How to Do a Legal Marketing Evaluation for Your Small Law Firm

A lot of law firms have no idea if their marketing actually works. They're spending time and money on strategies without tracking results, without knowing where their best clients come from, and without a backup plan if their main lead source dries up.

Whether you're getting most of your business through referrals, your website, or paid advertising, you need to understand what's driving results and what's just noise. This guide will walk you through how to evaluate your current marketing so you can make smarter decisions about where to invest your time and budget.

Why Evaluate Your Marketing in the First Place?

The biggest risk in legal marketing isn't spending money on the wrong channel—it's putting all your eggs in one basket without realizing it.

Let's say you get 80% of your cases from referrals through a financial advisor you've partnered with for years. That's great until that person retires, moves, or has a personal issue that takes them out of practice. Suddenly, your case pipeline dries up, and you're scrambling to rebuild from scratch.

Or maybe you're heavily dependent on organic search traffic, but Google changes its algorithm or a competitor outranks you for your main keywords. If you don't have other lead sources established, you're in trouble.

The goal of a legal marketing evaluation isn't to fix everything at once. It's to understand where you are now, identify what's working, and spot the gaps that could become problems down the road.

The Key Areas to Evaluate

When I evaluate marketing for a law firm, I focus on four main areas:

1. Lead Sources and Tracking

The most important question: where are your clients actually coming from right now?

If you're not tracking this, you're flying blind. You might think most of your business comes from your website, but it could actually be Google Business Profile or referrals from past clients. You can't double down on what works if you don't know what's working.

2. Diversification

Once you know your lead sources, look at the balance. If one channel disappeared tomorrow, would you lose 80% of your business? That's a red flag.

A healthy marketing mix means you have multiple ways clients can find you. It doesn't mean every channel needs to perform equally—it just means you're not completely dependent on any single source.

3. What's Already Working

This seems obvious, but a lot of firms try to completely overhaul their marketing when they should be doing more of what's already successful.

If you're getting great results from networking events, lean into that. If certain practice area pages on your website drive most of your inquiries, create more content around those topics. Don't abandon what's working in pursuit of the next shiny tactic.

4. Time and Resources You Actually Have

The best marketing strategy in the world doesn't matter if you can't execute it consistently.

If you're a solo practitioner handling all your own cases, you probably don't have time to post on social media daily or write weekly blog posts. Be realistic about what you can maintain, or budget for help if a channel requires more attention than you can give it.

Your DIY Legal Marketing Evaluation: Practical Steps

Here's how to actually evaluate your marketing without hiring anyone or spending money on tools:

Step 1: Track Your Last 20 Clients

Make a simple spreadsheet. Go through your last 20 clients and write down how each one found you. Was it a Google search? A referral from a specific person or firm? Your Google Business Profile? A paid ad?

If you don't know, that's fine—but start tracking going forward. If you aren't currently tracking your lead sources and you really don't know where clients come from, start asking today. If clients call to book appointments, have your paralegal or secretary ask "How did you hear about us?" and write it down. If you use online booking, add this question to your intake form.

This simple exercise will show you patterns you might not have noticed. You might discover that one referral partner sends you multiple high-value cases, or that a blog post you wrote two years ago still drives inquiries every month.

Step 2: Check Your Google Business Profile

For small firms and solo practitioners, Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is often the highest-converting channel—and it's free.

Make sure your profile is:

• Claimed and verified
• Complete with accurate hours, phone number, and address
• Updated with your practice areas and a clear description
• Showing recent photos of your office or team
• Collecting reviews from happy clients

If you have a local practice and people are happy with your services, ask them to leave a review. Many potential clients check Google reviews before they ever visit your website.

Step 3: Look at Your Website Analytics

If you have Google Analytics installed (and you should), log in and look at your top traffic sources and most-visited pages.

What pages get the most visitors? What search terms are people using to find you? Are people actually contacting you after visiting certain pages?

If you don't have analytics set up, that's your first action item. You can't improve what you don't measure.

Step 4: Ask Yourself the "What If" Question

What if your biggest lead source stopped working tomorrow?

This isn't meant to be scary—it's meant to be honest. If you're getting most of your cases from one referral partner, one ranking keyword, or one advertising channel, you have a concentration risk. It doesn't mean you need to panic and diversify immediately, but it does mean you should have a plan.

What to Do With What You Learn

Once you've completed this evaluation, you'll have a clearer picture of where you stand. Here's what to do next:

Double down on what's working. If you're getting great results from a particular channel, invest more there before experimenting with new tactics. More content on topics that drive traffic, more outreach to referral sources that send good cases, more optimization of channels that convert.

Fill critical gaps. If you have zero backup plan for your main lead source, start building one now—even if it's small. If all your business comes from referrals, maybe it's time to improve your website SEO. If you only get traffic from paid ads, consider building organic visibility.

Fix broken tracking. If you can't answer basic questions about where clients come from or what marketing generates results, implement tracking systems immediately. This is foundational.

Be realistic about resources. Don't commit to a marketing channel you can't maintain consistently. It's better to do two things well than five things poorly.

The goal isn't perfection. The goal is to understand your current situation clearly enough to make informed decisions about where to invest next. A lot of legal marketing is ineffective not because the tactics are wrong, but because firms implement strategies without knowing if they're working or fitting them into a bigger picture.

Start with this evaluation, and you'll be ahead of most firms who are still guessing.

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