10 Reasons Why Law Firm Marketing Strategy Fails

The Strategy Myth

Let me start with something Richard Rumelt said that perfectly encapsulates why most law firm marketing strategies fail: “If you fail to identify and analyze the obstacles, you don’t have a strategy. Instead, you have either a stretch goal, a budget, or a list of things you wish would happen.”

Having worked with law firms for close to 2 decades on strategy and launched a bunch of successful mass claims in association with Erin Brockovich, I’ve noticed consistent patterns in why their marketing strategies collapse. Let’s dissect these failures systematically.

1. Mistaking Goals for Strategy

This is perhaps the most pervasive error in law firm marketing. Partners sit around a boardroom and declare, “We want to grow by 25% this year” or “We need to become the leading firm in commercial property,” or a farcical one I heard recently, “grow by 70% in 3 years.” These aren’t strategies – they’re objectives, sometimes pipe dreams.

As Rumelt teaches us, real strategy has three essential components:

• A diagnosis of the challenge
• A guiding policy for dealing with it
• Coherent actions designed to carry out the policy

Consider this common scenario: Bad Strategy: “We aim to become the leading commercial law firm in the state for healthcare practices.” Good Strategy:

• Diagnosis: Mid-market firms are being squeezed between boutique specialists and major firms
• Guiding Policy: Dominate specific industry verticals where we have deep expertise
• Coherent Actions:
  • Restructure teams around industry expertise
  • Develop thought leadership in chosen sectors
  • Align marketing spend with target industries
  • Drop non-core practice areas

2. The Template Trap

Law firms love templates. They’re efficient, predictable, and safe. But as Rumelt points out, template-style strategies are a major source of strategic failure. You can’t template your way to market leadership.

Every law firm seems to follow the same strategic template:

• Update the website
• Start a blog
• Boost SEO
• Create more content
• Increase social media presence

This isn’t strategy – it’s a to-do list. Real strategy requires unique insights and makes genuine choices about where to compete and how to win.

3. Failure to Choose

Strategy is about choices. What you won’t do is as important as what you will do. Most law firms try to be everything to everyone. They list 15 practice areas on their website when they’re really only competitive in three. Or, and I’ve seen this more than I have had bad coffee in the United States, let’s go national, when in fact, a firm is flat out resourcing their primary regional office location.

Rumelt emphasises that strategy requires trade-offs. You can’t be the low-cost provider and the premium specialist. You can’t be the boutique expert and the full-service firm. These aren’t strategic positions – they’re strategic contradictions.

4. The Activity Trap

Many law firms confuse being busy with being strategic. They measure success by the number of marketing activities rather than their effectiveness. They produce newsletters nobody reads, attend events that generate no leads, and create content that doesn’t convert.

As Rumelt notes, “Strategy is visible as coordinated actions imposed on a system.” The key word here is “coordinated.” Random marketing activities, no matter how numerous, don’t constitute strategy.

5. Ignoring Market Reality

Law firms often create strategies in a vacuum, ignoring competitive forces and market dynamics. They fail to recognise what Rumelt calls “the science of strategy” – treating strategy as a hypothesis about what will work in the market.

A proper strategic diagnosis requires understanding:

• Client buying behavior
• Competitor positioning
• Market trends
• Economic factors
• Technological changes

Without this understanding, you’re not practicing strategy – you’re practicing wishful thinking.

6. The Resources-Capabilities Disconnect

Many law firms create strategies that their resources and capabilities can’t support. They plan marketing campaigns they can’t execute, promise service levels they can’t deliver, or target markets they can’t serve effectively.

Rumelt’s concept of “chain-link systems” is relevant here. Your strategy must align with your firm’s capabilities, and these capabilities must work together coherently. A marketing strategy that ignores operational realities is doomed to fail.

7. Lack of Coherence

Strategic coherence is essential. Your marketing activities should reinforce each other and align with your overall strategy. Most law firms fail this basic test. Their website says one thing, their social media another, and their partner presentations something else entirely.

Rumelt emphasises that “A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions, policies, and resources so as to accomplish an important end.” This coherence is rare in law firm marketing.

8. The Implementation Gap

Even well-conceived strategies often fail in implementation. Law firms are particularly susceptible to this because of their partnership structure. Partners may agree to a strategy in principle but resist the changes required to implement it.

Rumelt’s concept of “proximate objectives” is crucial here. Your strategy needs to break down into achievable, near-term goals that create momentum and build support for larger changes.

9. Measuring the Wrong Things

Law firms often measure marketing success using vanity metrics:

• Website traffic
• Social media followers
• Email open rates
• Content downloads
• Webinar attendance

These metrics might make you feel good, but they don’t necessarily indicate strategic success. Real strategic metrics should measure progress toward your strategic objectives.

For this primary reason, we created our lead tracking software, “LawDash” that measures what matters, file opens!

10. The Innovation Delusion

Many law firms believe they need to be innovative in their marketing. They chase the latest trends and technologies, thinking innovation equals strategy. But as Rumelt points out, good strategy often involves using existing advantages in new ways rather than constant innovation.

The Solution: Creating Real Strategy

To avoid these failures, law firms need to follow Rumelt’s kernel of good strategy:

1. Diagnosis

• What’s actually happening in your market?
• What challenges are you really facing?
• Where are the opportunities?
• What are your real advantages?

2. Guiding Policy

• How will you overcome the challenges?
• Where will you compete?
• How will you win?
• What won’t you do?

3. Coherent Action

• What specific steps will you take?
• How do these steps reinforce each other?
• What resources will you need?
• How will you measure success?

Practical Application

Let’s see how this might work in practice:

Diagnosis:

• Market analysis shows increasing commoditisation of routine legal work
• Clients are demanding more sector expertise
• Technology is changing service delivery
• Competitive landscape is intensifying

Guiding Policy:

• Focus on specific industry sectors where we have deep expertise
• Invest in technology for routine work
• Position as sector experts rather than legal generalists
• Build barriers through industry knowledge and relationships

Coherent Actions:

• Restructure practice groups around industry sectors
• Develop sector-specific thought leadership
• Create industry-focused marketing campaigns
• Build technology platforms for routine work
• Align partner compensation with sector focus

Measuring Success:

• Revenue by sector
• Client retention rates
• Premium pricing achievement
• Market share in chosen sectors
• Cross-selling success

The Future of Law Firm Marketing Strategy

The legal market is changing rapidly. Successful marketing strategies will need to:

• Be more focused
• Leverage technology effectively
• Build genuine differentiation
• Create real client value
• Measure meaningful outcomes

The firms that succeed will be those that:

1. Make real strategic choices
2. Build coherent marketing programs
3. Align resources with strategy
4. Execute consistently
5. Measure what matters

Remember Rumelt’s key insight: “A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and provides an approach to overcoming them.” Most law firm marketing strategies do neither.

Conclusion

Law firm marketing strategy fails because firms ignore the fundamental principles of good strategy. They chase tactics without strategy, set goals without plans, and measure activity without results.

The solution isn’t more marketing activity. It’s better strategy. As Rumelt teaches us, good strategy requires:

• Clear diagnosis
• Focused approach
• Coherent action
• Consistent execution

Most importantly, it requires the courage to make choices – to decide what you won’t do as much as what you will do. Until law firms embrace this reality, their marketing strategies will continue to fail.

The firms that succeed will be those that understand strategy isn’t about being better. It’s about being different in ways that matter to clients. They’ll follow Rumelt’s advice to create strategies that are:

• Based on insight
• Focused on advantages
• Coherent in execution
• Measured by results

In the end, successful law firm marketing isn’t about doing more things. It’s about doing the right things, for the right reasons, in the right way. That’s what real strategy is all about.

Talk to us if you’re interested in real strategy underpinned by real execution.