Last week, we gave you some reasons why a legal newsletter could be beneficial for your firm. A newsletter can help strengthen your relationship with clients and increase your caseload through referrals. If any of your clients’ friends or family members need an attorney, you will be the go-to resource for legal assistance.
If your firm does start a legal newsletter, it will be important for you to know if it’s effective or helping you achieve your goals. It can be challenging to know whether or not the work you’re putting in is worthwhile. Fortunately, there are some metrics you can track to determine your success. We would recommend easily tracking this with a mass email software, such as GMass from Gmail, Yesware, or Zoho Campaigns, but make sure to research which mass email software would best match your firm’s needs. Many options are completely free.
#1: Open Rate
Your open rate is the percentage of clients who actually open your newsletter. Of course, having a higher open rate means more clients are reading your newsletter. MailChimp reports that as of February 1, 2017, the average open rate for legal mass email campaigns is 22.49%.
If you have a high open rate – that’s fantastic! However, what if your open rate is low, such as less than 10%? Perhaps something in your newsletters needs editing.
The first thing your clients see in your newsletter is your subject line, and a low open rate could mean your subject lines could be improved. They might be confusing your clients, or not enticing enough for them to open the email. Therefore, try to make the subject lines more direct and unique – when clients read them, they should want to click on the email to learn more. Personalization, like including your client’s name in the subject, can go a long way in increasing your open rate.
It’s also possible that the content you’re sending is irrelevant to your current clients, so they're not reading it. Therefore, know your audience and cater your newsletters to your clients' needs. For example, if your newsletters to current clients encourage them to sign-up with your firm’s services, chances are existing clients won’t open those newsletters.
You can experiment with the different times of day your emails are being sent, and see if certain times might result in increased open rates. For example, nearly 40% of emails are opened in the morning, according to a GetResponse study.
#2: Click Through Rate
Your click through rate is the percentage of clients who click on a link that’s within your newsletter. According to MailChimp, the average click through rate for legal bulk emails is 3%.
Having a high click through rate should be one of your main goals for your newsletters, since few people stay in their inboxes for a long time. You should include links to your site, since your goal is to soft sell and promote your firm and services. The links could be to a blog you wrote on a case your firm recently won, your FAQ page, your client referral page, and so on. However, you could also include links to outside material as well, as long as it benefits your clients and gets them thinking about your firm. If your clients are clicking through to your firm’s website or another link, that means your content is engaging and relevant.
#3: Sign-up Rate
Remember, newsletters aren’t a direct sales pitch to your current clients. With that said, your newsletter is being sent out to former, current, and potential clients. It should always be geared towards getting more clients to sign-up, whether it’s those who you lost contact with, or entirely new clients who were referred by past claimants who received your newsletter and were reminded of the hard work you did for their case. Additionally, former clients might need to come back to you if they have another claim, such as an auto accident or another workplace injury. In any case, you need financial benefits from your newsletters.
Supplementing Your Newsletter
Keeping track of your open, click through, and sign-up rates will allow you determine the success of your newsletter. Knowing these statistics can help you make any necessary changes to your newsletter content and tactics to improve your results. If you need some ideas to make your newsletters more engaging, be sure to check out our blog for newsletter tips.
A legal newsletter is a great resource, but it might not be enough to increase your caseload to your firm’s full capacity. Therefore, if you are interested in exploring other marketing options, consider purchasing legal leads from us. Call us at 617.800.0089 or contact us today to learn more!
Sources: https://mailchimp.com/resources/research/email-marketing-benchmarks/ http://www.adverblog.com/2012/10/12/the-best-time-of-day-to-send-emails-infographic/