performance to help guide your decisions.

Step 4: Take Inventory and Take it Again

With your budget allocated, it’s time to take inventory of what you have and need. This includes everything from marketing technology to data to staff resources. By taking stock, you can identify where you need to invest and where you can cut back.

Step 5: Establish and Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Finally, set key performance indicators (KPIs) for each category in your budget. This will help you measure the success of your marketing efforts and ensure that you’re achieving your goals. Your KPIs should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Level up: Maximize Your Marketing ROI with CRM

Following these five steps, you can create a marketing budget to set you up for success. Remember to review and adjust your budget regularly, and always look for ways to optimize your spending. With the right approach, you can ensure your marketing budget works as hard for your firm as you do. For additional budget considerations and to learn how CRM can help, watch our on-demand webinar, “Budget Season 2024: How to Maximize Your Marketing ROI with CRM,” featuring law firm CRM expert Jennifer Whittier.

Maximize Your Marketing ROI with CRM

Law firms of all sizes use ContactEase CRM from SurePoint to share important business development information and understand the activities that lead to new business. With an industry-leading adoption rate and seamless Outlook integration, lawyers love ContactEase because it’s easy to use. Law firm marketers love it because it’s easy to show results. Connect with one of our law firm CRM experts and learn how to make every dollar of your marketing budget count.

About SurePoint Technologies

SurePoint® Technologies is the leading provider of award-winning enterprise software that improves workflow and maximizes financial performance and profitability for law firms nationwide. Its distinctive cloud platform integrates client management, practice management, and financial management for powerful relationship-building and knowledge-sharing capability. With a community of more than 100,000 members, SurePoint continues to transform the legal industry by enabling law firms to unlock higher performance, freeing lawyers of administrative burdens so they can spend more time focusing on their clients and their practices.

Learn more at https://surepoint.com.