Featured · Strategy
Writing a law firm marketing plan that gets approved and used
Most law firm marketing plans are too long to be used and too vague to be wrong. Thirty pages of goals, personas and channel overviews get presented once, approved out of politeness, and never opened again — which is a reasonable fate for a document that commits the firm to nothing.
A plan that survives contact with a partnership is short, specific and falsifiable. It names the matters, the numbers and the money, and it is written so that in twelve months anybody can say plainly whether it worked.
The seven sections that earn their place
Two pages. Everything below is either a decision or a number, and anything that is neither has been cut.
Target matters. The three or four matter types you want more of this year, with the value of each. Everything downstream is chosen against this list.
Current position. Where enquiries came from last year and what they cost, honestly, including the ones nobody recorded properly.
The objective. One number: instructed matters by type, or cost per instructed matter, with a figure attached.
The channels. Which ones, doing what, and explicitly which you are not funding this year.
The budget. Split by channel and by quarter, with the internal cost shown alongside the external spend.
The constraint. The thing most likely to stop this working — usually intake, capacity or approval speed — and who owns fixing it.
The review points. Dates, and what would cause you to change course at each.
The two sections firms omit are the last two, and they are the ones that make the plan usable. A plan with no named constraint is a wish, and a plan with no review dates cannot be wrong, which means it cannot be right either.
Naming what you will not fund is equally load-bearing. It is the only part that gives whoever runs this the standing to decline a partner's enthusiasm in April.
Why plans get approved and ignored
The failure modes are consistent, and every one of them is visible in the document before it is signed off.
Objectives that cannot be measured — raise our profile, become known for commercial work — which nobody can ever declare failed.
Every practice area included, because excluding one would have required a conversation with a partner.
A channel list with no budget attached, so the allocation is settled later by whoever asks first.
No baseline, so there is nothing to compare the year against.
Written by one person and never argued about, which means it has consensus in appearance only.
And no owner named, so at the first busy month the plan becomes nobody's responsibility.
Writing it, and running the year
The writing is a week's work at most. The value comes from the arguments it forces before the money is spent rather than after.
Start from the matters, not the channels. Which work do you want, and what is it worth.
Establish the baseline honestly, including the enquiries that were never recorded. An approximate baseline beats none.
Set one primary number. Firms that set five end up managing to whichever is easiest.
Decide what you are not doing, and write it down where partners will see it.
Show the internal cost next to the external spend, so the plan reflects what it will actually consume.
Circulate it for disagreement before approval, and treat objections as free information about what will be blocked later.
Review quarterly against the review points you set, and record the decision taken each time — including the decision to change nothing.
Rewrite it annually from evidence rather than editing last year's document, which tends to preserve last year's assumptions.
A two-page plan that names the matters, the number, the money and the constraint will outperform a thirty-page document in every respect that matters, including the likelihood of anybody reading it in June.
FAQs
How long should a law firm marketing plan be?
Two pages. Everything in it should be either a decision or a number; anything that is neither is commentary. Thirty-page plans get approved out of politeness and never reopened, largely because they commit the firm to nothing.
What sections does the plan need?
Target matters with values, current position and baseline, one measurable objective, the channels including those you are not funding, the budget by channel and quarter with internal cost shown, the constraint most likely to stop it, and dated review points.
What do firms most often leave out?
The constraint and the review points. A plan with no named constraint is a wish, and one with no review dates cannot be shown to have failed — which also means it cannot be shown to have worked.
Why does naming what you will NOT fund matter?
It is the only part of the document that gives whoever runs marketing the standing to decline a partner's enthusiasm in April. Without it, the allocation gets settled by whoever asks first and loudest.
Should we edit last year's plan or start again?
Start again from evidence. Editing preserves last year's assumptions invisibly, and the point of the annual cycle is to test whether those assumptions survived contact with the year.
End Note
The value of a marketing plan is not the document. It is the arguments the document forces — about which work the firm actually wants, what it will decline, and who owns the thing most likely to stop it.
Have those arguments in a week, write the two pages, set the review dates, and rewrite it from evidence next year.
Key Takeaways
Two pages. Every line is a decision or a number.
Start from the matters you want, never from the channel list.
Set one primary number — firms with five manage to the easiest.
Name the constraint and the review dates, or the plan cannot be wrong.
Write down what you are NOT funding, where partners will see it.
