Another budget season is here, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year, it’s that the pace of change isn’t slowing down.
Buyers have more ways than ever to research organizations before making contact. They expect faster answers, more personalized experiences and more evidence that you’re the right choice. At the same time, marketing teams continue to balance growing expectations with finite budgets.
Our annual list of budget priorities, informed by a year of client work and our Top of Mind 2026 survey of 100+ legal services buyers, is here to help you plan for 2027.
- AI Visibility. The way buyers search is changing. Increasingly, buyers are beginning their research by asking ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI assistant for recommendations before they ever visit a website. That means being visible in traditional search results is no longer enough. Consider budgeting for an AI visibility assessment to understand:
- Whether your organization appears in AI-generated recommendations.
- Which practice areas or services are being surfaced.
- Where competitors have greater visibility.
- What improvements can increase the likelihood that your organization is included in future AI responses.
- Digital Upgrades. Nothing dates your business faster than a slow, outdated website, and now there’s a second reason to invest. Your site needs to be readable by machines as well as people. Build your audit around the following:
- Confirm your site isn’t blocking AI crawlers.
- Structure your most important pages with clear headings, direct answers and proper schema markup.
- Refresh the design where it has grown stale. Buyers continue to favor clean, scannable layouts with thoughtful use of animation and video.
- Use diagrams, comparison tables, data visualizations and other visual elements to make complex information easier to understand. They improve the user experience while making your content easier for AI platforms to interpret and reference.
- Keep performance, accessibility and mobile responsiveness current. A seamless experience still drives engagement and conversion.
- Content That Builds Authority. High-quality content still anchors every marketing plan. What’s new is a second audience, the AI engines deciding which firms to name. That audience favors:
- Structured Q&A pages that answer buyer questions directly.
- Detailed practice and industry content.
- Consistent expertise across multiple trusted sources, including directories, legal publications and rankings.
- Original research, benchmarking studies and proprietary insights are becoming even more valuable because they create information that no one else can publish.
- Brand Strategy. Every organization changes over time. Your brand should keep pace. It may be time to revisit your positioning if you’ve:
- Expanded into new industries or practice areas.
- Entered new markets.
- Experienced significant growth or a merger.
Budgeting for market research, stakeholder interviews, messaging refinement or a brand audit can help ensure your communications continue to differentiate you in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
- Video and Human-Centered Storytelling. As AI-generated content becomes more common, authentic human voices become even more valuable. Short attorney profile videos, firm culture pieces, educational video series and podcasts help buyers connect with the people behind your brand. Our Top of Mind research has consistently shown that buyers respond to a human touch online. These assets work across your website, social media, presentations, proposals and email marketing, making them one of the most versatile investments you can make.
- AI-Ready Brand Assets. More organizations are using AI tools to create presentations, proposals, client alerts and other marketing materials. The quality of what those tools produce depends largely on the assets they’re given. As you plan your 2027 budget, consider whether your brand standards, presentation templates and content libraries are designed for both people and AI. Well-structured templates, clearly defined brand guidelines and reusable content help AI-generated materials stay on brand while reducing the time spent editing and reformatting. Look for opportunities to update:
- Presentation templates
- Proposal templates
- Email and newsletter templates
- Brand and generative brand guidelines
- Design system/UI elements/design tokens
- Digital asset libraries
Putting it Together
No organization needs to fund all six priorities at once. Start by looking at where your buyers are most likely to and where you have the biggest gaps.
Want more ideas? Contact Jeorjina Tegel to schedule a discussion about your strategic marketing priorities for 2027. And see what 100+ legal services buyers told us about how they find, evaluate and hire outside counsel in our Top of Mind 2026 survey.