Lots of law firms struggle with compiling and maintaining a robust email marketing list, and they really struggle with how to keep adding qualified names to help them build a better list. If you are recognizing yourself as you read this, then the good news is that you can actually build a great list for your firm and it doesn’t need to cost you a dime.

Here are five simple steps you can take to keep growing that important list of people you want to market to:

1. Provide something of value. Take the top 5 or 10 questions that clients ask you most often, write down the answers and turn that content into an e-book or report. Post this on your website and blog and offer it as a free download to people who provide you with their name and email address. The people who take you up on your offer are good prospects since they are clearly interested in the kind of problems you solve. Add their names to your email marketing list to continue the conversation.
2. Tell them what to do. Your e-newsletter, your website and your blog should always contain easy-to-find calls-to-action that invite readers to subscribe, download a free report, make an appointment for a free consultation — anything you’d like them to do that could lead to business for you. All your calls-to-action need to be simple and have the ability to collect email addresses for you.
3. Keep reviewing your offers. If your readers are not responding well to your calls-to-action or offers, then what you are offering is clearly not appealing to them. First be sure that they are easy to understand. If you’re still not getting a good response, change up your offers. You should do this anyway every few months to keep things fresh.
4. Use social media. Using social media to spread the word about your valuable content and offers is a great way to attract more prospects that you might have otherwise missed.   LinkedIn groups are a great way to spread the word, but be sure you’re not being too promotional too often.
5. Pay attention to the analytics. You can gain valuable insight into what people are responding to on your website and in your e-newsletter by scouring the statistics. Google Analytics is a free add-on for your website and blog and provides great information on what pages people are spending time on, and what isn’t working so well. If you use Constant Contact or a similar service for your e-newsletters, these services provide information on how many people opened and read your newsletter and what they clicked on.

By using these five simple steps, you are not just adding names to your list, you are getting truly qualified leads for your marketing efforts.