Email Marketing Strategies for Client-Rich Law Firm Growth

You’ve got mail! 

Remember the announcement that moved you to check your inbox with adolescent-like glee? 

That feels like eons ago, right? 

Nowadays, you sift through virtual piles of mail daily: messages from your kid’s student loan company, Ticketmaster, your gym, Porsche, three different shoe brands (for some reason), your wife…

No wonder you only open the ones you care about and trash the rest.

Hey, we all do it.

Despite the flood of incoming messages, email marketing is one of the best tools you can use to get your firm’s name out there. And boost the number of new cases you get.

Truelist, a team of leading market analysts, shows that 58% of people check their email first thing in the morning.

That’s a straight line to your clients’ minds right when they start the day. 

Because you’re reaching people through their inboxes, you’re speaking to them directly. Other marketing tactics tend to lose that human connection.

To generate leads, though, you have to make sure your emails are working for you. 

It’s important to remember that email marketing may not be a great fit for your firm. It depends on the types of law you practice, and when your touchpoint with clients begins, and ends. A divorce lawyer may have more contact with clients, and may have useful information to send to clients throughout the year. Immigration attorneys may find value in newsletters as well, by keeping their clients in the know of recent law changes. It’s something to consider, before drafting an email, if this is something better suited for social media, or if it really is a great fit for email.

FAQs: Email marketing for lawyers

• What is email marketing for law firms?

Email marketing is an outreach tactic that allows you to share updates with your email contacts.

While paid ads and social media speak to the masses, email effectively builds personal relationships. 

You build awareness, trust, and community around your firm through email. And drive potential clients to pick up the phone.

• How does email marketing work?

Email marketing makes your email list aware of you and your firm. Plus, it gives clients an easy way to reach out. You’re hand-delivering your contact information to their fingertips.

Through email campaigns, you customize your SEO and content marketing based on your client list. In recent years, email marketing has shifted from a one-size-fits-all blast to focusing on a client’s individual needs.

Addressing a client’s needs is a heavier lift, but legal content writers can write all your content. Working with experts takes the strain off you while giving your firm the benefits.

• Where do I start with my email marketing?

Email marketing starts with a list of email addresses from people who’ve chosen (or “opted-in”) to receive your firm’s communications. 

Your potential and current clients can opt-in to your firm’s communications through an offer on your website and at the intake stage. 

Ways to get people to opt-in to your emails – and keep the list growing:

• Call attention to your website’s Contact Us form with the promise of a free case evaluation. The contact form should require the person to give their full name, phone number, and email address. Bonus tip: ask for additional information you can use later to personalize your communications.
• Feature a downloadable eGuide in exchange for people’s email addresses. Once they provide their email address, they get your insider information. Bonus tip: make the offer irresistible by covering a topic that interests your ideal clients.
• Promote your firm’s newsletter with a sign-up button on your website. Bonus tip: the quality of your law firm website content will determine if your ideal client wants more of it. Focus on content that shows them you care.    
• Collect email addresses at the intake stage to stay top of mind with new clients. Bonus tip: Your clients chose to work with you. Demonstrate why you were the best choice by providing thoughtful and valuable emails.

People will trade their personal information for your insight and expertise.

But:

Breaking through the noise of thousands of emails takes a well-thought-out strategy. 

Here are a few proven strategies that get your name at the top of people’s inboxes and their recommendation lists:

Email marketing for law firms: Proven techniques that work

1. Keep leads from falling through the cracks
2. Position yourself as the go-to source in your practice area by building relationships with your readers
3. Stand out from your competitors with engaging, orginial content

Proven Strategy #1: Keep leads from falling through the cracks

You can have the best marketing emails and still miss out on new cases. How?

You’re failing to maintain your relationships with people.

Connecting with someone is one thing, but you must cultivate that connection until they become your client.

This is where Client Relationship Management (CRM) comes in. CRM is marketing software that helps you build relationships with current and future clients.

It records each client’s information and how they interact with your content so you can customize your communications.

How your CRM will get you more clients:

Your CRM allows you to engage with each client reliably, regardless of where they are in your client pipeline. How else are you to remember every detail?

Resco, a global leader in developing cross-platform software solutions, found that 74% of businesses said using a CRM improved access to customer data, and 64% said it improved their relationship management.

When you follow along with someone through their journey with your firm, you show them you care, creating trust and loyalty. The more people trust you, the more your client list grows. 

If you’re sending fewer than 10,000 emails each month, Mailchimp is an excellent free CRM platform designed to boost your email engagement.

For more emails, Salesforce has a paid, easy-to-use CRM platform that speeds up your firm’s growth.

Your CRM ensures you won’t leave clients hanging and gives you a bird’s eye view of everything in your pipeline. 

Proven Strategy #2: Become the go-to source for legal information

Who knows your clients better than you? Your clients, perhaps? 

Make sure you’re not working off of assumptions. 

As the world changes, so do your clients’ needs. It’s up to you to stay on top of how you can support them.

You want to build trust between you and your client list, and listening to what they say is crucial.

Lead nurturing is a strategy to maintain and build relationships with potential clients.

Invesp, an expert in converting leads, found that lead nurturing emails get up to 10x more responses than standalone email blasts, and by nurturing those leads, you can increase your lead generation by a whopping 20%. 

 

How to build relationships with clients through email marketing:

If you want to build relationships with clients through email marketing, avoid using a Donotreply@example.com email address. 

When reading, people may have questions or feedback. Allowing them to respond to your emails enables you to gain valuable insight that can convince someone to hire you.

Your other clients may have the same questions, and your answers can be powerful follow-up emails. 

Any time you connect with clients is a chance to solidify why you’re the person to come to with questions (and cases).

You can also gain valuable client information from your staff. Ask your intake team about potential clients’ concerns and check in with your associate attorney to see what questions they have to keep answering. 

Then, use this information to speak to what your clients are thinking. Doing so will make them choose you over someone else who doesn’t.

Proven Strategy #3: Stand out from your competitors

You want to show your clients that you understand their concerns and care about their needs.

The ways you care for your clients are the reasons that set you apart.

Email marketing gives you a platform to connect with people one-on-one and gain referrals. 

The secret:

Be authentic and approachable in your communications

People want to talk to other people, so email your clients like you would a friend. Your valuable emails can go unread because you’re not connecting with your readers. 

Avoid using robotic language and focus on writing conversationally.

You may love your law firm name, but people don’t like emailing law firms. They want to hear from you, so send your emails using your name.

Email marketing experts at Pinpointe show using a specific personal name rather than a general email address or company name can increase open rates by 35%.

If your clients don’t know who’s sending them emails, they won’t open them. And eventually, your emails will end up in their spam folder. 

Litmus, another leader in email marketing, found that 42% of people look at the sender’s name first when deciding whether to open an email.

Subject lines are important, but if people don’t recognize you, they won’t be interested in opening your email.

To make your emails feel even more authentic, use the same signature you use for your professional emails. Doing so will make your clients feel like you’re emailing them personally.

Your clients want to get to know the person behind the firm. They want someone to trust. By sending genuine emails, you ensure they know that person is you.

(Bonus) Proven Strategy #4: Hire a legal content writing team

You’re always working hard for your clients.

But there isn’t enough time in the day to work hard for your clients and tell them how hard you’re working for them.

You want them to know you’re there for them.

And you want them to know you’re an authority in your field. An expert. The go-to source. But being that authority means spending your time in the field.

This gets in the way of the heavy lifting required for effective law firm email marketing. 

Luckily:

You can work with a team of experts in their field. One that cares about your clients as an extension of caring for you. 

How we boost your attorney email marketing 

People can tell when they’re getting generic messages, which is why We Do Web takes the time to get to know:

• You
• Your firm
• Your clients
• Your competitors
• Your goals
• Your voice

There’s a lot that goes into effective email marketing. Our writers and editors learn how you deliver life-changing outcomes for your clients, so you have a reliable stream of leads.

Your reliable stream of leads for law firms marks our success, and we’ll keep writing until we achieve it together.

Don’t worry, though. We’ll do the heavy lifting.

Contact We Do Web or give us a ring at (954) 425-9081.

Be sure to check out our glossary of content marketing terms to deepen your marketing strategy knowledge.