5 Best Email Drip Campaigns for Law Firm Marketing

If you're new to the concept of inbound and lead-based marketing, it's tempting to consider lead generation as the central goal of your efforts. But what happens once those leads enter your database?

Ignoring existing leads can be devastating. Only a fraction of the contacts in your database are actually ready to become your clients, while the majority probably signed up for some interesting content.

Their action may show a general interest, but not (yet) a willingness to engage you for your services. Simply hitting them with a sales pitch will alienate them, running counter to your goals of growing the client base for your law firm.

Your task, then, is to take new leads and slowly nurture them to the point where, when they need the services of a lawyer, you'll be waiting for them.

Drip campaigns can and should play a major role in helping you get to that point.

Understanding the Nature of Drip Campaigns

Drip campaigns occupy a unique space within the email marketing realm. Rather than sending at a specific date or time, they trigger based on a specific action your leads take.

In other words, drip campaigns are not bound by a content calendar. Instead, they offer timely information to your leads at the exact moment they're looking for it.

The result is a more effective and personalized nurturing process.

5 Email Drip Strategies for Law Firm Marketing

1) The Introduction/Welcome Series

The most basic, and perhaps most important, type of drip campaign involves welcoming new leads into your communication flow.

When they first sign up to enter your database, you don't yet know how much they actually know about you. This sequence serves to remedy that fact, allowing your law firm to gain initial credibility in the eyes of your audience.

This drip campaign is not, and should not be, a sales pitch. Instead, focus on providing as much information about your law firm as possible to give potential clients a broad knowledge base about what you do and how you can help them.

Sample Welcome Campaign

Trigger: A new lead entering your database from your website.

1. ‘Thanks for Signing Up’ email, sent within an hour.
2. Detailed overview of services you offer, sent about a week later
3. Client Testimonial email, sent about two weeks later.
4. Team Introduction email, sent about three weeks later.

2) The Industry Update

As soon as one of your leads shows interest in content on your website that concerns the industry and niche in which you operate, pounce on it with a related drip campaign. In other words, begin to send emails that expand upon the type of content for which they showed an interest.

Potential clients show interest in industry-related content for a simple reason: they are looking to find applicable information to their own law-related needs. If you can provide the information in a timely manner, and in a way that resonates with them, you will build credibility with your potential clients, and position yourself as a trusted source.

Sample Industry Update Campaign

Trigger: a lead reads industry-related content (such as a blog post or white paper about a recent court case) on your website.

1. Email about how the topic in question relates to your services.
2. Explanation of a recent court case on the topic by one of your lawyers.
3. Email connecting one of your own past cases to the topic.
4. Relevant news and updates concerning the same topic, as they occur.

3) The Nurturing Sequence

Both of the above examples are ultimately information-based. But of course, email drip campaigns can also help you actively nurture new leads toward becoming qualified for a sales pitch and, ultimately, qualified as clients.

To achieve that goal, build an email sequence that gradually moves from providing relevant information to outlining exactly why a lead should consider your services. A number of messaging tactics can help you increase your effectiveness.

Social proof, for example, has been proven to work as a credibility builder across industries.

Meanwhile, transparency can work wonders, so don't be afraid to outline your pricing policies in an honest manner.

Finally, taking advantage of the scarcity principle can effectively drive action.

Sample Nurturing Campaign

Trigger: an action that suggests at least some willingness to become a client, such as a visit to your pricing page or a click/reply to other emails (note: you’ll need to already have collected the lead’s information for this particular campaign).

1. Testimonial from a current client, ideally one with a similar profile to your lead.
2. Outline of your pricing policy, and what it means for your clients.
3. Introduction to your individual lawyers, and who the lead might be working with.
4. Emphasis of your current workload, and the benefits of getting in touch and becoming a client soon.

4) The Onboarding Process

When a lead decides to become a client, the possibilities of maximizing success using drip emails is far from over. In fact, now is a perfect opportunity to build a lasting relationship.

Other industries are already familiar with customer onboarding, but you may not engage in a formal process as a law firm. So why not start?

New clients probably have to fill out some paperwork before they can get started. They may also need (and want) to share some extra information about their individual case.

Through an email sequence, you can get them on the right track.

Sample Onboarding Campaign

1. Notification of any outstanding paperwork.
2. Invitation to share details (by replying to the email) about their situation.
3. Personal note from the lawyer that's been assigned to the case.
4. Option to schedule an appointment to meet the lawyer they'll work with.

5) The Loyalty Option

Last, but certainly not least, you can take advantage of drip email marketing by engaging past clients — stay top of mind should they ever need your services again.

Loyalty matters, regardless of your industry. In managing your law firm, you probably notice the value of repeat clients who not only bring in new revenue, but also act as advocates of your services in their own relationships.

Through effective emails, you can entice current clients to stay in touch and increase the chance of retaining their services. The goal here, once again, is not to pitch your services, but to position yourself as a helpful resource both now and in the future.

Sample Loyalty Campaign

Trigger: A closed case for one of your clients.

1. Acknowledgement of services provided, and a thank you to the client.
2. Option for your client to share feedback on their engagement with your firm.
3. Invitation to connect and stay in touch on your social media outlets.
4. Regular updates on your law firm, as they occur.

Optimizing Your Drip Campaign to Enhance Your Success

Each of the above strategies can help you increase your lead to client conversion rate. But of course, you also have to follow best practices in email marketing and drip campaigns to maximize your success.

Emails, for example, should be short. A study of more than 40 million emails found that those between 50 and 125 words in length received the highest interaction rates.

At the same time, your subject line should be short, engaging, descriptive, and honest. And of course, be sure to construct it in a way that avoids email spam filters and complies with the CAN SPAM Act.

Combining one or more of these five drip campaigns with email best practices can maximize the success of your marketing efforts.

The result will be an inbound, digital marketing effort that actually contributes to growing not just leads in your database, but actual clients.