Why "Marketing to Everyone" Fails (and What to Do Instead)
This article was originally published by the American Bar Association in Law Practice Today on September 7, 2026.
Today’s typical law firm marketing team is responsible for a broad scope of activities that encompasses communications, business development, and client experience alongside the core mission of promoting a firm’s services to an audience of prospective clients. There is no question that all this work—sponsoring and attending events, nominating attorneys for awards, creating RFPs, securing media mentions, generating social media content, and much more—keeps marketing professionals busier than ever. But are those touchpoints converting leads into clients? And are those clients the ones your firm actually wants?
Putting these questions at the core of your marketing plan can transform mere motion into effective action, ensuring your marketing team makes efficient use of the budget and drives outcomes that align with the firm’s overall strategic goals. While embracing a metric-driven approach sounds like plain common sense, a surprising number of firms do not plan from this mindset. Here’s how to get clear on your objectives and identify the tactics that will help you achieve them.
Create an ideal client profile (ICP)
An ideal client profile (ICP) is a clear description of the type of organization or company that your practice group is best positioned to serve and from which it can generate the highest return.
Because books of business are in part built over time through referral networks and happenstance, many practice groups have not clearly defined their ideal client. In addition, many lawyers tend to resist defining target categories because they fear this will close doors to other potential business. While that technically may be true—by definition, focusing more on one client type means focusing less on another—marketing as a generalist can lead to the perception that your group is a jack of all trades and master of none. The more specifically you can describe your ideal client, the more quickly you can connect with that cohort, establish trust, and begin helping to solve the problems they face.
First, assess your practice’s capabilities: Where does your team excel? Does your group include particular subject-matter expertise or experience with a growing industry niche? Have you identified a coming shift in the economy or regulatory environment that you want to help clients prepare for? What do your current clients say is most valuable about your services? Where can your lawyers make the biggest impact?
Next, describe the companies or individuals currently facing the problems your team is best prepared to solve. This looks like zeroing in on geographic location, size, industry/sector, market position, and other characteristics that make them an ideal target at this time.
Include information that goes beyond generic definitions to what actually determines whether this client will be a fit: decision-making structure of the legal department, maturity of the company in its industry, size of the matter you want to take on, and why this company may be seeking a new law firm (for example, perhaps their previous firm failed to provide the depth of industry experience you know your team can deliver).
Assess current marketing efforts
Now it’s time to evaluate your group’s current marketing activities. Is the spend of time and money pointing you toward your ideal client? For example, consider your group’s annual purchase of a booth at a legal or industry conference. Apply the following framework to evaluate whether your firm should continue to spend resources on this activity in future years.
Fit: Does your ideal client attend this conference? In what way do they participate? Put yourself in their shoes: Why do they attend? What information or relationship goals are driving that decision?
Relationship potential: Are you likely to interact with your ideal client at your booth? Will this be a one-off conversation or a sustained interaction? Is there an alternate route to creating a more substantive encounter?
Cost (time and dollars): What share of your marketing budget does this booth represent? How much time do the lawyers and marketing professionals spend preparing for this event? What does the firm spend on branded materials? And don’t forget to consider the opportunity cost: What opportunities related to the event are you not participating in because of the spend on the booth?
Conversion history: Has this booth led to developing new clients in the past? When, and how did that happen? Is it likely to happen again, or have industry and technological changes altered the conditions? (This last metric raises the question of how carefully your firm tracks matter origination and tags contacts, but that is a topic for another article!)
For many firms, taking a closer look at a longtime marketing practice reveals helpful information. Maybe the booth actually is yielding high-quality leads that become new clients. In that case, it of course makes sense to continue the practice with greater confidence. But if the ROI is not obvious, it may be time to experiment with taking a year off to spend those resources on a tactic that creates a more direct path to your ideal client.
Identify channels and tactics aligned with your ICP
So what would those new paths be? A well-fleshed-out profile of these ideal clients will make them easy to spot. Possibilities include:
Bylined articles in credible niche trade publications your ICP actually reads
Webinars or podcasts tailored to the concerns of this client type
Strategic referral cultivation with other firms, accountants, or consultants who already serve your ICP
Outreach to alumni and former clients to spot lapsed or dormant relationships you could reactivate
It can be helpful to generate a menu of options and select one or two to experiment with.
Anticipate potential objections and reframe the ask
Lawyers are creatures of habit, and proposing changes to your firm’s marketing approach may generate resistance from colleagues who would like to stay on the well-trod path, even when it is not moving the needle on new business. Here are some of the objections you may encounter, and some ideas for validating the concern while advancing a more strategic approach to marketing.
“But we’ve always sponsored this.” When a sponsorship is no longer an active driver of new business, involvement with the event can be reframed as a legacy relationship. Those relationships still matter, and individual lawyers are welcome to continue participating in the event to nurture them. However, maybe money typically spent on the sponsorship could be redirected to an adjacent invite-only dinner or CLE focused on key prospects within that sector.
“What if narrowing our focus costs us opportunities?” It’s possible that marketing as a generalist was once an effective strategy, but in an era of market saturation and generative AI search, practice groups must identify and own deep niches in order to stand out. Leveraging targeted expertise to connect with “high-intent” prospects (companies already actively looking for the services you provide) significantly outperforms broad and shallow efforts.
“Visibility still has value, even if it doesn’t lead directly to new business.” This one is absolutely true. But it’s important to correctly categorize efforts based on their intended outcomes. Brand maintenance may be a separate line item in the marketing budget, but it should not be considered a spend that is intended to develop new business. There are far more effective tactics for achieving that specific goal.
“We tried it for a quarter, but nothing happened.” Niche-focused marketing is a long game, so it’s important to set expectations around the timeline and foster the patience necessary to see it through. Continue to return to the data to support decision-making, and celebrate small wins along the way to demonstrate how the targeted is yielding results.
Most law firms measure marketing activity, not marketing effectiveness. Because of this, they spend a lot of money, and expend significant effort, doing things that keep everyone busy. This often leads to disappointing results and frustration. But when marketing teams work smarter, not harder—by clearly defining the clients they hope to reach and identifying the specific tactics that lead to new relationships with them—they generate positive momentum and real opportunity that validates their efforts.
Looking to narrow your marketing team’s focus as we head into 2027? Let’s talk.