Archive for the ‘Email Marketing Campaigns’ Category
Good Content is Key
People surf the web for information about anything and everything. Whether a person wants to find a product to buy or find a professional or company to help them with a matter, the internet is where everything can be found.
For every business, getting yourself on the internet is the easy part. How well your content is written and optimized and how well your site ranks on various search engine lists is what separates well-marketed businesses from those who simply just “exist” on the web and are hardly visited.
The content on websites is the most important aspect of a good marketing plan for any business and it’s what immediately draws viewers and consumers to continue exploring that company’s site.
Particularly in the legal market, developing good content is extremely important.
The best thing a law firm can do on its website is first outline exactly what services the attorneys provide. Instead of including a bunch of legal jargon and terminology, it’s essential that lawyers also post content that will appeal to anyone and everyone. Not only should everything be grammatically correct, spot-checked and edited, but the vocabulary and terms used should be easy for anyone to understand. If you’re a lawyer explaining various aspects of criminal law, for instance, make sure to define all terms that everyday people (and non-criminals) may not be familiar with.
Nothing looks more unprofessional than sloppy, unorganized and poorly written content on a website.
If a woman’s looking for a divorce lawyer and the law firm’s website is unclear with grammar mistakes interwoven throughout, she’s going to move on to the next family law attorney. People don’t want to take the time to translate your content. It should be informational, straightforward, organized and well-written.
Once you have a steady stream of good content posted throughout your site, make sure to keep it updated. Especially if you offer “legal news” or “newsletters” pages, it’s important to always keep it up-to-date and fresh.
Online Legal Leads – How to Keep Them
Part 2
In last week’s article, I wrote about what your online leads are looking for when they get to your legal website. Trusted information from a reliable source, consistency, and value will get you to keep them coming back for more information. I also wrote about using an email program such as Constant Contact or Outlook to correspond with the e-customers.
What kind of information should you provide? Of course, this depends on your area of practice. For example, these items could be summarized in a short email:
• A new law or an upcoming one;
• An update to a celebrated legal case;
• Tax planning tips;
• Benefits of a will and advanced directive;
• How the economy is affecting your area;
• Upcoming seminars;
• Holiday driver safety tips; and
• Statistics.
A good rule of thumb is to pretend you are the e-customer. What information would you want to read about? Bragging about a recent settlement you achieved, or the benefits of working only with your company, may just turn people off. You run the risk of an e-customer unsubscribing to your email letter campaign. If that should happen, it is acceptable to send them a short note acknowledging the unsubscribing and asking them if they wouldn’t mind telling you why. Some people may respond back that they no longer need the service or information you are providing, and some may say that your emails were getting annoying. If that happens, immediately reassess your campaign and put yourself back in the reader’s seat. A few unsubscribe are normal but if you see a large number, then your campaign needs some serious help.
If you find a campaign letter that people respond favorably to, go with it. Post it as an article on your website, or submit it to an online legal website. Make sure the content is your own, as well as any of the graphics that you use in the article. Some programs provide graphics to be used within the program. You can also download free graphics on the internet, or subscribe to a site that allows you to download graphics for a small monthly amount.
In any event, every six months or so read all your campaign letters and evaluate which direction you want to take your customers. Ask for what they want, ask them to pass you on to friends and family members, and then sit back and watch your database grow.
Managing your Law Firm Web Contacts for Legal Marketing
What do I do with my web contacts?
Part I – How to Keep a Lead
Every legal website should have a web form where a viewer can submit information such as name, address, email address, phone number, and a question or request for the site owner. How can you separate the window shoppers from future clients? The answer is to give them what they want – trusted information.
I have met many clients who utilize a contact web form for online leads, but they don’t know what to do with the lead after they get it. When the customer fills out the form, someone should follow-up on the request by either a phone call if the number is valid, or an email. Let’s say for argument’s sake the phone number is invalid but the email address is not. Does that mean it’s a dead lead? No, it does not mean it’s a dead lead. It just means the user felt obligated to fill something in the field but doesn’t want you to call him or her.
You should take your leads, as well as other client email addresses, and sort them into a database. Some firms use Outlook, or the popular program Constant Contact. With the Constant Contact program, you can see who is reading your campaign letters or newsletters, who considers you spam, who has unsubscribed, and who has forwarded you to a friend. The program is very inexpensive and has a free trial. It doesn’t take you long to get up and running, and the choices of newsletter and graphic designs are quite extensive.
If you provide quality information without a sales pitch, the client will remain with you for quite some time. Your law firm becomes a trusted authority for legal advice and questions. When it is time for them to call an attorney, you should be the first person they think of. This eliminates the competition you may encounter when clients meet with more than one law firm for that free initial consultation.
Email Marketing Benefits
Benefits of Email Marketing
There are so many benefits to email marketing, and it’s cost-effective, too. Marketers find the method particularly useful from an analytic standpoint, because newsletters can be structured to allow the marketer to identify which sections were most read, which links were most clicked, who actually received the message, who actually opened the message, and more.
Your newsletter subscription form on your website will allow you to collect much more detailed demographic information about truly-interested leads, to enable more targeted marketing in the future and better analysis of current leads. Contrast this to a log of website clicks that is only able to provide limited information about the people visiting your site.
Email marketing materials are also very easily forwarded along to other potential leads, making it a great way to pick up new clients to add to your existing database. If you provide truly useful information, advice, and other incentives in your newsletter, your clients will want to pass that on to their friends, family, and colleagues.
Better, Faster Communications
Newsletters and other email efforts can be produced faster than traditional printed materials that can often be quickly disregarded as junk mail. If a client is subscribed to your newsletter, for example, your firm’s address will likely be white listed by their email account – this means it will be allowed through a firewall or spam filter, ensuring they receive the message.