If you’re a law firm managing partner or practice manager wondering why your marketing efforts seem to deliver inconsistent results, you’re not alone. The legal industry in Australia is fiercely competitive, and too many firms are caught in a cycle of short-term tactics that never build lasting momentum.
Recently, marketing effectiveness legends Les Binet and Sarah Carter sat down for a wide-ranging discussion on the Uncensored CMO podcast about what actually works in marketing—and what doesn’t. While they weren’t speaking specifically about law firms, their insights are remarkably relevant for legal practices trying to stand out in a crowded market.
Binet, known for his groundbreaking research on the balance between brand building and activation (conducted with Peter Field), and Carter, a leading strategist on creative effectiveness, have spent decades studying what separates successful marketing from wasted budget. Their message for 2026? Consistency beats constant reinvention, and your budget matters more than you think.
Here’s what Australian law firms can learn from their conversation.
Consistency Is Your Competitive Advantage
The single biggest theme from the discussion was what Andrew Tindal and System1 have termed “compound creativity”—the idea that marketing effectiveness compounds over time when you stick with consistent messaging, visual identity, and positioning.
Binet noted that ads “mostly don’t wear out” as quickly as marketers believe. The urge to constantly refresh your firm’s messaging or rebrand might actually be hurting your growth. Carter added that human brains love repetition, comparing it to how children will watch the same film repeatedly and love it more each time.
For law firms, this has direct implications. That brand positioning you developed three years ago? If it was sound, it’s probably still working. The consistent messaging framework you’ve built around your practice areas? Keep refining it rather than replacing it.
The key, as Carter explained, is “disguised repetition”—keeping your core message consistent while finding fresh ways to express it. Think about how your law firm’s brand strategy can remain stable at its core while adapting to new channels and formats.
Your Budget Matters More Than Your Tactics
Perhaps the most confronting insight from the conversation was Binet’s analysis of the IPA Databank, which revealed that approximately 90% of marketing effectiveness is driven by how much you spend, with only 10% attributable to efficiency improvements like better targeting or creative execution.
This flies in the face of what many law firms want to hear. We’re all looking for that silver bullet—the clever tactic that delivers disproportionate results without significant investment. Binet was blunt: “Advertising is an arms race.”
For Australian law firms operating in competitive markets like family law, personal injury, crime, or commercial litigation, this means evaluating whether your marketing budget is actually sufficient to compete. If your competitors are outspending you significantly, no amount of tactical cleverness will close that gap entirely.
The uncomfortable truth? If you market like a small firm, you’ll stay a small firm. The tactics that get a new practice off the ground aren’t the same tactics that help an established firm maintain altitude.
Long-Term Thinking in a Short-Term World
Binet quoted marketing academic Carl Mela’s observation: “If brands are built in years, why are they measured in quarters?” This tension between long-term brand building and short-term performance metrics is something many law firms struggle with.
The guests discussed how CMOs often underestimate the importance of sustained investment. Carter noted that marketers should be “the ones looking ahead over one to three years at least,” while other business functions focus on weekly or monthly results.
For law firms, this means resisting the urge to judge your marketing based solely on this month’s enquiries. A comprehensive law firm marketing strategy for 2026 should balance immediate lead generation with activities that build your firm’s reputation and mental availability over time.
The research suggests that when you persist with good marketing, a performance gap emerges between firms that compound their efforts and those constantly starting over. This is exactly why consistent marketing execution matters so much.
The Return to Product (and What It Means for Legal Services)
An encouraging trend Binet and Carter identified was the renaissance of product-focused marketing. After years of purpose-driven campaigns that often floated into “abstract values” territory, successful brands are returning to celebrating what makes their products genuinely valuable to customers.
Carter observed that the best current campaigns are “celebrating products and why people love them.” For law firms, this translates directly: focus on the tangible outcomes you deliver for clients rather than generic statements about values or mission.
What specific problems do you solve? What does the client experience look like? How do you make complex legal matters manageable? These product-level truths are more compelling than lofty purpose statements about justice or fairness.
This approach aligns with frameworks like StoryBrand for law firms, which emphasises positioning the client as the hero and your firm as the guide who helps them achieve specific outcomes.
AI and the Importance of Craft
The discussion touched on AI-generated content, noting that younger audiences in particular seem to detect and reject AI-created material. Carter introduced the concept of “thumbiness”—a term used by Aardman Animations to describe the human imperfections that make handcrafted work resonate emotionally.
For law firms considering AI in their marketing, this is an important caution. While AI tools can certainly assist with efficiency, the human element remains essential for building genuine connection and trust with prospective clients.
Binet emphasised that craft—the careful attention to small details in execution—often matters more than novel ideas. For legal marketing, this means quality content, professional photography, thoughtful video production, and consistent brand execution all contribute meaningfully to effectiveness.
Key Takeaways for Your Law Firm
Drawing from Binet and Carter’s insights, here’s what Australian law firms should prioritise:
Embrace consistency. Resist the urge to constantly reinvent your brand or messaging. Find your core positioning and commit to it for years, not months.
Invest appropriately. Understand that budget is the primary driver of marketing results. If you’re under-investing relative to competitors, adjust expectations or find ways to increase your marketing spend.
Think long-term. Measure marketing over longer time horizons. Brand building takes time, and stopping too soon is one of the most common marketing mistakes.
Focus on outcomes. Rather than abstract values, communicate the specific problems you solve and results you deliver for clients.
Maintain quality. Craft and attention to detail matter. Don’t let efficiency tools compromise the human elements that build trust.
If your firm is ready to build a marketing approach grounded in these evidence-based principles, start by assessing your current strategy against these benchmarks. The firms that embrace consistency and commit to appropriate investment will be the ones that compound their growth over the years ahead.
