The Power of a Newsletter

A printed newsletter literally shows up differently. It is tangible mail delivered to the mailbox which makes it stand out in a world of ever-increasing emails delivered to our inboxes. It is a time-tested and effective tactic for any law firm's marketing strategy. There is definitely work involved in getting a newsletter off the ground and mailing it out with frequency, but the results are worth the effort. Here are some things to keep in mind if you are considering sending out, or are already sending out, a printed newsletter.?

The purpose. A newsletter is intended to keep you top-of-mind with past and current clients, as well as with the referring attorneys in your network. It also is a way to deepen your relationship with your audience because a newsletter is an opportunity to get personal and share things about you and your team members that reminds the people on your list that you are more than just a law office. This in turn increases the affinity of your audience to your firm.?

How do you make it and mail it out? You can create your newsletter in-house and mail it out or you can outsource all that work to a third-party to do all the work. The latter option is more expensive but a third-party graphic designer can do wonders in producing a newsletter that is compelling and that gets opened and read, plus they will also mail out your newsletter.

Who should you send your newsletter to? Each and every person on your list should receive your newsletter.?Every time we sign-up a new client or meet a potential new attorney referrer they get added to our list. Your most valuable asset in business is your list and one of the best ways to grow a firm is to continuously build out your list and to send a newsletter to everyone on it. This can result in both client and attorney referrals for your law firm for years to come.

How often should you send it out? Ideally, it should be sent monthly, but if cost is a concern, bimonthly is sufficient. Any less frequency than that can reduce the overall impact and effectiveness of the newsletter. But if quarterly is all you can do, then that is fine, too.

The content. This is a great forum to show some personality so have fun with your newsletter. Most attorney newsletters are boring and contain dry content about the law that people find boring and dry. Therefore, make your newsletter interesting. I have found that people love the recipe we provide each month. We include one in each newsletter and it's called Rory's Recipe because my wife Rory always provides the recipe.

I also always include an update about my family and my office. We also have a section mentioning the names of those who in the last month have referred us a case. This is intended to thank the person for the referral, and to remind everyone that we invite and encourage their referrals.

I also frequently will include in the newsletter social media content that has performed well. This is a great way to leverage an asset by repurposing it into a different media, and it also cuts down on the content curation effort needed for each newsletter we produce.

Other features we include is an inspiring quote, the books I am reading, and a free offer for one of my books. Additionally, we frequently ask one of our referring attorneys if they want to contribute content to one of our newsletters. We offer them the option to provide content of their choosing related to their practice area such as answers to FAQs. Not only does this reduce our work of creating new content, but it also creates good will with the attorney by giving him an opportunity to reach your audience.

If you want to send out a newsletter, don't wait for it to be perfect before you send it out. Done beats perfect every time. Just get it out the door if you want to send one out. Once you begin sending it out you will improve and refine your content and the creation process as time goes on. The key is to just get started.

Keep in mind it does take time to start seeing results once you start sending out your newsletter, so don't get discouraged if results don't come right away. Give it time. You will find that as with any investment, the returns from a newsletter compound over time. If you have other ideas on attorney newsletters, I would love to hear them. Please share them with me by emailing me at [email protected].