Good people and good tools, and no strategy
I've talked with a business-law owner who had capable offshore assistants and good software, and still no one deciding where any of it should be aimed.
/ Your in-house marketing team
A marketing team your firm owns, trained and led by a Fractional CMO
Fractional CMO for your law firm: in-house marketing without the overhead. I'll build your marketing team with you, train it, and lead it, or run the marketing for you. Many firms need some of both.
What you get
- A plan for your team, role by role, in the order to hire
- Help hiring the right people
- Training for new hires, and for the paralegals and assistants already doing marketing work
- Training for your intake and sales team
- Written processes the work runs on
- Ongoing leadership from your Fractional CMO
I'm Joshua David Little. I've run my own consulting firm since 2004, I've helped attorneys prepare complex cases for trial, and I ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads. When I lead your team, I'm the senior person they answer to, and I answer to you.
/ Why in-house marketing stalls
A capable team with no one senior setting the direction
Coordinators with nothing to coordinate toward
A firm hires a marketing coordinator or two and finds it didn't help. Junior hires do their best work when someone senior has set the plan and taught them how the pieces fit.
The person who built the firm, still running the ads
You didn't go to law school to manage advertising. Many founders end up as rainmaker, lead lawyer, operator, and marketer all at once, and the firm's growth starts to depend on one calendar.
Callout: Some owners hear "fractional" and worry about sharing their marketer with everyone else's firm. They want marketers working 40 hours a week for them alone. They're right to want a team of their own, and that team still needs someone senior to lead it. That's the role I fill.
/ Why it's worth building
A team you own is an asset your firm keeps
Your people learn your practice, your clients, and your market from the inside. The processes they follow, the accounts they run, and the resources they make stay with the firm when someone leaves.
What most in-house teams lack is the senior layer: someone who sets the strategy, teaches the team how the whole system works, and holds the work to signed clients. That's the part a Fractional CMO brings.
/ How we build and lead your team
How I build your team with you, train it, and lead it
Decide the roles
What to hire first, and what to keep with outside vendors for now. The answer comes from where your clients come from today and what you already have.
Help you hire
What to look for in each role, and a second opinion on the people you're considering. The decision and the hire are yours.
Train your people
New hires, and the paralegals and assistants who already handle marketing tasks, are trained on every part of the system they touch. Much of what your staff already do, such as the social posts, the review requests, and the newsletter, is then aimed at bringing in clients.
Train your intake and sales team
The people who take your calls and run your consultations are trained to sign more of the qualified leads that come in.
Write the processes
A procedure for each recurring task, so the work keeps running when someone leaves.
Lead the team
I set the plan, keep your team and any outside vendors working toward the same goal, review the work, and report the results every month. I answer for consultations and signed clients.
Finished a coaching program? What to keep, what to drop, and where your own team fits next
The cost of a full-time CMO
/ Why fractional leadership
The traditional approach
Hire a full-time CMO
A full-time chief marketing officer is an executive hire: a full salary and benefits, with recruiting and onboarding before the work starts. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for marketing managers at $166,790 a year as of May 2025, before benefits, with the top tenth above $293,610.¹ One executive-search firm's own law-firm CMO placements had a median base of $400,000, mostly at large firms.² What a firm actually pays depends on its market, its size, and how much the role covers.
The Aquila approach
Your team, led by a Fractional CMO
A full-time leader is a salary plus benefits, and a Fractional CMO is one monthly engagement with no long-term lock-in. The team you build belongs to your firm.
/ Part of the Client Magnet System™ and your Fractional CMO
Your team runs the system, and I lead it
The Client Magnet System has the same parts whether my team runs them or yours does: resources worth someone's attention, capture, follow-up, testing, and tracking to the signed client. With an in-house team, your people run those parts day to day, and I set the direction, review the work, and answer for the results. → The Client Magnet System · → Fractional CMO
/ What the work includes
What you get
- A plan for the team, role by role, in the order to hire
- What to look for in each hire, and help reviewing candidates
- Training for new hires, existing staff, and your intake and sales team
- Written procedures for the recurring work
- Monthly leadership, priorities, and reporting on consultations and signed clients
What your firm gives
The salaries and tools for the team. Your time in hiring decisions. And your team's time in training.
By practice area
/ How it works in your practice
Personal injury
Some of the biggest-spending PI firms want their marketing in-house. Founder-led firms reach the point where the founder can't keep running the ads, and firms weighing outside money need their marketing numbers in order first: what a signed case costs by channel, and how much of the business comes from channels the firm owns. A full-time team led by a Fractional CMO gives you both: the team is yours, and the leadership is senior.
Business law
Assistants and good tools with no strategist behind them, or a marketing director who needs someone to set strategy above the day-to-day work.
Family law
A multi-office family firm growing fast needs clear marketing roles across its offices, and one system everyone reports into.
Other practice areas
The same approach works for estate-planning, elder-law, medical-malpractice, and mass-tort firms.
/ Results for clients
What the system has produced for clients
These came from campaigns my team ran. Your team would run the same system.
Brenda Clark Family Law
New clients at about $200 each, leads at about $21, and about $135,000 in estimated case value.³
"In 40 years of practicing law, this is the best way to get more clients that I've ever had." Brenda Clark, Family Law Attorney
Three firms, four campaigns
A 14.1% conversion rate, at $46.29 per conversion. Legal search ads average 5.55%, at $131.63 a lead.⁴
/ Three ways to staff your marketing
A full-time hire, an agency, or your own team led by a Fractional CMO
| Full-time CMO and team | An agency on its own | Your team, led by a Fractional CMO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direction | Depends on who you hire | The agency's specialty | Senior strategy set for your firm's goals |
| Who owns the work | Your firm | Often the agency | Your firm |
| Coordination | Up to the person you hire | Limited to its own service | Your team and vendors run as one system |
| Training and processes | Built as you go | Kept by the agency | Training and procedures written for your firm |
| Whose hours | A full-time team, yours | Shared with the agency's other clients | A full-time team, yours |
| Cost | An executive's salary and benefits, plus the team | A fee for every vendor | One monthly engagement, plus the team you choose to hire |
FAQ
Won't we just be one of your many clients?
Your team is full-time and works only for your firm. I'm the senior person they answer to, setting priorities, reviewing the work, and measuring results. I take on a limited number of Fractional CMO relationships, so each firm gets real time.
Can you run the marketing for us instead?
Yes. I can run the marketing for you, train and lead your own team, or do some of both.
Who does the hiring?
You do. I help define each role and what to look for, and I can help you review the people you're considering.
What should we hire first?
It depends on where your clients come from today and what you already have in place. We decide it together from your assessment and your numbers.
Do you train our paralegals and assistants?
Yes. Staff who already handle marketing tasks are trained on the parts they touch, the same as new hires.
Do you train our intake team?
Yes. I train your intake and sales team to sign more of the qualified leads that come in.
What happens if our marketer leaves?
The written procedures, the accounts, and the work all stay with your firm. The next person is trained on the same processes.
Do you work with our agency too?
Yes. Many firms keep an outside vendor for specialist work. I coordinate your team and your vendors toward the same goal and hold the vendors to the plan.
² Sartori & Partners, law-firm CMO salary benchmarks 2026, from its own placements.
³ Case value estimated from average case value.
⁴ LOCALiQ, 2026 search advertising benchmarks: attorneys and legal services average a 5.55% conversion rate and a $131.63 cost per lead.