Michael Rynowecer, founder and president of BTI Consulting, reports that a remarkable one third of law firms in the USA plan to increase their spending on marketing and business development (MBD) in 2019. “This is three times more firms than last year,” Rynowecer says, “making this the largest number of firms increasing their MBD spending in nine years.

Where are the additional funds going? Rynowecer’s interviews with more than 136 law-firm marketing leaders between July and November, 2018 indicate that client feedback, client service, and industry programs are at the top of the list of MBD initiatives.

The actual increases BTI’s surveys project are between 2.6% and 2.9% of firm revenue, which may not sound like a lot. But although “The differences are woefully small to sound meaningful,” Rynowecer points out on his blog, The Mad Clientist, “[they] can be the difference between one and three full time BD equivalents, funding a new client team, or creating one more industry group. All of which are proven to drive new business.”

This kind of gradual increase in spending on marketing and business development makes good sense to me. Does it make sense for your firm as well?

As always, I would be interested to know your thoughts on this or any other matter related to the law, either in the comments section below or directly via email.