Maybe you’ve been practicing law for years and want to build a thriving practice of your own. Or perhaps you’ve graduated from law school and have always known you want to be a solo practitioner or own and run a small law firm. In either case, you believe you can attract clients by differentiating yourself in a competitive marketplace.

But, where to start?

It all starts with strategy. 

As an attorney, you already have the necessary strategic mindset. Tap the same intentional, critical thinking you use daily to develop litigation strategies or provide advice to your clients about how to develop strategies to protect and grow their businesses.

Developing marketing and communications strategies is not that different. Once you know where you want to go, it’s easier to develop a plan for how to get there.

Marketing, public relations, social media, communications, crisis communications, and related disciplines may seem somewhat mystical or ethereal. You may think your formal legal training and courtroom or boardroom experience have been decidedly more fact-based and logical. 

Not to worry. Establishing a marketing and communications strategy involves a systematic approach that connects your business goals and objectives with actionable strategies and tactics. Here’s a step-by-step guide, based on marketing best practices:

• Assess Your Current Situation: Develop a clear-eyed situation analysis to understand your position in the market. Include an assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Learn all you can about your competitors and the market conditions; see if you can identify gaps and opportunities. In short, write down why you think you can “win.”
• Set Clear Marketing Objectives: Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound marketing objectives. Consider things such as increasing awareness, generating leads, differentiating your offering or boosting sales.
• Define Your Target Audience(s): Create detailed customer profiles or buyer personas, identifying who you think your ideal customers are, what they need and how to reach them. 
• Consider Market and Competitive Research: This can be formal and managed by a research contractor, or you can gather data yourself on customer preferences, industry trends and competitor strategies. In short, inform your approach. Identify what differentiates you from your competitors.
• Develop Key Messaging and a Meaningful Value Proposition: Develop the “why” to present yourself as a better choice than your competitors. Your “why” must address your audience’s needs and highlight your unique value proposition. 
• Choose Your Marketing Channels and Tactics: Select the most effective channels to reach your target audience (e.g., social media, email, content marketing, paid advertising, etc.). Develop a manageable mix of strategies and tactics for each channel, whether a geotargeted social media campaign, advertising campaign, direct contact, earned media, or more.
• Set a Budget and Allocate Resources: Determine your budget and the resources needed for each tactic and channel to ensure feasibility. Prioritize initiatives based on expected impact and available resources. You may need expert help to establish a budget and decide how best to allocate it.
• Establish Metrics and Monitor Progress: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) against a timeline to track the effectiveness of your strategy and tactics (e.g., website traffic, open rates, conversion rates, etc.). Regularly review results and adjust tactics as needed to stay aligned with objectives.

PESO helps you integrate and make decisions.

We often utilize the PESO model (Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned) to ensure disciplined integration of all or parts of your integrated marketing and communications program. Doing so maximizes your outreach for your target audience. See below for more detailed information about this model:

• Paid: Digital, print, out-of-home (billboards), broadcast (radio and television), social media, sponsorships (presuming they include exposure opportunities)
• Earned: Media relations, blogger relations, investor relations, influencer relations, community relations, industry relations, etc.
• Shared: Social media (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, others)
• Owned: Your website, blog, white (issue) papers, newsletters, webinars, videos, podcasts, branded collateral (swag), special events, apps, etc.

A robust, intentional and well-designed marketing and communications strategy can go far to shape and support a solo or small practice. I’d go so far as to say it’s tough to succeed without one. But there’s something even more critical to success.

Perhaps the most important advice this entrepreneur and owner of a small strategic communications agency can provide is to take a hard look in your bathroom mirror and be honest with yourself. Make sure this — being an entrepreneur — is what you want to do. Understand the risk of practicing law alone or building a small, specialized firm.

For professionals in any industry sector, and certainly for lawyers and law firms, starting and growing your own business is not for the timid. There’s an old saying that entrepreneurs sleep like babies at night — they wake up screaming every few hours. 

That’s not far from wrong. Risks are always present and, at times, can feel overwhelming. But at the same time, the rewards can be substantial and exhilarating. And both the risks, and rewards, expand far beyond the financial ones. 

Of course, you can earn a fine living practicing law by yourself or with a team of other lawyers. But, perhaps, only by striking out on your own can you experience the unmatched thrill of cultivating and tending your professional dreams and watching them bear fruit. Add to this satisfaction in seeing others grow and develop as lawyers and professionals. Finally, few things are more rewarding than a satisfied or thrilled client.

There’s one thing that entrepreneurs know for certain: Taking risks is the only way to make those dreams a reality. As the Mark Twain quote goes: “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.”

Nicholas J. Vehr is CEO of Vehr Communications, which was founded in 2007. Today, it is an award-winning agency with a multi-disciplinary team of thinkers, creators and advisors who collaborates with organizations and brands of all sizes on strategy, planning and positioning; internal and external communications; crisis communications; media relations; content development; design; social media engagement; community relations; special events and sponsorships; issues management and more.