Staffing the Law Firm Marketing Department: Do You Rent or Do You Buy?

In my last column, I said that asking how many people you need in your law firm marketing department is the wrong question: you need to know what you want to achieve and how quickly you want to see results. I also said that the key marketing appointment is the person who is going to lead the charge, whether that person is a lawyer in the firm, a staff person, or a consultant. The important thing is to have someone making the decisions, based on a goal. 

Once you know what you want to do, finding the kind of help you need will be much easier. However, there is one further question to be asked: do we rent or do we buy? I’m often asked what marketing roles “must” be in-house and what can be outsourced. If the relationships are well maintained, just about any role can be outsourced, although law firm administrators usually feel more comfortable with event planning and management of the firm’s contact list being maintained in-house. 

If you need a significant degree of independent strategic thought, creativity, research, or advice, look outside. If your need is temporary, look outside. If your need is fulltime, ongoing, and operational, then you should hire. Once strategy, content and design have been decided, execution and maintenance can be done well in-house.

Rent…?

Now let’s translate that into marketing activities. You might hire a consultant or an agency to produce a strategic plan, a redesign/rebranding campaign, research on new markets, or advice on any of the above. 

Single services, like copywriting, website development or graphic design, can be productively outsourced, provided they are managed by someone who has the big picture of what the firm is trying to achieve and what has been asked of other service providers. Working with professional writers and designers is important if you want your marketing materials to represent you well. There’s a tendency to think that anyone can write, and anyone who knows how to use computer design programs can design. But think of your reputation: law firms can’t afford to look like amateurs, which you will if you use amateur writers and designers.

If you are opening a new office, or forming a new practice group, or merging and changing names, you might want to undertake a concerted media blitz for a defined time period. That would lend itself well to outsourcing to a PR consultant. 

These external relationships work best when service providers are well informed about the firm and its target markets, and kept up to date on new developments.

….or Buy?

Your marketing initiatives will produce better results and cause less disruption to the billable hour if you have the following capabilities in-house:

• Event coordination
• List maintenance
• Website updating
• Coordination with consultants, agencies, and other suppliers (including maintaining budget and inventory)

These functions do not have to stand alone. If you have a good website content management system and someone acting as the editor (this function can be outsourced), several staff people can—and should—be trained to update your website. One of them might also be able to update the database and run events, depending on how many you hold and how many people you invite. 

When I’ve worked in-house, I’ve always wanted on my team that indispensible someone who’s been at the firm for a while, knows how to get things done quickly, knows how the mailroom works, and has good relationships throughout the firm. 

Regardless of whether you rent or buy, marketing professionals thrive on two things: time and information. Involve your marketing people from the outset, tell them what you want to achieve, and give them as much information as you can about the type of client you’re trying to reach.

In my next article, I’ll discuss how to get the most out of working with consultants.