Are You Wasting Money on the Wrong Marketing Channels?

Ready to stop hemorrhaging your hard-earned dollars on ineffective marketing? This episode tackles the painful truth that most law firms are bleeding marketing money without even realizing it.

• The "set it and forget it" approach wastes money when marketing isn't regularly evaluated and optimized
• Being everywhere at once (LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube) without strategy makes you invisible, not omnipresent
• Vanity metrics like clicks and impressions are useless if they don't convert to signed cases

Remember, we're not trying to be popular; we're trying to be profitable.

The solution starts with knowing exactly where your best clients come from. Not just any clients—your best ones who pay on time, trust your advice, and don't drain your staff's energy. 

Ready to transform your marketing from a mysterious money pit into a predictable, results-driven system? This episode gives you the roadmap. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Are you wasting money on the wrong marketing channels
?
Welcome to Legal Marketing 101.
I'm Toby Rosen.
Let's talk about a truth thatcan be pretty painful for many
of us.
Most law firms, probablyincluding yours, are bleeding
marketing dollars and they don'teven realize it.
One of the biggest culprits ofthis is the set it and forget it

(00:29):
approach.
Maybe your firm started runningGoogle ads two years ago.
Maybe you picked a few keywords, you set a budget and you just
you never looked back.
It felt like the right move.
And the phone is ringing andyou know it's, it's working
right.
And the phone is ringing andyou know it's, it's working
right.
But look, here's the thingMarketing that isn't regularly

(00:54):
evaluated and optimized isalmost always underperforming.
If your ads aren't beingadjusted based on conversion
data, or your landing pagesaren't being tested, or your
intake process isn't beingaligned with every campaign that
you create intake process isn'tbeing aligned with every
campaign that you create, you'reprobably overpaying for every
new client.
It's like paying full price fora half-finished case.
Then there's the more is bettermyth.

(01:14):
This one hits a lot of firmstrying to be everywhere at once
LinkedIn ads, facebook posts,they're doing dance videos on
TikTok and YouTube pre-rolls youname it, but without a strategy
that aligns, all of this, beingon every platform just spreads
out your budget, it makes itthinner and it makes your
messaging even thinner than yourbudget.
It does not make youomnipresent.

(01:34):
It makes you invisible,essentially.
And then there are the vanitymetrics the clicks, the likes,
the impressions.
They're really easy to trackand they're really easy to
celebrate, but they're almostcompletely useless if you're not
converting them into actualsigned cases.
We are not trying to be popular.
That's not the goal here.
We are trying to be profitable.
The only metrics that reallymatter at the end of the day,

(01:58):
these are cost per acquisitionand lifetime case value.
Everything else, every othernumber, is just noise.
The bottom line.
Smart firms aren't justspending money, they're
measuring, they're testing andthey're adjusting based on that
information, because marketingis not just a checklist, it's a
system, and when that system istuned correctly, it stops
feeling like a gamble and itstarts performing like a machine

(02:21):
.
So how do you know if yourmarketing is actually working or
if you're just burning cashwith a smile, essentially?
So let's start with the biggestred flag.
We've talked about a lot ofstuff like this on the podcast,
so go back and listen to all ofthat.
But for today, there is a bigred flag we're going to start
with, and that is that you can'ttie your marketing spend to
signed clients.
If you don't know exactly whereyour last 10 clients came from,

(02:45):
you are flying blind.
Every firm should have some kindof tracking, whether it's call
tracking, utm parameters, crmtags.
This is not optional anymore,it is basic navigation.
And then take a look at yourbest clients.
If most of them come fromreferrals, but all of your
marketing budget is going intoGoogle ads or Facebook ads or

(03:06):
creating YouTube videos, thensomething is off.
Referral marketing isn't justluck, it is also a system.
You can not only automatefollow-ups and offer incentives
and create touch points thatkeep your firm top of mind, but
you can have a system for whoyou reach out to and when.
Even if it's just on note cards, it works and it costs so much

(03:26):
less than running advertising.
Here's another red flag.
Your pay-per-click campaignsare costing you thousands on the
credit card each month, butyou're barely converting.
That usually means yourtargeting is off, your landing
pages aren't good enough or yourintake process is just leaking
potential clients.
It's not enough to get clicks,you need conversions?

(03:47):
And what about SEO?
If you're investing in contentand backlinks and you know some
guy who's doing some technical,who's he?
What's it but you are rankingfor keywords like what is child
custody instead of child custodylawyer near me?
You're winning the wrong game.
High traffic doesn't matter ifit doesn't turn into business.
Finally, if your social mediaads don't feed into a funnel no

(04:09):
landing page, no email follow-up, no appointment booking then
you're not really advertising.
You are just posting with acredit card attached.
So if we've established whatdoesn't work, let's pivot to
what actually does.
How do you identify the rightmarketing channels, the ones
that actually drive growth andprofitability?
It starts with one questionwhen are your best clients

(04:32):
coming from?
Not just clients.
Your best clients.
These are the ones who pay ontime, they trust your advice,
they don't drain your staff'senergy.
Go back and audit your last 20,30, even 50 high value cases.
What was their first point ofcontact?
Was it a referral, a Googlesearch, a Facebook ad, a podcast
interview?
Even this is where the CRM data, the call tracking tools, the

(04:56):
attribution software, this iswhere they earn their keep.
If you don't have those systemsin place yet, that's priority
number one, because you can'ttell me the answer to the
question I just asked.
Without that kind of trackingand without a system here I keep
saying it, but without a systemyou are just making incredibly
expensive assumptions and that'snot fun for anyone.

(05:17):
Next, we're going to compareour cost per acquisition with
the lifetime value of one ofthese clients.
This is where a lot of firmstrip up.
It's really easy to chase cheapleads, but if they never
convert or if they become highmaintenance, low margin clients,
you're not ultimately savingmoney.
We are just, you know, payingfor a headache Like how many

(05:37):
jokes can I make about this?
A $500 lead that turns into a$10,000 case is infinitely
better than a $50 lead thatturns into a $2,000 case and
then ghosts us.
Now let's talk scale.
If you know that referrals arebringing in great clients, don't
just hope they keep coming.
Build the system.
Automate the outreach.
Create referral incentives.

(05:58):
If you don't want to automatethe outreach, automate the
reminders telling you to do theoutreach.
If PPC is profitable, great.
Now isolate the campaigns thatare working and the landing
pages that are working anddouble down on those.
Growth doesn't come from chasingshiny new platforms.
It comes from figuring out whatworks and then scaling that
thing.
And finally I say this amillion times in almost every

(06:21):
episode but test everything.
Start by running small,intentional A-B tests on your
messaging, on your channels,your offers, your follow-up
workflows.
A $300 test could save you$30,000 in bad spend.
And that's just a number Ipulled out of nowhere.
Real performance comes fromthis real testing, not the gut

(06:41):
instinct that X, y and Z isgoing to work.
We got to get it to good enoughand then we test it and then we
get towards perfect.
Marketing should not feel like amystery.
When we have the right data,when we do the testing, when we
use the right tools, we use theright mindset, finding the right
channels, finding the rightmessaging, becomes an easy
process, not a guessing game.

(07:01):
It's something we just gothrough step by step.
But because I know you guys areimpatient, if you're looking
for quick wins, I'll throw you abone on this one.
These are some things that youcan do today to stop wasting
money.
We've talked about this inrelation to pay-per-click and I
have an ebook out about this.
Check the show notes for that.
First, pause any marketing spendyou can't track Seriously.

(07:23):
Cut it off If you don't knowwhere those dollars are going or
what they're bringing in hitpause.
That includes vague brandingcampaigns, boosted posts,
third-party lead services withno transparency, all that stuff.
You can always turn them onlater with the tracking, but
here's the thing about thatDon't turn them all off at the
same time.
Turn them off one by one.

(07:43):
If one of them is working,you'll figure it out by going
one by one.
Second, optimize your intakeprocess before you add another
thing that spends more money onleads.
It doesn't matter how good theads are if your staff isn't
picking up the phone orfollowing up quickly or
converting those inquiries intoactual consultations.
Fix the bucket before you pourmore water into it.

(08:07):
Next, it's time to startshifting your focus towards
channels that have alreadyproduced high value clients.
Look at the data you alreadyhave.
What is actually working?
What's the biggest case you'veever had?
You do not need to reinvent thewheel here.
You just need to go and look atwhat works and double down on
it.
If it moves the needle, do itagain.
Finally, make test track andoptimize your new mantra.

(08:31):
I've done five or 10 differentversions of this mantra, but
here's the thing Marketing bygut feeling.
This is how you lose money.
It is just a great way to spendcash on something you have no
idea about, and if you want tomarket that way, absolutely come
to me and talk about it,because I will help you waste
your money.
But if you want to do somethingthat actually works, set up a
system, run small tests, reviewthe results regularly.

(08:55):
When you treat marketing likean experiment instead of a
gamble, everything changes.
I've seen it over and overagain, and if you want to
actually make things work,that's the way to do it.
I can help you with that too.
But for today that's it forLegal Marketing 101.
Check rosenadvertisingcom formore thanks.