People do business with people they know, like and trust. If you’ve got a good friend who’s a dentist, chances are pretty good that you’re going to call that friend when your tooth hurts. Lawyers get hired the same way.
In the absence of direct experience with a lawyer, clients are left to their own devices. Recommendations from friends and colleagues about lawyers come into play, but it’s not really enough to move the needle.
To be truly confident, consumers want independent proof that their chosen lawyers are smart, experienced, and are trustworthy.
For lots of people, finding a website is the first and only exposure they’re going to have with a particular lawyer. Consumer looks for information, checks out a bunch of lawyers, scribbles down some phone numbers and then starts dialing until a hiring decision is made.
The shame of it is that someone could come to your website and never return.
When that happens, there’s no way for you to get the prospective client to know, like or trust you.
You’re a flash in the pan.
But when you’re one of those select lawyers using email marketing, the game is changed. Someone comes to your law firm website or blog, enters their email address in return for something of value (a newsletter, a downloadable ebook, a special report, or something similar). Now, two things happen:
- you become seen as a benevolent stranger, providing needed information in exchange for no monetary value; and
- you obtain permission to continue sending similarly-themed important information to the prospective client by email.
Here are my five reasons to use email marketing in connection with marketing your law firm.
Permission Granted. When someone signs up for your list, you’ve got the opportunity to get the recipient to know, like and trust you without ever having to vist your site again. Your search engine optimization, social media promotion efforts, even your offline ads become markedly less important.
Relationship Building. As a means of marketing your law firm, email provides the unique ability to build a relationship with a prospective client in the absence of any affirmative action on their part. You can begin a conversation with your hottest prospects in a non-threatening manner.
You’re The Only Lawyer In Town. When you provide your prospective clients with information relevant to their situations in language they understand, over time you become the de factor expert in the field. Any hiring decision is going to lead that person to your door because there are simply no other lawyers out there.
Effectiveness Is Off The Charts. Email marketing is much cheaper, more measurable and can be better targeted than traditional direct marketing. If you know someone has come to your website and downloaded your checklist on what to do when a bill collector calls, you’re reasonable sure there’s a problem concerning overdue debts.
Leverage For Other Law Firm Marketing Efforts. Data you get from your email marketing can help you improve the effectiveness of your other online marketing activities. If 20,000 people download your report but nobody hires you, there’s a good chance you’re missing the mark and need to revisit your strategies and possible the internal processes in your office to lift that retention ratio.
Have you done any successful email marketing for your firm?
Image credit: djwaldow/Flickr
