Opinion: Firm results

Email is a proven marketing channel. A third of the UK businesses that measure its effectiveness report a return on investment of at least five times. How can your law firm harness its power?

By Edward Weatherall, managing director, Concep

Email marketing is nothing new. The benefits have been known for some time. Email allows communication to be targeted, personalised, delivered quickly, and its effectiveness can be measured almost instantly.

Response rates dwarf direct marketing at a fraction of the cost. Yet law firms have been slow to catch on, with those utilising email marketing only scratching the surface of its potential.

A skittishness exists among partners, who equate email with spam, implicitly doubting its effectiveness, but this view is outdated. Concep supplies email marketing services to ten of the top 30 global law firms. From this vantage point, email offers a unique way of communicating with key clients, major accounts and new business.

Partners in marketing

Viewing marketing as something the whole firm is involved with is central to email’s success. It is imperative to start conversations between law firm and email service providers early and to include all stakeholders. We spend a lot of time working with the whole business, not just marketing. We explain email marketing’s reach. It’s very powerful to have someone external demonstrate the positive impact email has on other law firms. If you can show it has been successful, partners’ ears will prick up.

Once partners see rival firms have gained a competitive edge, doubts then ebb away. The whole point is that email marketing gets relevant, targeted content to the right people. All the research shows solicited emails are read. People check the subject line and who the email is from. If it’s relevant they read it and interact with the content.

This interaction is key. As soon as someone starts using content and clicking on links, data is stored and evidence gathered. Soon the firm can see in granular detail what holds people’s interest; the topics that are hot and those that are not. This level of measurability enables marketing to be tailored to individual needs and interests, boosting its effectiveness.

Interest rates

According to Susanne Sidwell, marketing manager at Morgan Lewis, the benefits of email marketing have been manifold. Email has been used for brand awareness, event promotion and pitch support. But no matter the marketing exercise, Sidwell maintains the chief boon that is you can prove what recipients find interesting with solid statistics.

Email marketing is a vital check and balance for law firms, she says. It ensures that what they are sending out is valued by their audience. “Partners always think they know what clients find interesting. In the three firms I’ve worked for, email marketing has shown partners their clients don’t always agree.”

The benefits of this are greater than marketing departments getting one over the partners. Often a firm thinks it knows what the big issues are. They organise events and send out invites, only to get a lukewarm response. If – through email tracking – clients tell the firm what they’re interested in, the firm has a captive audience.

The personal touch

Email also has benefits beyond pure marketing. In an industry heavily reliant on personal relationships, email marketing systems come into their own.

Prior to email, Sidwell says information was sent out without knowing if it was relevant or being looked at. “The email system not only tells us who looked at the email, but also what parts of the email were of interest. It’s infinitely more valuable when following up on that initial contact.”

Due to the adoption of email marketing, your competitors are gaining this level of insight into their client base, and are acquiring new customers at greater rates.

The latest research shows that 55 per cent of the UK businesses measuring the return on investment (ROI) on email marketing report it to be three times or more. Almost one third (32 per cent) report RoI is five times or more. As the legal profession catches on, it is those adopting truly strategic email campaigns that will gain the most.

Edward Weatherall is the managing director of Concep. He can be contacted at edward.weatherall@concepglobal.com