Episode 37 What’s the right amount to budget for marketing?

This week Oscar and Scott discuss how to decide how much to put into your marketing budget. While industry surveys report that law firms average between 1.5-3% of gross revenue for marketing, Oscar and Scott discus how the numbers can be deceptive. Firstly, the surveys usually involve big law firms so the numbers will not be applicable to solo or small firm practitioners.

Before deciding how much to spend, you have to decide who your target audience is and where can you reach them. Spending money on marketing without a precise game plan as to what kind of business you seek to attract is just throwing money out the window. The hosts also discuss that you should take parts of your current budget that you may not consider to be marketing but which should be used to develop your practice so that the numbers involved are applicable to a marketing budget. For example:

• Bar association dues
• CLE classes
• Tickets to certain fundraisers
• And of course – your website costs

All of these items should be keyed toward developing business and are proper items to include in your marketing budget.