Mark Herrmann, a partner in Jones Days’ Chicago office called my attention to his post on Drugs and Device Law blog, where he suggests four “New Year’s Resolutions for Basic Legal Marketing.” I like his suggestions very much. They are simple. Succinct. Straight forward. Relatively easy.

They are:

  • Do it – it doesn’t matter, in his mind, whether it is a speech, article, starting a blog, etc.; the important thing is to “start creating it” and down the road, you’ll be happy you’ve “done it;”
  • Do it now – the sooner you do, the longer your efforts will bear fruit;
  • Do it alone – (I might take issue with Mark here. What he is saying is that you shouldn’t wait for others to come to help you, even within your firm. He is right, of course; but you don’t have to do it alone, you could get a coach to help); and
  • Give it time – marketing, in fact, does take time, so don’t kid yourself or let yourself be discouraged. But, if you don’t do it now, you won’t give your practice a chance to grow to its full potential.

In summary, Mark suggests:

“…The only way to succeed is to try.

“And the time to try is now.

“Do it. Now. Alone. And give it time.”

I think I may just take his advice myself.