You know your firm’s marketing could be working harder, but where do you start?

Many law firms launch campaigns, produce content and invest in digital channels without ever pausing to evaluate what’s truly delivering results. However, a marketing audit helps you cut through the noise, understand what’s working, and redirect your efforts where they count most.

Not all audits are created equal though. When done right, they bring clarity and actionable insights. Conversely, when done poorly, they just create more questions and confusion.

Here’s what should definitely be in your law firm marketing audit and what you can safely leave out to focus on what really matters.

What to Include in Your Law Firm Marketing Audit

1. Alignment with Firm-Wide Goals

Start by asking: Is marketing contributing to our business priorities?

This is often the missing link that many firms overlook. While you might be creating excellent content and running polished campaigns, if they’re not supporting your actual business development priorities, you’re wasting valuable time and resources.

Furthermore, a good audit begins with alignment, and here’s how to assess it properly:

Questions to ask:

• Do campaigns map to specific business development priorities (such as expanding into new sectors or regions)?
• Can partners and fee earners understand how marketing supports their individual goals?
• Is your team measuring what actually matters to the board and senior leadership?
• Does a clear connection exist between marketing activities and new client acquisition?

Practical steps:

• Review your last 12 months of marketing activities against your business plan
• Interview key stakeholders to understand their priorities and expectations
• Map each marketing initiative to a specific business objective
• Identify gaps where business priorities lack marketing support

Rather than ticking boxes, this ensures every marketing pound you spend works towards something that genuinely matters to your firm’s growth.

2. Website Performance and Positioning

Your website is more than a digital brochure. Often, it’s the first impression potential clients have of your firm, and it needs to work hard for you.

Therefore, your audit should assess whether your website helps or hinders your reputation and conversion rates:

Messaging and positioning:

• Does your homepage clearly communicate what you do and who you serve?
• Can visitors understand your key differentiators within 30 seconds?
• Do you speak to your target clients in language they understand (not just legal jargon)?
• Do you address common client concerns and questions?

User experience and functionality:

• How quickly does your site load on mobile devices?
• Can visitors easily find contact details and calls to action?
• Are potential clients able to navigate to the information they need?
• Does your site remain accessible to users with disabilities?

Content relevance:

• Does your content stay up to date and reflect your current services?
• Do case studies and examples remain relevant to your target clients?
• Have you created content that addresses different stages of the client journey?

Basic search visibility:

• Do you appear in search results for your key practice areas?
• Have your location pages been optimised for local searches?
• Do you have the technical basics in place (proper page titles, meta descriptions)?

Rather than seeking perfection, the goal is understanding whether your website works as an effective business development tool or creates barriers to new client engagement.

3. Content Quality and Consistency

Content represents where many firms invest significant time, but without structure and strategy, it can become a scattergun effort that dilutes your expertise rather than showcasing it.

Therefore, your audit should review:

Tone and messaging consistency:

• Does your content reflect your firm’s expertise and personality consistently across all channels?
• Do you write for your target audience or just for other lawyers?
• Does your tone suit the sectors and clients you want to attract?

Strategic focus:

• Do you address real client concerns and questions?
• Do your topics align with your business development priorities?
• Have you covered the full client journey, from awareness to decision-making?

Content gaps and opportunities:

• Do any key services or sectors remain underrepresented in your content?
• Where do your competitors create content that you’re missing?
• What questions does your business development team hear repeatedly that could be addressed through content?

Content efficiency:

• Do you make the most of what already exists through repurposing and updating?
• Which pieces of content actually drive engagement and inquiries?
• What content could teams refresh or restructure rather than rewrite from scratch?

Practical audit steps:

• Create a content inventory mapping topics to business priorities
• Review your most popular content and identify patterns
• Survey your fee earners about common client questions
• Analyse which content pieces have generated the most leads or referrals

Subsequently, a strong content audit helps you work smarter, not harder, by identifying what’s worth expanding and what should be retired.

4. Email, Social and CRM Activity

Your firm’s marketing doesn’t stop at your website. Instead, your outreach and relationship-building activities remain crucial for maintaining visibility and nurturing potential clients and referrers.

Email marketing assessment:

• What results do your open and click rates show, and how do they compare to legal industry benchmarks?
• Do you actually track email performance, or just send and hope?
• Have you developed different email strategies for different audiences (clients, prospects, referrers)?
• Do your emails provide value, or do they just share firm news that recipients ignore?

Social media evaluation:

• Which platforms actually drive engagement with your target audience?
• Do you share content that positions your expertise, or just promote your firm?
• How does your social presence compare to your key competitors?
• Do you use social media strategically for business development, or just because you feel you should?

CRM and database review:

• How clean and segmented does your contact database appear?
• Do you track interactions and follow-up activities effectively?
• Have you established automated nurture sequences for leads and referrers?
• Can you easily identify your most valuable contacts and their engagement history?

Practical steps:

• Pull 12 months of email marketing data and identify trends
• Audit your social media content to see what actually generates engagement
• Review your CRM data quality and identify gaps in contact information
• Map out your current follow-up processes and identify where prospects might fall through the cracks

As a result, this assessment helps you understand whether your outreach remains consistent, targeted, and actually delivers the relationship-building results you need.

5. Marketing Operations and Reporting

Often overlooked but crucial, the behind-the-scenes structure that enables your marketing needs to remain efficient and effective. Frequently, this area provides where quick wins come from.

Team structure and responsibilities:

• Do marketing roles and responsibilities appear clearly defined?
• Does everyone understand their priorities and how you measure success?
• Have you established clear processes for content creation, approval, and distribution?
• Do you have the right skills in your team, or do gaps need addressing?

Decision-making processes:

• How do you make marketing decisions, and who makes them?
• Do approval processes slow down your marketing efforts unnecessarily?
• Do partners and fee earners understand their role in marketing success?

Reporting and measurement:

• What gets reported to leadership, and what doesn’t?
• Do you measure activities or actual business impact?
• Have you established systems to track leads from marketing activities to new client wins?
• Can you demonstrate marketing ROI to justify continued investment?

Technology and tools:

• Which marketing tools and platforms help your efficiency?
• What systems create friction or duplication of effort?
• Do your tools integrate, or do you manage multiple disconnected systems?
• Do you have the data you need to make informed marketing decisions?

Quick wins to look for:

• Streamlined approval processes that reduce delays
• Better integration between your website, CRM, and email marketing
• Automated reporting that saves time and provides better insights
• Clear accountability that ensures marketing activities actually get completed

Ultimately, better operations can unlock significant progress without needing more headcount or budget. The key lies in working smarter with what you already have.

What to Leave Out of a Law Firm Marketing Audit

❌ Endless Competitor Comparisons

While it’s tempting to spend hours analysing what your competitors do, this rarely provides actionable insights at the audit stage.

Why to avoid it:

• Your competitors might make the same mistakes you do
• Their strategy might not suit your firm’s goals or resources
• This approach can lead to copycat marketing rather than authentic differentiation
• Time spent on competitor analysis could be better used understanding your own performance

What to do instead: Focus on what works for your firm and your specific market. Once you understand your own performance, you can then make strategic decisions about where competitive intelligence might prove useful.

❌ Vanity Metrics

Don’t get distracted by numbers that look impressive but don’t translate to business results.

Metrics to be wary of:

• Social media follower counts
• Website traffic spikes that don’t convert
• Email list size without engagement data
• Content impressions without interaction

What to focus on instead:

• Inquiries generated from marketing activities
• Quality of leads and conversion rates
• Referral volume and quality
• Engagement from your target audience (not just anyone)

Unless these metrics clearly tie to leads, visibility among your target market, or business development conversations, they’re just vanity numbers that can mislead your strategy.

❌ Technical SEO Deep Dives (Unless There’s a Problem)

Unless your website has major technical issues affecting user experience or search visibility, you don’t need a comprehensive technical SEO audit.

When to avoid it:

• Your site loads reasonably quickly
• You appear in search results for your firm name and key services
• You’re not experiencing dramatic drops in website traffic

What to focus on instead:

• High-level visibility checks for your key practice areas
• Whether your content finds and serves your target audience
• Basic structure and navigation that supports user experience

Save detailed technical audits for when you have evidence of a problem that needs solving.

❌ Unnecessary Design Critique

Visual design matters, but the audit should prioritise substance over style.

Avoid focusing on:

• Personal opinions about colours and layouts
• Design trends that don’t serve your target audience
• Aesthetic preferences that don’t impact user experience or conversion

Focus on instead:

• Whether your design supports clear communication
• If your visual hierarchy guides users to important information
• Whether your design reflects your firm’s positioning appropriately
• If design choices hinder functionality or accessibility

Ultimately, design should serve your business objectives, not just look pretty.

A Good Marketing Audit Helps You Focus, Not Just Critique

Rather than creating an overwhelming list of everything that could be improved, the goal of a marketing audit is helping you make better decisions about where to invest your time, energy, and resources.

The best audits bring clarity by:

• Identifying what already works well (so you can do more of it)
• Uncovering hidden strengths you might not have recognised
• Highlighting the biggest opportunities for improvement
• Helping teams and partners understand priorities and focus their efforts
• Providing evidence to support strategic decisions and resource allocation

Key principles for an effective marketing audit:

• Focus on business impact, not just marketing metrics
• Look for patterns and trends, not just snapshot data
• Consider your firm’s specific context and resources
• Prioritise actionable insights over comprehensive analysis
• Connect marketing performance to business development results

If you’re not sure what your marketing delivers, or if your board asks for evidence of marketing ROI, a well-structured audit becomes a smart first step. Just make sure teams design it to help you move forward, not just understand where you’ve been.

Most successful law firms use marketing audits as a foundation for strategic decision-making, not just as an academic exercise. Therefore, make yours count by focusing on what will actually help your firm grow.

Need help?
If you would like help with your marketing audit, bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, the UK, and Europe, specialising as a legal marketing consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.

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