For many professional service firms, a marketing review only happens when something is clearly wrong. Leads have slowed, the pipeline is weak, or the board is asking awkward questions about return on investment.

By that point, valuable time and opportunities have already been lost, and you’re playing catch-up rather than staying ahead of the game.

A marketing review isn’t just a “fix it” tool. Done at the right time, it’s a strategic checkpoint that keeps business development performance strong and aligned with your firm’s wider goals. The question is, do you know when that right time is?

Why timing matters more than you think

Marketing and business development are closely connected in professional services, whether you recognise it or not. Strong marketing feeds BD teams with the right opportunities at the right time, whilst strong BD converts those opportunities into revenue that keeps the business growing.

If marketing activity drifts off course or stops aligning with BD priorities, the impact on results can be significant. It’s not just about leads drying up; it’s about the quality of opportunities, the efficiency of your conversion process, and the long-term positioning of your firm in the market.

Running a review at the right moment allows you to catch issues before they affect your pipeline, ensure marketing is supporting the most valuable BD opportunities, and adjust resource allocation before budgets are locked in for the year ahead. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive.

Six signs it’s time for a marketing review

Recognising when you need a marketing review can save your firm from months of declining performance. Here are the warning signs that should trigger immediate action:

Leads are down, but activity is up

This is one of the clearest signals that something has gone wrong with your marketing approach. If your team is producing content, attending events and running campaigns but the right enquiries aren’t coming in, there’s likely a disconnect between what you’re doing and what your audience actually needs.

You might be creating content that doesn’t address your clients’ current challenges, attending events where your target audience isn’t present, or running campaigns that speak to the wrong people entirely. A review can help you understand where the disconnect is happening and how to fix it.

Start by mapping your current activity against your target audience’s journey. Are you creating awareness content when your audience needs decision-making support? Are you focusing on channels that used to work but have become less effective? The answers will guide your next steps.

Your BD team says the leads aren’t “right”

Quality matters more than volume when it comes to leads, and if your BD team is spending time on opportunities that don’t fit your target profile, your marketing targeting or messaging may need a complete reset.

This often happens when marketing and BD teams aren’t communicating effectively about what constitutes a good opportunity. Marketing might be generating lots of enquiries, but if they’re from the wrong sectors, too small in value, or don’t match your service capabilities, they’re actually creating work rather than value.

Conduct regular feedback sessions between marketing and BD to understand what makes a lead “right” for your firm. Document the characteristics of your best clients and use this as a briefing for all marketing activity going forward.

Campaigns feel disjointed across sectors or practice areas

Without proper oversight, different parts of your firm may be talking to the same market in different ways, wasting budget and confusing potential clients about what you actually do and how you can help them.

This is particularly common in larger firms where practice areas operate quite independently. Your employment team might be positioning the firm as “innovative and agile” whilst your litigation team describes you as “traditional and trusted”. These mixed messages dilute your brand and make it harder for clients to understand your value.

A review can identify where these inconsistencies exist and help create messaging frameworks that allow each practice area to maintain their expertise positioning whilst supporting a coherent overall brand.

You’re not sure what’s working

If your reporting is inconsistent or your results are anecdotal, you can’t make informed decisions about where to invest your time and budget. A review can establish clear metrics and create systems to track performance against them.

This isn’t just about having more data; it’s about having the right data that actually tells you something useful about your marketing effectiveness. Website visits are interesting, but enquiries from target clients are actionable. Event attendance figures are nice, but follow-up meetings with prospects are valuable.

Work with your BD team to identify the metrics that matter most to business growth, then ensure your marketing measurement focuses on these outcomes rather than vanity metrics that look good but don’t drive results.

Competitors are outpacing you in the market

If you’re seeing competitors publish more relevant thought leadership, run more visible campaigns, or win the clients you wanted, it’s time to evaluate your positioning and competitive strategy.

This doesn’t mean copying what your competitors are doing, but rather understanding why their approach is resonating with your shared target market.

Are they:

• addressing challenges that you’re ignoring?
• present in channels where you’re absent?
• communicating benefits that you’re not highlighting?

Conduct a thorough competitive analysis as part of your review, looking not just at what your competitors are doing, but how your target audience is responding to their efforts.

The last review was over 18 months ago

Markets shift quickly in professional services. Client needs evolve, technology changes the way people consume information, and competitor strategies adapt to new opportunities. Your marketing approach should evolve with these changes, not remain static.

Even if everything seems to be working well, regular reviews help you stay ahead of trends rather than responding to them after your competitors have already moved. They also help you identify emerging opportunities that could give you a competitive advantage.

The best times to schedule a review proactively

Whilst signs of trouble are an obvious trigger for a marketing review, the most effective firms also plan reviews around key business milestones. This proactive approach helps you stay ahead of challenges rather than responding to them after they’ve already impacted performance.

When leadership or structure changes

New leadership often brings different priorities, and structural changes can affect how marketing and BD work together. A review during these transitions ensures that your marketing strategy remains aligned with the firm’s direction and that new leaders understand how marketing contributes to business growth.

This is also an opportunity to reset relationships between marketing and BD teams, establish new communication processes, and align everyone around shared goals and metrics.

Before launching a new sector or service

Expanding into new markets requires a different marketing approach than supporting existing practice areas. A review can help you understand the new audience, identify the most effective channels, and develop messaging that resonates with prospects who don’t already know your firm.

This type of review should include market research, competitive analysis, and stakeholder interviews to ensure your expansion strategy is based on solid intelligence rather than assumptions.

When entering a new geographic market

Different regions often have different business cultures, networking preferences, and decision-making processes. A review can help you adapt your marketing approach to local conditions whilst maintaining your core brand values and positioning.

Consider partnering with local marketing expertise or conducting focus groups with potential clients in the new market to understand their needs and preferences.

During annual or mid-year BD strategy updates

Your marketing strategy should be closely aligned with your BD strategy, so when one is being updated, the other should be reviewed as well. This ensures that marketing continues to support BD priorities and that both teams are working towards the same goals.

Use these strategy sessions to review performance data, adjust targeting, and reallocate resources based on what’s working best.

After major campaigns or initiatives

Large-scale marketing initiatives provide valuable learning opportunities that can inform your ongoing strategy. A post-campaign review can help you understand what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve future efforts.

Don’t just look at immediate results; consider the longer-term impact on brand awareness, thought leadership positioning, and pipeline development.

What a comprehensive marketing review should deliver

A good marketing review goes beyond a surface-level assessment of what’s working and what’s not. It should provide actionable insights that can immediately improve your marketing effectiveness and longer-term strategic recommendations that position your firm for sustained growth.

Current activity mapping and gap analysis

The review should map all current marketing activity against your BD goals to identify where there are gaps, overlaps, or misalignments. This includes content creation, event participation, digital marketing, thought leadership, and business development support.

Look for activities that consume resources but don’t clearly contribute to BD goals, and identify opportunities where increased marketing support could improve BD performance.

Performance data analysis across all channels

Analyse performance data across all marketing channels and campaigns to understand what’s delivering results and what’s not. This should include both quantitative metrics (enquiries, website traffic, event attendance) and qualitative feedback from BD teams and clients.

The analysis should identify trends over time, seasonal patterns, and the relative effectiveness of different approaches. Use this information to make data-driven decisions about resource allocation going forward.

Competitive positioning assessment

Evaluate your positioning relative to key competitors, looking at messaging, channel presence, thought leadership, and market perception. Identify opportunities to differentiate your firm and areas where you’re losing ground to competitors.

This assessment should include both direct competitors and alternative service providers who might be winning business that could come to your firm.

Audience and targeting review

Review your target audience definitions and ensure they’re still accurate and actionable. Markets evolve, and the clients you’re trying to reach today might be different from those you targeted when your strategy was first developed.

Include feedback from recent clients about their needs, decision-making processes, and information preferences. Use this intelligence to refine your targeting and messaging.

Practical, prioritised action recommendations

The review should conclude with specific, actionable recommendations that are prioritised based on their potential impact and ease of implementation. These might include immediate tactical changes, medium-term strategic adjustments, and longer-term positioning recommendations.

Each recommendation should include clear success metrics, resource requirements, and timelines for implementation.

How to conduct an effective marketing review

Running a marketing review requires the right approach and the right people involved. Here’s how to ensure your review delivers maximum value:

Involve the right stakeholders

Include representatives from marketing, BD, and senior leadership in the review process. Each group brings different perspectives and insights that are essential for a comprehensive assessment.

Marketing can provide data and insights about campaign performance, BD can share feedback about lead quality and conversion rates, and leadership can ensure the review aligns with overall business strategy.

Use both quantitative and qualitative data

Numbers tell part of the story, but they don’t explain why certain approaches are working or not working. Combine performance data with feedback from clients, prospects, and internal teams to get a complete picture.

Consider conducting interviews with recent clients about their experience of your firm’s marketing and BD process. Their insights can be particularly valuable for understanding how your efforts are perceived in the market.

Look beyond your own firm

Include external research about market trends, competitor activity, and industry developments that might affect your marketing strategy. This external perspective helps ensure your review is grounded in market reality rather than just internal opinion.

Consider engaging external expertise to provide an objective view of your marketing effectiveness and competitive position.

Set clear objectives for the review

Before starting the review, agree on what you’re trying to achieve. Are you looking to improve lead quality, increase brand awareness, support expansion into new markets, or simply optimise current performance?

Clear objectives help focus the review on the most important questions and ensure the recommendations are actionable and relevant.

Create an implementation plan

The best review is worthless if the recommendations aren’t implemented. Create a clear plan for acting on the findings, including timelines, resource requirements, and accountability for delivery.

Schedule follow-up sessions to track progress against the recommendations and adjust the plan based on results.

The link between marketing reviews and BD success

Regular, well-timed marketing reviews keep your marketing and BD strategies connected and focused on the same outcomes. They create a feedback loop that allows both functions to learn from results and continuously improve performance.

Alignment on priority targets and messaging

Reviews create opportunities for marketing and BD teams to align on who they’re targeting and how they’re communicating with those prospects. This alignment ensures that marketing is generating the right opportunities and BD is equipped to convert them effectively.

Regular alignment sessions also help both teams understand market changes and adjust their approaches accordingly.

Budget optimisation and ROI improvement

Reviews help ensure that marketing budgets are directed towards activities with the highest return on investment. By regularly assessing what’s working and what’s not, you can reallocate resources to the most effective channels and approaches.

This optimisation becomes particularly important as marketing budgets come under increased scrutiny and firms need to demonstrate clear value from their marketing investments.

Leadership confidence and strategic support

When leadership sees that marketing is regularly reviewing and optimising its approach, they have more confidence that marketing is actively driving BD performance rather than just consuming budget.

This confidence often translates into increased support for marketing initiatives and greater integration between marketing and overall business strategy.

Continuous improvement culture

Regular reviews create a culture of continuous improvement where both marketing and BD teams are constantly looking for ways to enhance performance. This culture of optimisation often leads to innovations and improvements that wouldn’t emerge without regular strategic assessment.

The truth is, the right time for a marketing review isn’t “when things get bad”, it’s before BD performance drops. By scheduling reviews proactively and responding quickly to early warning signs, your firm can protect its pipeline, maximise resources and stay ahead of the competition.

Are you ready to take a proactive approach to marketing reviews, or are you going to wait until problems force your hand?

Need help?

If you would like help with your marketing, 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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