The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to take control of your career by developing a practical, step-by-step marketing plan to guide your business development and marketing activities throughout the year. Commit to making 2014 a more strategic, deliberate year for your marketing efforts. Five reasons why young lawyers should create a marketing plan and budget for 2014 are:
1. To “map” and drive business development direction. It’s tough, if not impossible, to track progress in your marketing efforts without a written, well-conceived plan which concisely states your objectives, who you are (or should be) trying to reach, and what you are realistically trying to achieve within a given timeframe.
2. To avoid spending foolishly. In these challenging economic times, lawyers cannot afford to spend marketing dollars unwisely, on an ad hoc basis. Each expenditure should be a part of a cohesive plan. Make every dollar work hard and be measurable towards your stated goals.
3. To bring focus to your marketing efforts. A thoughtful marketing plan and budget will help you be more effective in your marketing activities on a day-to-day basis if there are benchmarks of what you are trying to achieve and for whom.
Lawyers should spend most marketing dollars and, more importantly, time, on initiatives which will result in actually achieving measurable goals such as:
1. Developing a strong network of business contacts;
2. Increasing name recognition among prospects and prospective referral sources;
3. Targeting new clients.
4. A Marketing Plan and Budget Creates Measurable Objectives to Evaluate Success. How will you evaluate if it has been a successful year? Will it depend upon management’s subjective memories or can you devise measurable objectives to compare results against? How will you determine where to focus future marketing efforts and dollars if you don’t know if a given initiative worked as designed?
5. A Marketing Plan and Budget Demonstrates Your Commitment to Your Business – Realistically, if you can’t (or won’t) dedicate focused thought and energy to develop a solid marketing plan and budget to develop business, how can you expect your business results to improve?
As lawyers confront fierce competitive forces day after day, is there really anything more important to the success of your practice than to plan for its success?
To learn the requisite concrete habits you must develop to become the rainmaker you are meant to be, click the buton below for a free download of Top Habits of Successful Rainmakers. Do it today!