I recently blogged about assessing the ROI of marketing investment in law firms. That posted generated a response distinguishing marketing and lead generation.
I posted Law Firm Marketing and Technology – Return on Investment (ROI) to the College of Law Practice Management Blog. College Fellow and law firm business development expert Ann Lee Gibson posted a reply response with interesting observations.
I expressed surprise that marketing departments don’t track ROI. Gibson’s reply, More on Law Firm Marketing and ROI – It’s Really about Biz Dev raises good points. She discusses the difference between marketing and business development / lead generation; the money quote:
I’m just saying that the less interesting question to me is, “Why aren’t firms determining their marketing ROI?” and the more interesting question is, “Why aren’t firms actually developing cogent BD [business development] plans with specific and measurable objectives and devoting specific marketing resources (PR campaigns, bespoke seminars, conference appearances, private publications, publications in the legal and other trade presses, etc.) and specific BD resources (for getting-to-know-you visits and needs interviews and pitches and RFP responses) toward those plans, and commit to managing the plan throughout the entire year?”
The distinction between marketing and biz dev / lead generation is big. Law firm CIOs and IT directors need to understand the difference. Ideally, when marketers come knocking on your door, you would steer them toward BD, but that may be more than is possible from the IT side.