Your firm might be the best at what it does but if the public doesn't know about you, it’ll never reach its true potential.
Morgan & Morgan built a multi-billion-dollar brand by marketing our credibility, results, and client service. Across 125+ offices and channels including TV, out-of-home, search, and social, we influence potential clients to consider us their first choice when facing a legal issue.
Whether your marketing challenge is limited by resources, infrastructure challenges, or dependence on agencies or third parties, you don’t need a nine-figure budget to get results. You need the right people on your team.
Budgeting for a Marketing Team
An in-house team needs to be held accountable for growth. They should be a return-on-investment (ROI) driver whose success is measured by business outcomes agreed upon with the finance team.
The size of your marketing team will depend on what percentage of revenue will be set aside for investment. Some large enterprises spend just 5% while startups often spend up to 100% of revenue on client acquisition.
Budgeting also needs to be balanced to cover three components: headcount, media costs, and asset production. If the best talent is brought in but there isn’t enough support to maximize their work via advertising or production, your team will fall short because the message isn’t far-reaching. The opposite scenario of having a large amount of media, but little intelligence or strategy to utilize it effectively will also lead to waste and poor results.
Choosing the Right Leader
An effective leader articulates their beliefs clearly and presents them in a way that the rest of their team shares those convictions. Morgan & Morgan’s organization is designed around a leadership group who are experts in their respective subjects and convey and motivate others to fulfill their vision.
The first quality to seek in a candidate is someone who understands your brand and its clients. This person should be aligned with your vision of how the firm can stand out in a competitive landscape and if not, effectively challenge your ideas via productive conflict. The strategies they build should showcase their command of your consumer base and why your services are the best fit.
Another criteria to assess is their business acumen for understanding and driving business. They must understand how other department’s successes are tied to marketing and be able to get critical buy-in. This person needs to translate marketing jargon into real-world value so that the collective group succeeds.
A dedicated owner for your marketing program will share the burden of growth and treat client acquisition as a priority.
Setting Goals
Once you’ve determined how your firm needs to grow and have marketing professionals at the ready, OKRs and KPIs need to be established to measure everyone’s efforts.
OKR: Objectives and Key Results
KPI: Key Performance Indicator
OKR is a desired goal or outcome e.g. increase personal injury clients by 10% year over year or be appointed as lead counsel in a mass tort.
KPI measures progress against that OKR. Typical KPIs are:
- cost per call
- cost per intake
- intake to retainer conversion rate
- ROAS: return on advertising spend
Assembling Your A-Team
When building the org chart, consider how involved attorneys or ownership will be and what responsibilities will be shared or withheld from marketing. Common functions to build around include:
Media: advertising responsibilities; a mix of traditional and digital media buyers who effectively extract value from money spent.
PR: leverages media coverage to increase brand awareness across local and national markets.
Creative: conceptualizes, designs, and produces client-facing assets.
Email: creates and distributes communications for prospecting and retention.
Social: creates, manages, and responds to content within social media networks.
Analytics: responsible for understanding how efforts are measured; provides business intelligence
An ideal team will be built around your firm, considering factors such as firm size and competitive landscape. For example, your firm might have a great story but you’ll likely need a media strategist to amplify and invest dollars more efficiently instead of having a creative director. On the contrary, a small firm starting out against legacy brands with big budgets will need a brand storyteller to assist with differentiation and operate with guerilla marketing tactics on social media. Even an established firm, mature in storytelling and media, may benefit from an outsider’s perspective.
In the same way, if your firm pivots from a single office to multi-office/cities/regions, marketing needs to evolve to the next growth stage. The plan for winning a town is different from winning a state.
Work with your marketing leader to construct a team tailored to your needs. Getting an outside perspective from agencies or consultants can also be helpful. Uncovering what you don’t know will help with your decision-making.
In-House or Agency Route?
Deciding between building your own team or hiring a third party depends on your risk tolerance. It’s like buying vs. renting a home; ownership requires more commitment and is more expensive upfront but you gain control and a foundation to build on.
An in-house team means having a center of excellence that accumulates knowledge and skills; as your firm matures, so does this group. Developing culture and chemistry will pay off greater in the long run like a well-maintained home’s equity: there’s a higher ROI when you’ve invested into exactly what you need.
Hiring an agency trades control for flexibility. Agencies are compensated on a negotiated monthly retainer or percentage of media spent, typically with 30-60-day opt-outs. The biggest advantage is having immediate access to experts and pricing flexibility. The right agency will deliver immediate results and contribute to your firm’s marketing knowledge. Gaining validation of theories, industry data, and competitive knowledge can provide a strong piece of mind.
Drawbacks may include treating the agency like an outsider and not developing a rhythm that can match the pace of an in-house team due to guarded information, lack of transparency, or inefficient approval processes. There will likely be more churn with talent, either with agency employees resigning or being laid off, and little control over the agency’s personnel. Your firm may not be the agency’s biggest priority either. To maximize their efforts, ensure you have an internal owner for the marketing program.
Conclusion
Marketing is a crucial function that grows business when executed well. Assembling a high-performing marketing team is a strategic decision that requires careful consideration of your goals, resources, and market position. Whether you choose an in-house team or an agency, align marketing OKRs with your firm's objectives and ensure every dollar spent is accountable. Investing in strong leadership, setting clear and measurable goals, and allocating a budget that reflects your ambitions will position your firm to lead its market and reach new heights.
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