Is Your Practice Long or Short?

In professional services — whether you’re a lawyer, accountant, mortgage broker, or financial advisor — the temptation to chase immediate results is overwhelming. When new business feels urgent, most practices rush to buy leads, run ads, or spin up campaigns promising quick wins.

But here’s the inconvenient truth: only about 5% of potential clients are actively in the market for your services at any given time. The remaining 95% are not yet ready to buy — but will be in the future.

This reality, grounded in decades of marketing science, explains why so many firms waste money. They pour all their energy into targeting today’s 5%, neglecting the broader audience that actually fuels long-term growth. To succeed, firms need to master “the long and the short” of marketing — a framework championed by Les Binet, Peter Field, and supported by Byron Sharp’s landmark research on brand growth.

Understanding the Two Objectives of Marketing

At its core, marketing serves two distinct objectives:

1. Short-term activation – Campaigns that convert people who are already in-market (the 5%). Think Google Ads targeting “personal injury lawyer near me” or a Facebook ad promoting “free first consultation.” These tactics generate immediate leads.
2. Long-term brand building – Strategies that shape memory, create trust, and keep your practice top-of-mind when the 95% eventually need services. This includes consistent brand voice, thought leadership, PR, sponsorships, and high-quality content marketing.

Most firms obsess over activation. But as Binet and Field showed in The Long and the Short of It, brand building is the true growth driver.

The Research That Changed Marketing

Les Binet and Peter Field spent decades analysing thousands of advertising campaigns. Their findings were simple but profound:

• Short-term sales activations work, but their effect is shallow and fleeting.
• Long-term brand investment builds pricing power, market share, and sustainable growth.
• The most effective balance is roughly 60% brand building and 40% activation.

Byron Sharp reinforced this in his book How Brands Grow, showing that brands expand not through gimmicks or quick campaigns, but through mental availability (being remembered easily) and physical availability (being easy to find and access).

In other words: quick wins don’t lead to lasting success.

Why Professional Services Firms Struggle

Despite the evidence, most law firms, accounting practices, and financial advisors still funnel nearly all their budgets into the short term. Why?

1. Pressure for immediate ROI – Partners want to see quick leads to justify spend.
2. Impatience with brand marketing – Brand campaigns don’t always deliver instant calls or consultations.
3. Sales-driven agencies – Many marketing firms sell what’s easy to track (leads) rather than what actually grows practices long-term.

The result? Firms become addicted to paid ads, trapped in a cycle of spending more for diminishing returns.

The Smart Firms Think Differently

The practices that consistently grow — often the ones that become household names in their niche — are those that play the long game.

They:

• Develop a distinctive brand voice.
• Invest in consistent messaging across channels.
• Sponsor events, publish white papers, and create memorable campaigns.
• Accept that building awareness and trust is a multi-year commitment.

And the payoff is undeniable: firms with brand equity attract higher-value clients, defend margins, and enjoy organic referrals far beyond what pure lead generation can achieve.

Breaking Down the 60:40 Rule

Binet and Field recommend a 60:40 split between long-term brand investment and short-term activation. But how does this translate in practice?

• Brand Building (60%)
  • Content marketing (blogs, podcasts, videos)
  • PR and media exposure
  • Social media storytelling
  • Community sponsorships
  • SEO for long-tail awareness
  • Consistent design and messaging
• Activation (40%)
  • Google Ads / PPC
  • Retargeting campaigns
  • Lead magnets (free guides, webinars)
  • Email nurture sequences

For most professional services firms, this balance ensures that today’s prospects are captured, while tomorrow’s clients are cultivated.

The Cost of Ignoring Brand

Firms that chase only the 5% create a dangerous cycle:

1. Lead dependency – Without a pipeline of brand-generated demand, practices rely entirely on paid campaigns.
2. Margin erosion – Competing on ads forces firms into price wars.
3. No compounding effect – Every dollar spent resets after the campaign ends.

Contrast this with brand-led firms: over time, their cost per acquisition drops as more clients come through recognition, word of mouth, and organic search.

Practical Steps for Firms

If you’re a practice owner asking “Where should I start?”, here’s a roadmap:

1. Audit your spend – How much is short-term (ads, lead buys) vs. long-term (brand)?
2. Define your brand voice – What do you stand for? What’s your distinctive positioning?
3. Set objectives – Separate “leads now” goals from “growth in 3–5 years” goals.
4. Rebalance investment – Shift towards a 60:40 mix (or 50:50 if early stage).
5. Measure differently – Don’t just track leads. Monitor brand awareness, share of search, and recall.
6. Commit for the long haul – Sustainable brand growth takes 2–3 years minimum.

Conclusion

The biggest mistake professional services firms make is chasing the 5% who are ready to buy today, while neglecting the 95% who will need them tomorrow.

By embracing the principles of Binet, Field, and Sharp — and adopting a 60:40 balance — practices can move from transactional, campaign-driven marketing to true long-term growth engines.

The choice is clear: chase quick leads and stay stuck, or invest in brand and own your market.