GUEST BLOGGER: Kimberly Alford Rice, President - KLA Marketing Associates

How wise would it be to leave on a road trip without programming your GPS first with the “end location” or without Google driving directions? Not very wise, but that is essentially what law firms do when they spend on marketing without a written plan and annual budget.

We hear it all the time in blogs, white papers, newspaper articles and from industry experts. “….marketing budgets continue to be slashed, programs are being dropped and marketing staff are being laid-off.” This creates the challenge of strategically choosing the marketing tactics that make the most sense for your firm and your brand.

I was playing Scrabble the other day and it dawned on me that the same strategies I used while playing are applicable to the development of a marketing strategy for a client. In Scrabble, you have to create words with letters selected at random. You have to manage them carefully and decide which placement gives you the best competitive advantage. You might not always start out with the letters you want, and sometimes realize you are short one letter needed for the perfect word, but, in the end, your goal is to earn the most points with the tiles you have.