Many law firms are struggling to get new business. If you talk to a lot of lawyers and law firms, they will always concede that they could use some new business. Even if they’ve gotten some new business of late, many would concede that they could use “more” than what they have.

Having new business coming into a law firm is just critical in most instances. Without new cases coming into a law firm, there is not security. There is also risk that debts and obligations will not be paid, including salaries. there is also a risk that employees will not stay because their life is not getting better over time.

But many of these same lawyers and law firms put marketing efforts on the back burner. Instead of figuring out why calls and leads are down, and doing something to change it, they resist it. They are not interested in spending much time on the marketing. Marketing is placed on the back burner.

Instead of trying to develop some kind of comprehensive marketing strategy, it does not happen. They do not want to take the time or effort to do it.  Or maybe there are other reasons:

• Maybe they are still of the prior mindset that business should only come from referrals?
• Maybe they are of the mindset that lawyers just not should not market or advertise?
• Maybe they just want to work on their cases and not spend any time on marketing?
• Maybe they just want to hire an outside marketing “guru” (versus educating themselves about marketing) and let the guru handle the marketing entirely —  without vetting whether this person is really even a “guru” in the first place with a track record of helping lawyers and law firms market successfully?

At the end of the day, there are many reasons marketing can end up on the back burner, including some probably not listed above. The reality is many lawyers and law firms simply would rather not worry about it. They did not become a lawyer to market.

But unless you have so much business that you cannot handle what you have, putting the marketing on the back burner is a mistake that can put the law firm’s success and/or ability to survive in peril. It also results in law firms that put a fair amount of emphasis on the marketing in a vastly superior place than law firms that do not.

If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them below.