This article was submitted by Dan Brian, founder of Marketing for Justice, a membership group for law firm marketers providing digital marketing know-how through live online workshops, group coaching, and on-demand video library, and more. In his 9-5, Dan serves as Digital Marketing Director for a mid-size personal injury law firm in North Carolina.
Ah, email… it’s been written off for dead so many times, but time and time again, history has proven it invincible. In fact, email consistently ranks at or near the top of marketer-reported return on investment (ROI) — Hubspot reports that across all industries, email ROI is a whopping $36 for every $1 spent. Email is cheap and it works, plain and simple. That’s why at Marketing for Justice, we strongly recommend that every law firm — both consumer and business-facing — implement an email marketing strategy to raise awareness, drive website traffic, and ultimately generate referrals and sign new cases. In this post, we’ll dig into 5 cost-effective and easy-to-implement tips to improve your law firm’s email marketing campaigns.
1. Stay Consistent
A lot of law firms fall into a familiar trap, maybe, maybe sending a one-off email to their list every few months or so. While some is better than none, the fact remains that average email open rates in the legal services industry typically land somewhere in the 20-30% range. What does that mean for law firms? If you want your message to make an impact, you need to be consistent. For most law firms, sending an email newsletter once per month is a good cadence. That said, firms with stronger open rates, greater engagement, and lower unsubscribe rates can safely send even more frequently. Make a schedule and stick to it.
2. Keep It Personal
Despite its prevalence in the marketing world, I despise the term “email blast.” It’s so impersonal. Unfortunately, however, most email newsletters live up to that billing. To increase engagement (e.g., open and click-through rates), be sure to personalize your law firm emails. Take advantage of “dynamic” merge fields, which allow you to insert personalized attributes like the first name — and don’t forget to use them in the subject line where appropriate, too.
HINT: Remember, the more information you collect from subscribers, the more personalized you can make your emails. Don’t go overboard, but consider collecting additional data from subscribers at signup, such as city, state, occupation, and/or industry, or any other information that may be relevant. Just don’t go crazy — the longer the signup form, the lower the conversion rate.
3. Segment Your List
Building on tip #2, pay careful attention to your audience’s interests. While some emails may be appropriate to send to your entire list, others will be more relevant to specific sub-audiences. Given that, it’s important that law firm marketers take full advantage of list segmentation to target emails to specific audiences for maximum impact. With email marketing for law firms (or really any business, for that matter), relevance is key.
4. Don’t Oversell
With rare exceptions, your marketing emails are not the place for hard sales. In crafting your email newsletters or one-off campaigns, focus on education above all else. Automated “drip” email sequences may be designed to nurture potential clients toward a signed contract, but the goal of a regular email newsletter is to stay top-of-mind among your audience and potential referral partners and deliver actual value. Keep it light, informative, and even entertaining. If you’re going to be self-promotional, do it sparingly — a mix of 80% educational content and 20% promotional content is a good rule of thumb.
5. Mix It Up
Email campaigns can get stale quickly if you don’t incorporate a mix of content. When preparing your email campaigns, consider all the content that you (hopefully) have at your disposal. Blog posts, podcast episodes, and videos are all perfect for sharing via an email newsletter. Attorney or employee spotlights are also great for sharing your firm’s personality. Remember, when you include “playable” content like podcast episodes or videos, include a linked graphic overlaid with a recognizable “play” button to boost click-through rates and engagement.
Ready to Take Your Law Firm’s Email Marketing to the Next Level?
At Marketing for Justice, we’re proud to endorse Spotlight Branding as an MFJ-endorsed legal marketing agency. If you’re interested in amping up your firm’s email game, schedule a free consultation with them!
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