The guide to successful email marketing

In the marketing of legal services, we cannot do without email marketing. It's just as essential for strategically positioning lawyers as it is for driving target audience engagement with a law firm. Find out what you should consider when it comes to email marketing in this post.

Publication Date
12/2022
The guide to successful email marketing

In e-mail marketing, a person or a group of persons who have agreed to receive e-mails on a regular basis are sent such e-mails for commercial purposes.

What are the benefits of email marketing?

Marketing by email is general:

  • Cheap
    You save postage and printing costs when sending via e-mail.
  • Digital
    Emails arrive instantly and can be sent at any time. No need to carry envelopes or lick stamps. And: No one needs to run to the post office!
  • Serious
    Even if a lot of crap is sent: E-mails are so integrated into the professional world that they are still considered serious if they are presented appropriately and have the right content.
  • Automate
    Modern mail software makes it easy to send mailings to large numbers of recipients. You can prepare mailings, multiply designs, reuse content or integrate it directly from the website with just a few clicks. And: The dispatch can be planned and programmed. But you can go even further: You can build entire workflows. For example, a user clicks on a link in your mailing. You can now specify that this user should receive another mail after two days - perhaps with further information on this topic. Or with a coupon to convince him/her to buy something.
  • Customizable
    Mail programs offer the option to personalize text modules, content and salutations. Depending on the data management, your readers will be greeted by name! This makes the e-mail more personal. You can also adapt the content of the e-mails to the recipients' needs in order to provide them with customized and useful information.
  • Interactive
    Various content can be integrated and linked into the e-mail. This makes mailings interactive and keeps users engaged with your topics for longer.

So emails are a great way to reach your target audiences directly!

You will not reach all contacts in your list. We get too many emails every day for that. Nevertheless it is worth it!

Email Marketing for Lawyers...

...is a sensible thing to do.

Interesting and relevant newsletters are very important for your target groups. These mailings help you build the necessary trust and ensure that your targets don't forget you.

If you feel that you have nothing interesting to tell, it's more likely because you lack ideas and structure. With a good concept, half the work is done and implementation becomes easier. Law firms have many interesting stories and very valuable know-how. The latter can be passed on very well in general form. You don't lose any business that way. Because the individual case is usually still so special that consulting is still necessary.

Why lawyers and digital marketing go so well together

What do I need to keep in mind when it comes to email marketing?

  • Provide relevant and exciting content that fits your target audience.
  • Present the content attractively and in your branding.
  • Choose the right time for sending.
  • Give your recipients a chance to unsubscribe from your newsletter.
  • Maintain the quality of your mailing list (see info below).

What is the right time to send the newsletter?

The best time to send your newsletter is primarily determined by your target audience. Generally speaking, there is a difference between B2B mailings and newsletters to private individuals (B2C).

B2B

In principle, shipping should only take place during the week. The best times are considered to be in the morning between 9:00 and 12:00 or shortly after the lunch break from 13:30 to 14:30. In the afternoon, you should send your mailings no later than 5:00 pm.

We advise you not to send mails to B2B clients on Monday mornings, Friday afternoons and weekends.

B2C

We also reach private individuals best during the week. Apparently, some of us do read private mails during working hours...

Mailings are ideally sent in the morning between 7:00 am and 10:00 am or in the evening between 5:00 pm and 9:00 pm. Tip: Let your targets rest on Friday evening. They certainly have better things to do than read your mails.

You can test sending at the weekend. Depending on the constellation, this can be effective during the day. In legal marketing, however, the weekend is usually only the second choice.

Maintain mailing list

For successful email marketing, a well-maintained contact list is the key.

The rule is: Don't buy a prefabricated email list. Finding the right list is time-consuming – and the benefits are often unclear. The quality of the lists can rarely be tested, even if you are promised samples.

In addition, the people on these lists have not ordered your mails. They often don't even know that they have landed on these lists and only very rarely appreciate your mails. This causes displeasure, which falls back on you. Users unsubscribe or, in the worst case, even label your mail as spam. This damages your domain reputation and your mails end up in the filter elsewhere.

Many mail programs preventively filter out spam and advertising. If your mails end up in these filters, your newsletter investments come to nothing – and your domain reputation suffers. We are happy to advise you on how to avoid this.

Your contact list should grow organically. This not only guarantees that the email addresses really exist, but also increases the probability that the recipients really want your content. Quality before quantity.

How do I get e-mail addresses?

There are many ways you can motivate users on your website to subscribe to your newsletter:

  • Word of Mouth: Good newsletters are sources of interesting content. Your recipients talk about it – at the coffee machine in the office, for example. Or they forward your mailings to interested people. So make it easy for them to share your content.
  • C If you offer a blog on your website, users should also be able to sign up directly for updates there. After all, new users often end up there via a Google search. If they like the content, they want more and sign up.
  • Events: Do you offer webinars or seminars that users can register for (free of charge)? These are really good opportunities to attract participants as newsletter subscribers.
  • Contests and promotions: Contests or promotions for which you have to register with your email address are also a good way to collect new contacts.
  • Strategic partnerships: These are a good way to increase your own reach. The partner's network with the same target group can be interesting. Synergies can often be found here!
The advantages of partnership marketing

How do I find the right newsletter mailing program?

Not all tools are a help. Certain programs are complicated or limited. They make automations difficult or have poor design elements and templates.

Fortunately, these things can be tested well.

Your newsletter program should meet the following points:

  • Simple operation
  • Individualization of Content
  • Data Protection Compliance
  • Automations
  • Segmentation
  • Meaningful Analytics
  • Integration of Content from the Web
  • Opt-in Workflows, Verifications and Unsubscriptions

Known mailing programs are:

We like: Mailerlite! We are happy to support you with the set-up.

What are the most common email marketing mistakes?

Send spam mails

It can't be said often enough: the content of your mailings must be interesting for the specific recipients.Only if they can take something away from your mail is it a meaningful mailing.

Differentiated marketing for law firms: how to communicate with multiple audiences.

Abandonment of strategic e-mail campaigns

Don't cram everything into a single email. Plan your campaign so that the content is digestible for users. In what order is the content relevant? How can you find out about each user's interests?

We recommend that law firms plan campaigns within the individual practice groups. Topics can thus be planned in a structured manner and communicated in a targeted manner.

In addition, this simplifies the creation of the required content by the lawyers.

Bad subject lines

Short, clear, crisp. That's how your subject line should appear. If your target groups have to yawn when reading these first words, you've wasted a lot of potential.

Also, do not use lurid slogans or sales jargon. This may cause your mail to be moved to the spam folder by certain filters.

Timing

If a newsletter is sent out too frequently, there is a risk that the content cannot keep up with the pace. The newsletter becomes thin and boring. That's how you lose attention. On the other hand, if you communicate too infrequently via newsletter, you will be forgotten. In addition, the content then regularly overwhelms your target groups.

Timing is primarily determined by your content. How often can you prepare and send interesting information?

We recommend a rhythm of one newsletter per month or every two months. As a rule, we do not recommend a longer break between two mailings. However, as always, there are exceptions.

Design

Remember, you're also communicating your branding with your mailings. Mailing programs are not always that flexible when it comes to designing your mailings. So don't try to construct complicated designs to appear as fancy as possible. Use the software as it is meant to be used. In almost every case, it is possible to convey branding appropriately even with simple designs.

How HeadStarterz Can Help!

We'll help your company structure and build an email marketing effort and assist you with the technical implementation of an actionable process.

One of HeadStarterz' core competencies is to provide strategic support to practice groups and other teams in the implementation of marketing campaigns: planning, acting, analyzing, improving
Interested? Feel free to contact us at any time: hello@headstarterz.com
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