Adverts placed in local newspapers and hard copy business directories, alongside snail mail marketing campaigns, were replaced with search engine optimization (SEO), social media and email newsletters.
Now, with AI, there are new legal marketing techniques, completely evolving the landscape of law firm reach in 2026.
Do Firms Need a CMO?
One of the first questions many firms will ask is what roles they will need to lead marketing.
Smaller firms will often manage their marketing without hiring a dedicated professional or outsource the function to an agency. Whether it’s worth creating a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) role within the firm “depends on the size of the firm, legal area and appetite for growth,” according to Rich Dibbins, founder of digital legal marketing agency Staxton Digital. There’s been a growth in fractional CMOs over recent years, who can provide a part-time dedicated marketing resource for law firms as freelancers, for a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time employee, making it a viable option for more firms.
Planning Ahead
The first stage of every marketing campaign is to create a plan, together with achievable objectives and measurable milestones. Helen Cox, a fractional marketing specialist for law firms, warns that “managing partners approving marketing spend without any real plan or accountability” is bound to cause problems. She stresses the importance of creating “an actual annual marketing and business development plan with clear goals, defined target audiences, allocated budget and assigned responsibility.”
Dibbins echoes the need for a “realistic marketing budget” and says that expectations and key performance indicators (KPIs) should be set in advance, but there should also be some flexibility to “adapt to the market situation” as it changes.
It’s vital that outcomes are regularly assessed to understand if the plan is working, and changes should be made if desired results are not being achieved. According to Cox, law firms should “insist on tracking what’s working, such as conversion rates, client acquisition costs, ROI by channel,” warning that if “your marketing team or outside agency can’t show you the numbers, you’re just guessing — and guessing is expensive.”
It’s vital that outcomes are regularly assessed to understand if the plan is working, and changes should be made if desired results are not being achieved.
AI: Challenges and Opportunities for Law Firm Marketing
One of the most significant changes to legal marketing in recent years has arguably been precipitated by the dawn of AI. Not only has this spawned a multitude of legal tech products based on Large Language Models (LLMs), which effectively automate various marketing tasks, but also it has transformed the traditional digital marketing sales funnel and its reliance on SEO.
Alluding to the ability of AI tools to “figure out exactly who your ideal clients are” and to “create content that actually speaks to them,” Cox says that “AI has completely changed the game for how we market our firms.” But despite the benefits, she is adamant that AI should only be used as an “assistant, not a replacement” because even as various skills are automated, the human aspect of many business relationships remains as crucial as ever.
