Email Marketing for Law Firms: Software, Tips & Best Practices

Getting your firm in front of your audience is the hardest part of gaining clients in today’s digital world. In the UK, the average marketing cost for law firms ranges from 0.5% to 5% of annual revenues, far below that of other industries.

It’s no secret that law firms often find themselves behind the curve in digital marketing, but in that lies tremendous opportunities for forward-thinking legal professionals to take advantage. One such avenue to explore is email marketing.

With 59% of marketers claiming that email is their most effective channel, harnessing its power can supercharge your bottom line. But starting an email list isn’t enough. You need to go about it the right way.

Do law firms use email marketing?

Law firms are gradually discovering the benefits of email. Although stats from UK firms are unavailable, the American Bar Association revealed that 41% of law firms were using email newsletters for marketing in 2021, up from 26% in 2020.

This is far below other industries, meaning that unlike other forms of marketing, such as PPC and social media ads, this is a blue-water zone to be exploited.

What can you expect from adopting an effective email marketing strategy? According to the Digital Marketing Association, email marketing has an average ROI of 42:1, meaning for every £1 spent, you generate £42 in business.

How can law firms benefit from email marketing?

Email marketing is yet another channel solicitors must add to their marketing mix. Unlike other channels, email marketing offers several unique benefits.

Understand that an email is a personal conversation. It’s an intimate communication technique that allows you to speak directly to prospects. This is why it’s so effective at building relationships: the message can be customised and delivered to the right people at the right time. It’s an alternative to the legacy scattergun approach.

Mastering email marketing is an opportunity to humanise yourself while demonstrating thought leadership. It’s the action that builds trust and formulates genuine relationships between you, your prospects and your existing clients.

Ultimately, this results in more brand awareness, leads and business.

Considering the low-cost barrier to entry of email marketing, this is a cost-effective marketing option requiring little investment. You can benefit from email marketing, whether you’re a large firm or a one-man operation.

Creating an email marketing strategy for your law firm

Gathering emails and blasting out corporate news is no strategy at all. People want information that’s relevant to them. For example, if you specialise in tackling unfair dismissal cases, there’s little point in sending out a newsletter on human rights.

Understand that despite the high ROI of email marketing, MailChimp research reveals average open rates for the legal industry are a relatively low 22%, with a paltry 2.81% click-through rate. So, it’s vital to avoid being disheartened.

You need a strategy that reflects your firm and the interests of the future clients you’re targeting. So, what aspects make up an optimal email marketing strategy?

Target Audience – Who are your target audience, and what do they care about? This will be specific to every law firm. Typically, you should begin with your primary practice areas when divining content for your newsletter.

Competitor Research – What are your competitors sending? One of the easiest ways to conduct competitor research is to sign up for a few of their newsletters and create a database of the subjects they’re tackling.

Goals – What is the purpose of your email list? Not every firm’s primary goal is generating direct business. Some use them to create brand awareness and generate industry authority. Defining your goals establishes the line between success and failure and the KPIs you prioritise.

Content Type – What sort of content are you planning to send? This could be anything from promotional emails and legal guides to invoices and special offers.

Frequency – The frequency of your emails is another defining factor. Setting expectations early is crucial to avoid annoying/abandoning your audience. Make it clear what your subscribers can expect from you.

Thankfully, email marketing strategies don’t require a budget because of the minimal startup cost. The primary challenge for law firms is setting aside the time to write newsletters and measure the results.

Plan your Email Marketing Strategy Contact Us

Email marketing best practices for law firms

Email marketing requires constant learning and development to master. After all, the habits of subscribers change over time. However, certain best practices remain. Let’s discuss some top tips for law firms getting to grips with email marketing.

Set Clear Goals – Every email marketing campaign should have its own goals. Whether it’s acquiring more clients, retaining existing ones, or increasing awareness of your legal niche, you need a goal because this is what influences your measurables.
Keep Your List Pruned – Building your email list is always a priority, but so is keeping your list clean. Only 56% of email subscribers stay on a list for 12 months, meaning you may be swayed by results from emails that are no longer monitored.
Offer Value – Your emails are not a place to discuss why you are the best solicitor in the country. Instead, seek to offer value in as few words as possible. Stay away from complex legalese and leave your subscribers coming away feeling like they’ve learned something.
Monitor Your Performance – Pay close attention to your metrics for each campaign, and don’t be afraid to change if something isn’t working. A/B testing is as relevant to email marketing as any other channel.
Beware of Legal Compliance – The legal industry has more stringent policies to protect client confidentiality. This extends further than legislation like GDPR. Familiarise yourself with what you can and cannot feature to prevent potential problems.

Best email marketing software for law firms

Countless email marketing platforms exist to help you write newsletters, consolidate lists and launch campaigns. Let’s look at some of the leading options law firms use today.

Active Campaign is widespread across multiple industries because it integrates email and marketing automation. Although it’s often used for B2B clients, it’s also perfectly serviceable for B2C clients.

It allows you to tag contacts based on their behaviours, enabling you to drill down into different subscriber segments for more targeted communications.

MailChimp is one of the largest email marketing platforms in the world. It’s mainly designed for small and medium-sized businesses and offers several unique features.

For example, you can build landing pages in minutes, deliver personalised email postcards, and even send surveys to gather client feedback. However, beware that MailChimp gets expensive as your list grows, so some prefer MailerLite.

Most email marketing platforms’ fees are based on how many people you have on your list. However, Sendinblue is among the few that charge based on the number of emails sent.

Newbies to email marketing will love their drag-and-drop editor to design their emails, and their customer support team is proficient in helping with things like GDPR compliance.

If you’re ready to step into the law firm email marketing world, Tao Digital is waiting to support you in growing your firm. To get started, read our Beginner’s Guide to Digital Marketing now.

Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing

Email marketing is great for anyone looking to expand their reach to customers and prospects alike.

It has become progressively more difficult over the years as spam filters get wise to marketing emails, but done right it can be a highly effective marketing tool.

In this guide we will discuss some of the basics to help you start moving your email marketing in the right direction and turn it into a profitable channel for your business.

Email Marketing: How and When

When you send your emails, the timing is so important. Get this wrong and you could see no interaction at all or mass unsubscribe from your hard-earned lists.

Bear in mind though, most email platforms like Active Campaign will bill you by the number of email addresses you have in your platform.

Sometimes it might be better to let some go who are never going to interact. They’re costing you money, lowering your open rates and potentially hiking up your spam rates too.

Best day or time of the week for email marketing

If you run a bar or restaurant, you’ll likely see better returns from your email on a Thursday or Friday as people get in the mood for the weekend.

A B2B company would normally find a Tuesday works great, but it’s well worth testing this as you never know. The different industry quirks can mean better open rates on other days.

Within eCommerce, the best day will always be pay day, which is normally the last Friday of the month in the UK.

How often to send emails

This always depends on the industry you are in and what the subscribers on your list are happy with.

It is so important to test these factors to make sure you aren’t losing subscribers due to not being active enough. On the flip side, being too active can annoy people with too much communication and lead to unsubscribers too.

That being said, we always recommend starting off with either monthly or fortnightly emails before starting to increase the velocity of your sends. This is purely down to making sure your subscribers don’t suddenly feel overwhelmed with the number of emails you send and head for the hills, in this instance hit the unsubscribe button or even worse, “mark as spam”.

Through trial and error you’ll be sure to find the sweet spot for the frequency of emails. You can even set up automations to create weekly/bi weekly emails. We do this within ClickUp – you can read about it here.

Best image size for email marketing

The answer to this is an SEO’s favourite saying – “It Depends”.

According to Campaign Monitor, they use an email header image of 960px wide. This is due to the vast number of email clients there are in the world to open emails along with the fact most email clients are now fully responsive. Their email builder supports images of up to 20MB in size.

Active Campaign recommends you keep your image between 400 and 650 pixels wide. This completely depends on the layout you choose, however – some may be square images, some much wider. The maximum file size they recommend is 5mb.

Again, with Klaviyo, the image specifications depend on the design you choose. Like Active Campaign, the maximum file size they recommend is 5mb, however they recommend using less than 1mb where possible to avoid slow loading time.

Mailchimp recommends an even smaller guide of 1mb for all images.

What is a Good CTR for Email Marketing?

Again, this depends on your industry. Overall, a click through rate of around 2-5% is considered to be good. Mailchimp has a great table of average open rate and click through rate by industry, you can check it out here.

Click through rate can be improved in various ways, for example:

Making buttons or call to actions (CTAs) obvious
Improving your design, making it easy to show what you want readers to do or where you want to draw their attention to
Use powerful phrases in your CTAs, for example ‘save, start, now, join, win, exclusive’.

Best Practices for Email Marketing

In order to be successful, it’s essential to follow best practices. Here are some tips:

Ensure your list is opt-in: This is one of the most important rules of email marketing. If you don’t have permission from your subscribers, you could be facing spam complaints, unsubscribes, and even legal battles. Always make sure people have the option to subscribe to your list and that they are aware of what they’re signing up for.

Send relevant content: Don’t send your subscribers information that isn’t relevant to them. If they opt-in to your email list, they want to hear from you. Send them information that will interest them and help them in their everyday lives.

Personalise your copy: Personalise your copy with the subscriber’s name or other personal details. This makes them feel like you’re talking directly to them, increasing the chances that they’ll read your emails and take action.

Keep your messages short: Most people are busy and don’t have time to read long emails. Keep your email messages short, concise and to the point so they can be easily read and understood.

Use a clear subject line: Your subscribers should be able to quickly understand what the email is about by reading the subject line. Make sure it accurately reflects the email’s content so that subscribers don’t get confused or decide not to open it.

Test different types of copy: Not all copy works for everyone. Try different types of email copy to see what works best for your subscribers. This could include videos, images, articles, or even infographics.

Use A/B testing: A/B testing is a great way to see which email copy and subject lines are most effective with your audience. Test different versions of each to see which gets the best results.

Optimise your emails for mobile devices: More than half of all emails are now opened on mobile devices, so ensure your emails are optimised for these devices. Use a responsive design or ensure your text is easily read on a small screen.

Track your results: It’s important to track the results of your email marketing campaigns so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. Use analytics tools to track things like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

Use a reputable email service provider: Using a reputable email service provider will help ensure that your emails reach their destination and that they look great no matter what device they’re viewed on.

Use images sparingly: Too many images can slow down the loading time of your email and may cause spam filters to block the email.

Ensure your links work properly: Broken links can be frustrating for customers and may cause them to unsubscribe from your list.

Test your email before sending it: It’s always a good idea to test your email on different browsers and devices before sending it out to ensure that it looks correct and functions appropriately.

Use a responsive design template: A responsive design template will automatically adjust the size of your email to fit the device it’s being viewed on, ensuring a good user experience regardless of the device someone uses.

Segment your list: Segmenting your list allows you to send targeted content to specific groups of customers, increasing the likelihood that they will open and read your emails.

Email Marketing Tick list

Subject Line Tips

Subject lines are arguably one of the most important factors in email marketing. While it may only seem like a small part of your message, they are the very first impression you have on your recipients. This is why it is so important to craft a subject line which is compelling enough to get people to click through.

Here are some tips for successful subject lines:

Learn by example. Seeing clever word plays or emojis is one of the best ways to get you thinking about how you could alter your subject line to be more compelling. Sign up to the newsletters of competitors in your industry and see what tactics they are using.

Keep it short and sweet. Email subject lines can be cut off if they’re too long, especially on mobile devices. Try to make your subject line 50 characters or less to ensure people scanning your email read the entire message.

Avoid ‘no-reply’ send names. Thanks to the amount of spam people get these days, many people will ignore or delete email with an address like ‘noreply@company.com’. It makes the email less personable and prevents people from adding the email to their address book.

Don’t make false promises. Your subject line is used to make promises to your reader about what your message will be. Make sure you are making a good commitment, and try not to get your email opened by false promises. This may bother your audience and they’ll lose trust in your subject lines.

Don’t shy away from humour. Most people love a good pun, and it’s a great way to spice up your recipients emails. Don’t go overboard, but think of small ways you can incorporate humour into your subject lines.

UK Email Marketing Law

When you send emails for marketing purposes, you must be compliant with UK email marketing laws outlined in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

These rules outline specific things you must include in your marketing emails, such as disclosing your identity and providing a valid email address to all recipients.

The PECR also covers:

Use of cookies or similar tracking technologies
Any form of electronic communication made for marketing, including text messages and emails
To make sure the communication service providers are secure, including customer privacy-directory listings, location-based data and other identifiers.

Under the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR), recipients can prevent companies from accessing their personal data, which is any information related to an identifiable person.

The seven principles of the GDPR include: fairness; lawfulness and transparency; purpose limitation;data minimisation; accuracy; integrity and confidentiality; and storage limitation.

Under the GDPR, an individual’s consent is considered as a critical aspect. The consent can either be expressed or implied freely by the individual.

Here are some tips to make sure your emails align with the UK laws:

Identify your emails as an advert. This can be as simple as having a clear subject line indicating the purpose of your email, such as phrases like “discounts this week”.

Make sure you have permission from your recipients.

Include your business details such as a postal address.

Give importance to the unsubscribe requests. The opt-out process should be made as uncomplicated as possible and done within 10 business days.

Pros and Cons of Email Marketing

As with all methods of marketing, there are positives and negatives to both.

Pros:

Lead generation: Emails are an incredibly powerful form of lead generation and can lead to sales.

Segmentation: You can segment, tag or create lists for the exact kind of audiences you want depending on their interests. This is especially useful for eCommerce businesses who may offer products for a variety of different audiences, e.g. a footwear business that sells mens, womens and kids shoes. By segmenting them, you can avoid sending irrelevant emails to your main list and avoid unsubscribers.

Advertising directly to your audience: Other forms of advertising, such as social media, may not get directly in front of those who like or follow you due to the different algorithms on each platform, however with emails you are directly in their inbox.

Opting in: These people have opted in and WANT to hear from you. This is much different to other forms of advertising, such as paid socials, where you may not always be relevant to the audience.

Access to valuable analytics: There are so many analytics you can access that can give in-depth insights into your audience, such as the best times to send emails, which subject lines are working best, where your subscribers come from, how many times links are clicked in the emails and by who, how many sales have been made, etc.

Can be easy to build a list with competitions: There are a few incredibly easy ways to build your email marketing list. One way that has worked really well for our clients is via holding competitions where entrants enter their emails to enter. Through just a few social media posts for our client, Hirst Footwear, we generated over 700 email subscribers – you can read the case study here.

Cons:

Can be costly for small businesses: Startups and SMEs may find that some email marketing platforms are out of their budget until they have the financial backing and resources to see a return on investment.

Can take time to understand platforms and segmentation: If you’re a newbie to email marketing, it can take some time to get your head around using different platforms. If you get stuck and your email provider’s guides aren’t much help, some email providers can take up to a week to respond to an issue.

Can get caught in spam: If you suddenly receive a lot of spam complaints, some email providers can automatically filter you into your subscriber’s spam folders, rendering your efforts ineffective.

Design issues: Some email marketing platforms have an easier design interface than others. There can be limitations on some platforms, e.g. not being able to change the colour of buttons or images not aligning without having to edit code.

Can take a while to find a balance between sales and messaging: It’s important to find that ‘Goldilocks Spot’ of your messaging – not too many pushy sales emails and not too many blogs/advice. Striking the balance will depend on your industry and how your subscribers respond, which can be determined by your CTR.

Summary

The more hands on you get with your email marketing, the more efficient you’ll become. Although it may feel overwhelming at first, following the steps above will help your campaigns achieve success.

The more you learn what resonates with your audience, the more you can scale your marketing goals and deliver meaningful messages that will drive results.

4 Ways That Email Marketing Can Increase Your Sales Funnel

Email marketing has proved to be one of the most cost-effective ways of communicating with your audience.

For any company that wants to engage and inform their subscribers, setting a proper email marketing strategy is the best way.

More specifically, it can increase your website’s traffic, form stronger relationships, increase the recognition of your brand, and give opportunities for engagement.

One of the most important aspects of email marketing strategy is the way it affects the sales funnel of your company.

Regardless of the stage of the funnel, email marketing can help you maintain and improve your funnel.

So, the first thing you have to do is find an email marketing service that provides all the features and data you need for your company.

This is the fundamental principle, as not every platform offers exactly the same.

1. Generate Subscribers

The first thing you need to have to make your sales funnel successful is a great list of subscribers.

You should make clear why someone should subscribe, what someone has to gain. If there is nothing specific there for your subscribers, then no one will give his email address.

So, your brand awareness should focus on getting your brand identity across and your USP so consumers can differentiate you from the rest of similar brands.

Also, you should make it as simple as possible to enter their email address to decrease the number of click-throughs a person needs to be subscribed.

Share content posts on your social media accounts that lead them to a subscribing page.

Also, you can create QR codes so even if they see a product of yours, they are directed to a mobile-ready, mobile-responsive email subscribing form.

After they get subscribed, you should send a “thank you email” to welcome them.

This will make some feel valued and appreciated, while others will value it as a confirmation for their subscription.

The last thing is that you should pay attention to your email sequence, content, subject lines (which will be more analysed later), in case you see your unsubscribing rates increase.

2. Increase Recognition

Once you have created your subscribers’ list, then you should create a comprehensive, consistent channel of communication with them.

If you want to have an effective email marketing strategy, you should create some recurring email campaigns, based on the type of your company and your products.

One option is to send a weekly email with the company updates, or at least a monthly newsletter with new data, information, and offers.

These email campaigns should highlight your brand identity, colours, and personality. Your logo characteristics should be there in every email; but always consider to make it friendly, while formal.

Then, your emails will be enjoyable and fun for your subscribers, but still, you will pass all the needed information.

You should use any automation features of your email marketing service and through different tests find the best time to send an email to your subscribers.

Then, your opening rates will improve, which will bring extra traffic to your website.

3. Improve Consideration

Once you have your subscribers’ list, you build your recognition, then your subscribers should start considering your company, instead of other companies they already trust.

Consideration marketing campaigns are difficult but can be your key players.

The first crucial thing is to create exclusive limited offers and discounts for your subscribers.

This will create a feeling of urgency, value, and appreciation for your company.

Human beings love to feel that they receive unique personalised gifts and offers.

In these campaigns, you can also promote any private label products you have by including the companies that produce these items.

With that, you gain credibility by the name of the manufacturing company, which will make your subscribers consider you more.

Also, based on the actions they take on your website, you can send personalised emails to educate them about the products they are interested in.

These educational emails can be tips and tricks for how to cleverly use your products or their extra features.

Another automated email campaign you can design is based on the products your website visitors abandon in their carts.

The cart abandonment strategy is highly personalised, time-saving, cost-effective, and forces people to return to your site to complete a purchase.

To ensure that your subscribers receive these emails, you should run an email deliverability test.

This will guarantee that your emails end up in their inbox folder, not their spam folder.

4. Motivate Action

The last stage of the sales funnel process is to motivate your subscribers to take action.

You should pay attention to your email copy and content. Use active words that motivate people to take a specific action.

Make clear that you have on a specific target and centralise it in your emails. This purpose should be your central Call-To-Action in the email, which pops-up from the rest of the email.

Another important aspect is your email subject line and the preview shown.

Your email subject line should be precise, clear, and intrigue people to open their email for one reason.

Write your subject lines as you are a salesman that likes to be more friendly.

As it was stated before, you should provide them with limited offers and discounts. T

his feeling of urgency will make people take immediate action and buy your products.

Final Thoughts

Creating, designing, running an effective email marketing strategy is complicated, but it can be simplified by setting specific goals and objectives.

If you set creative, target-oriented, agile goals, based on the different stages of the sales funnel, you can see your metrics increase and improve.

A great way to make your company grow is by paying attention to every single stage and always use your data analytics to redesign your strategies.

Always use quantitative research to increase your quality, and focus on bringing extra value to your company.

These are the basic things you should know to shape an effective email marketing strategy.

Let me know what you think. Do you have a specific email marketing strategy? What would you change and what have you implemented?