Gideon Legal

Automated Intake for Law Firms

former clients

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.