Despite all our focus on social media, email marketing still remains the #1 way to reach clients and prospects with a branded message. According to the latest Pew Internet & American Life Project Report, email remains the top use of the Internet across all age groups.

Building a Targeted Mailing List

Developing a robust marketing email list should be at the core of your law firm marketing effort to build credible, long-lasting, relationships with your clients.

Whether you’re in the beginning stages of building your law firm marketing prospect list or the mid-to-late stages in which you’re seeing clients from that list choose you again and again, the key is to build, cultivate and vet the list on an ongoing basis.

Here are some proven ways to build a great law firm marketing list:

Insert a newsletter sign-up form on each page of your website and on your blog, including a brief summary of the benefits of receiving no-cost, ongoing legal information they can use.

When you have a speaking engagement, provide a sign-up sheet for your “complimentary” newsletter. This technique has a very high response rate because the audience is already interested in your area of the law.

Partner with other professionals who serve a client base similar to yours. For example, if your area of practice is estate planning, financial planners or brokerage houses might have a target client similar to yours.  Once you locate these “list partners”, you can insert your offer for a free trial newsletter into their outgoing communications to that client base (and they can do the same with yours).  In that way, you are getting permission from the recipient prior to sending your law firm marketing newsletter – which is much more effective than purchasing a list.

The overall goal of your list is to cultivate relationships that move the prospect to become a client.

The Value of Unsubscribe

The value of “unsubscribe” -- allowing prospects on your law firm marketing distribution list to leave your list at any time and for any reason they like – is that it helps you reach your goal of creating a highly motivated core list of clients and prospects more quickly.

Of course, there are many law firm marketing planners who believe that openly allowing prospects to leave their list only encourages them to do so.

And that may be true.

The question is – why would you want to keep sending free legal information to an individual who doesn’t want it, won’t use it and isn’t interested in your services?

On the other hand, if by allowing those individuals to leave your list, you are actually increasing the health of your list.

You are refining it into a tighter, healthier, more highly focused, highly motivate group of individuals who are interested in what you have to say and the services you have to offer.

So, don’t hide the “unsubscribe” option in fine print at the bottom of your newsletters or bury it in text in your e-mail tips or create a long, convoluted process for them to remove their name.

Display the “unsubscribe” option prominently along with a succinct message that spells out what they will be missing – insightful answers to their most pressing legal questions at no cost.