A well-done email marketing strategy can win you up to a 4,400% return on your investment.
No, we didn’t forget a decimal there. And we’re not click-baiting you, either.
At FocusWorks, we’re endless champions of a good email marketing program, no matter what industry you’re in. We love email marketing because it:
- Builds brand awareness (because yes, you have a brand!)
- Showcases your industry expertise to establish trust and credibility
- Nurtures your relationships, keeping you top-of-mind for your audience—when they’re in need of legal services, they’ll know exactly who to contact
In short, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to expand and engage your audience. What’s more, there is no shortage of ways you can use it to meet your marketing goals.
What is email marketing for law firms?
Email marketing is a type of direct marketing that lets you send personalized emails to segmented groups of people on your email list. These emails can be:
- Educational, like informing readers about what to expect during a legal matter or how to use client resources
- Promotional, like spreading awareness about an upcoming event or sharing a discount code for services
- Transactional, like confirming an upcoming appointment or reminding them of an outstanding invoice
You can also combine different types of email marketing—for example, an educational email could include a promotion in the footer of the email. One of the beauties of email marketing is that it’s incredibly versatile.
Why law firms should be using email marketing
There are as many reasons for your law firm to use email marketing as there are ways to use it. Here are three of our favorites:
1. Email marketing is cost-effective
Email marketing is a low-cost channel that works for you over and over again. While paid ads and SEO can require ongoing expenses, email marketing just requires some initial setup once you purchase the right email service provider.
From there, you get to decide how much you want to spend on copywriting, design work, and overall management of your email campaign—all of which are costs you would already be putting toward your marketing strategy.
2. Email marketing establishes credibility and authority
When done right, email marketing will save you time, effort, and money. It works in the background of your business without you having to give it much thought, and—it’s a great way to show off your expertise, establish credibility, and remind your audience of the ways you can be helpful to them.
When you regularly show up in your readers’ inboxes with industry insights and other content that can be helpful to them, they’ll see you as a reliable source of information. And by sharing relevant, educational content, you’re showing that you understand their needs and pain points and that you have the nowledge to help them with their legal matters.
3. Email marketing boosts word-of-mouth marketing
Word-of-mouth is a powerful form of marketing. But unfortunately, in today’s landscape of digital marketing strategies, law firms can’t rely on word-of-mouth alone to meet their marketing goals.
Do you know what’s even more powerful? The ability to zap your sparkling testimonials straight to a prospective client’s inbox. Word-of-mouth digitally delivered—no more waiting around for your reputation to precede you.
Types of email marketing every law firm should use
We’re big fans of email marketing, but we also understand the importance of a well-established strategy. There are different types of emails for different types of audiences and purposes, and it’s important to find the right balance for the best return on your investment.
Here are some well-performing email marketing strategies you can implement at your law firm:
1. Use email newsletters to educate, build trust, and stay top-of-mind
An email newsletter is an email you send out to your entire email list on a regular basis. You might choose to send a weekly newsletter or a monthly newsletter. Either frequency is fine—what’s more important is that you stay consistent with your email schedule.
Email newsletters, which are also a form of content marketing, are primarily used to provide your audience with valuable, useful information that they’ll actually want to read. When you share your newsletter, you’ll position yourself as a familiar and trustworthy source. If and when the time comes that someone on your email list is in need of legal services, it’s more likely your firm will be the first they think of.
The content of your email newsletter should be primarily educational, but you can use it for promotional purposes as well. For example, promotional email newsletters come in handy when you want to spread the word about a special offer you’re running, such as a free consultation or incentive for referrals or testimonials. You can—and should—also include a way for your readers to contact you through your email. For example, include a “Schedule a consultation today” button in the header.
Stick to your strategy, though. The last thing you want is to inadvertently push your readers to unsubscribe by sending too many promotional emails or blasting them with information that isn’t relevant to their needs or interests.
2. Use client alerts to communicate timely information
Tired of playing phone tag or getting ghosted in appointments? Consider using your email marketing software to send automated reminders for things like upcoming appointments or payment deadlines. You can send email reminders the week before, the day before, or even the day of an appointment or deadline to ensure it’s not forgotten.
You can also set up automated “thank you” emails to clients who’ve recently booked an appointment or signed up for a service. These small touches go a long way in nurturing those client relationships, building trust and reassurance that they’ve made the right choice by working with you.
Plus, when you use email marketing to automate these communications, you put an end to wasted billable hours. No more chasing missed appointments or spending valuable mental energy trying to remember whether you’ve touched base with that lead. When set up correctly, automated email marketing has the power to streamline your entire sales process.
3. Use targeted automation to acquire, nurture, and retain clients
Setting up targeted automated email campaigns is one of the most powerful things you can do with your email marketing. An automated email campaign, also called a drip campaign or an email sequence, is a series of emails sent out to an individual after a trigger event occurs.
Examples of trigger events include:
- Signing up for your newsletter
- Filling out a contact form on your website
- Downloading a free eBook
- Scheduling a free consultation
- And more!
When one of these actions is taken, a pre-written sequence of emails is then “triggered.” The emails will “drip” to your prospect over a set amount of days—designed to deliver the right information at the right time—carefully leading the reader to the point of conversion.
You should have an email sequence set up for each stage of your pipeline. Drip campaigns can and should be used to:
- Welcome new and prospective clients
- Re-engage leads that have gone cold
- Prompt someone who missed a consultation to reschedule
- Remind a new lead that they have yet to sign their retainer
- And more
As you can see, there are a lot of use cases here. Depending on the unique needs of your business, you could get pretty creative with email drip campaigns!
The beauty of automated campaigns is that a one-time cost for copywriting and setup primes you for a dramatic increase in conversions. These campaigns work more or less on autopilot, nurturing leads to the point of conversion while you spend your billable time elsewhere.
How to build your email list
You may be thinking, “This is all well and great, but who am I supposed to send all these emails to? The only emails I have belong to current and past clients.”
Great question. Remember—current and past clients are still valuable audience members, and emails are a great way to support already existing relationships and keep your law firm top-of-mind.
But outside of that, the goal is to grow your email list and expand the pool of prospective clients. Of course, that also means you need to figure out how to get new email addresses to add to your list.
Fortunately, there are many ways to collect email addresses. For example:
- Newsletter sign-up forms
- Lead magnets or other free downloadables
- Paid ads
- And more!
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you with all the nitty-gritty details. When you work with the FocusWorks team, we’ll help you implement the sign-up forms you need and create a personalized growth strategy that aligns with your goals.
Ready to use email marketing to grow your legal practice?
Phew! It’s a lot to take in, right? Email marketing provides so many opportunities to get your message to your audience in a compelling format.
There’s a catch though—setting up an effective strategy that’ll win results takes time. (Remember that thing we said earlier about the importance of a strategy?)
Luckily for you, the team at FocusWorks Marketing has the time (and the expertise!) to get you set up with an email marketing strategy that works. Hiring a team of copywriters with industry experience to nurture, convert, and retain leads with email marketing that works for you basically on autopilot is well worth the investment.
If you’re ready to take advantage of experience setting up conversion-driven email marketing strategies, schedule a call. We’d love to help you grow your practice. It’s what we do!
