Small/solo strategy
Brochures, newsletters and websites certainly have their place in promoting a small practice. But you should not rely on them to the exclusion of what I call primary marketing strategies:

As a rule, a fancy brochure, four-color newsletter, and wiz-bang interactive website can't carry the burden of promoting your practice unless you become proficient at those primary marketing activities.

Promo priorities
If you reach the point where you need promotional literature to help your practice grow, you need a plan and a budget. The disadvantage of being a small firm is that you do not have marketing expertise on staff (aside from a receptionist or nephew who knows a little desktop publishing) and your budget is, shall we say, limited.

But you have a very big advantage over larger firms. As the sole decision maker, you don't have to form a committee and meet to approve every stage of the creative process; you don't have to take several or dozens of opinions into account at every step, and you don't wind up watering down the message to assuage everyone's concerns about sounding too flamboyant or too confident or too bold, until all the personality, style and charm are blanched out of the literature and they read like every other firm's materials. ("We are a client-centric firm...we don't just meet your expectations, we exceed them...by consistently providing the highest quality representation.")

In other words, you not only have the opportunity to put your personality and style and charm into your promotional literature, but you must. You must because you are selling yourself rather than a firm or an entity, just as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia sells Martha Stewart (or did). You can't differentiate yourself from other professionals on the basis of vast resources or deep support staff, so you must differentiate yourself on the basis of your personal attributes.

With those advantages and limitations in mind, you can choose the promotional materials that best meet your marketing needs. (By the way, if you have no personality, style or charm, you should be a building contractor, not lawyer or accountant.) For this purpose I will discuss three categories of promotional literature: (a) brochures, (b) educational literature, and (c) periodicals. Note that a website can fall into one or more of those categories, depending on how you use it.

Brochures
The primary purpose of a brochure is to introduce your practice to prospective clients, referral sources, the public, and in some cases the media. You can offer a brochure to people who inquire about your services, distribute it to people who may have never heard of you, and — perhaps most effectively — leave it behind after your first face-to-face meeting with a prospect.

A brochure should feature all of the following information:

One suggestion on the structure of the information in your brochure: Think of how a reader will search for information, and organize it accordingly. The wrong way to do it to first list your practice areas, then describe each area, including the clients you represent in that area. This is a firm-centric way of communicating. Readers do not want to scan all the practice areas to see whether you can represent them in this area, in that area, and in the other area.

The right way to do it (the client-centric way) is to list industry groups; then describe the services you offer to each industry group. That way, the reader can find the group that he or she fits into, and no more scanning is required. You may believe your brochure is supposed to be about you, but it's not — it's about the client. Repeat: IT'S ABOUT THE CLIENT!

Similarly, when you write your bio, remember that readers want to know whether you are qualified and capable of solving their problems. Practical experience, evidence of success, and perhaps a license to practice in their jurisdiction, help answer that question. In most cases they are not initially interested in where you got your law or accounting degree or to which civic organizations you belong. You can offer a more comprehensive bio online, on a separate handout, or both — you can update those cheaply and often.

Flex brochures
If you practice in more than one area, or if your brochure contains information that needs to be updated often, you should consider producing a flexible brochure instead of a fixed, permanent one. A flexible brochure lets you send slightly different information to different audiences, and revise the entire package from time to time.

One type of "flex brochure" consists of a folder in which you can enclose different inserts for different purposes. The folder itself features "boilerplate" information that you want everyone to see. Then you can prepare an insert for each industry group or practice area, for example.

Another type of flex brochure is stored as an electronic template, and you can customize the content each time you need to produce it. Then you can print it out on special paper stock. You can even have brochure "shells" printed in bulk quantities on which to print out your customized content; that way you can incorporate color and other graphic elements on the shells that can't be produced efficiently or in high quality on your own printer.

YourFirm.com
If you have a website, resist the temptation to simply dump the content from your printed brochure onto the Internet. In most cases, you should re-format the content because people consume information differently online than in print.

If in doubt about how much to say in your brochure, be concise. After you give someone the brochure, follow up with a phone call or in person, and elaborate. Use your brochure as a foot in the door, not as a plunge into the room.

Educational literature
You can claim in your brochure that you are an eminent authority in a particular practice area, but how do you prove it? One way is by distributing educational literature such as pamphlets, answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), and backgrounders.

Unlike periodical literature, you distribute educational materials as needed, usually in response to a question or to reinforce advice or instructions that you give clients orally. For promotional purposes, when you meet with a prospective client you can provide educational literature that relates to that client's specific industry or issue. Educational materials are also handy PR tools when the press is looking for information about a certain issue in the news that is within your area of expertise.

Pamphlets
Pamphlets tend to be professionally designed and produced, whereas FAQs and backgrounders should be less formal but tasteful. You can write your own pamphlets or use "canned" literature with your firm's imprint.

Composing your own gives you the opportunity to coordinate the design (and writing style) with your letterhead, brochure, and other materials. You know your clientele, and you can provide originally written information that is tailored precisely to their needs and issues. And you avoid the possibility that clients receive the same canned pamphlet from other firms too.

On the other hand, canned pamphlets save you time and — if you purchase bulk quantities — design and printing expense. A wide variety of literature is available from pamphlet publishers in the legal and financial services industries.

FAQs and backgrounders
When you create these informal materials, you should focus on authoritativeness, accuracy, readability and educational value rather than impressive design. You can store the content electronically and print them out as needed, or at least print a master and make photocopies as needed. In most cases, you can print or copy them on your letterhead or plain paper — lightly colored paper is fine, but don't use dark or boldly colored paper or it'll be hard to read and look too much like a grocery store flyer.

An FAQ sheet should thoroughly answer a single question that clients ask, well, frequently. FAQs typically range in length from half a page to two pages (front and back of one sheet). At the end of the explanatory text, refer to further sources of information: books, articles, videotapes, websites, etc. And try to make those further sources available in your office.

Backgrounders are more comprehensive, typically three or four pages and sometimes longer, and typically a bit more sophisticated than FAQs.

Educational pieces are usually printed, but you can also make them available online as PDF downloads or rich-text files. The key is to make it ultra-convenient for clients to obtain them. All literature should bear your name and contact information.

Periodicals
Brochures and pamphlets can help create a good first impression for prospective clients and referral sources, but then you need to remind them from time to time that you are the adviser to call — stay in their face, as it were. You can do this by distributing periodical literature such as newsletters, alerts, clippings, reprints, or a combination thereof.

Like pamphlets, periodicals must be largely informative rather than promotional in their editorial concept. If you publish information that is useful, that helps readers improve their bottom line or stay out of trouble, they will remember you as a reliable source of valuable advice and information. They'll save it for future reference. They might even photocopy it and disseminate it to their colleagues, customers, suppliers, etc. Then you multiply your exposure in the marketplace.

If you want to distribute promotional literature — such as announcing a new practice area, a new website feature, or additional staff — do that as a separate enclosure or separate mailing altogether, unless you can keep it to no more than 15 percent of your newsletter space. If your periodical literature is too promotional and self-serving, readers won't take it seriously, and they certainly won't save it or pass it along to others.

Newsletters
Publishing a newsletter is a big commitment. Once you begin, you must follow through, or you'll appear unable to fulfill your promises. Before you begin, make a list of articles that might appear throughout the first full year of publication. (You can substitute more timely articles when the need or opportunity arises.) Estimate the time and expense involved in writing, producing, and distributing the letter. Then double your estimates.

Alerts, clips, and reprints
A much easier and less time-consuming way to stay in touch with your clientele is to distribute alerts, clippings, and/or reprints.

An alert is like a newsletter, often with just one article, that you publish only when you have something newsworthy to tell readers — such as an emerging trend, local angle on a newsworthy event, new law, regulation, policy, decision, or other development that affects your clientele.

Instead of composing an alert, you could clip articles from the news media and send photocopies to your clientele. If you are the author of an article that appears in the media, even better — distribute reprints. If you are interviewed on TV or radio, transcribe the interview, edit it for clarity, and distribute the transcript. In the case of clippings and reprints, always enclose a cover letter giving a synopsis (no more than two to four sentences) and an analysis of how the story affects your readers specifically (a paragraph or two). The synopsis and analysis are for the benefit of those people who don't have time, or are not inclined, to read the enclosed piece; they're more likely to save your letter even if they discard the actual clipping.

Editorial guidelines
Educational and periodical literature should generally cover very narrow topics, so that you can address them thoroughly and in detail. A short piece that covers a broad topic is necessarily superficial — in other words, worthless. If you find that you don't have space to include examples, anecdotes, or cases in the article, the topic is probably too broad. Remember, the purpose of this literature is to showcase your expertise and authoritativeness, which you can do only by covering a topic in depth and detail.

If you use real anecdotes and cases, you must get permission from the parties involved or disguise their identities. Hypothetical examples are safer from a privacy standpoint, but real cases (real people) are more compelling.

If you compose your own literature, always display the standard copyright notice (for example, © 2004 Your Name). And hire a professional proofreader — errors of spelling, punctuation, grammar and style may seem trivial to you, but they jump out at readers and scream "unprofessional!"

Finally, on any educational or periodical literature you produce (as well as a website), you need the not-legal-advice disclaimer: "This material is provided as information and is not intended as legal advice. For advice on specific legal matters, please call your attorney."

Design guidelines
In addition to imparting useful information, you want to present a professional-looking image. For that purpose, you should hire a talented graphic designer. Don't try to do everything yourself, and don't hire a novice. It may seem unfair, but amateurish graphics scream "amateurish professional services."

Here's an important tip if you use canned pamphlets and newsletters: For goodness sake, hire a graphic designer to create and position your imprint on the publication. I've seen beautifully produced pamphlets tragically degraded by amateurish graphics and poorly written promotional copy imprinted by the firms that distribute them. Don't underestimate the importance of creating a sterling first impression with professional-looking graphics.

Your printed brochure or newsletter should fit neatly into a standard-size envelope. You'd be surprised at how many graphic designers get carried away with the art form and forget about such practical considerations.

You're a brilliant adviser, not a marketing expert
If you feel you need help deciding what kinds of promotional materials to produce and distribute, hire a smart marketing consultant or PR firm. They will analyze your strengths, weaknesses, and objectives; study your market and competition; and formulate an integrated marketing plan. It costs money for that kind of planning, but in the long run it can pay off big-time.

You might even decide that your best investment would be to take a class in networking or public speaking — the more personal, face-time marketing strategies — and scale back the impersonal words-on-page strategies.