Imagine your ideal client. The one you love working with, in the area of law you are passionate about, who respects your opinion, likes you and trusts you, and doesn’t hesitate to pay what you’re worth.
Now imagine getting to interact regularly with that client, and other similar prospective clients who have asked you to interact with them on a regular basis with useful information. Not legal advice, but legal and non-legal information that interests them.
You’d do it because you know you’ll be top of mind if/when he needs your services. And you know he’ll likely share your useful information with others, and over time you will have a dedicaterd fan club, which will continue to grow, delivering ever better clients for you to choose from.
That, in a nutshell, is email marketing. Not spammy, throw it against the wall and see what sticks advertising, but rather, permission based email marketing.
Now, if you’re thinking you don’t like giving away information that took years and a small fortune to cultivate, then, respectfully, you should think again.
Because the information is out there, offered by someone else happy to give it and to engage your ideal client herself.
This is the digital world we live in. Those who recognize it for what it is, a historic opportunity to interact, over and over again, with their ideal clients, will thrive.
What is email marketing, and what can it do for lawyers?
Email marketing is the process of sending useful information to a select list of readers on a regular basis with the goal of establishing a relationship of trust so that the reader will be open to periodic offerings of products or services.
Email marketing is particularly useful to attorneys and other service professionals because it can establish expertise, thought leadership, and trust, which are core components in the buying decisions of clients.
No doubt there has been an explosion of email marketing, but most of it is SPAM-like, in that it is of no interest to the recipient. Most people are tired of receiving junk email and are very quick to delete without opening it.
But they aren’t tired of receiving useful information.
In fact, they crave it to deal with the breakneck pace of life today. Issues, problems, and opportunities arise quickly and demand (or more correctly, we often perceive them as demanding) immediate action.
And people want information that will help.
So email marketing, directed at the right audience, with the right message, will be opened, read, used, and forwarded.
The benefits for law firms include:
- Improved ROI over traditional advertising in print to large audiences who haven’t asked for an advertisement, which is expensive and mostly ineffective compared to the cost and effectiveness of electronic delivery to readers who have requested the information.
- Creating one on one trust over time;
- Being seen as an expert because of the material provided;
- The ability to have back and forth dialogue;
- The fact that size does not matter. That is, a small law firm can compete with, and succeed against, a larger law firm;
- The fact that email can be forwarded to new prospects.
Convinced?
Good.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where we’ll cover getting started.
Thanks for reading.