Launch of Digital Marketing and IP Study

weareip launches new Digital Marketing and IP Benchmarking study.

On 12 June 2026, weareip launched its new report, Digital Marketing and IP (Benchmarking Study 2025) - a study created to provide practical, evidence-based insight into how intellectual property (IP) professionals and firms are currently approaching digital marketing, where the main constraints lie, and which actions matter most for future growth in the sector.

The report represents one of the first focused studies of its kind dedicated specifically to the digital marketing realities of IP lawyers, IP firms, IP consultants, and other IP professionals. It was commissioned by weareip and developed to help the IP sector better understand how expertise, visibility, credibility, and client conversion increasingly interact in a digital-first market environment.

The study shows that IP professionals are not absent from marketing. In fact, many are already active on channels such as LinkedIn, websites, and IP conferences and events. However, the findings also show that participation on such channels is often happening under pressure - constrained by limited time, limited budget, capability gaps and the broader difficulty of turning technical expertise into clear and commercially meaningful communication.

In that sense, the report is not only about channel usage. It is about the friction between specialist expertise and market understanding, and the need for clearer positioning, stronger proof, and more effective conversion pathways.    

“ The hardest communication challenges for IP professionals are centred on positioning and differentiation. 50% cite communicating their unique value proposition as hardest, while 46% cite differentiation from competitors. ”

One of the clearest messages in the study is that the hardest marketing challenge for many IP professionals is not simply getting seen. It is being understood. Respondents most often pointed to difficulties around communicating their unique value proposition (50%) and differentiation from competitors (46%), while around 33% also highlighted the complexity of IP services and the challenge of explaining pricing structures or service packages clearly.

This suggests that the biggest communication issue in IP marketing is not explaining IP in general. It is explaining why a specific IP professional or firm is the right choice.

The research also shows that marketing execution is heavily affected by operational realities. The leading barriers identified were limiting marketing budget (54%), lack of time (50%), and difficulty targeting the right audience (46%), followed by lack of marketing knowledge or expertise (35%). A further 20% of respondents also cited the difficulty of finding a marketing agency that genuinely understands the IP industry.

Taken together, these findings point to a simple conclusion: many IP professionals do not need more random marketing activity. They need a more focused system built on clear positioning, clearer communication, repeatable execution, and stronger conversion foundations.  

The report concludes that before increasing marketing output, IP professionals and firms should first strengthen the fundamentals: clarify positioning, sharpen LinkedIn profiles and messaging, improve website conversion pathways, build proof assets such as testimonials and case examples, and create a lightweight marketing rhythm that can realistically operate alongside fee-earning work.

The full report can be downloaded here.