Attorney Marketing Blog

Part of your marketing follow-up strategy should be a client newsletter. And not just any newsletter, but a MAILED newsletter. In the digital age, email newsletters are too easy to delete, and with fewer and fewer companies using postal mail, you’ll be a rare gem in their mailbox. Most lawyers prefer to skip the “boring” client newsletter approach in favor of the sexier new media like the Internet.

Get Ready To Do Some Work (Which is a Good Thing)

As with any part of your marketing strategy, this one will also require some work to be successful. There are tricks to making your client newsletter easier to compile and produce each month:

• Gather interesting ideas and articles all month long. Bookmark helpful websites, clip out interesting newspaper articles, and anything relevant to your practice and your clients.

• Mine your blog for ideas. You should already be writing interesting little tidbits in your blog, and they’re great fodder for client newsletter articles.

• Reach out to other businesses. Offer other local businesses the chance to write a featured article in your client newsletter.

• Hire a ghostwriter. You don’t have to do all the work personally. There are great writers out there itching to write you custom-made, interesting articles.

• Repurpose your content. Every time you write an article, blog, or press release, keep in the back of your mind how you can tweak it to work for your client newsletter.

Where to Find Your Content Ideas

Besides those notes and bookmarks and newspaper clippings I told you to start collecting, there’s plenty of places you can get ideas and topics for your client newsletter articles. Your own office can be an excellent source of client newsletter fodder as well. Just remember that your clients aren’t lawyers, and too many legal terms or law stories can get boring.

Writing about other local businesses or events is also a great idea. Not only does it show you’re involved in your community, but it also gives you more chances to grow your client database. If you feature another business in your client newsletter, make sure that their office or store gets a few dozen copies to show their own clients.

There’s more to content than just having good information. The next part of our article explains that sometimes you need to have a little fun with your client newsletter to show that it’s not always about business in your life.

Part of creating an effective client newsletter that your clients look forward to receiving every month is keeping it interesting. No one wants to read the same boring legal articles month after month. Remember that your marketing efforts are not only to sell your legal practice as an indispensable commodity but also to sell you as a person they like and trust.

Show Your Clients What Matters to You

We’ve talked about showing your practice’s personal side to help establish you as a person and not just a lawyer. Your client newsletter should reflect everything about your business, including the fact that you have a personal life. You should make a habit of tossing in a picture of the family on a weekend outing or your secretary’s new puppy.

Does your firm participate in any community events, charity runs, or interesting hobbies? Let your client newsletter show it! You don’t have to talk about legal issues all the time, either. You can post your thoughts on current news buzz, include a local calendar of events, anything to lighten the mood, so it’s not just a “lawyer newsletter.”

Making Your Client Newsletter Not a Newsletter

Guess what; your client newsletter serves another purpose! No, not birdcage lining, I’m talking about other creative ways to use the work you put into creating this client newsletter. As I said before, make sure everything you write is done with the thought that “I could use this elsewhere.” Your words are your own, so recycling them on your blog, your website, and in other publications is an excellent idea.

Sometimes your client newsletter doesn’t even have to BE a newsletter. Try switching things up one month. A holiday greeting card with a regular-format letter is a great alternative to your traditional newsletter during the winter months. Going on vacation? Send your clients a “Wish You Were Here” style postcard with a note on the latest news while you were out.

Ben Glass

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

Most attorneys start their firms assuming that being a really, really good attorney should, in and of itself, be a marketing advantage. Those attorneys believe that joining a whole bunch of committees and putting their name in lawyer directories is “marketing,” and they never bother to ask if there is a better way.

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