Marketing and Business Development Are Different – and Lawyers Need to Do Both
A version of this article was originally published in For The Defense here on September 3rd, 2025
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about marketing and business development in legal services. I hear some variations of these top fallacies all the time:
“Marketing means advertising, and advertising means billboards on I-95, or bad radio or television ads.”
“Marketing is unethical, unnecessary and uncouth. The law is a noble profession; if we do good work, our reputation and referrals will bring clients to us.”
“Marketing is only for (large) law firms, not lawyers (or solo practitioners or small firms).”
“Blogs/email marketing/online marketing/social media marketing is dead/irrelevant/ineffective/a waste of time.”
None of these is true, but they remain pervasive (despite my best efforts).
Take, for example, an exchange I had with a lawyer—let’s call him Mark—at a recent social event. After we exchanged pleasantries at the buffet, Mark asked what I do. When I told him that I run a legal marketing agency, he chuckled and said: “Most lawyers are doing marketing all wrong.” In his opinion, “getting clients is a numbers game; you just need to pitch to as many people as possible.”
After imparting his pearls of wisdom, he wandered off to the bar with a wave and a satisfied smile. The interaction left me a bit nonplussed, but only for a moment. Then I started thinking. Mark’s opinion about “marketing” had a number of misconceptions wrapped up in it.
Many lawyers—especially (but not exclusively) those in solo practices or small firms where there may not be an established marketing function—see “getting clients” as marketing. In essence, they view marketing and business development as different names for the same activities. Even lawyers in firms that have marketing and business development resources may perceive these as all part of the same function, often because they are lumped together within the “marketing department.” Still others may recognize that these are two different functions, but think they are entirely separate, unrelated functions.
The confusion around legal marketing and business development makes sense. Law school teaches us about the law but not about the business of running a practice or attracting and keeping clients. Even in the larger business world, there are no universally accepted definitions of these functions. And both marketing and business development have the same general objective: More work and increased revenue.
Marketing and business development are different; they each have a different focus, approach, and essential tasks. But they also go hand in hand. When aligned, they can help you attract new and better clients, as well as retain and get more work from current clients.
Marketing
At a high level, marketing focuses on building “brand awareness” in the marketplace, which is as important for individual lawyers as it is for firms and practices.
Marketing’s broad objectives are visibility and positioning. It makes you findable. It keeps you top-of-mind with your target clients and referral sources. It positions you as authoritative and credible in your specific practice area. And, it differentiates you from your competitors. Put simply, the core goal of marketing is to help potential clients and referral sources understand who you are, what you do and who you do it for, and why you’re the right choice to help them.
Marketing focuses on messaging to reach and influence your target audiences—referral sources, potential clients, even current clients—identifying who they are, discerning what they need and want, and providing information to engage them. For prospects, that includes messaging to help them feel confident that they are making the right choice entrusting you with legal problems that are often some of the most challenging they may face in their lives. For referral sources, the messaging is focused on helping them feel confident in referring to you. And, to the extent that existing clients could either be a source of more work or referrals, marketing communications can focus on providing valuable information that builds and maintains their loyalty or “stickiness,” and transforms them into advocates for hiring you with others.
For criminal defense attorneys and firms, marketing might include:
Maintaining a compelling website, practice descriptions and online bios that reflect your practice areas, experience and how you work with clients.
Consistently distributing substantive content—for example, articles, alerts, blogs or videos—that educates and informs your audience, enhances your credibility as an authority in your area and builds trust, while also keeping you visible and top of mind.
Seeking out opportunities to publish articles in legal, industry or other publications.
Maintaining an active presence on the right social media platforms to reach your target audience.
Engaging in appropriate, targeted PR and media relations.
Participating in third-party ranking or recognitions programs such as Chambers, Legal 500, Benchmark Litigation, Super Lawyers and others, if they are appropriate to your practice.
Maintaining a strong Google Business Profile, if your practice tends to be regional or local.
Buying traditional or digital advertising.
Business Development
While marketing focuses on messaging to build brand awareness, increase visibility, and enhance credibility, at a high-level, business development focuses on identifying and pursuing strategic opportunities. This could include getting more business in existing practice areas, developing new and different practice areas, or targeting different industries or market sectors. This is true for firms, practices, and individual lawyers.
At the individual attorney level, business development emphasizes building networks and connections, and nurturing relationships with prospects, referral sources and clients, both one-on-one and in the context of organizations such as legal and industry associations. In other words, business development focuses on the human side of growing your practice—networking, following up, and deepening relationships with the right people and organizations.
For firms or practices, business development tasks typically include:
Gathering and managing data on clients and prospects; markets, industries and competitors; and strategic partners and referral sources.
Identifying and facilitating cross-selling opportunities between lawyers and practices.
Creating materials for networking and pitching opportunities with clients and prospects.
Managing client events.
Conducting client feedback programs.
These tasks and others can also be part of business development for individual lawyers, and those in small or mid-sized practices who don’t have structured business development resources. Some high-impact business development that you as a lawyer can engage in include:
Join and, if you have the time, become active in, professional, legal or industry associations; offer to speak at events or write articles for association publications.
Build your network thoughtfully on the appropriate social media platforms.
Make a habit of reaching out to past clients, referral sources and colleagues—send a friendly catch-up email, set up a quick call or message them on LinkedIn, not to pitch you and your practice but to nurture the relationships that could eventually result in referral or more work.
Remember that client service is an essential part of business development; invest in clear, client-friendly intake, billing and communication practices that you and your staff follow.
Nurture relationships with current clients with check-in calls or emails when you don’t have their legal matters to discuss with them.
Ask for client feedback; depending on the type of practice you have and matter you’re representing them in, you can ask for feedback during or after the representation.
Where appropriate, ask clients for testimonials, reviews and even future referrals.
Develop usable systems to track client, prospect and referral information, as well as a simple experience database to collect details on matters you’ve handled.
Cultivate relationships with appropriate practice-adjacent professionals and opposing counsel.
Host social or educational events.
Become involved in your community or offer pro bono services to build networks, awareness and goodwill.
How Marketing and Business Development Work Together
As you can see, marketing and business development are complementary and, in some cases, overlapping." In essence, marketing gets you noticed and keeps you top of mind; business development helps you identify the opportunities and build the relationships that sustain and grow your practice. When you use them together, you can build a more resilient, sustainable, thriving practice.
Marketing and business development are often misunderstood, as my new friend Mark showed. They are, however, core functions of building and running a successful law practice.
The good news is that you don’t need a huge budget or dedicated marketing and BD team to use marketing and business development to your advantage. In fact, it just requires being more strategic with the time and resources you do have, and focusing on planning, consistency and commitment.
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