As a management consultant and former head of marketing and business development at three global organizations, I've worked with many law firm leaders seeking to boost growth through effective marketing and BD initiatives. While every firm faces unique challenges, one question consistently arises:
How do we maximize our return on investment for our marketing and BD activities?
This question is crucial for managing partners, chief operating officers (COOs), and chief marketing and business development officers (CMBDOs) alike. After all, the fundamental goal of marketing and BD departments should be to drive revenue growth, whether through greater brand awareness, improved client relationships, or some other defined key performance indicators (KPIs). However, competing priorities often prevent law firm leaders from establishing a strategic approach that links marketing efforts directly to BD results.
Several factors create these challenges, including misalignment across practice groups, regions, and administrative functions. Additionally, the highly specialized practice group structure of many large law firms can unintentionally inhibit collaboration and integration across departments, making it harder to link marketing efforts with tangible BD outcomes.
To overcome these barriers, law firms can focus on three key areas:
1. Select the Right Leadership
The role of the modern law firm CMO/CBDO has expanded significantly in recent years. Responsibilities now encompass brand strategy, digital content management, sales support, event planning, client development outreach, and much more. Given the growing complexity of these duties, it’s not surprising that law firms often face challenges in recruiting and retaining the right talent for these roles.
To be effective, firms should first identify the most critical areas of focus for their marketing and BD operations. The ideal marketing/BD leader should be able to demonstrate how marketing initiatives—such as client alerts, events, and web content—translate into measurable BD outcomes, like enhanced client relationships and revenue growth.
It’s rare, although certainly not impossible, to find a single individual with deep expertise across all aspects of marketing communications, business development, and client-facing activities. As a result, some firms may be inclined to split the responsibilities across two or more leaders. In some cases, this structure may include one individual focused on marketing communications and the other on business development; in other instances this might be dual CMOs with various overlapping roles and responsibilities.
These bifurcated approaches have their own levels of risk, as I’ve observed this division across functions leading to unwanted silos and communication challenges unless there is a high level of alignment and ongoing collaboration between the roles. Essential conditions for success include ensuring that frequent and consistent communication occurs on key goals and objectives, and creating an environment that supports the sharing of major initiatives across departments.
Another challenge is the lack of clarity around the roles and responsibilities of marketing and BD team members, especially among lawyers who may be unfamiliar with how these functions contribute to business development. To address this, firms should offer clear internal education on what marketing and BD teams do—and what they don’t do. Providing definitions of these roles in presentations and discussions with partners and stakeholders can help avoid confusion and foster a more cohesive working environment.
2. Invest in the Right Activities
Top-performing law firms prioritize marketing and BD activities that offer the highest return on investment. To identify these high-value activities, firms should start by conducting an assessment of their current marketing/BD efforts, using available data to spot opportunities for improvement and optimization.
A useful approach is for marketing teams to track their time over a set period, which can reveal inefficiencies or areas where resources are being underutilized. Next, law firms should focus on no more than three key areas of improvement. Attempting to tackle too many initiatives at once can lead to scattered efforts and diluted results. Once priorities are identified, they should be communicated clearly to internal audiences—firm leadership, lawyers, and marketing/BD teams—so everyone is clearly aligned on goals and expected outcomes.
One highly effective initiative to consider is to develop forward-looking thought leadership, with the intent to clearly convey how law firms can help clients across a wide range of interconnected practice groups and geographic regions. Oftentimes, this can be accomplished by focusing thought leadership efforts along industry or sectors, as this approach enables many different lawyers across a diverse set of practice groups to directly participate in both the development and distribution of content.
"Thought leadership is the backbone of legal marketing."
Creating and distributing high-quality, targeted content serves multiple strategic objectives:
- Raising awareness: Thought leadership can elevate a practice area or service that is poised for growth.
- Enhancing client relationships: It provides valuable insights to existing and potential clients.
- Generating new business: Well-executed thought leadership campaigns can directly contribute to new revenue streams.
Recent research from Greentarget, which surveyed nearly 300 in-house counsel for its 2025 State of Digital and Content Marketing report, shows that thought leadership initiatives, especially research reports and articles, play a significant role in influencing client decisions for both in-house counsel and C-suite members.
And a 2025 BTI Consulting survey of more than 350 corporate counsel found that thought leadership outweighs directory rankings, especially for building new relationships. Despite the strong demand from law firm clients for timely, relevant, and easy-to-digest thought leadership, however, many law firms fail to fully capitalize on this opportunity.
Moreover, thought leadership aligns closely with the strategic goals of law firm managing partners. A 2024 study by Passle found that nearly 45% of top law firm managing partners rank thought leadership as one of their top three marketing priorities. As James Barclay, CEO of Passle Inc., aptly puts it, “Thought leadership is the backbone of legal marketing. In an industry where your expertise is your product, being able to demonstrate the people and capability you bring to the table is so important. Law firms that empower their thought leaders to produce helpful, digestible thought leadership find that their content, and their firms, are in high demand.” This underscores the critical role that effective thought leadership plays in enhancing a law firm’s visibility and competitiveness.
3. Develop and Support the Right Tools and Systems
Many law firms believe that technology alone can prove the ROI of marketing and BD activities. While certain technology tools can indeed help demonstrate the connection between marketing efforts and BD results, the key to success lies not only in the tools but in the processes surrounding them.
...[create] a scalable tracking system that can be replicated across future marketing/BD initiatives.
Law firms should first define which metrics they want to track as part of their marketing/BD initiatives. This clarity will allow marketing/BD teams to measure success more effectively. For example, if a firm runs a thought leadership campaign, it’s important to track germane outcomes, such as the number of client meetings generated, feedback from clients, and any new business opportunities that arise. Technology tools like CRM systems or analytics platforms can certainly assist in gathering and reporting these data points, but simpler solutions—like Excel spreadsheets—can also be effective, provided they are used consistently.
The most important element is creating a scalable tracking system that can be replicated across future marketing/BD initiatives. This ensures that data is consistently gathered, analyzed, and reported upon in a way that provides actionable insights.
However, tracking and reporting shouldn’t be limited to technology. Law firms must also focus on improving internal systems and processes to streamline routine activities, such as pitch production, content development, and BD training. Regular reviews of department workflows can help identify areas for improvement and increase overall efficiency. Of particular note is the process related to how law firms create and distribute compelling thought leadership initiatives; when these efforts are executed effectively they can not only enhance brand awareness but can also create distinct opportunities to grow client relationships.
A considerable challenge in many law firms is the disconnect between the marketing/BD team’s activities and the client-facing efforts of lawyers. Since lawyers are generally expected to drive client growth, they may not fully leverage the resources provided by the marketing and BD teams. This could be due to a lack of awareness or insufficient time to engage with marketing materials.
To address this issue, law firms should provide targeted and structured BD training for lawyers. This training should be aligned with marketing/BD initiatives and should ideally have the full support of firm leadership, ensuring that all lawyers have the necessary tools and knowledge to contribute to business development. By integrating BD training with existing marketing efforts, firms can help ensure that lawyers are more engaged and effective in leveraging the firm’s marketing assets to build client relationships.
The Bottom Line
Maximizing the ROI of marketing and BD activities in law firms is challenging but not impossible. Firms should focus on three key areas:
- Leadership: Select the right leaders to oversee marketing and BD operations, ensuring alignment across teams and clarity around roles.
- Activities: Invest in high-value marketing and BD initiatives, particularly those that can be measured and directly tied to business development outcomes, such as client-focused thought leadership initiatives.
- Systems and Tools: Develop scalable systems for tracking, measuring, and reporting on marketing/BD efforts, ensuring that data is consistently collected and analyzed.
By focusing on these three priorities, law firms can improve the effectiveness of their marketing and BD activities, ultimately driving revenue growth and enhancing client relationships.
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Jeff Berardi helps law firms and other professional services organizations that are looking to enhance their marketing communications, business development, and sales activities. Previously serving in the C-suite at three global organizations, Jeff focuses on building corporate brands as well as strengthening relationships with existing and potential clients. He can be reached at jberardi@berardiconsulting.com.
