Harnessing Law Firm Email Marketing

June 2017

Too often, law firms will ignore the potential power of email marketing. There is usually no malice in the intention behind this misstep; you just don’t want to clutter up the email inboxes of your past or prospective clients. After all, the last thing you want is for your marketing campaign to become a source of irritation for your firm’s clientele. However, a well-planned email marketing campaign for a law firm can address the needs of your audience, spark engagement and conversation, boost client retention, and generate lucrative inquiries.

Related: Tips for better Email Engagement

So how can you harness the power of email marketing for your law firm without stumbling into spam territory? Below, we’ve listed a few points that will help you turn email into one of your most valuable marketing channels.

1. Commit to building your email list: Any email marketing campaign is only as good as the subscriber list behind it. Luckily, there are lots of ways to add to your list. Collect email addresses for every client that you bill. Include “Subscribe to our email newsletter” links at the bottom of your blog or FAQ pages. Also, when potential clients use the Contact page from your website to get in touch with your firm, have it automatically ask them if they wish to join your email list. Not every person will welcome you into their email inbox, but a 100% subscription rate is not necessary to launch a successful email marketing campaign.

2. Don’t overdo it: Most people don’t mind an email newsletter every week or two. It’s the organizations that send four or five emails a week who send users scurrying for the “Unsubscribe” button. Adopt a quality-over-quantity approach, and your campaign will be much more successful.

3. Build your email content around advice: Newsletters that share key events or updates from your law firm are alright, but it will not interest most of your subscribers. Instead, build your content strategy around the subjects that will resonate with your clients. In most law firms, your best bet for writing on relevant topics is by giving general advice. Provide “how to” guides, FAQs, or best practices in the areas of law that are your focus. If you can, try to theme these advice columns around seasonal events or holidays: they’ll be more topical and therefore more likely opened and read.

4. Be on top of issues in your industry: Laws and compliance are changing all the time. If there are changes or updates that your clients need to know about, be the one to break the news. If your email newsletter can become a reliable source for relevant, up-to-the-minute legal news, then at least some of your subscribers will get in the habit of reading everything you send. Just be sure to break down the legalese, so it makes sense in layman’s terms.

5. Make your emails look professional: Similar to your website, your emails need to be attractive and easy to read on both desktop and mobile operating systems. Using pictures, headings, short paragraphs, and responsive design will do wonders in this regard. If you have a particularly dense article or column to send along, post it on your website and use the email to give a short teaser and a link through which interested readers can access the rest.