Tip – Do what you do best and leave the rest.

We estimate that it takes approximately 200 hours per year to publish, send, and maintain an e-newsletter program. For the average attorney making $300 per hour that equals over $60,000 per year in costs. WOW! No wonder attorneys are reluctant to add this critical marketing tool to their toolbox.

Consider outsourcing.  Take the next step. Hire an expert to do what you cannot do when it comes e-newsletter marketing.

Tip – Be choosy.

There are many companies to choose from when it comes to e-newsletter marketing. There are really no apples to apples comparisons amongst them. However, you do have a choice when finding one that can provide instant lead notification, offer pre-written material, deliver detailed reporting, and most of all, be cost effective.

Don’t stop at the first company that pops up in your Google search. Search until you find what you want. It is out there.

Tip – It’s not about what you know.

Time and time again what we think a reader wants is our intellect when in fact it is how the intellect can help them. It is very difficult to understand legal terms. Clients find themselves swimming in the vocabulary fishbowl trying to jump out.

One way to convey a message is to put it into context. Create a simple analogy of what you are trying to convey without using technical terms and apply it accordingly. Your message will become crystal clear.

As Ben Franklin once said, “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.”

Compare mass marketing tactics to relationship tactics. Do things like print, TV, You Tube, websites, Twitter, or direct mail enable you to build one-on-one relationships? I would say, not likely. These provide brand recognition and are the hardest to measure, if measurable at all, unless of course you are Google or Apple.

What marketing tools can help build relationships?

Email is a communication and marketing tool. It is inexpensive, interactive, and data driven and most of all, it is easy to use.  But there is a catch! You must be willing to build a relationship with your subscribers and nurture them over time. Communication builds relationships.

Keep your relationship positive by:

• Determining frequency of how often and when to mail
• Developing over the top content
• Paying attention to client segmentation
• Setting a tone by using a welcome message
• Measuring, refining, testing and repeating
• Thinking about quality not quantity
• Inserting polls and surveys

Review your inventory and see what assets are growing your firm. A good “marketing allocation” model that includes email marketing might be just what you need.

As Seth Godin stated in his book, Permission Marketing,  “As marketers, we usually don’t approach our clients like we would approach our spouse, do we?”

The truth is no.  We approach our clients as if they were passing by.  It is the wrong thing to do, but we do it anyway.

Now take a long- term relationship. Clients stick around longer, are more engaged, and they spread how they feel about you by word of mouth because they love you.  That’s what I call “Lifetime Value”.

When was the last time you looked at your behavior? Are you solely focused on the number of clicks from your e-newsletter, hits to your website or visits to you LinkedIn profile? The goal in marketing is not the number of hits but the long-term relationships that drive your business.

The First Date

E-Newsletter marketing is often a test to see if your relationship is worthy of mutual respect. It allows the parties to recognize the importance of two-way communication and acknowledging if they are a good fit.

Southwest Airlines offers an email notice for locations that you frequently fly to and from to get the best airfare. They offer a VISA card that gives points resulting in free flights.  They send birthday cards and drink coupons as a way of saying thank you for being a customer.  They give companion passes when you reach a certain threshold so you can travel with someone you “LUV” for free, notifying you by email.

They are building a lifetime of valuable relationships and it all starts with a first date.

It helps us to stay connected longer and also encourages us to share with others things we like. You may want to consider the following as ways to build your email lists.  There is nothing more welcoming than a referral from fan, friend, or family member.

• Use social media to encourage signups
  If you already have LinkedIn relationships, Twitter followers or a Facebook fan page, ask your followers and fans to sign up for your email alerts. Explain that the emails will include information and offers not available anywhere else. You can make it part of your loyalty program or a separate benefit if you don’t have a loyalty program.
• Hand every client and prospect a postcard.
  Clients may be squeezing in appointments between other activities and may not have time to sign up for an email program on the spot. But if you hand them a prepaid postcard they might fill it out and mail it later. If you also offer them the option of signing up online instead, you’ll greatly increase your chances of capturing their email addresses.
• Capture friends of friends.
  Every email you send has the potential for a ripple effect—if you encourage the people who are already on your list to pass your e-newsletter along to their friends. You can ask people to do it out of the goodness of their hearts, or you can give them an incentive with the offer of a consultation for a friend if the friend signs up and mentions them. It definitely helps to offer great content that’s worth passing along.

So, how do you build your client base using e-newsletters?

The Yahoo! survey also finds a growing number of adults are “hooked” to their email, with two in three adults checking their email as soon as they wake up, up from only 41 percent last year.  Let’s hope you take care of some personal business before jumping on your blackberry!

As shared on Today’s THV 2000 people were surveyed and some of the key findings are shared below.

• The majority of adults check email very frequently, with 48 percent checking their inboxes during meals. (Have you spoken with your staff lately on this topic?)
• Most adults believe there is a finite period of time in which someone can respond to an email. When it comes to personal mail, 86% of adults think an email should not go more than a week without a response. (What is your instant response rate?)
• 68 percent of adults check personal email while at work. (Hubspot recognizes that B2B is the same as B2C.)
• 70 percent of adults believe it’s OK to send “Thank You” cards/notes for gifts via email.

Can you relate to any of these? Do you keep that special email account just for things you sign up for? I do!  How do you know if your readers are getting the benefit of your email or e-newsletter? I’d love to hear your ideas.

So how do we manage them? By setting them first.

If a subscriber does not know what’s coming, it really doesn’t matter how consistent the formatting and frequency are – those e-newsletters will still feel inconsistent with whatever preconceived notions the subscriber had about them.

So how do you create expectations that you can then meet?

The industry gurus tell us you get 3 critical opportunities to do so.

Tip: Create Subscriber Expectations Before The Opt-In (Sign Up)

The second potential subscribers become aware that offering something by email like an e-newsletter, they begin to make assumptions about things like:

• The value/benefit to them if they sign up
• The cost to them if they sign up (their time and privacy)
• Who else will their send my address to
• What they will get from you
• How often they will get it

By replacing these assumptions with clear expectations that state what will actually happen, potential subscribers experience two things: They will more than likely sign up and they will be happier because they know what to expect.

Tip: Tell them, In or Near Your Opt-in Form

• What kind of content you’ll be sending
• How they’ll benefit as a subscriber
• How often they will hear from you or tell them they have a choice
• What you do and won’t do with their information

Tip : Give Thanks

Your thank you page is a critical stage in your e-newsletter marketing because it links two types of interactions your subscribers have with you.

Just before they sign up, maybe they’re interacting with you on your website. That puts them in 100% in control of their situation.

They can leave at any time and you’ll never even know who they were and you can’t track them.

Once they’ve subscribed, however, they are agreeing to communicate with your firm in a whole new way. Now you can deliver information to them when you choose or more importantly when they choose.

Good e-newsletter marketers set expectations using the thank you page.

Tip: Rein

force Expectations Right After The Opt-In

Once a subscriber signs up to your list, they may have a few questions that you need to answer right away:

• What happens next?
• When do I get my first e-newsletter?
• Who’s it coming from?
• What’s it going to look like?
• What do I do now?

You can answer these questions with your thank you page.

You can tell them:

• “Welcome. You have subscribed!”
• They will receive an email from “name and email address”
  • Look for a subject line with “X”
  • Look for content related to “X”

What They Should Do

• Look in their inbox
• Check spam folders if they can’t find you

Creating expectations on your thank you page is especially important because they help your new subscriber “ make that connection” between the time they spent on your website and the e-newsletters they will receive from you weeks and months later.

Trust.

You may be asking yourself, “What does trust have to do with my bottom line?” or “How much is my client’s trust really worth?”

The answer: everything.

Take a step back for a minute. Instead of focusing on your ROI (return on investment), I challenge you to begin thinking about your IOR (impact on relationships).  Only with IOR are you able to achieve long term ROI.

Here are a few facts to consider:

• Service businesses are based on trust.
• Trust builds long standing, sound relationships.
• Trusting relationships influence/affect a client’s purchase decision.
• Client purchases drive revenue.

How are you measuring the impact on your relationships? Are you building trust to enable better client relations?

Here are a few ways you can begin:

• Providing valuable content.
• Be there when they least expect it.
• Stay responsive.
• Be proactive.
• Striving for consistency.

How are you building trust and driving revenue in your business today? I would love to hear about your secret ingredient for business success.

Consider the following:

• Surveys indicate that most attorneys are challenged to get clients in the door.
• Attorneys spend little time and money on effective marketing strategies.
• Law firms for the most part don’t use education as a client acquisition tool.

On the other hand,

• 71% of American’s surveyed believe that given today’s economy, it is more  important to focus on saving money for immediate needs making estate  planning discretionary.
• Only 35% of Americans now report having a will and only 21% have a trust.
• A large portion of the population misunderstands the process of passing one’s estate to the spouse and/or family.

You may be asking, so what are the implications of this information on my business? There are powerful, inexpensive two-way communication tools that will enable you to educate your clients on how you can help them. E-newsletter marketing lets them tell you what they need with the click of a mouse. Taking advantage of this two-way communications channel is an opportunity to set yourself apart from your competition.

What are you doing to ignite conversations with your customers?

^{Sources (Wealthcounsel Survey,  Laywers.com survey)}

Providing your reader with information and resources that educate them and leave them feeling that they are walking away with information, or even a solution, they hadn’t thought of before, is key. Educational content is motivational and builds trust. Think less about promoting yourself, and more about how what you are writing will help your audience. Don’t be afraid to ask your readers what they want to hear about. Take input and make them feel a part of the process.

Speak in terms that make sense to your audience, eliminate the jargon! It’s easy to forget that our readers have less experience and/or knowledge than we do. Start with the basics. Most readers are looking for a solution to their challenge. Use stories that help the reader better understand your solution and focus on the fundamentals. The goal is to leave the reader feeling like they understand what you are saying, find what you are saying to be of value, and leave them thinking of you when it is time to take action.