Whether you’ve just signed a new client or won a claim 10 years previously, keeping in touch with your clients is wildly beneficial. Past clients are great for getting referrals to your firm or building a reputation in your community. One of the best ways to keep up with old and new claimants is through online newsletters. Here are some tips your firm can utilize to make sure your email marketing campaigns are as effective as possible.

Tip #1: Give Your Consumers Valuable Content

We’re bombarded with emails. According to an August 2016 email study, an average office worker receives 121 emails per day. If you want to stand apart from the crowd, you shouldn’t spam your contact list with promotional emails. A good rule of thumb would be to have 90% of your content be informative, while 10% is promotional material about your firm. This gives someone a reason to read an email newsletter instead of unsubscribing.

For example, some informative content for a Social Security firm would be a newsletter on the upcoming year’s COLA changes. The SSA usually announces its yearly adjustments to disability benefits in October, so you in turn can tell your past and present clients what increases they can expect for the next year.

Tip #2: Stick to a Schedule

When you’re sending emails to a subscriber list, it’s important to have some kind of routine. This not only allows claimants to know when to expect your newsletter, but it gives your firm a schedule to stick to. If you send a weekly or monthly newsletter to your clients, try to send the email at a time at which they’re likely to read it.

According to GetResponse, an analysis of 21 million messages in the US showed that the times of the day that received the most engagement were between 8:00 – 10:00 A.M., and again at 3:00 - 4:00 P.M., so these are likely good times to schedule a newsletter to go out. Keep in mind that these open rates are in local time, so if you take workers’ compensation cases in California but your firm is located in NYC, you may want to schedule emails to go out at 11:00 a.m. your time to hit California’s morning rush.

You’ll also want to keep your area of law in mind when picking a good time to send an email. Personal injury claimants will often have jobs, while Social Security disability claimants are not working and may be more receptive to an afternoon email newsletter.

Tip #3: Allow Your Users to Opt-In

It’s possible to gather contact information from any legal leads you receive, or lists of contacts you’ve paid for. While these lists can be useful, they’re not a savory way to build a mass newsletter contact list. You should always allow users to subscribe to your emails, whether from signing up on a blog or at the footer of your website. Unsolicited emails may be considered as spam, and your domain could even be flagged as a “spammy” website, meaning you could have difficulty sending all emails. This might make it impossible to email your current claimants, which would be detrimental for any firm.

Tip #4: Have a Catchy Subject Line

Open rates for emails are often in the single digits. To have the best chance of getting eyes on your email newsletter, your firm should put some time into coming up with a good subject line. Additionally, you’ll want to avoid using any terms that a spam checker will send into a junk folder. Some keywords often flagged as spam that attorneys may use include, but are not limited to:

• Make money/money making
• Potential earnings
• Claims
• Cost
• Collect
• Social Security number
• Success
• 100% free/satisfied
• Free (anything)
• Apply now
• Call now
• Legal

Keep in mind that this list is in regards to the subject line—if you use the word “legal” in context in the newsletter (EX: "If you have friends who need legal help, consider giving then our firm’s contact information"), you should be fine.

Supplementing Your Efforts

Legal and email marketing is challenging for thousands of firms across the country. To supplement your efforts, consider purchasing legal case leads. eGenerationMarketing offers Social Security, personal injury, workers’ compensation, or employment law leads across the country. Give us a call today at 617.800.0089 to discuss availability in your state.