Your Website Budget was Sliced
At LISI, we’ve written a lot about budgeting for digital marketing, websites, social media support, and SEO because we know – from our decades of in-house legal marketing experience – how difficult it can be to get budget dollars approved from a law firm budget committee. As uncertainty rises and the economy slows, marketing expenses are cut first. I’ve always thought it should be the reverse, but that’s just me.
However, when you’ve made a compelling case for a new law firm website and you have the emotional buy-in from firm leaders but not the budget to support it, you try to get creative. How can you do more with less? If you have 20% of what you need to design and build a new impactful website, how do you move the needle? If you don’t use those dollars now, they may not be there for you next budget cycle.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest a redesign of the homepage only, or perhaps a few high-traffic pages on your site. In your home, you might only update cabinet doors if you can’t afford the whole kitchen reno. So why not change a few high-impact areas on your website? Before you start playing mad scientist with your homepage, let’s talk about why that quick fix can create more problems than progress.
Beware of What Lies Ahead
When you update pages piecemeal, you might end up with a lovely face of your website on a monster website frame, sewn together like Frankenstein. Scary! But it gets worse:
- What does this half-updated site say to clients about your firm’s commitment to high-quality legal work?
- What does it communicate to prospects about what it’s like working with you?
- What will a prospective lateral hire learn about your law firm from the parts of the website that are dated and clunky?
A Frankensteined website can dilute the positive impact your changes could have. At best, it’s a great start with a sloppy finish.
We have seen this happen often in the legal industry, and I doubt any marketer will say it was the plan. It is just an unfortunate outcome when a website budget is not available, or a new website is not the firm’s priority.
Precision Operation to Minimize Website Rot
If you are in this precise crossroads moment, my first recommendation is to ask your website service provider for support. At LISI, we have a catalog of resources to support legal marketers and law firm leaders:
Next, collaborate with your website service provider to problem-solve the finance side:
- Ask if you can distribute the project costs over two or more budget years, or if there are other creative ways to spread out costs to satisfy the finance team. At LISI, we offer alternative payment models.
- Could any other general marketing or business development budget allowances support the website project this year or next year?
If your only option is making a limited website budget go further, focus on the data. Study your Google Analytics and other data to see how visitors interact with your website. Review the user paths and high-traffic pages to ensure you update high-impact pages. Then you can be sure you are making changes — such as removing poor functionality — that add value and improve user experience (UX).
Your website partner should also advise you about any new industry best practices and technological advancements — such as new accessibility standards or integrated chatbots — since your last website project. These can affect not only the changes that you make to your website but also how you execute the project. For example, can you leverage AI to reduce time and costs?
Spend time and money where it matters. And don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal of a full website update when the budget pressures ease.
Boo! Don’t Go It Alone
The bottom line is that you should collaborate with your website partner closely before, during, and after any conversation about website budgeting to avoid a scary outcome.
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