Believe it or not, many lawyers and legal marketing professionals—whether at the C-Suite or Director level—struggle to define the difference between marketing and business development (BD) within law firms. This is a bigger problem than you might think. Without clear definitions, you’re looking at resource mismanagement, unnecessary tension among colleagues, and total chaos in day-to-day operations.
This post is here to clear up the confusion with straightforward examples that’ll help you—whether you’re a lawyer in Toronto, Canada, or anywhere else in the world. First off, let’s acknowledge that both marketing and BD are broad, umbrella terms. What I’m sharing below is based on my 8+ years of experience as a digital marketer working with law firms and learning from some of the best marketing and BD professionals in the field.
Here’s a way to visualize it:
Imagine this as a volleyball game. Marketing is the setup—getting everything in position. Business development is the spike that scores the point. Both are essential to winning the game.
Marketing
When you’re building demand for your legal services or practice areas, marketing is where you start. The goal? To put your law firm front and center in your audience’s mind. This might be through organic efforts like SEO, social media, podcasts, or videos. Good marketing shapes your brand, aligns your expertise with market demand, and ensures you show up where people are searching—whether that’s Google, LinkedIn, or another channel.
What do you hope to achieve with marketing? Two main things: traffic generation and lead generation.
If you’re in the B2C space (think personal injury or family law), you might bypass lead generation and go straight to client generation. But for those in the B2B space—say, business law—the process is more drawn out. You’re dealing with a longer sales cycle, so your focus is likely on driving traffic and generating leads first. Once those leads are in the pipeline, it’s time for the next phase: business development.
Business Development (BD)
Like marketing, BD is a catch-all term. Here, I’ll narrow things down, much like I did with marketing by focusing on digital BD efforts.
From a digital marketing perspective, BD kicks in after you’ve racked up a nice batch of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs). What’s next? Lead nurturing. This is where BD thrives.
One common tool in digital BD is email marketing. It’s great for nurturing prospects and even winning back past clients. For example, I once ran a three-month email campaign that generated over 80 high-quality leads—and even uncovered two win-back opportunities for a lawyer I was working with. That’s the power of effective lead nurturing.
BD doesn’t stop at email. There are offline aspects too: proposals, pitches, awards, directory submissions, and more. These often require specialized skills but are just as critical.
When nurturing leads, it’s all about scoring. A lead scoring system helps you evaluate how likely a lead is to convert. High-scoring leads? They’re ready to become clients. Low-scoring ones? They might need more convincing—and more time.
A Practical Scenario
Let’s say you’re a business lawyer specializing in tech and cybersecurity law, and you’ve been asked to grow your practice at the firm. You’re a rockstar when it comes to legal expertise, but you’re not quite sure how to bring in clients. So, you approach your marketing team to brainstorm ways they can help you develop your practice using modern marketing and BD strategies.
Here’s what you can expect from your in-house team:
Marketing Team
- Starts with a discovery call to define goals, audience, budget, channels, and timeline.
- Aligns content strategy and marketing efforts with discovery call insights.
- Creates marketing assets tailored to each channel for traffic and lead generation.
- Sets up tracking and metrics to measure campaign performance.
- Launches the campaign and monitors results.
Business Development Team
- Reviews and qualifies leads to prioritize high-value prospects.
- Nurtures leads through personalized email campaigns and follow-ups.
- Builds relationships by providing valuable insights and resources.
- Prepares and delivers tailored proposals, pitches, or presentations.
- Tracks engagement and evaluates lead readiness using scoring systems.
- Converts qualified leads into clients through strategic outreach and meetings.
Of course, implementing what I’ve outlined above isn’t always straightforward. It requires a well-aligned team and a clear strategy, which can be challenging for some firms to establish. That’s completely understandable—every firm has its unique hurdles.
If you’re facing challenges in creating a seamless marketing and business development operation, feel free to reach out to me at hiremoshiur@gmail.com. I’d be happy to discuss your current strategic and operational needs. Together, we can conduct a full audit of your digital marketing and business development efforts, identify areas for improvement, and streamline these functions to help your law firm achieve its full potential.