There is a pattern to marketing a professional practice. Most of us don’t notice the pattern because we’re busy doing it, and it’s tough to see things that happen over a 30-plus-year period. We don’t usually see the big picture until it’s too late.

Today, I’m going to clue you in to the pattern early so you can see what’s happening from a 10,000-foot perspective.

Here’s the normal pattern for the many attorneys in private practice:

1. Practice opens. Marketing commences (networking, advertising, media relations, etc.—different practices mix it up differently). Clients come. Happy clients leave.

2. More marketing. More clients come and leave happy. Clients tell other people about being happy with lawyer (in person, on social networks, etc.).

3. Word spreads.

4. Marketing, but less than earlier. Word continues to spread.

5. Marketing expenditures largely cease. Word-of-mouth powers practice.

That pattern can take anywhere from 5 to 30 years to play out depending on the time, energy, and money expended on marketing.

Following this pattern works for most lawyers, and the process spreads out over an entire work life. By the midpoint of the typical lawyer’s career (age 45ish), the marketing effort is down to seeing people around town and at the courthouse. These random meetings lead to lunches, speeches, etc., but the effort is minimal because the word of mouth is strong. All the mid-career lawyer needs to do is keep the word going by showing up.

This model doesn’t work, of course, if you’re not satisfied with the base you’ve built or if you’re in a hurry. If you want to keep growing (at a rate faster than word of mouth allows), then you’ll keep increasing the marketing. Otherwise, you can reduce the marketing expenditures (in time and money) and start pocketing the extra money to build your retirement plan, pay for your kid’s college, etc.

If you’re doing this right, you’re building a marketing dividend (aka “a reputation”) that you can use to keep yourself afloat.

If you’re not doing it right—if your business is struggling—then you need to figure out where you are in the pattern and rebuild from that point forward. There are shortcuts, but they don’t reap the same dividend. For example, television advertising generates clients right now. It tends not to build a reputation for the long term. It’s an expensive, short-term hit with short-term impact.

I was fortunate to see the pattern and accelerate it. We jumped off the starting block quickly and moved fast. That was a function of spending a great deal of time, energy, and money on marketing very early in the cycle. You can do the same whether you’re at the beginning or middle of your career. You can devote more resources to building word of mouth and you’ll grow faster. You can take those short-term marketing opportunities to accelerate the development of happy clients.

Ultimately, however, in family law, what you’re looking for is that dividend. You want everyone in the market to know you, like you, and trust you. You want a stellar reputation, and you want it to pay off as you sail through the back end of the pattern.