Budgeting for marketing

By Correy Stephenson Dolan Media Newswires BOSTON, MA--Despite all the financial demands solos and small firm attorneys face, it's crucial to make some room in the budget for marketing expenditures, says Jared Correia, a Senior Practice Advisor at the Law Office Management Assistance Program in Boston. Start with the basics of a budget - determine how much the firm has in the bank, and how much it costs to run the firm, and then decide how much of what remains can be spent on marketing. It may not be much, Correia acknowledges, but knowing what you have to spend and planning ahead can help focus a marketing plan. He notes that many current forms of marketing are free, including social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and blogs. However, the firm should still budget for the "soft costs" associated with these activities, such as the time spent writing blog posts and participating in trade association events. Anything that takes away from billable time should be accounted for and tracked, says Correia. Although a plan to devote a set amount of time per week may be hard for a solo or small firm practitioner to adhere to, it is important to know how your time is being spent. This can make future budgeting easier, as well as help lawyers determine if they are getting a sufficient return on their marketing investment. For example, if a lawyer spends two hours (with time billed at $100 per hour) working on a blog post that results in two new clients and a total of $1,600 in billable time, that would be a good investment, Correia says. Some free services, such as Google analytics or tweetwhen. com, can allow users to get a sense of the success of their blogging and Tweeting. But if you don't crunch the numbers and statistics, "it will be harder to decide whether or not to give certain marketing efforts more time or to let them go," he says. Correia doesn't suggest a set dollar amount or percentage of budget for marketing, noting that it depends on the circumstances of an attorney or practice. For example, James B. Reed is a partner at the four-lawyer Ziff Law Firm in Elmira, N.Y., which focuses on personal injury and medical malpractice cases. Because of the nature of the firm's practice, "our revenue is like a roller coaster, which makes annual budgeting virtually impossible," Reed says. So the firm devotes a minimum of five percent of revenue to marketing, adding more to the budget in better years. Entire contents copyrighted © 2012 by The Dolan Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is expressly forbidden. Published: Thu, Jun 7, 2012