Build a Strong Foundation for Your Law Firm Marketing Efforts with these Proven List Building Techniques
We’ve talked in previous blogs about the need to build trust with potential clients by first building a relationship with them.
There several law firm marketing mediums you can use to build those relationships.
Some like Twitter, are designed to create a two-way dialogue so you can engage your potential client base in online conversations that help you understand their needs better. Others, like legal blogs, help present you as an expert.
Each plays a role in your law firm marketing strategy.
But when it comes to reaching out to potential clients on an ongoing basis, few can match the success rate of newsletters.
However, before you can engage clients through law firm marketing newsletters, you must first be able to find them.
That brings us to one of the foundational tools of law firm marketing – list building.
There are list services such as iContact and TouchSource from whom you can purchase names, e-mail addresses and home addresses that match your demographic
However, I do not recommend them for law firm marketing.
Because the client’s choice in legal council rests so much on trust, my opinion is that contacting clients without their permission is suspect.
However, there are many proven ways to build law firm marketing lists, without purchasing names from a service. Below are some of the best.
· Insert a newsletter sign up form on your most highly trafficked pages of your web site. Include a brief summary of the benefits of receiving no-cost, ongoing legal information they can use.
· When you speak publically, 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. They also see you as an expert, whose legal council they could benefit by.
· 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.
In addition to using these proven ways to build your law firm marketing lists, be sure to make it visible and easy for recipients of your newsletter to unsubscribe. It does you no good to contact someone regularly, who does not want your information.
On the other hand, making it clear they may cancel at any time sends the message that you care about them and they can trust you.
Include these list-building tactics in your law firm marketing strategy, and you will be well on your way to building a solid, highly responsive list of clients.
