In our last blog post, we ran you through the very basics of email marketing for law firms. With a foundation of email marketing knowledge established, we can finally start getting into it. Now, we’re getting into the meat and potatoes of it. We’re flying past novice level and soaring straight into expert. In this post, we’ll be learning how to create a stellar campaign. You’ll be bossing your email marketing in just 6 easy steps!
1. Pick the right email marketing service for your law firm
Before you can start sending out your incredible email marketing campaigns, you need to pick a platform. We’ve compiled our top 4 favourite platforms that we know will be great for any email marketing for law firms.
Mailchimp
Named the best software company of 2020 by G2, Mailchimp is the champion of the email marketing world. At the low, low price of completely free, you can get started without worrying about costs. Great for beginners, Mailchimp’s interface is clean, easy-to-use, and walks you through each step of the process. It also has a range of great templates and HTML to build your own. This platform has everything you need to get started!
Constant Contact
Another great contender for top email marketing software is Constant Contact. With an entry price of £15/$20 per month, it’s a moderately priced service with a big impact. Whilst its UX isn’t quite as intuitive as Mailchimp’s, it still comes with a range of great features. It has a collection of customisable email templates, fast automation, handy e-commerce tools, modern social marketing, and the highest deliverability rate of all the email marketing software listed here.
Sendinblue
Created for marketers on a budget, Sendinblue has it all for less. It boasts a comprehensive set of features. With no entry price, you can take advantage of their CRM, marketing automation, transactional emails, SMS, landing pages, and Facebook ads. An easy-to-use interface keeps the experience quick and stress-free. Much like its competitors, Sendinblue also has over 60 highly customisable email templates for you to use. It’s especially great if you’re sending one-to-one campaigns and your business deals with a lot of e-commerce.
ActiveCampaign
Quality over quantity. That’s ActiveCampaign’s motto. At a starting price of $9 per month, this software celebrates sending fewer emails with better results. It has a range of features and integrations, most chiefly among them its stellar automation services. There are the basic autoresponders, but ActiveCampaign also allows you to automate your contacts, list management, and has its own CRM system. This tool is a little more advanced and takes some more work to get used to than the others on our list. If you’re big into automation and already comfortable with email marketing software, this is the one for you.
2. Start with a clear motive for your campaign
You’ve decided on your email marketing platform, you’ve got your account all ready, and you’re raring to go! But before you race off and get ahead of yourself, it’s essential to plan out your campaign and establish what you’d like to achieve. You’re starting up your email marketing for law firms, and as an analytical, left-brained professional, it’s likely that planning and structure come as second nature. A strategic approach to email marketing for law firms is the best way to get results.
Segment your audience
Law firms often operate within a niche but it’s likely that you’ll have several different audiences that respond to different strategies. For example, you could segment your email list into three: a list for prospective clients, current clients and business relationships. Each of these audiences is important to keep in contact with and are essential to the running of your law firm.
Decide a call to action
Each email should be created with an action in mind. Do you want the recipient to contact your firm for a consultation? Or do you want them to read your latest blog post? Download your new educational whitepaper? Listen to your podcast? Follow you on social media? Whatever action you’d like your reader to take, keep it in mind as you’re constructing the email. Every email you send out should be chocked full of calls to action.
3. Providing value with your emails
After planning your strategy and deciding on your call to action, it’s time to create an email that people actually want to open and read. You need to provide value with your emails. You’re competing in a really crowded inbox, after all. If you want to be opened, you need to stand out.
As a law firm, your clients likely aren’t as knowledgeable on complex legal matters. This is a great opportunity for providing value. Clients will often have the same questions and your email marketing is a fantastic way to answer them. Break down complex legal issues and explain them in simple terms. Share your site’s most popular content. Comment on the hottest issues in the legal world. Keep your content as interesting as possible to ensure those open rates stay high.
4. Writing the email body
Here comes the main event: the email’s body! We’re experts at writing all kinds of engaging copy for email marketing for law firms. So, we’re put together some of our favourite copy styles that really drive up those click-through-rates:
The Click Collector
Most clients are impatient. They want their content delivered quickly so they can get onto the next task. With this method, you grab their attention with a handful of words and invite them to learn more. Keep this copy short. Really short. Fifteen words maximum. Something like: ‘Jane, my jaw dropped when I saw this case. See for yourself.’ The Click Collector style of copy is conversational, builds up curiosity, and opens a loop (aka anticipation for what’s to come) in the reader’s mind. It also relies heavily on calls to action. By triggering curiosity, this style of email can revive dead leads and start a dialogue with your audience. They’re quick for you to write and even quicker for your customers to read.
The Storyteller
As humans, we all love to be told a good story. That doesn’t stop when we’re looking at our email inboxes. The Storyteller utilises long-form, story-like email copy. By using a lengthy, detailed email, it builds brand loyalty and provides the opportunity to overcome customer objections before they’ve even formed. It’s incredibly important to hook your readers right away. Tell a story that is believable, valuable, and relevant to your brand. Customers that read long emails are more committed, which turns into a higher chance of an on-site conversion rate. Whilst highly effective when done well, this form of copy is difficult to nail and must be engaging.
The Speedy Saver
This straightforward, popular tactic is an industry staple. It lands into your customer’s inbox and declares: ‘Here’s what service you need and here’s why you have to contact us right now.’ Effective and simple, it makes quick sales with these three core components: A discount or premium, a strong reason why, and a deadline or quantity limitation. This method works great with an audience that’s regularly contacted and is familiar with your firm.
5. Staying out of spam
If there’s one place you don’t want to be, it’s the spam folder. That forgotten folder of phishing scams and Nigerian princes will decimate your open rates and all your hard work will be for nothing. So, how do you land in the right place? Avoid spam-like words at all costs. HubSpot has compiled a list of these terms for a range of industries to help give you an idea. Avoid using the colour red as it’s a favourite of scammers. Make sure your subject lines are relevant to the information in the email. Avoid lots of capital letters. Include an unsubscribe link (it’s the law!) Don’t overdo it on the symbols and emojis. Your email marketing software should have good deliverability rates and will help you appear like the respectable law firm that you are – but it never hurts to be aware of these pitfalls.
6. Measuring performance
When dealing with email marketing for law firms, there are two results you really want to focus on: Engagement and conversion. We’re going to break down the most common KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that you’ll want to keep an eye on.
Open rates
This metric is fairly self-explanatory. Open rates measure the number of people who open your email – as a percentage of the total number of people who received this email. As the best way to measure how well your emails are connecting with your audience, you should keep a close eye on your open rates. For example, if your open rates suddenly plummet, you’ll know you need to change your tactics straight away. Typical open rates for the legal market is estimated to be just above 22%.
If your open rates are falling below industry standards, test out some of these tips to boost those clicks:
- Send your emails are the optimal times – weekdays instead of weekends and mornings instead of evenings.
- Use clear and engaging subject lines.
- Add personalisation to the subject line like the recipient’s name.
- Understand what your customers want from your brand.
- Make sure your emails are optimised for mobile.
Click-Through-Rates
You’re bound to hear a tonne about CTRs when it comes to email marketing for law firms metrics. It’s the measurement of the number of people who clicked on the links within your email as a percentage of the total number of opened emails. Email marketers love this metric in particular because it’s the very best measure of engagement and shows how effective your copy is. A typical CTR is 7-10%, but if your rate is falling lower there are always places to improve:
- Keep key information clear, concise, and easy to read.
- Button CTAs are more effective than URL links. Utilise them where you can.
- Nothing is more convincing than high-quality copy.
- Always optimise for mobile users.
- Segment your audience to ensure they’re only receiving the emails that are most relevant to them.
Congratulations! You’re now a total expert on email marketing for law firms. But if there just aren’t enough hours in the day, and you’d prefer to leave things to the experts, contact us today for a free consultation.
