Attorney Marketing Blog

At Great Legal Marketing, we’ve talked at length about having a mailed monthly newsletter for your law firm. While having a mailed monthly newsletter is extremely valuable, and should be prioritized, you should also be taking advantages of email marketing opportunities. One form of email marketing that we highly recommend law firms use is a weekly e-newsletter. The e-newsletter does not contain the same information as your monthly newsletter, so ideally, your law firm has both.

Having a weekly e-newsletter increases your points of contact with potential and past clients, remind them about your law firm. Getting people to subscribe to your e-newsletter can be quite simple if the subscription is easy to find on your website. A law firm’s e-newsletter should entertain, educate, and have a compelling call to action and offer. While it may seem overwhelming to create, if you have existing offers and educational content, you merely plug the information into the template you have already created. Like any form of direct response marketing, it’s not over once you launch the campaign. You’ll need to ensure that you’re tracking the results of your e-newsletter so that you know the information you are offering is engaging and converting.

Before you read any further: This article only makes sense to read if you have offers on your website, are regularly publishing content to your website, and have a customer relationship management (CRM) software. You may find it challenging to fill out your weekly e-newsletter without already existing content and offers.

Why a Law Firm Needs an E-Newsletter

The more positive points of contact you have with potential and past clients, the better. Having an e-newsletter is one of the most straightforward ways to automate follow-up for those interested in your law firm. For a potential client, it shows a bit of your personality and may answer a very question they have about their legal issue without them even having to ask. For a past client, it shows them that you still care and it makes you remain on their mind. Even if a past client was thrilled with your services, if years go by and they never hear from you again, they’ll likely forget the name of your law firm. If they or someone in their life need legal services again, they’re not going to remember you.

What to Include in Your E-Newsletter

At its core, a law firm’s e-newsletter should contain these three things:

1. A piece of entertainment
2. A piece of educational content
3. An offer

Writing to Entertain

When I say to write entertaining content, I don’t mean to dish on the newest bit of celebrity gossip. Write about local news or news related to a niche group that interests you, like baking or bike riding. Don’t be afraid to add your opinion and personality to the text. In the BenGlassLaw e-newsletter, I’ve shared my opinion on exciting local news, stories about good in the community, or mindset and leadership advice. When picking a topic, keep your ideal client in mind. A criminal defense attorney may write about different issues than a personal injury attorney.

Writing to Educate

The more content you write about topics related to your practice area, the more of an authority figure you become of the topic. Being an authority figure will lead to more people coming to you with questions. People who hire you do so because they believe that you are the best attorney to help with their problems. The most effective way to educate people in your e-newsletter is to include a snippet of an article you’ve written. Posting the entire article may be too daunting, depending on the length. To improve readability, have a button that links to the full article on your website. (This also encourages people to poke around on your website and learn more).

Writing Your Offer

Yes, I say writing your offer because well-written copy is much more useful than pretty images. The offer is the point of your e-newsletter. Having the reader raise his or her hand, saying that they want more information from you. Free offers are what is going to really set you apart from other attorneys. The more time a potential client has spent reading your information and learning about your law firm, the more likely they are to become a good client. Don’t cut corners when it comes to creating copy for your e-newsletter offer, whether it be a report, book, webinar, etc.

How to Grow Your List

So you have this excellent e-newsletter crafted and ready to go, but you have no one to send it to. To ensure list growth, make sure that it is easy for people to sign-up. Meaning that the offer must be visible in numerous places on your website or other forms of marketing. People aren’t going to sign up if they don’t know it exists. Also, note that those signed up for your e-newsletter will keep receiving it until they choose to unsubscribe. For that reason, it is essential to keep your content dynamic and interesting. If people see the same article every week, they’re going to unsubscribe, which is why you need to have continuous new content to your website.

Direct Response Marketing in Your E-Newsletter

I’ve sprinkled in how your e-newsletter is designed with direct response marketing in mind, like linking back to your website and having a strong call to action and offer. But one of the most critical components of direct response marketing is tracking the results. We recommend tracking the effectiveness of your e-newsletter by using Google’s Campaign URL Builder. The software is free to use and gives you valuable information, like how many people clicked the link to read your full article. When you gather information by tracking the results, you’ll be able to have a finely tuned copy that you know converts well for your target audience.

Ben Glass

Ben is a nationally recognized expert in attorney marketing and the owner of Great Legal Marketing.

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