There is a big disconnect in what law firms say is a primary marketing strategy for their firm and the action (or lack thereof) they take to implement that strategy, according to the 2014 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey.

In a recent post, I examined the first of two surveys conducted by Greentarget, ALM Legal Intelligence and Zeughauser Group that surveyed in-house counsel on content marketing.  Today’s post deals with survey data from marketers at the top 350 law firms across the nation and I see a big disconnect between what they want to happen and what is really going on in terms of content marketing.

Of all the marketing strategies the law firms surveyed say they use, 80% rated content marketing as either the most important (42%) or important (38%).  Yet 75% say they have no content marketing strategy currently in place! 

While 84% of law firms surveyed say they plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year, only 29% have a dedicated marketing person in place to oversee marketing.  And 87% say they have no plan to hire anyone to fill that need.

When asked what the greatest challenge they face when it comes to content marketing, 40% said lack of engagement from firm attorneys and another 25% said they face a lack of talented writers and other staff with time to devote to it.  Yet 56% said they had no plans to invest in outside resources to support content marketing – their most important marketing strategy!

So.... the most important marketing strategy at these firms gets more funding -- but there’s no plan, no one to oversee it and no one to actually do the work.  If ever there was a perfect recipe for failure, this is it!

This data was collected from the top 350 U.S. law firms; my clients are small firms and solo practitioners who don’t have the money to throw at marketing without someone paying close attention to the ROI. 

As I’ve always said, what gets measured gets done.  Oh, and this:  hope is not a strategy.