If your firm pays for advertising, then you should leverage off your your law firm advertising strategy with newsletters. Advertising is not the best marketing strategy, in fact, it is usually a poor strategy unless your website is in tip top shape and you have a coherent plan for dealing with, and nurturing, leads. However, if you firm won’t shift on advertising, then it is smart to leverage off your paid advertising with newsletters. That is, to send newsletters in addition to your advertising campaign to reach those people who contact you following an ad.
Marketing does not mean advertising
Most lawyers do not regard themselves as being good marketers. When a decision is needed on firm growth, advertising is often the default position taken by law firms. We feel that advertising wins because inadequate consideration is given to other strategies. The default position is to pay for it, advertise and hope it works. Little attention is paid to the cost compared to alternatives, or the return on investment.
‘Marketing’ is not ‘advertising’. Marketing is the overall process of boosting public awareness of a product, person or service, while advertising is a promotion method that falls under the ‘marketing’ umbrella term.
We have written many articles on the benefits of appealing to those who already know and trust you – your clients. This is a superior strategy than to seek work from the world at large. In fact it’s about 6 to 10 times cheaper!
How to leverage off your law firm advertising strategy
Notwithstanding this if your law firm advertising strategy is set and the partners wont change, here is the solution. You should at least leverage off your advertising strategy and employ less expensive marketing strategies, in addition to advertising.
If your firm has committed to putting some well-earned money into paying for Print Media ads, Yellow Pages, Google Ads, PPC or SEO in order to increase your firm’s exposure and attract new clients to your firm, the strategy we suggest here will reduce that cost.
Capture data and communicate with newsletters
Paying for strangers to see your firms advertising strategy may cause the phone to ring and leads produced. (Ask yourself if data is kept on people calling but where no file was opened. It is not good if the answer is no). For those people who contact you and a file is opened that’s great. But what happens after that matter finishes. You have paid for the advertising regardless of how successful it was. What about the people who make contact but take it no further? Are their details kept? What do you do with these details. Nothing? Over time they won’t remember you, no matter how much you convince yourself otherwise.
Therefore it’s smart to leverage off the cost of your law firm advertising strategy by using newsletters. This way you keep in touch with these strangers on a regular and ongoing basis. This also includes people who contacted you but where no file was opened.
The benefit here is that you leverage off the cost of your advertising to remind them about who you are, what you do, what your values are, where you are located and so on. You need to keep in touch and keep your firm at the top of their minds. Once you have a client or potential client’s data you can add them to your email list. You should capture this data from enquiries or from files opened.
Declan Malkeen of communications blog Communicaid sees regular communication with customers as one of the key factors in determining whether a company (or in your case law firm) has longevity. Malkeen proposes that the longevity of companies such as giant IBM is due to good two-way communication with clients. Long living, healthy companies keep clients in the loop and listen to them.
Information to Inbox
Newsletters are a wonderful way to keep clients and potential clients up to date with not only what is happening in your firm, but what other work that you do that they might want. Newsletters should explore relevant issues in the media, information about current and ‘hot topic’ legal matters, all in an easy-to-to read, down to earth manner.
People on your database will appreciate a newsletter emailed to their inbox filled with interesting, thought provoking information. The recipient sees your name in their inbox, so it is seen as a gift from you to them.
According to emailcritic.com, a blog about email marketing, email marketing is complimentary to social media marketing in that you are being sent high quality information that is shareable. Content that is well written and well-presented is an asset to social media marketing, and can be used in conjunction with it.
Boost your SEO
Emailcritic.com also makes the valid point that your SEO receives a free boost every time you upload content, such as an archived newsletter, to your website.
It is common knowledge that a professional website is a draw-card to any business. A good website is inspiring reassurance and looking attractive to a reader’s discerning eye. The reader, it must be remembered, is spoilt for choice. You need your brand to stand out. Having an informative website full of interactive activity is a strong way to achieve this.
Our newsletters boost your brand
Like everything in this day and age, anything that your firm puts out into cyberspace is representative of your ‘brand’. Why not let the professionals deal with the time and effort it takes to put together a brand-suitable, attractive newsletter? Then you can spend your time doing what your clients are paying you for- practising law.
After all, it’s what you do best. And we want to help you tell everyone that. If you need help to improve your marketing and especially in getting more value for your marketing dollar then contact us for an obligation free discussion.
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