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You may be looking for or thinking about
developing a Law Firm Marketing Plan. I am sure I can help you with
that on this page.
"Strategy without tactics is the
slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before
defeat." Sun Tzu who was a military genius of ancient China and
author of The Art Of War which is the oldest military treatise
currently known.
Some people
may confuse a Strategic Plan, a Business Plan and a Marketing Plan. Your
law firm marketing plan is an important part of your overall business
plan. Your Strategic Plan helps form your Marketing Plan, as you will see.
Legal Marketing
Strategic Plan
A Strategic Plan is composed of the
following:
-
The
Mission of your organization. The mission statement can be very
visionary and conceptual.
-
A "SWOT"
Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). The
SWOT analysis is you and your team listing everything you can think of
in these four areas around your current circumstances.
See more about the importance of SWOT and
Attorney Practice Assessments in marketing for law firms.
-
A Key
Strategies section – this can be global in nature.
-
Your
1, 5, and 10-year Goals - Your goals need to be specific,
measurable and reasonably attainable. Some of the goals will frame
what you put in your Law Firm Marketing Plan
A Strategic
Plan usually would be under three pages in length.
Legal Marketing
Business Plan
A Business Plan is usually a big document
that includes the Strategic Plan and the Law Firm Marketing Plan.
The Business Plan may even be massive, particularly if you want to borrow
money! Think of about 20 pages with appendices as a small Business Plan
for a solo or small firm.
-
The
Business Plan is designed first to help the owners and managers think
through everything in-depth.
-
The
Business Plan is designed secondly to communicate to all other
stakeholders (partners, potential partners/key staff, current key
staff, bankers, CPAs) the complete picture of the firm, the
current environment and how the firm will sustain itself and grow into
the future.
Law Firm Marketing
Plan
- A Law Firm Marketing Plan deals
only with the marketing issues for the firm in light of the
Strategic Plan. This marketing plan is part of the much larger Business
Plan.
The size of the plan, like the others,
depends on the size of your firm and the purpose of the marketing plan. A
solo or small firm might have a short plan of 3 pages or less as their
overall law firm marketing plan. Naturally the larger the firm the larger
the attorney marketing plan is liable to be.
It is also
possible to have a legal marketing plan that is just a one-page marketing
plan used for a single purpose as well.
Best Resources for
Your Law Firm Marketing Plan
You may be wondering where to go to get
more information about your legal marketing plan.
Sign up here to receive the 7-
week email series on Client Development, which is sent to
you at no cost, of course. You will learn more on law firm
marketing plans in that series.
Additionally you could go to www.planware.org
which has a ton of free content and "how to" including free
software.
If you need information on writing a
Business Plan, you could visit the Small Business Administration
website at http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html.
If you want law firm marketing plan
software, I think you should check out http://www.paloalto.com/ps/mp/,
which is Palo Alto Software's Marketing Plan Pro software which sells for
$99.95.
I have much more information on software
lawyer resources, so keep reading.
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