How To Create A Fantastic Email Newsletter

Have you noticed that more and more cereal brands are featuring nutrition facts front and center on their packaging? It seems like an off-the-wall question, but it may have more to do with attorney marketing to prospective clients than you may think.

Many consumers feel that possessing more information empowers them to make good decisions, which means they may be willing to reach for products that readily provide data and other information. This can apply to the legal field as well. In fact, a legal email newsletter (e-newsletter) that abides by the following guidelines can provide valuable information to current and potential clients, and brand your law firm as the “go to” legal resource in the community.

Write about Specific Topics

It can be tempting to write about broad subjects in order to appeal to most readers, but painting too large a picture can actually work against you. Zero in on a hot topic sure to strike the fancy of a niche audience group, and then run with it. Then, appeal to a different group of readers the next time. This strategy ensures that all readers find relevant content in your legal e-newsletter and that the content remains fresh.

For instance, a firm specializing in bankruptcy and family law could fashion a newsletter geared toward divorcees with children, providing content focused on how to help kids adjust to post-divorce life. In the next edition, the focus could switch to young divorcees in their 20s and the long-term financial effects of divorce.

Create a Riveting Email Subject Line

None of your legal newsletter content strategies matter if prospects don’t open the email in the first place. The first step toward accruing readership is to create email subject lines that catch the recipient’s attention quickly and thoroughly enough that they’re willing to interrupt their day to read your content.

The email marketing service provider MailChimp, which scrutinized the click rates of more than 200 million email campaigns, suggests the following best practices for creating email subject lines.

1. Do include a brief teaser of the email content.
2. Do keep subject lines to 50 characters or less.
3. Do utilize local terms such as city names.
4. Don’t repeat the same subject line for every newsletter email campaign.
5. Don’t use the terms “help,” “percent off,” and “reminder.”
6. Don’t use excessive capitalization, exclamation marks, and clichéd promotional phrases.

Craft an interesting blog article

When it comes to choosing a stimulating topic, keep it simple, engaging, and relevant to your audience. A family and divorce law firm, for example, could feature a main topic titled “5 Inexpensive Outings with the Kids” or “Fun Facts About Independence Day.”

If you’re stumped, just think: what might make readers stop their day for a few minutes when your legal newsletter comes into their inboxes? What kinds of blog and social media posts normally receive the highest level of engagement? Then, write a brief 200- to 300-word post on your chosen topic.

Make the Features Relatable

Nothing screams “don’t bother reading me!” louder than dry legal content. It’s important to be informative, but your legal newsletter doesn’t need to read like a textbook. Make sure your audience can relate to the features on an emotional level as well as an intellectual one; human interest pieces and analyses of current events, Q & A’s, and even short videos can keep things entertaining while remaining educational.

Announce news

Help readers stay connected to your firm. Announce upcoming events, highlight recent news about your practice such as awards or significant cases won, or feature your involvement in the community. It only takes a few minutes to keep recipients in the know about things that your team is doing, which can engage your community.

Share valuable tips and advice

A newsletter shouldn’t focus only on your firm; it should also supply helpful information to recipients in order to be valuable reading material. Even something as simple as giving readers a heads up about a new law that might affect them—and what they can do to respond—can add value to your legal newsletter.

Include feedback and photos from clients

On that same note, an e-newsletter is a great medium to showcase short testimonials or photos from clients. If a happy client sent in a thank you note for fighting for their Social Security disability benefits, for instance, then feel free to share it with the rest of your connections! Just be sure to receive permission to attribute their name to the quotation beforehand.

Don’t forget contact information

In a sidebar or at the end of your legal newsletter, list the contact information for the best person to contact with questions or concerns.

How To Get The Most From Your Newsletter

When it comes to marketing your law firm, your newsletter is likely a core component. After all, it marks the gateway to your sales funnel… it provides you with a means to stay in front of clients and prospects and it is the easiest way to help those clients and prospects learn more about what you do.

It makes sense then, that you’d want that newsletter to be the best it could possibly be. That you’d want to create something that’s actually more than just another marketing piece – that you’d want to create something that allows you to connect with your subscribers, build a rapport and generate a genuine interest in your firm’s services.

The good news is, a newsletter can do all that and more… you just need to think a little bigger.

Your Design Should Engage

As businesses go, law firms tend to be more conservative and traditional than their non-legal counterparts. And rightly so… the law, after all, is serious business. But serious doesn’t necessarily mean boring and contrary to popular opinion, a serious law firm CAN have an eye-catching newsletter.

It doesn’t have to be flashy – that minimalist look you know and love will still do just fine – but it does need to engage your audience. Take advantage of section headings and story titles; use larger, specialty fonts to draw your readers to the different segments of content. Employ a layout that allows you to maximize your space while encouraging your readers to learn more. Use graphics that are professionally created and if your newsletter is digital, consider opting for a responsive layout… remember, 48% of emails are opened on mobile devices, yet only 11% of emails sent are optimized for this format. Make sure your digital newsletters read just as well on a smartphone as they do on a desktop.

Learn to Write Catchy Titles

Creating a good title takes practice – it’s an art form, and definitely one you should master. Titles should make your readers want to learn more. It should entice them to click a link, by giving just enough to pique their interest, yet not so much that they no longer need to actually read the article.

Unlike your design, titles need a little flash and in one way or another, should give your readers a reason to click through or read more. Lists work well for this purpose, i.e., “Top 10 Ways…” or “3 Things You Never Thought…” as do titles that present a solution to an annoying problem – “How To Ensure…” or “How to Stop…” are both good examples.

Offer Something Exclusive

Your newsletter is most certainly a promotional tool, but it should do more than rehash content they can get elsewhere. Link to recent blog posts, promote upcoming seminars or events, but also give your readers something exclusive – a feature article for example, published only in the newsletter. This not only gives new prospects a reason to subscribe, it also gives existing readers something to look forward to.

Give Your Content Some Personality

While your newsletter should definitely cover topics related to your practice area, it should also help build your rapport with your readers… and this requires some personality. Include some more personal features in each issue – a note from you for example, a story or experience that you consider a defining moment or even pictures from your latest office party.

The more personal the newsletter, the more intimate the read and the more your readers begin to feel like they really “know” you.

4 Tips for Your Legal Newsletter: Preventing Email Opt-Outs

Email opt-outs result from a variety of factors, not the least of which is recipient disengagement. When readers don’t connect with you, your brand, and/or your content, they are much more likely to unsubscribe from emails due to a lack of engagement. With these tips for preventing opt-outs, your firm can build a solid subscriber list for your legal newsletters and general marketing emails.

Tip #1: Gather better quality recipients from the get-go

A quality email list full of engaged recipients starts from step one: gathering email addresses from people who are genuinely interested in your brand in the first place. Of course, the number of recipients on your email list matters, but it’s always better to have a smaller list of recipients who open your emails, read your legal newsletters, and respond to calls to action (by contacting your firm, participating in marketing surveys, sharing blog content, providing referrals, etc.) than a much larger list of low-quality leads.
Ensure that you’re building a quality list from the get-go by reaching out to the right people, including:

• Website visitors
• Past clients
• Referrals
• Connections from networking events and in-person marketing events 

Tip #2: Pay attention to formatting

If poor formatting makes reading or navigating your legal newsletters difficult on desktop, phone, or tablet, most readers won’t hesitate to opt-out of receiving them. Quality check by sending test emails to ensure that links work, images are properly sized, and the overall design looks pleasant and cohesive.

Download our free guide and learn about the importance of key performance indicators (KPIs)

Tip #3: Don’t just sell

Strike a balance between pitching and simply providing free advice and information in order to deliver valuable emails. For example, a bankruptcy firm could include a newsletter article describing 10 ways to stop accruing debt, and then follow that information with a gentle call to action: “Bankruptcy may be the best solution to address your debt. Find out your options by calling our knowledgeable attorneys at 1-888-888-8888 now.”
Additionally, another way to ensure value is to portion your list so you’re not sending the same content to everyone. A personal injury firm, for instance, could separate their list into those interested in on-the-job injuries and those who would prefer information about off-the-job injuries. That way, recipients receive content that is relevant to them, such as Worker’s Compensation information for the former category and medical malpractice content for the latter list, and have more reason to value your firm’s emails and legal newsletters.

Tip #4: Communicate just often enough

Make a game plan for keeping in touch with different categories of contacts. Your warmest contacts, for example, may appreciate receiving emails relatively often from you—maybe a message every two weeks. More than once a month for cold recipients is probably overdoing it and could lead to lower subscription rates.

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