Management matters: The power of newsletters – why, how to create one for your firm

Danielle DavisRoe, Esq., is a senior consultant at Affinity Consulting Group LLC.

Newsletters can be powerful marketing tools for law firms. By consistently offering valuable insights, newsletters can establish lawyers’ expertise, foster trust, and generate leads. 

Why send newsletters 

With billable work to do, networking events to attend, and bills to send, adding another task may seem unrealistic. But lawyers who want to stay engaged with clients and establish expertise with potential clients can reap the long-term benefits of a newsletter. 

Unless you represent businesses in ongoing matters, each client relationship naturally ends when its matter is resolved. Will that client call you the next time they need a lawyer? That depends on a lot of factors — but if they’ve been regularly receiving helpful newsletters from you, the chances are much higher. 

In areas of law where people don’t hire lawyers in emergencies, receiving regular newsletters from you can tip the scales in your favor. Newsletters put their need for a lawyer and your expertise at the forefront of their minds on a regular basis. 

What to put in a newsletter

A newsletter has four key parts: 

1. body,

2. “call to action,” 

3. subject line, and 

4. preview text. 

Body 

Start with the body of the newsletter. The body should contain useful information that calls the reader to act on it. 

– Is there a recent change to the law that might affect your readers? Give them insight into the change and what they need to do about it. 

– Do you have a tip on how to handle a legal issue? Offer practical suggestions. 

– Do clients ask you the same questions repeatedly? Address some frequently asked questions. 

– Have you hired a new associate, promoted someone to partner, added a new practice area, or started offering flatfee billing? An email newsletter is the perfect opportunity to share the news.

Call to action 

Every newsletter should end with a “call to action.” Now that your reader has read the newsletter, what do you want them to do? 

– Click on a link to finish reading the article on your website? 

– Contact you to update their estate plan? 

– Send you their updated contact information? 

Your call to action will likely to be different for each newsletter you send since it depends on the body of the newsletter. 

Subject line 

The subject line must grab your readers’ attention. If it fails to do that, nothing else matters because your readers won’t open the email. 

While you want a catchy subject line, it must be relevant to the body of the newsletter. If it’s unrelated, you’ll quickly lose credibility and readers. 

Think outside of the box and play into your readers’ emotions with subject lines. It’s common to use punctuation and emojis to grab attention in email subject lines. Whether those will work for your audience depends on your brand and the content of your newsletter. 

Preview text 

The preview text is shown before an email is opened, typically under or to the right of the subject line. When emails are sent using a traditional email client such as Outlook, the preview text shows the first few lines of the actual email. When you use a customer relationship management (CRM) system to send an email newsletter, you’ll often have the opportunity to draft the preview text separately. 

Consider making the preview text a continuation of the subject line to further draw the reader into the email. 

When to send newsletters 

You want to send newsletters often enough to stay front of mind, but not so often to be annoying. How often you send them will depend on your practice areas and firm size. 

– If you have practice areas with frequent changes in the law, you’ll want to publish newsletters more often. 

– If you have a larger firm that frequently hires new associates or promotes lawyers to partner, you’ll want to publish newsletters more often.

– If you have a lot of tips to share, you can publish those more often as well. Aim for at least once a quarter, but no more than once a week. 

How to stay in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act 

The CAN-SPAM Act regulates commercial emails. In short, you need to be honest — including with your subject line, “from” field, and email address — and give recipients the option to opt out of future emails. 

Using a CRM, such as HubSpot, Constant Contact, or MailChimp, makes it easy to include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every newsletter. CRMs also make it easy to create templates to produce professional newsletters every time. 

How to measure effectiveness 

CRMs can help track who opened or clicked on any links in your newsletter. You can get reports on which newsletters had the best open rates and click rates. 

Play with different styles of subject lines and links to determine which ones are most effective with your audience. 

By creating a newsletter specific to your firm, practice area, and audience, you can strategically and effectively strengthen client relationships, showcase your knowledge, and potentially generate more leads.