If you are not currently using email marketing to get more personal injury leads, then you are leaving money on the table. Email marketing offers one of the best returns on investment (ROIs) for any digital marketing strategy with $42 for every $1 spent. Research suggests that recipients are amenable to receiving emails from their lawyers with the legal industry experiencing 22% open rates which is above the average across all industries.
Email marketing for personal injury law firms is also more cost effective than other forms of advertising and is a powerful way to keep your firm at the forefront of the minds of both former and current clients as well as those of personal injury leads. In this article, we will explore several common types of email marketing campaigns for personal injury law firms, how to set up and manage your email list, and how to choose the best email service provider for your firm.
Common Types of Email Marketing Campaigns For Personal Injury Law Firms
There are many different forms of email marketing campaigns that your firm can use effectively. The following two examples are in no way meant to be an exhaustive list. Rather, these are some ideas for campaigns that you can start using today to get more personal injury leads.
Newsletters
Newsletters are probably the most common form of email marketing for personal injury law firms. A weekly, monthly, or even quarterly newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with former and current clients. You can update them on exciting news, such as a recent verdict or a new hire, or provide more practical information like important rule changes.
But newsletters are not the best form of email marketing for generating and converting more personal injury leads. For that, you will want to use drip campaigns.
Drip Campaigns
Drip emails are a form of automated campaigns that are designed to nurture legal leads. The drip sequence starts when the lead performs a predefined action. For example, you could direct prospective clients to a landing page that features an email signup for a free ebook, such as an ebook that covers the auto insurance claims process. Once the lead has entered her email, you can send an automated email that includes the link to the ebook.
From there, you can send an automated series of emails to follow up and urge the potential client to take action. For instance, several days after the lead downloaded the ebook you could send an email that covers another aspect of claims process. A few days after that, another email focusing on the car accident settlement process could follow. And a final email several days later could encourage the prospective client to schedule an appointment.
Setting Up and Managing Your Email List
Email lists will vary depending on the recipients and type of campaign that you are running. For example, you would only send a drip campaign to auto accident leads and not current and former clients. When sending a monthly newsletter your recipients will include current and former clients and possibly prospective clients depending on the subject matter.
Some personal injury attorneys make the mistake of omitting former clients from their email lists. Former clients are important for several reasons. First, they have worked with you in the past and you have earned their trust. Maintaining contact is an excellent way to keep your firm at the forefront of their minds should they require representation in the future or know someone that does. Second, many personal injury lawyers have multiple practice areas. Increasing awareness of the full scope of your services can help you earn more business.
Other email recipients can include lawyers and professionals such as chiropractors and physical therapists. Where you have several different groups of recipients it will be necessary to segment your email lists. Segmentation can be complex depending on the size of your existing list. For a relatively small firm segmentation can be as simple as sorting contacts and placing them on the correct lists.
For a large firm that has not been importing contacts into a database it can be difficult to sort out. The simplest method is often to send a mass email to current and former contacts from your email service provider asking them to opt-in. Not everyone will sign up, but this is a good way to ensure that you are sending relevant emails to willing recipients.
Choosing an Email Service Provider for Your Firm
An email service provider (ESP) is essentially a company that makes it easy to put together and manage email lists and send emails to your lists. Additional features that many ESPs offer can include low-code design tools, dynamic content, marketing automation, lead capture forms, and A/B testing. When choosing an ESP, you should determine what features are important and weigh factors such as costs, deliverability rates, uptime, customer support options, and security.
Most ESPs offer monthly pricing. Pricing is typically on a sliding scale depending on how many email subscribers that you have. For example, for a standard Mailchimp plan with 5,000 contacts the cost is $79.99 per month. When your list size grows to 20,000 contacts, however, the cost increases to $200 per month.
Email deliverability can make or break an email marketing campaign. If the intended recipients are not receiving your emails, it will be hard to realize returns. According to tests performed by EmailToolTester, the industry average for deliverability is 88.9%. MailerLite and Sendinblue led the pack with 96.9% and 96.3% deliverability rates, respectively. While the second most popular ESP in the world, Mailchimp, experienced just 86.9% deliverability in March of 2021.
Email marketing is a great way to market to former and current clients, keep them informed of important developments, and maintain strong relationships to drive repeat business. Email marketing is also a highly effective method for generating and converting more personal injury leads. If you are new to email marketing, start small, learn from your early mistakes, and build upon your success.