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?