2024 Salary Guide for Legal Marketing and Business Development Professionals

Posted by

Cheyenne Cupp

Posted on

Jul 9, 2024

Navigating the complexities of salary and compensation in the niche field of legal marketing and business development can be challenging. There are numerous angles now to consider. For example, the State-by-State adaptation (or not) of the salary history ban laws and the newer mandatory disclosure laws. Additionally, we see “title morphing”, wide ranges, and the critical need to have a fair and logical approach to salary requests.

Why Transparency Matters

I cannot stress enough the importance of transparency in salary data. From our candidate clients’ perspective, if they have a clear understanding of the market, sliced by years of experience, subject matter expertise, managerial components, and city-specific elements, they can feel confident that their current salary, or salary ask if pursuing a new role, has a thoughtful process behind it.

From our firm clients’ perspective, the transparency has made it abundantly harder. They have many internal angles to consider and ultimately protect and so these laws have added to the already complicated subject of salary and compensation. Having said that, what we have seen - and what I’ve noticed in my time at KHS People so far - is that it does provide somewhat of a much-needed framework for firms. What I mean by this is that it takes the guesswork out of salary benchmarking and gives firm leadership non-negotiable facts to rely upon if used with the intended narrow purpose.

Our mission in creating detailed salary surveys is to provide this crucial transparency. Let’s also not ignore what a proper application to the conversation of salary can do at the big picture level. An obvious example I see is the historic pay inequities between gender and race. As an executive search professional, I take our charge seriously that we can be the crucial neutral and fact-based voice to candidates who may have overpriced themselves, or to firms who may not have current city specific data and struggle to recruit or retain because of key market shifts that they’re not close to or informed about.

Compensation Trends to Watch

We see three early trends emerging from this years preliminary findings of the KHS People Salary & Data Survey:

Increased Demand for Digital Skills: As firms continue to invest in digital marketing, professionals with skills in SEO, content marketing, and social media are seeing higher demand and, consequently, higher salaries. This historically un-tested lane in marketing departments has added an innovative, competitive layer that firms still haven’t uncovered its full use and potential.
A Flatter Structure on Subject Matter: In recent years we have all seen the influx of new growth BD roles. This created a mini hierarchy within, creating an unintentional perception that BD was more important that its other marketing counterparts. Now, we see most lanes of marketing, including highly strategic marketing, PR, and subject matter roles, just to name a few, which is creating a healthy shift that “everyone is equally necessary.”
Emphasis on loyalty through flexible working arrangements: I can see how our preliminary findings are showing a healthy and happy industry, despite the often long hours required. Firms are compensating through finding flexible approaches, and often one-on-one approaches, to the higher performers that are critical team players. I encourage you all to watch his evolving space and how this flexible approach changes the way firms recruit and retain their marketing and business development professionals.

Our Commitment

At the heart of our mission is a commitment to providing accurate and comprehensive salary data that is entirely anonymous.

We believe that transparency in compensation trends benefits everyone in the industry, and the industry as a whole. We also believe in extracting themes and trends for each to equip individuals and firms with the right information. This empowers individuals and firms to make informed decisions that advance careers and follow processes with respect to these critical conversations.

I am excited to see as we keep moving through 2024 what data and insights we at KHS People can continue to provide to educate and keep this industry moving forward in the right direction. I have learned that the evolving landscape of legal marketing and business development never slows, let alone stops, and I know we have a huge value-add to our network, including our candidate clients and firm clients, in harnessing this data. Remember to refer to our salary guide and let it be an invaluable resource in your career and firm journey.