As witches fly on brooms through the night skies and ghosts hover over the ground, we’ve got one thing on our minds – your legal newsletters. Although this is the perfect time to be scary, you don’t want to scare your visitors away from your newsletters. Instead, here are three quick tips to BOOst your engagement. Let Halloween leave you with a treat not a trick this time!
If you’re not writing a legal newsletter yet, we highly recommend starting one. Check out why you should start a newsletter and the metrics to track to determine whether or not it’s successful. Once your newsletter is live and you have a good grasp on how it’s performing, use our tips below to increase its success.
Who’s the email from?
You’ve probably noticed that when you get newsletters from big brands, their “from” email address contains something like “no-reply.” You should have the opposite of this. You’re writing a newsletter to engage your clients and continue building a relationship with them. A relationship is a two way street. Therefore, your newsletter and interactions with clients should be personal.
One easy way to do this is to make your “from” address a real contact at your firm, such as an attorney who’s mentioned on your website or a paralegal who’s available to answer clients’ questions if they reply back. Make sure that the email is set up in such a way that if someone responds, their email won’t be missed, and the aforementioned attorney or paralegal can respond timely. No one wants to be ghosted!
Segment your newsletter for different audiences
Although pumpkins and black cats are both common occurrences around Halloween, you might want to eat a pumpkin and stay away from a black cat. Just like pumpkins and black cats are different, so are your clients. It’s easy to send one newsletter to everyone; however, your newsletter recipients are on your lists for different reasons and you have different goals for them.
Send separate newsletters to different lists, based on your desired outcome. For example, if you practice multiple areas of law, different content will be applicable for your Social Security disability clients and your personal injury clients. By segmenting your newsletters, you’ll have a chance to better target your audience, and get higher newsletter engagement.
Don’t end up in spam
It’s very easy to end up in spam, especially with Google’s “promotion” folder. If your newsletters are ending up in spam, no matter how good they are, no one will read them.
To avoid this, have clients opt-in to your newsletters. That way, they’ll know they’re on your list to receive newsletters and will be happy to get something from you. Think about it this way – if you want people to come to your Halloween party, make sure you’re inviting them and letting them know to come, instead of having them guess that you’re hosting a party. Have those clients add your “from” email to their list of safe senders, so your emails aren’t being blocked.
Also, periodically update your contact sheet to ensure that you’re sending your newsletters to the correct clients. Lastly, test your newsletters before you send them to see how “spammy” they are. The online service you use for this will likely tell you how you can make your newsletter not go to spam, so that will certainly help you make necessary changes.
Newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your clients, provide them with relevant information, and ensure that you’re in the back of their minds. There are many suggestions for improving newsletters, but consider also our email marketing tips for attorneys. The tips mentioned in this blog are quick fixes, but stay tuned for more on improving your newsletter content to increase your engagement.