Email marketing for Lawyers

What is Email Marketing for Law Firms?

Attorneys have a lot on their plates. When they’re handling a full caseload, attracting new clients often falls by the wayside. However, when lawyers fail to market themselves, it may become difficult to find leads and bring in new cases. And a lack of cases will ultimately affect their bottom line. Here, we will answer the question most lawyers have, can law firms market via email? An email marketing strategy can let the public know about the legal services you offer, maintain a clear line of communication and give you an edge over the competition.  A simple email every so often can help your firm stay at the top of peoples’ minds so that if they need an attorney in the future, they know who to call.

Reasons Why Law Firms Should use Email Marketing

There are plenty of great reasons why law firms should use email marketing. As mentioned above, email makes it easy to contact a lot of people with a few simple clicks. And even if you’re only attracting a few new clients with each email, you’re still getting a huge return on investment. That ROI is why so many lawyers are beginning to see the benefits of email marketing. You can send emails to existing clients, prospects, and colleagues, which can help to build your word-of-mouth network as well.

When someone is searching for an attorney, they are looking for an experienced, knowledgeable, and compassionate professional. With email marketing, you can send out helpful, educational content and build your brand as a trustworthy lawyer. Your emails can:

  • Link back to blog posts that you wrote to drive more traffic to your website.
  • Provide answers to frequently asked questions.
  • Promote events within your local community.
  • Provide news about what’s going on at your firm.
  • Spotlight an attorney or other member of your team.

And another benefit of email marketing is that it’s simple. Many of the big names in email marketing software, like MailChimp and Constant Contact, offer free subscription levels, so you can give their services a try. They allow you to build an email with one of their pre-designed templates and will track stats like how many people opened your message, and what links they clicked. This provides insight moving forward, as you’ll have a better idea of what types of communication your constituents respond best to.

Email Marketing Strategies

Before you begin using email marketing for your law firm, it’s best to craft a strategy. Think about the goals that you want to meet with this strategy. Make sure they’re well-defined and actionable. Here’s an example: you want to send out bi-weekly communications to your prospects to grow your client base by 10% before the year is over. The goal in this example is well-defined (it includes how much you want to grow by and a deadline) and actionable (it includes how you plan on achieving your goal).

Next, it’s important to know your audience in and out. What are they looking for in an attorney? What are their needs and wants? How can you help them? When you know your audience well, you can better cater to their desires and provide them with a great experience during every interaction they have with you. Based on what your audience wants, you can give offer them content they love, like

  • Ebooks – use eBooks to discuss legal topics that may interest your constituents in more depth.
  • How-to guides – these education guides can give clients information on processes, i.e. “How to Create your Will.”
  • Monthly newsletter – use this to let constituents know what’s going on at your firm.

Finally, save time by taking advantage of any automation tools included in your email marketing platform. You can send triggered or timed emails. For example, when someone signs up for your email list, you can automatically send them a short welcome message. Or you can set up a drip campaign that sends them periodic messages automatically after they sign up.

How to Create the Perfect Legal Email Marketing Campaign

Now that you understand the basics of email marketing for your law firm, you’re probably excited to dive in. Here’s a quick guide on how to create the perfect legal email marketing campaign:

  1. Build your Mailing List – before you send out your first email, you need a list of people to send it to! Start by collecting emails from your current clients, and place a sign-up form on your website. As people sign up, you can begin to categorize them into groups within your email marketing platform. This makes it easy to send different communications to different groups. For example, you may want to group your audience into current clients, leads, and colleagues. You can send all groups your monthly newsletter, but you may only want to send educational emails to leads. This way, your communications will feel more customized and personal.
  2. Choose a Design  – an eye-catching design can draw in readers and get them interested in what you have to say. Design templates should always stay consistent with your branding. Make sure they appear correctly on both computers and mobile devices, so your templates look stunning on any device your customers use.
  3. Write your email – you can grab content from your blog or simply put together a short message from your team. Include images when applicable and make sure the content you offer your constituents is helpful, educational, and engaging. Be sure to include links back to your website to drive traffic.
  4. Review and Share – before you send out any communication, it can be helpful to have a second (or third) set of eyes look it over. Mistakes will make you seem unprofessional, so proofread carefully.
  5. A/B Test – one of the most important things you can do is A/B test your email marketing campaigns. When A/B testing, you send out two slightly different emails to two different groups to see which gets a better response. For example, you may try sending out a campaign from two different recipients or with two different titles to see which one more people open. This can help you build an effective formula for crafting the perfect email.
  6. Create a Landing Page – landing pages are essential to make your marketing efforts more effective. A landing page is a page on your website designed with a specific purpose in mind. For example, include a link at the bottom of your email that prompts them to “learn more,” or “talk to an attorney today.” These links send visitors to landing pages, where they’re given more information and prompted to take an action. When you tell people clearly what step they need to take next, and you make it easy for them to do, they are more likely to do it.
  7. Send Out your Email – once your email and landing pages are ready to go, it’s time to hit send! Give your campaign a few days to make sure that everyone who wants to read it was able to.
  8. Resend – within your email marketing platform, keep a list of people who didn’t open your message. Wait at least a week and then resend it to leads that didn’t open your first message. Include a different subject line to see if that increases your chances of getting them to open it.
  9. Measure Results – after your audience has had time to read your email, measure your results. What’s the open rate? What links did readers click most often? Did any of your emails bounce?  These stats will show you how people are engaging with your emails, what is working, and what isn’t having your desired effects.

After you send out a few emails like this, you’ll be able to get a better picture of how your audience responds to your emails and where you can continue to improve.

FAQ About Email Marketing

Are you ready to start using email marketing for your law firm, or do you still have questions about how email marketing can help you attract more clients? Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions:

Email Marketing

Is email marketing still effective?

Some people will tell you that email is dead and that no one opens emails anymore, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, most people still check their email first thing in the morning before doing anything else. Email increases client retention, and research shows it’s an even more effective marketing tactic than social media.

What is the success rate of email marketing?

So is email marketing is really worth the time and effort? Here’s your proof: the average ROI for email is close to 3800%, which means that for every dollar you spend, you’ll get $38 in return.

What is the average email marketing open rate?

Across all industries, the average open rate for emails sits at about 22%, and emails from legal teams and law firms stick very closely to that open rate. That means for every 100 people you send to, 22 or those people will open your email and read what you have to say.

Email marketing is a great way to attract new clients to your law firm and get the word out about the services you offer. It’s easy to start with email marketing, and it’ll pay back in dividends, so there’s no excuse!