However, its effectiveness often comes into question due to common mistakes that can make it seem like a waste of time and resources.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the top three email marketing mistakes that law firms often make – mistakes that could be costing you thousands in potential business.

By identifying and avoiding these pitfalls, you can refine your email marketing strategy, strengthen your relationships with your audience, and ultimately grow your law firm.

But before we dive into these three mistakes, let’s first highlight why email marketing is so crucial for law firms:

• Targeted Messaging – By breaking your list into categories like current clients and prospective clients you can deliver tailored messages to each, ensuring a tailored message is received.
• Brand Awareness – The likelihood of a person needing an attorney the moment you send your email out might be small, but the likelihood that they will need an attorney in the future is high. By creating frequent conversations, people will be likely to remember your firm first when the time comes to call.
• Brand Advocacy – Expanding on brand awareness, if a person is familiar with and trusts your firm, they are likely to recommend you to friends and family in need as well.
• Audience Size – Everyone has an email account. The opportunity to continuously grow your list is endless.
• Relationship Building – If someone subscribes to your newsletter, that means they WANT to hear from you! Educational content, legal updates, and thought leadership pieces are all effective tools that can be delivered via email. This consistent communication builds trust and reinforces a law firm’s expertise with an engaged audience.
• Cost Effective – Email marketing offers a budget-friendly way to connect with your audience directly. It’s cheaper than many other digital marketing methods. With automation tools, you can reach more people without spending more.
• Advertising – Email lists can be utilized in paid advertising not only to remarket and serve your email list ads, but also to create lookalike audiences. A lookalike audience is a group of people who share similar characteristics, behaviors, or interests to your existing audience or customer base.

Building a consistent email newsletter that reaches your clients and prospective clients will strengthen their confidence in your law firm. Legal matters are often sensitive, and potential clients naturally seek law firms they can trust.

To establish this trust, it’s imperative to consistently deliver helpful content that highlights your firm’s expertise while directly addressing specific legal concerns and challenges faced by prospective clients.

Elevate Your Law Firm’s Email Strategy: Overcoming 3 Major Mistakes

Below find the 3 most common mistakes law firms make when it comes to email marketing!

Email Marketing Mistakes – 1

Using Non-Permissioned Lists

Many law firms have hundreds of email addresses that they have collected over time. These might be past clients, potential leads, or contacts from events.

However, a crucial element is often missing: permission.

In most cases, the law firm never obtained explicit consent to email the contacts. Sending emails to people who have not opted-in is a double-edged sword. It is ineffective at best and potentially illegal depending on anti-spam regulations. And the worst offense of all – it annoys recipients.

Law firms that want to kickstart their email marketing should focus on building a permission-based list. This means people need to actively sign up to receive emails. This will ensure that recipients are receiving content they want to see and increase the likelihood of the potential benefits listed above.

Email Marketing Mistakes – 2

Too promotional

Let’s face it…sometimes legal topics aren’t always the most engaging or exciting. Yet, many law firms send emails solely focused on their services and sales pitches.

While promoting the law firm’s services is the goal, it shouldn’t be the only focus of your email marketing campaign. Instead, mix things up with helpful content that builds trust and positions your firm as an expert resource.

This could include:

• Updates on recent law changes relevant to your practice areas
• Insights into legal issues your clients might face
• News about your firm’s activities and involvement in the local community

By providing valuable information, you nurture relationships and establish your firm’s credibility, leading to better engagement and more qualified leads.

Email Marketing Mistakes – Number 3

Inconsistent cadence

Consistency is key!

Imagine a friend who texts you sporadically and then disappears for months. That’s what inconsistent email marketing feels like. If a law firm can’t maintain a regular email schedule, whether weekly or monthly, it’s best to re-think email marketing altogether.

Sporadic emails with long stretches of silence lead to disengaged subscribers who might unsubscribe.

Law firms should develop a realistic email schedule that they can maintain and stick to.

Consultwebs Knows Email Marketing – Let Us Help!

Email marketing is easy to implement, but difficult to perfect. And to get results, perfection is required. Consultwebs can help build email marketing lists, set up your campaign, and refine and perfect it over time.

Avoid these email marketing mistakes and more by partnering with the experts at Consultwebs. Book a one-on-one consultation with us today to discuss a custom email marketing strategy for your law firm.

The post The Top 3 Email Marketing Mistakes Attorneys Make appeared first on Consultwebs.

To outsource or not to outsource, that is the modern-day Shakespearean dilemma many law firms face when strategizing their marketing efforts. The answer is, unfortunately, not a clear-cut one, and the best choice will differ for every law firm, depending on factors such as size, budget, and specific marketing objectives.

In this blog post, we delve into the key considerations and advantages of both options, providing you with a comprehensive guide to help you understand the differences between building an in-house marketing team and working with an external legal marketing agency. With this knowledge in hand, you will be better equipped to make an informed decision that aligns with your firm’s unique goals.

In-House Marketing Teams

An in-house marketing team consists of employees hired by your law firm to handle all aspects of your marketing strategy. Bringing your marketing team in-house, or ‘in-housing,’ involves developing a team to spearhead marketing facets such as content creation, social media management, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Pros:

• Internal communication: In-house marketing teams benefit from direct, fast communication with other departments. Have a question about a marketing strategy? Your team member’s desk is likely only a couple of steps away.
• Brand familiarity: In-house teams have a deep understanding of your law firm’s brand identity, allowing them to create marketing materials that align with your firm’s image and message.
• The highest degree of control: With an in-house team, you have more direct control over the marketing process and can easily make changes to strategies and priorities as needed.

Cons: 

• Limited expertise: Especially if your marketing team is small, there’s a limit to what your team can accomplish. In-house teams may lack the diverse skill sets and specialized knowledge that a marketing agency can provide, potentially limiting the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
• Scalability challenges: Expanding an in-house team can be time-consuming and costly, making it difficult to adapt quickly to changing market conditions or increased demand.
• High Cost: Building an in-house marketing team can become very expensive, very quickly. It requires hiring and training new staff as well as providing them with salaries, insurance, retirement benefits, and office space. Even with an average, three-person large marketing team, these expenses can easily reach and exceed $200,000 in yearly expenses.

Marketing Agencies

A legal marketing agency is an external company that specializes in providing marketing services specifically tailored to the unique needs of law firms. They possess a team of experts with extensive experience in various digital marketing areas.

Pros: 

• Industry Expertise: Law firm marketing professionals like us have decades of industry experience in the legal field that’s difficult for an in-house team to compete with. This expertise allows us to stay current with the latest trends and create tailored marketing strategies compatible with your firm’s practice areas and location.
• Large, diverse teams: If you’re looking to get the most out of your marketing investment, the reality is that it will take a village. Luckily, manpower is not a problem for marketing agencies. They often have multidisciplinary teams of specialists who can handle various aspects of your law firm’s marketing efforts, including:
  • SEO
  • Content creation
  • OTT advertising
  • Social media management
  • Web design
  • Email marketing
  • And more
• Cost-effective: Marketing agencies allow you to vary your investment based on your budgetary constraints for the year, as opposed to in-house marketing teams that require a constant, year-over-year investment. This flexible, ‘pay as much as you want’ approach proves to be much more affordable over time.
• Access to advanced tools: Legal marketing agencies have access to cutting-edge marketing tools and technology. By hiring an agency, you don’t have to worry about investing in licenses to use these tools – they come with the package. LawEval, for instance, is an advanced analytics platform that Consultwebs uses to optimize our clients’ marketing campaigns.
• Time-saving: Outsourcing your marketing to an agency frees up your law firm’s time, allowing you to focus on your core business activities and client relationships.

Cons: 

• Less control: Outsourcing your marketing efforts may sometimes result in less direct control over strategy and execution. That said, a good legal marketing agency will take the time to get to know your firm and ensure that their and your firm’s goals are in alignment with each other.
• Limited familiarity: An external agency may not be as familiar with your firm’s culture, values, and objectives. This might require bringing them up to speed on what’s important to you and your firm.
• Slower communication: Sometimes, working with an external agency may involve longer response times and delays in communication. However, the most effective agencies combat this stereotype in two ways:
  • Open communication channels: Top-notch legal marketing agencies prioritize client communication and maintain open lines of communication, ensuring that clients are kept in the loop and can reach out to their team whenever necessary.
  • Transparent access to data: Consultwebs believes in transparency and empowers its clients by providing them with access to resources like LawEval. This platform allows clients to check their marketing data and analytics anytime they wish, ensuring that they can independently monitor the progress and success of their marketing efforts.

The Consultwebs Approach to Marketing

If you choose to go the marketing agency route, why should you choose Consultwebs?

There are many reasons (which we’d be happy to discuss if you wanted to hop on a phone call with one of our industry experts), but most importantly, we know and understand the legal industry. Where other marketing firms need to educate themselves about industries that might be foreign to them, Consultwebs exclusively specializes in legal marketing. With 23 years of experience in the business, we’ve had the opportunity to customize and refine our marketing approach specifically for the legal industry.

Takeaways

Which option is right for you?

Although we personally are biased towards the benefits of hiring a legal marketing agency, the ultimate decision will depend on your law firm’s specific desires and goals. If you’re still on the fence, try talking it through during a free consultation with one of our marketing professionals.

We ultimately want you to make the decision that’s best for your law firm, and we’re more than happy to provide guidance and answer any questions you may have to help you make an informed choice.

The post In-House vs. Agency: Choosing Your Law Firm’s Marketing Solution appeared first on Consultwebs.

We reviewed the most important legal marketing statistics so you didn’t have to. You’re welcome.

Each year, numerous reports are released that provide insights into the state of legal marketing. While these reports are chock-full of statistics, not all of them are equally useful. We understand that it can be easy to get lost in a sea of percentages in articles filled with tens or even hundreds of statistics.

Not to worry; we did the research for you. This article will cut through the noise and discuss seven of the most compelling legal marketing statistics from the latest reports.

42% of the time, law firms take three or more days to reply to a voicemail or web-generated form from a prospective client.

What it means: This is one of the most astonishing statistics and easiest fixes for law firms to implement on this list. The solution is simple: prioritize responding to clients.

Time is money. Especially in the present economy, funds are tight, and every lead is a potential source of revenue for the firm. Don’t let an inefficient intake process be the reason your clients go elsewhere. Streamline your intake process by designating a support staff member to respond to voicemail and web-generated forms at least once a day.

Only 57% of attorneys surveyed said their firm had an annual marketing budget.

What it means: So, if only 57% of law firms have an annual marketing budget, how do the other 43% approach getting the word out about their services? The answer, sadly, is a random, sporadic blog and social media posts. Such attempts are (at least most of the time) infrequent and unoptimized for SEO, which spells disaster for growing your law firm’s revenue.

Don’t leave your marketing to chance – even the best product in the world won’t matter if nobody knows about it. Nobody wants to be known as the best-kept secret, right? Investing in a strategic marketing plan can make all the difference in attracting clients.

87% of law firms surveyed said that their firm has a website.

What it means: Frankly, we’re a bit surprised this number isn’t higher. In today’s digital age, Google is often the primary way that potential clients discover law firms (see the statistic below). Without a website, your law firm could be missing out on a significant amount of potential business.

Pro Tip: If you’re not experienced in web design, it’s best to hire a professional for your law firm’s website. By outsourcing your web design needs, you can focus on what you do best – practicing law – while leaving the technical aspects of website design to the experts.

Only 14% of attorneys surveyed said that their law firm’s website offered the ability to schedule a consultation.

What it means: The name of the legal intake game is simplifying the consultation process for new clients as much as possible. You have a limited window of time to capture clients’ attention and sell them your services. Assuming you can even get this far, it becomes critical to pin down a time to speak before they lose interest.

From a dead phone to being in a loud social setting, there are a number of reasons why a client would prefer to schedule a consultation online rather than over the phone. It’s therefore up to your firm to give clients this option.

A whopping 83% of legal firms hire external marketing firms to do their marketing work

What it means: With over 2000 billable hours requirement minimums, attorneys likely don’t have the time to dedicate to marketing efforts. On top of that, marketing isn’t a billable activity, so it can be tough to justify taking time away from client work. That’s why many law firms choose to outsource their marketing efforts to external agencies – it’s a smart way to ensure their marketing is done right, without sacrificing valuable time.

If you’re part of the 17% that choose not to work with external agencies, you’re essentially competing against firms that have teams of people dedicating over 100 hours per month to marketing efforts. These numbers can be daunting and can leave you competitively disadvantaged if you try to muscle your way through the road less traveled.

Only 31% of respondents said their firms produce video as a marketing tool.

What it means: Considering the power of video content to engage and connect with potential clients, we think this statistic can improve substantially! With so much untapped potential, video can be a fantastic way to showcase your firm’s expertise, personality, and unique selling points. Not only that, but it’s a great way to build trust with potential clients before they even meet you in person.

For 85% of potential clients, Google is the preferred research tool for finding a lawyer.

What it means: That’s right, 85% of clients are out there Googling away, searching for the perfect match. But if your law firm isn’t showing up on the first page of search results, chances are they’ll never even know you exist. That’s why Search engine optimization (SEO) services are so important for law firms – it’s the key to unlocking a world of potential clients who are just waiting to find you.

Takeaway

While it’s easy to get lost in a sea of percentages and statistics, it’s important to focus on the key points of these reports. From the importance of having a website and optimizing your SEO strategy to streamlining your intake process and embracing video content, there are many ways to attract and retain clients through effective marketing tactics.

If you’re just starting out on your legal marketing journey, be sure to check out our blog post “The Attorney’s Beginner Guide to Marketing Your Law Firm“ for more tips and tricks. Remember, the key to standing out from the competition and reaching more clients is investing in a strategic marketing plan that aligns with your unique goals and strengths.

The post The Seven Legal Marketing Stats You Need to Know appeared first on Consultwebs.