Email Marketing

Lawyers represent hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of clients in their careers, and amass large volumes of professional contacts. An increasing number of these contacts use email as a primary or secondary means of communication. In fact, according to Pew Research, 92% of online adults use email, with an average of 61% using it daily.

As part of the normal course of working a client file, a lawyer and/or their staff will collect every client’s email address as contact information. In addition to clients, lawyers also work with retained experts, defense counsel, local counsel, investigators, and other ancillary service providers in the course of their practices. If a law firm uses case management software, or even uses an address book like Outlook or Entourage, the accumulation of contact information is already part of the regular course of business. Why not use this regularly collected data to engage in inexpensive, far-reaching marketing?

image

While lawyers work to push their cases closer to the finish line, email marketing campaigns can help them acquire their next new clients, retain current clients, and build relationships with professional contacts. Email marketing continuously shares valuable information with your contacts. This information positions you as a legal expert and further enhances your contacts’ trust in you.

COMPONENTS OF EMAIL MARKETING SUCCESS

The email marketing experts at Stacey E. Burke, P.C. can optimize your law firm’s campaign to send the right information to the right people and increase your return on investment. Our team utilizes functionality like email segmentation in order to accomplish your goals. We also make sure your law firm’s emails are:

  • Responsively designed, because at least 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices, with that number increasing every year.
  • Branded with your firm’s logo, colors, and other identifying items so recipients will recognize your law firm across all of its digital assets, from website to social media to email, keeping your brand top-of-mind.
  • Original and not just part of a syndicate that pushes out the same information to everyone, only changing out the contact information.

In order to send emails to a large quantity of recipients, your firm will need Email Service Provider (ESP) software, as well as a segmented contact list. Additionally, the firm should ensure its emails comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Read more about each below.

Email Service Providers

An Email Service Provider (ESP) is software used to send bulk emails, and the options available increase in number each year. A law firm should pick its ESP based on its own internal skill level. Some lawyers will simply blast out news a few times a year to their entire contact list; other lawyers will send specific messages to segmented groups within their lists, complete with designed follow-up sequences as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Email marketing software providers have plans that vary in price based on the number of users, increased functionality, and the size of your email address list. Law firms should compare software based on their individual and firm needs, but a good starting list includes:

  • Constant Contact
  • MyEmma
  • Get Response
  • iContact
  • Infusionsoft
  • MailChimp 

CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 established the United States’ first federal regulations for the sending of commercial emails. Ensuring your law firm complies with the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act is crucial for email marketing success. Most ESPs ensure their users comply with the basic provisions, including:

  • Accurate “From” lines and relevant subject lines.
  • A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism is present in all emails.
  • Consumer opt-out requests are honored within 10 business days.
  • A legitimate physical address of the publisher and/or advertiser is present.
  • A message cannot be sent to a harvested email address.

A harvested email address refers to obtaining email addresses from a bulk list or attempting to purchase email addresses from a third-party provider. The CAN-SPAM Act prohibits a company or business from emailing anyone other those who have expressly consented to receive emails and/or are actual contacts of the sender. 

Email Segmenting and Targeting

Each lawyer has a different relationship with each of his or her contacts, and those contacts will potentially have different needs in the future; therefore, each will respond in a more positive manner if they don’t receive the exact same email messaging. Targeting can help streamline your messaging so the right content reaches the appropriate individuals. Segmenting is particularly important if you use your ESP to communicate with clients as well as referral sources and professional contacts. Even the most basic ESPs today provide the ability to segment uploaded lists to make this process more streamlined.

CO-BRANDED EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

Lawyers often want and need to reach beyond their own contact lists and find a way into the inboxes of a new potential client pool or new referral sources. Purchasing email lists and spamming away, however, is against the CAN-SPAM Act; as well, little to no recipients will read your emails because their inboxes, like ours, are flooded with spam each day. Buying lists and spamming large groups will cause numerous servers and systems to flag your email address as dangerous, causing a long-term IT headache and, even worse, causing repercussions for your daily one-to-one email use.

Co-branded email campaigns are one method we employ to help our law firm clients reach a new target demographic. This entails having our clients’ messaging and content delivered through a third-party source to their subscribers who have already opted in to receive their email communications. With co-branded email campaigns, we control the email marketing endeavors of a third-party, providing a unique message, maximizing visibility, and increasing brand association as well.

GET HELP WITH YOUR LAW FIRM’S EMAIL MARKETING

Email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel, including search and social; and, it has a return on investment (ROI) of 3,800%. It is also one of the most inexpensive forms of digital advertising. If your law firm has even a small list of a few hundred contacts, you should be sure to integrate email marketing into your digital marketing strategy.

To get a quote for law firm email marketing, or to learn more about working with Stacey E. Burke, P.C., please contact us at info@staceyeburke.com, complete the contact form on our website, or call us at (713) 714-8446.