Practice Management Advisory Service Publication: The Fundamentals of Marketing Your Solo Practice

By Debbi M. Cohen and Reid F. Trautz

Webster’s Collegiate Online Dictionary defines marketing as “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service” or as “an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.” With the emphasis on commercial functions and buying and selling, no wonder lawyers in general resist the idea of marketing their legal services. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Marketing is not magic. In fact, it may surprise you to learn that marketing, in general, takes skills that most lawyers use already on a daily basis. Marketing takes assessment skills, planning, perseverance, and creativity. There are a number of components that go into any successful marketing effort, including building a network of referral sources, obtaining clients, selling your services, providing legal services, and getting paid. Any lawyer can learn to market; all solo practitioners must.

The first step to becoming a master marketer is not just acknowledging the necessity of marketing to the success of your practice, but also accepting it. Some lawyers think they can dodge the marketing bullet by hiring someone else to market for them. Of course, you can always use the expertise of a marketing professional to help you maximize your marketing efforts, but the only way you can know what will work for your practice is to understand what your needs are and your options for meeting them. Nothing beats personal involvement—getting your hands dirty, as they say.

Before you start your marketing efforts, you have to understand who you are and where you want to go with your law practice. Don’t build a practice where you dislike the work and the clients! A solid marketing plan will help you to create a successful and professionally satisfying law practice.

Identifying Who You Want to Reach
Where do you want to go with your solo practice? Are you a generalist capable of handling a wide variety of matters, or do you have a specialized focus? Do you want to fight it out in court everyday, or do you prefer the counseling role? Perhaps both appeal to you, or maybe alternative dispute resolution or transactional work fits you best. These types of questions may be easier to answer if you have been practicing law for a while, but all practitioners, even beginners, must have a vision of where they want to be. Defining that vision is the first step to achieving it. Write it down.
Only after you have identified what type of practice you want will you be able to identify sources of prospective clients—your target markets. This step is critical. There are many ways of reaching prospective clients. Not all ways work for all people; so, unless you know who you want to reach, you cannot know how to reach them. Don’t spend considerable time and money marketing in all the wrong places. If you do, the end result could be that not only will your marketing efforts be ineffective, but also that they leave clients you might want and who might need your services out there waiting to hire some other lawyer.
Who would make a good client for you? Someone who needs your services, can afford your fees, and pays his or her bills in a timely manner. Isn’t that every lawyer’s dream?
How do you find these dream clients? One place to start is with existing clients. Make a list of all your past and present clients. Beside each of their names write down how the client came to you. Possible client sources may include family, friends, neighbors, your place of worship, civic activities, alumni associations, colleagues, other business professionals with whom you work or even members of your homeowners association. Don’t forget to write down clients who referred you other clients! If you don’t have existing or past clients, try to define your ideal client and then determine where you might find this client. Think as broadly as possible; this is “big picture” time.
A target market is an ascertainable group of people that contains individuals, businesses or organizations who may have a need for your legal services. A target market can be the community center down the street, members of your softball team or bowling league, all persons living within a certain geographic area, organizations with a specific type of problem, start-up companies, or auto accident victims just to name a few examples. It could be your cousin Ernie who has referred five clients to you in the past two years. Write down all your possible target markets, and highlight the ones that you believe contain your best potential clients. Now, your marketing plan is taking shape!

Personal Referrals
Before talking about how to reach out to your newly defined target markets, let’s take a moment to talk about personal referrals. Recent surveys have confirmed what many lawyers may have learned from experience: most clients come to their lawyers through personal referrals from friends, colleagues, relatives, or other personal acquaintances. What does this mean for your marketing plan?
It means that, while you will still want to market directly to prospective clients, you will also want to devote appropriate marketing resources to educating potential referral sources of your availability and services. In other words, market to people who will, in turn, refer clients to you. This could be lawyers in complementary practice areas, other professionals such as accountants, family members, business acquaintances, or neighbors. Most importantly, don’t forget current and former clients. If they were satisfied with your services, they will not only happily refer others to you, but also may in fact become your strongest advocates—in other words, co-marketers. Think how much easier this could make your life!
So, as you develop a marketing plan, be sure to include referral sources as one or more of your target markets. Look at your list of clients; who referred these clients to you? These people may be your most important target market. Don’t forget to focus further marketing efforts there.

Reaching Your Target Market
Once you’ve identified your target markets (the more the better), prioritize the list. It is next to impossible to tackle more than two or three target markets at the same time. How you prioritize the list is up to you. You may decide that you have a target market—such as family members—that will respond quickly to your communication efforts, or that you want to start with the target market that will bring you the most personally-rewarding work. Whichever way you decide to go, you must develop a strategy for reaching the people or organizations in that market.
How can you contact and make an impression on the potential clients or referral sources in your target markets? The best way to begin answering this question is to ask yourself what attracted existing clients to you. If you don’t know, ask them. Many satisfied clients are willing to give you a few minutes of their time to discuss how they came to use your services and what factors helped them decide to hire you. Ultimately, this information will help you decide which marketing devices may be most effective.
Successful marketing devices can include networking through civic, professional, business or alumni associations; seminars on topics of interest to your target market; letter-writing campaigns; advertising in local newspapers or the yellow pages; writing articles for publication in local, state, or industry publications; public speaking; teaching continuing education courses; writing newsletters; and Internet web sites. [See additional marketing devices.] Keep in mind that there may be more than one way to reach your target market. Often, a combination of several devices is effective. The key is getting your name in front of potential clients and keeping it there. Each target market may be reached in different ways. Use your knowledge of the group to decide which communication vehicles will work best for your particular audience.
Marketing experts generally agree that it takes six to eight separate contacts to turn a prospect into a client. If you choose to advertise in a local newspaper, for example, be prepared to run your ad several times. If your target is a certain type of business client, think about joining an industry association. If you join the association, though, be prepared to attend meetings regularly and to be an active participant in order to ensure you become known to association members. If you want to build a family law or elder law practice, consider giving free seminars through a local church, synagogue, community center, or women’s organization. Whichever route you choose, get out there. Be seen and heard.

Identify and Qualify Prospective Clients
Not everyone in your target market will be a potential client for one reason or another. It is up to you to help identify those who are. Fortunately, some prospects will identify themselves. They may contact you after reading your article of seeing your ad in the paper. Don’t just wait for these people though; identify prospects yourself. If you speak to an organization or teach a seminar, collect business cards or the names and addresses of the attendees. Communicate with them after the program. If you do a mass mailing, call some of the recipients to identify their immediate needs. Look for signs of interest and follow up with direct one-to-one contact.
Track your contacts in writing. [See sample tracking form.] Keep dated notes and reminders to follow-up. When you do follow up, record the responses you get. All of this information will be useful later when you need to assess and/or refine your marketing efforts.
Not every prospective client will or should become an actual client. For this reason, you should qualify your prospects as clients. Consider whether the prospect needs your services now. If not, you may find it more beneficial to focus your efforts on other potential clients for the time being. Whatever you do, don’t forget about this prospect for the future and find some way to keep your name in front of that person.
In qualifying a prospective client, consider whether the prospective client will create a conflict of interest with any of your existing clients. It’s better to find this out up front, before you’ve invested a lot of time and energy wooing a client you cannot service. Are you capable of handling this client’s case; do you have the expertise and resources needed? If not, is there anything you can do—such as hiring an associate—to help you? Whatever you do, and no matter how badly you want the client, do not take on a client you cannot competently represent. Even if the representation doesn’t lead to a malpractice suit, it could nonetheless be the downfall of your practice. Research shows that it takes approximately 15 positive references to overcome the adverse impact of just one unhappy but vocal client. When you consider the time and effort involved in pursuing each and every client, can you really afford this risk?
Finally, consider whether the prospective client can pay your fees. If not, this may be the time to slow down or end the courtship. There is nothing wrong with taking on pro bono clients; in fact, there are many reasons to do so. But, you should be the one selecting your pro bono cases, not a prospective paying client’s inability to pay once the work has been done. It can be difficult to turn away a prospective client in need, especially one that is already sitting in your office; but, keep in mind that unless you’ve decided to take the case pro bono, Foonberg’s Law states: “If you choose between doing the legal work and not getting paid or not doing the legal work and not getting paid, you are better off not doing the work and not getting paid.”

Ask the Prospective Client for the Business
Once you have qualified a prospective client and have decided that you can do the work competently, ask for the business! It is truly amazing how many lawyers don’t do this. They spend hours, days, weeks, months, or even years pursuing a prospective client yet never close the deal because they never ask the potential client to give them the business. There are many reasons for this, but the two most common ones are that the lawyer assumes the prospective client knows the lawyer wants the business and the lawyer is afraid to ask directly for the business out of fear of being told “no.”
Never assume that the prospective client knows you want the business. Many people really do not know how the practice of law works, including how lawyers get clients. They may not realize that you have both the time and inclination to help them. Make sure they know by specifically asking to represent them.
Being afraid of being told “no” keeps some lawyers from asking a prospective client for business. They think that as long as they haven’t been told “no” there is hope that they will be told “yes.” This can be misleading. Not being told “no” is not the same thing as being told “yes.” One way to overcome the fear of rejection is to recognize that being told “no” is not the worst thing that can happen to you. In fact, it may ultimately help you. Being told “no” may keep you from continuing to pursue a prospective client who will never become the paying client you really want. Once you know a prospective client will never become an actual client, you can more comfortably move on and apply your efforts elsewhere.
When a prospective client does say “yes,” before beginning the client’s work:
1. make sure you don’t have any conflicts of interest (See Rule 1.8 of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct);
2. confirm the attorney-client relationship with a written fee agreement or retainer letter that clearly expresses the guidelines of your representation and your client’s rights and obligations, including special attention to your fees and how they are to be paid (See Rule 1.5 of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct); and
3. develop a work plan and budget with the client, which can help to manage client expectations and prevent disputes later on as work progresses.
For additional assistance with ethical obligations when marketing, consult the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct and Legal Ethics Opinions.]

Do the Work and Get Paid
Obtaining the client’s legal business is just the first step. Now, you must deliver what you promised. Why do we mention this in an article on marketing? Because providing quality legal services at a reasonable cost can be one of the best marketing tools you have. Don’t lose this opportunity.
Communicate clearly with your client, deliver top quality services, and use every opportunity to solidify and improve the lawyer-client relationship. If at all possible, exceed the client’s expectations. A satisfied client can become your biggest ally, marketing your legal services to friends, family and colleagues—people you might otherwise never reach. When appropriate, remind your clients that you are available to assist them with other legal matters. Ask satisfied clients to refer you to other potential clients. Repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals are the easiest ways to grow your practice. Make sure you do what it takes to get them.
One benefit of delivering quality services to your clients is that it encourages them to pay. However, you can further encourage payment by billing regularly and with respect. Send bills out monthly or according to whatever fixed schedule you may establish with the client. Make sure the bill is accurate and that it reflects the work and effort you’ve expended on behalf of the client. If the bill is going to be substantially larger than usual or expected, call the client to discuss this before sending the bill; you want to avoid sticker shock if at all possible. Nothing hurts the attorney-client relationship more than a misunderstood or unexpectedly large bill. If you think of the bill as another form of client communication, you can use it to your advantage, not only to help ensure you’re paid, but also to showcase your services to the client—a mini-brochure so to speak.

Marketing While You Work
One of the most difficult things to do is to continue marketing for new business while you are doing work for existing clients. Nonetheless, it has to be done in order to keep work flowing into your practice. Even if you cannot devote significant time to marketing because you are swamped with legal work, do whatever you can to keep your name in front of your target markets. Send holiday cards, forward an article of mutual interest, or just call to say “Hello.” After a while, you may be able to streamline your marketing efforts.
Track your successes. [See sample tracking form.] Keep a record of the target markets that have proven most productive; note from where clients came. Refocus your energies there. What did it take to turn prospective clients into actual clients? Whatever it was, do it again. Track your marketing failures too. Finding out what doesn’t work early on can prevent you from repeating your mistakes and wasting your efforts. Once you have identified the problem, adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.
Some marketing experts suggest you perform at least one marketing task daily. While this is great in theory, it can be difficult to implement in practice. We all know how client demands can overtake you, leaving you with barely enough time to sleep or eat. When this happens, just do the best you can, even if that means only keeping track of new ideas for future marketing campaigns. [See additional marketing resources below.]
Over time, most practices develop certain business rhythms or cycles. At times, you’ll be so busy that marketing will necessarily take a back seat to performing the legal work you sought successfully. Don’t panic. If you’ve qualified your current clients well, they will pay you promptly for your efforts. This income can help carry you through any lag in your business that results from your inability to market while you were busy. In addition, once you’ve completed the work that’s kept you from marketing and created satisfied clients, you can always take the easy step to renew your marketing efforts: ask your existing clients for more business.
Ready? The time to start is now.

About the Authors
Debbi Cohen has practiced labor relations and employment law exclusively since she graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1985. She has had her own successful management-side labor and employment solo practice in Washington, DC since 1992. She trains employers on various topics in seminars and individual workshops. She also lectures and speaks on law practice management topics including marketing, client relations, client development, fee collections, financial planning and management, and technology.
Reid Trautz is a former small firm, family law practitioner. Trautz is admitted to practice law in Minnesota, Virginia and the District of Columbia. He is the former director of the Practice Management Advisory Service for the District of Columbia Bar. The program provides free and confidential practice management information, publications, and consulting services to Bar members. For further information on these services, call 202-737-4700, ext. 212.

Bibliography of Marketing Books for Lawyers
The Complete Guide to Marketing Your Law Practice (2000), edited by Hollis Hatfield Weishar and James A. Durham. Published by the ABA. For more information see the ABA Law Practice Management Section online catalog.

Marketing and Legal Ethics—The Boundaries of Promoting Legal Services (2000), by William E. Hornsby Jr. Published by the ABA. For more information see the ABA Law Practice Management Section online catalog.

Marketing Success Stories—Personal Interviews with 66 Rainmakers (1997), by Hollis Hatfield Weishar. Published by the ABA. For more information see the ABA Law Practice Management Section online catalog.

How to Start and Build a Law Practice, 4th Edition (1999), by Jay G. Foonberg. Published by the ABA. For more information see the ABA Law Practice Management Section online catalog.

Through the Client’s Eyes—New Approaches to Get Clients to Hire You Again and Again (1994), by Henry W. Ewalt. For more information see the ABA Law Practice Management Section online catalog.