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Chatbot Software for Law Firms

enewsletter

Marketing, Messaging, Technology

Turn on the Faucet: Drip Campaigns Can Be Used for a Lot of Different Things

A ‘drip campaign’ is a series of marketing messages.  And, those messages could be sent via a number of different platforms, including email and text.  Drip campaigns can be used to stay in touch with different segments of your contacts (including former clients and other referral sources), or following up on requests.  And, the advantage of automating messages like these is tremendously useful, because you can remove human effort from the equation, as well as the cost associated with it.

The great thing is that there are a number of uses for drip campaigns, including the following (not an exhaustive list):

-You can send a monthly client alert – you just need to pull together the content.

-You can send a quarterly enewsletter – (ditto).

-You can build a client journey for intake, including for making and following up on appointment scheduling.

-You can send a payment link or document signature request, and followup on those on a recurring basis.

-You can build a messaging sequence for closing a file, and staying in touch with those former clients.

Remember all those emails and phone calls you used to send manually, to followup and stay in touch . . .

Forget about it!

Marketing, Messaging

Multiplicity: The Secret to Content Marketing is Repurposing

Lots of lawyers avoid content marketing as a strategy, because they feel like they have to be James Joyce, or some shit.  But, there’s no need to write the great (Irish) novel every time you put pen to paper, or fingers to keys.  That’s far too much effort, for what you’re trying to accomplish = answering anticipated questions from potential clients or referral sources, in order to cement your expertise online.

On the other hand, some lawyers avoid content marketing, because they feel like they need to be Milli Vanilli.  So, they hand off the content creation responsibility to a vendor, and just crank out a bunch of informational posts that look a lot like a bunch of other informational posts, and that don’t really have any connection to the person who hired out for the service.  They’re not authentic to the attorney they (supposedly) represent.

But, there’s a middle ground, that allows for attorneys to produce content effectively, that is authentic to their voice, without becoming overwhelmed.

Instead of trying to write a complex legal brief, or a multi-pointed address, boil your topics down to the simplest elements.  Address singular issues, in the most direct way possible.  Do that, and you’ll find that your blog posts, videos, audio content, etc. are shorter, more to the point, and perfectly suited for the modern attention span.  Simplicity is the watchword.

Now, here’s the magic trick: Once you have all these segments of content, in a variety of formats, you can start playing at Legos.  Put them together, for an enewsletter.  String together blog posts to create an ebook.  Turn a whiter paper into a Powerpoint.  Now, that’s repurposing, at its finest.

Because, you don’t need to derive an infinite well of useful ideas – just 6-10 that you can mix and match.

Marketing, Messaging, Technology

Breaking News: The Law Firm Newsletter Is Still an Underrated Marketing Asset

The humble newsletter: often maligned, viewed as trite, perhaps even passé, in a world in which digital media options are overflowing.

And, yet – a solid, regular newsletter can be one of the most impressive marketing assets you will build in your law firm.

The reason for that is because it’s probably the simplest and easiest drip campaign you can develop.

Hear me out: You know that the more touch points you can get on your contacts, the more likely you are to generate new work from your contact list.  Newsletters are generally produced on a monthly or quarterly basis, and can cover items ranging from ‘client alerts’ to ‘firm news’.  Newsletters are quite literally constructed to be an online drip marketing campaign – even before such things existed.

So, if you’re not marketing effectively to lost leads and/or former clients and/or referral sources and/or existing clients and/or *anyone* — your newsletter is the trick.  Just get all those folks subscribed to your newsletter, publish it on a schedule, and you’ll generate more leads.  Guaranteed.

And, it doesn’t just have to be an enewsletter.  Old-fashioned newsletters still have their place, too.

Marketing, Messaging, Technology

Closing Time: Don’t Forget About Former Clients

When law firms close the book on former clients, they really close the book on former clients.

Most of the time, when a law firm archives a case, the attorney breathes a sigh of relief, puts the file away, and never looks at it again.

But, former clients are a terrific source of referrals, and staying in touch with your former clients means more revenue — if you can hit those communication beats effectively.

And, the first step in establishing that relationship, is creating a file closing process that implicates notice to the (soon-to-be former) client in some way.  Do you send a closing letter, or email?  Do you send/make available an electronic version of the client file?   Do you ask the client to subscribe to your new enewsletter at the close of the case?  Do you reference additional practice areas the firm handles, that the client may have a need to access or refer into in the future?

In the first instance, that closing process gives you one more bite at the apple, in terms of marketing to outgoing clients.  But, it also can be used to set a tone for future communications.

Because, even if your former client never has a need for your legal services ever again, they can refer others to you — assuming they remember that you exist.  Hence the viability of a newsletter, or alerts, or updates about the firm, that you can send along to those former clients.  And, that can also mean targeted content, as well, because you can place your former clients into a segregated mailing list.

So, with former law firm clients: it’s never goodbye; it’s always see you later.

Marketing, Messaging

The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Remarketing to Former Clients

It being the holiday season, everyone is running around trying to get last-minute gifts for everybody else.

But, as a lawyer, you can get yourself the gift of more revenue in 2022, by making a small and straightforward change to your marketing practices that’ll seem so simple, you may end up kicking yourself afterwards, for not having done it sooner.

Yes, there’s additional revenue just waiting there for you, with a nice bow sitting on top: and, it’s new work or referrals from former clients.

Generally speaking, lawyers are bad at communication.  They’re like so many tiny Sphinxes.

We’ve talked before, in this space, about the importance of remarketing to lost leads, who can potentially be recaptured at a later time.  But, it’s even easier to get new work and referrals from existing or former clients, because you’ve already established a (hopefully) positive relationship with them.

The challenge is that your former (and even your existing) clients have short memories, just like everyone else – and, you’re not always (more like hardly ever) ‘top of mind’ for them.  So, you need to consistently remind your former clients (as well as your existing clients, with notes and outreach unrelated to case requirements) that you’re still out there, still doing work, still open to doing more of it, and also open to referrals.  It’s the most effective way to prime the pump on the brand you’ve spent so much time building.

And, that kind of remarketing outreach doesn’t have to be anything crazy, or time-intensive.

If you’ve already got some kind of content marketing program in place, you can simply aggregate it, and produce email or text messages on a regular basis, like newsletters, client alerts or updates.

Do that on a schedule in 2022, and you’ll generate more business.  Guaranteed.

Happy New Year.