Golden Practices

What's In a Plan? Marketing Plan & Budget Development

It’s time to create your firm’s annual marketing budget. Hopefully, you’ve already read my “part 1” post, “Plan Your Marketing Budget.” This is in response to an "Ask Michelle" Q&A post.

I'm including several of our tools and approaches...

Start with a spreadsheet that has a couple columns on the left for your initiatives by various groupings (more on that below). Then you'll need a column for Timing and one for assigning Responsible Person.

To the right of that, I recommend columns for each quarter of the year or you can do months if you want to get that micro--and then create a "total" column to the right. These columns are where you'll include any anticipated expense in the periods you expect to pay them. Not all items will have related expenses.

Your spreadsheet might look like this:

Try having high level categories for the firm, overall (this will include initiatives you cannot tie to any specific industry or service area), and then for each Practice Area (can be industry or product/service) that you are actively building or promoting.

Within each of those categories, seek to include initiatives that address each of these approaches:

1. Existing Clients. Usually the most important area of focus yet, usually, little is allocated to this area.
2. Influential People/Referral Sources. Very important, and includes current clients.
3. New Business. Where people tend to allocate the most time and $, yet somewhat less critical than the first two.
4. Marketing Infrastructure. A potentially bottomless pit of marketing expenditures – make sure to do just the things you need to support the initiatives you’ll undertake, above. Most of this work should serve to convey your firm’s credibility, value, and personality. Remember, professional services are relationship businesses, and personality overshadows technical competence.
5. Research & Development. In order to stay relevant, you have to continually reinvent some aspect of what you do. I talked about this a lot in my post "Product and Service Improvement in Your Marketing Plan?"

The initiatives you’ll include in your plan won’t all have costs associated with them, but be sure to include them, their timing, and the responsible parties, anyway. This will help accountability. It will also help the marketing department have the "What comes off our plate if we shift gears and take on this unplanned work?" discussions that frequently arise.

It's easy to come up with lots of "bottomless pit" ideas, but where ROI is strongest is where specific clients, referral sources and new businesses are reached and impressed. If you're stumped for ideas, you might find the following helpful. Some specific items you might include in your plans are identified in my charts below.

The first one depicts some R&D type items you might undertake. These are best assigned by the firm's operational management group (for buy-in and accountability), but are best carried out by practice area teams flowing down to the individuals who are/should be in touch with the affected clients/prospects.

This second chart (also making available a PDF of this as the pic is somewhat small) shows a several initiatives that you might undertake at the practice area or individual practioner level. While your marketing department can do a lot of the prep and coordination, most results ultimately come down to what the practitioner does or does not do.

This is why it is so important to include practice group and individual "big picture to dos" in the firm's marketing plan. (Their detailed "to dos" can go into their individual marketing plans). It really doesn't matter whether you start with your firm level plan and drill tasks down to a practice group, then individual level, or whether you start with individual plans and stream those items upward to practice areas and then into the firm level plan.

Firms usually find one of these ways easier to begin than the other. It all depends on your firm.

Here is that PDF...Download firm_plans.pdf

Also, I'm happy to share a plan shell in Excel. It has a few ideas sprinkled in but is very generic. You would want to add additional sections for each of your practice areas.

Download sample_marketing_plan.xls

Note the Red items are DIRECT marketing and the Green items are INDIRECT marketing. If you want your plan to generate results, plan a lot more activity in the "direct" areas!

Happy Planning!

Plan Your Marketing Budget

Q. Just wondering if you have any articles or thoughts on best practices in establishing a marketing budget -- why do it and how? (question from a law firm marketer in Des Moines, Iowa)

A. There should always be a marketing budget...even my three-person company has one.

In fact, I just checked my expenditures and they run 3-5% of current year projected revenues--the amount we generally recommend to firms in growth mode or 'get up to speed' mode.

Maintenance mode would be 2-3%. Invest at least in maintenance of basic marketing "stuff" even if business growth isn't a long term goal. You have to consider routine attrition. If you are in a project business rather than one with on-going or recurring revenue, the amount should be greater than 2-3%.

Marketing budgets should be based on marketing plans.

If there's no plan, the budget essentially becomes the plan. (Much as when firms have no strategic plan, the compensation system "becomes" the strategic plan by driving behaviors in a particular direction.)

In a firm with a marketer but without marketing plans or budgets (and there are many such firms), I honestly have no idea what drives the marketer's job description, but I'd predict the marketer is fairly frustrated wondering from day-to-day what s/he should be doing and whether s/he is having much impact. And so are the partners. (If a partner in such a firm is reading this, your marketer needs a plan--for their sanity and yours and, oh yeah--for your firm to experience progress.)

When we work with firms, we usually combine the plan, time line, and budget into a single document. This keeps things simple. We find it is usually sufficient to break the budget down by quarter--monthly is typically more detailed than necessary for firms under 200 people.

What Goes In The Plan/Budget

I prefer to spend most marketing dollars and, more importantly, time, on things that will result in actually achieving a measurable goal:

1. More business from specific existing clients
2. Specific new clients
3. Heightened awareness and increased referrals from specific referral sources

I find most firms don't normally include these three categories in their marketing budgets with the exception of periodic canned newsletters, random sporting events, and occasional client seminars.

Instead, firms allocate the bulk of their marketing dollars to the "black hole" of marketing--a category I'll call infrastructure. This category includes such items as brochures, static websites, general advertisements, announcements, newsletters, holiday cards, press/media relations, etc.

Why?

Well, I have a few theories on that. They aren't pretty.

• these items are relatively easy
• these items can be easily delegated (require little partner time)
• these items keep the marketers busy

The problem?

While these infrastructure things can be useful, even requisite, unlike the above items that require some time and attention of practitioners (for marketers cannot market in lieu of them) none of the infrastructure items can be counted on to result in measurable ROI.

UNLESS, that is, those ads, newsletters, or non-static websites involve disseminating compelling, relevant information about specific areas of expertise to very targeted audiences.

Yep. Specialties. Practice groups. Niches. Whatever you call them. Back in the early 90s, my firm's partners learned it was good to be viewed as "famous" in an industry--so each sought to be famous for something.

Mind you, they stayed generalists in their day-to-day work, but they marketed as specialists. Now, 15 years later, they focus mostly on those specialty areas where they command premium pricing and their reputations make selling the work easy.

Now we are talking!

Niche focuses are where even the black hole of marketing can start to return value. Industry-specific goals and activities. The marketer can help with promotion and lead generation and the practitioners can be there where the rubber needs to meet the road: prospect, client and referral source interactions.

This is the basis for the marketing plan. The plan will drive the budget.

I'll post again in a few days about specific plan/budget considerations.

The main thing to remember now is that marketing budgets and plans are NEVER one-size fits all. They have to consider who you are, who your market SHOULD be, and what you are realistically able to achieve in a given period of time.

Don't spend marketing dollars foolishly, on an ad hoc basis. Make sure every expenditure is wise and part of a cohesive plan. You wouldn't get into a car and start a long trip without knowing your destination. Same thing here. Begin with your destination in mind.

Marketing Investments for 2007

Just came upon an interesting article at DM News by Brent Hieggelke. The article, entitled "Marketing Executives Facing New Issues, Investments in 2007" begins:

Two recently published surveys around marketing indicate a shift in issues marketers face and the resulting change in investments planned by organizations as a result.

The annual Association of National Advertisers survey results show a switch in the top issues faced by marketers today: Number one this year is "integrated marketing communications," which ranked fourth in last year’s survey.

The second highest concern is "accountability," a top concern a year ago, and still a key issue for marketers to address. The next was "aligning marketing organization with innovation," which was second a year ago and continues to be a key issue marketers are focusing on again this year.

One of the most interesting moves in position comes from "Consumer control over what/how they view advertising." That moved up two spots to number six this year, from number eight last year.

The rankings from the ANA survey reflect the shift in Internet-based collaboration, consumer control, and user-generated content; which are pushing marketers to rethink how they invest their resources and address emerging opportunities.

This begs the question, how are marketers and marketing organizations planning to address these top concerns?

Don't Separate Marketing from Strategy!

A cool marketing blog, Unconventional Thinking, makes a fantastic point about separation of "marketing" from a company's strategies and operations. The post is called The Most Dangerous Term In Business and that term is "marketing department."

Never mind that most marketing actually sucks and fails to stay focused on those key goals. There is another equally ominous danger here. That is, establishing a marketing department effectively balkanizes marketing ideation and implementation from the development and execution of the company’s core business strategy. This cannot be allowed to happen. Marketing is the process of growing a business. To separate it from the development and execution of business strategy means that you are effectively diminishing the impact marketing can have on the company.

I see this soooooo often. Some firms struggle to understand my frustration at their approaches to strategic planning that are many steps removed from their marketing professionals. I've even had a law partner tell me that "marketing has nothing to do with strategic planning." HUH??

Mark continues:

You know how it goes: the top people in the company, be it the president or a management team, develops a plan for how they want to grow the business, and once that is set in stone, they turn to the marketing folks (some think of them as marketing flakes, which they often deserve, because they do not force themselves into the business-building process). The tools and initiatives required to grow the company have to get force-fed into a strategy that has already been signed, sealed and delivered by the powers that be. What an idiotic mistake.

What to do about it?  Mark's first three suggestions:

• Stop allowing your marketing people to be balkanized into a department.
• Instead, make the marketing people part of the management team.
• Weave the marketing people through all of the company’s processes from the beginning

His whole post, and the comments, are worth a read.  (And if you're a marketer, don't let yourself be a "marketing flake"!!)

Need Ideas for Cool Gifts?

My company, Golden Marketing, helped a client out with some ideas for a special congratulatory gift. We thought we'd share our suggestions here, too, because sometimes it's hard to think creatively about a business gift or something for that special person who has everything.

We came across a nice list of potential presents that would work well for holiday or other gift-giving occasions. From traditional to contemporary and in every price range from $17 to $285. Hope we can help you shortcut your search for cool gifts! Enjoy...

• Parthenon Horse (really cool!) $59
• Crystal Globe with Bronze stand $58
• Navigator's Terrestrial Globe $119
• Solitaire Di Venezia, 25mm hand-blown Venetian glass Marbles - Historic Game Classics $63
• Really cool wood puzzles from $17 to $184
• Historic sports stamp collections (baseball or football) $135 or less if member
• Murano glass aquarium $199 or less if member
• Mother of pearl globe $299 or less if member
• Bulova® Marlborough Mantel Clock $235 or less if member
• Handcrafted glass wireless weather forecast beacon (must see this) $185
• Stellanova(TM) Titan Metallic Silver Levitating Globe w+Silver Base $80
• Giant star cluster wood puzzle $160
• 18 Dutch Mills puzzle $60
• Arabesque wood puzzle $65

RFPs for Website Development

We are occasionally asked if we have an RFP form that firms can use in shopping for Web developers.

We don't have a Website RFP form. I am opposed to the RFP approach to selecting vendors. There are many reasons I don't like them which I won't go into here (but Larry Bodine, on his blog post Avoiding RFP's for Suckers, bashes RFPs--worth a read...). I much prefer a conversation!

So, back to Website RFPs.

My firm received a rather poor one the other day (though, of course, we were honored to have been considered). I'll tell you why it was poor:

1. there is no indication of the site's size (number of pages, sections, etc) and complexity (anything that is at all dynamic or database driven) of the desired site...these two things pretty much drive the cost
2. there is no indication of the budget parameters for their site...however, they do say that the site will be a 2007 budget item which, while it means budget is apparently still flexible, it also means they don't intend to pay their vendor before 2007...
3. they do indicate their desired timing: site to be final in March 2007 (hmmm, I see a significant lack of alignment between the project timeline and the budget year--no vendor in his or her right mind will work with these terms: do the majority of the required work in 2006; don't get paid anything until Jan 2007!!)
4. they DO state that they want their site to be outstanding among those in the accounting profession--the downside is that they don't state how they want it to be different: design? functionality? content? Just how far are they willing to go to be different?

Without knowing at least the first three things, how could a vendor possibly provide a quote that won't shift once these critical scope decisions are made?

Does the firm want to compare apples to apples?

With the limited information they've offered, all they will compare is one apple seed to another. Unknown to them (and their vendor candidates) are the size, color or juiciness of the apple. Nor is it known how much care and energy will go into bringing the seeds to their best. This isn't they way they really want to shop, I'm sure of it. Nor is it the way Web developers want to sell.

(Is there a lesson in this for law and CPA firm service buyers/sellers and pricers?)

Steps for Shopping Out Web Development

1.  The first thing a firm needs to do is develop an idea of what your sitemap might include--at least approximately.

2.  The second thing a firm needs to do is consider its budget (within a few thousand dollars) for the project. Under $10K? $10-15K? $15-20K? $20-30K?  Have some idea for what you can spend on the project.

3.  Find and note sites you like. Note what you like about them: colors; dimension; navigation; content amount, depth or style; formality/informality; personalization; etc. Be sure to look at all types of sites (not just those of your own profession) especially those of your most enjoyable clients' industries.

4.  Identify good web developers--design is different than content development and project management.

Design  Look at their work and see if it bears features you've noted above. Decide if it's important to you that they have expertise working in your industry. It may provide no advantage for a designer to be familiar with professional service firms; the designer brings a fresh approach if s/he does sites for other kinds of businesses. However, s/he may not be able to anticipate needs well or recognize if your sitemap is missing something key. (that's where project management helps)

Content  Good content is the most important part of your site! Content development is time consuming. An experienced copywriter will save your firm tons of time and allow you to focus on serving your clients. A copywriter's knowledge of your profession IS an advantage adding value because you don't have to teach basics. And they can provide more effective copy in the first draft. They would also have a good sense of what not to write because they know what other PSF sites say.

Project management  Do you know most firm sites take well over a year to develop? It's because the project management is a huge task. Bigger than anticipated. Outsourcing this instead of burdening an overly busy firm administrator or marketing director can enable a site's completion in 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. Plus, an experienced project manager knows all the steps that go into site development and in what order. They keep the project moving.

5.  Determine what you'll do inhouse and what you will outsource. Specify this when you talk to developers so they know how to accurately price your services the first time so that you don't get nailed with surprise add-on prices after you start.

What Drives Cost

The cost of design isn't really going to vary much. Nor is the project management cost.

The programming cost and the content development costs are the huge variables. Programming a site to do really cool things is MUCH less expensive than even five years ago. Also, most sites can be made in programs like DreamWeaver that can be maintained easily (at least basic changes) by your own firm with minimal training (i.e. one or two hours).

Recognize that content creation does not come cheap. And this isn't an area in which to skimp. Lack of interesting and fresh content on PSF sites is the number one problem cited by readers and users of these sites. Most firms sound the same and offer very little useful information.

Because of this, the one way firms can really differentiate themselves is with content!

For content do-it-yourselvers, read "Content Critical: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through High-Quality Content" by Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton.

Happy shopping.

Measuring Marketing Efforts

As leader of a national marketing advisory and implementation practice (Golden Marketing Inc.) I was interviewed by Association of Accounting Marketing about my thoughts on measuring marketing efforts. An excerpt of the interview was used for an article in AAM's newsletter, but here is the interview in its entirety.

What marketing programs have you chosen to measure?

Just about everything possible! As an outsourced marketer for firms, there is even more scrutiny with regard to cost/benefit for marketing dollars spent. In-house marketers face much the same pressure, though, so similar tactics can be very helpful for marketers employed within their firms.

Expectations on the part of firms can be high. (And sometimes, firms expect their marketers to market "in lieu" of the practitioners!)

But even where the marketer is in pretty full control of an initiative, it is common for marketers to over-sell the benefits of a proposed marketing initiative in order to gain the support needed to try it at all. This is dangerous but happens all the time.

Setting goals and expectations with the partners that are reasonable and realistic, and then quantifying the expected results, are critical to our company staying in business. Mastering this is just as critical to keeping ones job as an in-house marketer.

We measure specific sales/marketing campaigns (mail, phone), all practice area growth initiatives, individual coaching results, sales of ancillary services, referral source activities, surveys, etc

Other projects taken on by marketing are measured against their time line and budgetary expectations as would be expected in any corporate environment with regard to accountability by a department: Web/brochure development, timely PR activities, proposal development, procedural development, internal consulting, practice area support and leadership, and other various functions.

How do you measure results?

Marketing Spending on the Rise in Small Firms

"Marketing budgets at small law firms have increased significantly over the past three years,"  according to Ann Fullenkamp, senior vice president for the small law firm market at LexisNexis.

On LexBlog, Kevin O'Keefe posted today that:

The number of small law firms (20 or fewer lawyers) spending 5% or more of their revenues on marketing doubled in the last three years, from 11% of firms in 2002 to 22% of firms in 2005. This per a survey on small law firm marketing trends commissioned by LexisNexis(R) Martindale-Hubbell(R).

Segmenting these results by firm size shows, astonishingly, that among firms with 11-20 attorneys, only 5% of firms spent over 5% of revenues on marketing three years ago whereas 20% of these firms now spend over 5% of revenues on marketing!

The survey further states that the "firm's website is perceived to be the most valuable marketing tactic for growing a small firm practice."

80% of the firms have a website and 50% of these firms invest in SEO. 3% use blogs.

9% of the firm's surveyed (967 responded) indicate that outside companies (consultants, ad firms, etc) have primary responsibility for the firm's marketing and 4% of the small firms have in internal marketing person.

Here's the breakdown of how respondents spent their marketing money, by initiative:

22%    Print or online yellow pages
20%    Client meals/entertainment
19%    Print or online legal director listings
13%    Their website
7%     Event sponsorships/community events
6%     Giving or hosting seminars
5%     Public/Media Relations/Writing articles
3%     Referral services
3%     Local outdoor advertising
2%     Pay per click ads (online)
1%     Sponsorships/Placements on legal web sites

It still floors me how much firms throw at legal directories for peer-to-peer advertising!

This is a great little survey. Look at this to be an indicator of CPA firm marketing expenditures rising in a similar fashion though I think the breakdown of expenditures will vary significantly from law.

Thanks to Kevin at LexBlog for sharing this interesting survey.

Do You Have a Marketing ROI Culture?

From a post on the blog of Sam Decker is a list of 10 things he says describe "what a marketing ROI culture might look like":

1. At most marketing meetings there is a calculator present.
2. Finance and marketing know each other well enough now to go out to lunch…at least once in a while!
3. You have (or need) a focused marketing operations analyst (data reporting and analysis)
4. You have a marketing dashboard reporting daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly marketing results vs. forecast
5. This dashboard (and source data) is available to anyone, anytime -- and is presented to management at least weekly.
6. The numbers on this dashboard include P&L-relevant measures (revenue, expense, margin) -- not just clicks, calls, leads, etc.
7. The marketing department’s shared drive stores many Excel spreadsheets – perhaps more Excel files than Powerpoint presentations or Acrobat pdfs combined!
8. The executive summary of any marketing presentation is 60% numbers. The remaining is 80% numbers and graphs.
9. Senior management understands and recalls the actual and forecasted marketing measures (i.e. response rates, conversion, revenue per circ, total marketing revenue, etc.)
10. You start performance planning and reviews in Microsoft Excel before you use Microsoft Word.

How many CPA or law firms have gotten this serious about marketing planning and measuring. Not many, I'd venture to bet.