Best Practices to Boost Law Firm Newsletter Engagement

It is an art and a science when it comes to boosting your law firm newsletter engagement.  Newsletters are a fundamental part of your law firm’s marketing strategy but your firm’s newsletter isn’t the Field of Dreams. It’s not a case of “if you build it, they will come.” It takes careful consideration and strategy to draw consistent and engaged readership. In this blog article, we delve into the 7 best practices you can implement to effectively boost your law firm newsletter engagement.

Measuring Law Firm Newsletter Engagement:

The most efficient way to quantify your law firm’s newsletter engagement is to calculate the open rate. (Open rate is the percentage of emails opened compared to sent). It is not only important to consistently analyze open rate, but also to understand what the industry standard is for the legal segment in particular. Your own statistics do not mean much unless they help provide context for your vertical as a whole. According to the Content Marketing Institute, the legal segment enjoys a higher open rate than other types of business, at around 30%.

7 Tips to Boost Law Firm Newsletter Engagement:

1. Use a “from” field that resonates. Impersonal marketing messages are a turn off for most people. Ideally, the email sender is someone that the receiver is likely to recognize – such as one of your attorneys that they may have met at an event, or even a specific lawyer that is mentioned on your website. Whatever you do, make sure the email provider isn’t something like “no-reply@yourcompany.com”. 

2. Segment lists for better targeting. To be effective, your newsletter doesn’t need to go to all of your subscribers. When possible, customize your newsletter to different segments of your email list and deliver content that is relevant to them. Over time, readers will come to expect the valuable content you’re sending – and open your newsletter whenever it lands in their inbox!

3. Focus on the subject line. Your subject line is really the “make or break” element of any email correspondence. It’s what will decide if your newsletter gets opened at all. Enticing curiosity and interest is crucial. There are a lot of tools out there that can help legal marketers optimize their subject lines – some of them free, such as Subjectline.com or CoSchedule. Smart things to include in your subject line are commands (“open today”), questions, or numbers and statistics. 

4. Ensure receivers want the email in the first place. You really want to avoid the spam folder. In today’s era of Google’s “promotion” folder, it’s easy for receivers to filter out any email they don’t want. Getting sent to spam too often is going to ding your deliverability score. Some simple strategies to reduce heading into the trash folder are to use a double opt-in, ask recipients to add you to their contacts, and constantly update your list to make sure it’s clean and accurate. 

5. Make sure to plan for mobile. Did you know that mobile devices are used to check email more often than desktops or tablets? What was once nice-to-have (having email optimized for mobile) is now a must-do. If an email doesn’t display correctly, it’s likely to be quickly deleted. To ensure mobile compatibility, keep formatting simple with a single column and simple colors. Make sure to test your emails on several devices to ensure fast loading times and proper displays. 

6. Be consistent with your communication times. Once your recipients have determined that the content you send is interesting and helpful to them, they’re going to be happy to see it in their inbox. Make sure that content is there when they’ve come to expect it to be. Determine the best day and time to send your newsletter and stick to that. There are plenty of ways to test email effectiveness to determine which email time is best for your firm. 

7. Avoid email fatigue. As soon as your subscribers don’t find the newsletter relevant, they are going to hit “delete.” It’s essential that each and every newsletter you release gives the reader a new chance to engage. Especially during times of the year where inboxes are likely to get cluttered, offer items of extra value. Always give unsubscribers a chance to stay opted-in, with a simple message like “We’re really sorry to see you go.”

Takeaway

Newsletters are one of the best ways for law firms to keep in touch and remain top of mind with clients and prospects. At the most basic level, having a thorough understanding of your email recipients and what is interesting to them is what will keep your newsletter engagement trending upward. For some simple exercises that will help you understand your client personas better, check out our past post: 15 Questions Law Firm’s Can Use to Build Their Client Personas.