If you’re running a law firm today — especially one working with retirees — there’s a cold, hard truth you need to know:
If you’re not experimenting with your marketing, you’re already falling behind.
What worked last year may not work today. And what’s working for your competitor? You might only be seeing part of the story. Let’s dig into why ongoing experimentation isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a lifeline to growth.
Why You Can’t Afford to Skip Marketing Experiments
Here’s the deal: Marketing changes fast.
- Facebook ad rules change
- Google search habits shift
- Social media algorithms evolve
- Newspapers lose circulation
- Seniors who once only responded to direct mail are now always on iPads
If you’re still running the same campaigns you did five years ago (or even two), your results are probably slipping — even if you haven’t realized it yet. Today’s marketing game rewards firms that test fast, learn fast, and adjust even faster.
How to Run Marketing Experiments the Right Way
Good marketing experiments don’t have to be complicated. They just need to be structured.
- Pick one clear goal: “Increase consultation bookings by 10% this quarter”
- Change one thing at a time: Swap the title of your next webinar — not the title and the date and the ad copy
- Track your results: Your gut feeling is not a metric
- Move fast: If something flops, don’t overthink it; adjust and keep going
Marketing today is about constant tweaks — not grand overhauls once a year.
The Trap You Can’t See: Survivorship Bias
One of the biggest risks to your marketing isn’t obvious at all — it’s something called survivorship bias. Here’s how it shows up: You get feedback from clients who love your ad, your postcard, or your seminar invite. You hear from the ones it resonates with — and naturally, you feel like you’re on the right track. But you never hear from the people it didn’t work for! The ones who found it confusing, irrelevant, or just easy to ignore. They don’t call to tell you they weren’t interested — they simply vanish.
And that’s the trap.
If you only listen to the positive feedback from the clients who already liked your message, you slowly start optimizing your marketing for a smaller and smaller slice of the population, distancing yourself from a larger and larger slice of your audience.
Over time, your marketing:
- Reaches fewer people
- Resonates with a narrower audience
- And quietly loses impact
All this happens despite all the feedback you are hearing being positive.
Real marketing growth doesn’t come from perfecting your message for the people you’re already reaching.
It comes from experimenting and adjusting for the ones you aren’t reaching yet. The only way to protect yourself from survivorship bias is to test intentionally, even when things seem “good enough.”
The Hard Part: Budget and Bandwidth Are Real Constraints
Let’s be honest. It’s easy to say, “Just run more experiments!” when you have a full marketing department and a six-figure ad budget.
But more than likely, for your firm:
- The marketing budget is tight
- Your staff already wear multiple hats
- And testing is risky when every dollar counts
When you’re juggling consultations, client work, and operations, it’s hard enough to run marketing, let alone experiment with it. This is why so many firms keep doing the same thing year after year, even as results slowly erode. Thankfully, Academy firms have a huge advantage.
Don’t Go It Alone
Smart marketing requires constant experimentation. But when you’re working on your own, the risks are high, and the learning curves steep. Academy Members have a built-in advantage. They benefit from decades of collective marketing data, real-world testing, and shared insights from every firm across the country. Instead of guessing, Academy firms make decisions based on patterns, results, and lessons learned. not just gut instinct. When firms share what works, what doesn’t, and what’s changing in real time, every Member moves forward faster.
Marketing is always evolving; shouldn’t your firm evolve too?
Contact the Academy to learn more about how we can help craft your marketing strategy.
Timour Mobarak
Practice Building Coach
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com
