Is Your e-Communication Being Read?

Any way you look at it, e-communication gives you and your firm exposure in an existing or potential client market:

• Producing an e-newsletter provides your firm with an opportunity to educate clients, prospective clients and referral sources about legal issues, trends and changes in the law.
• Using an e-newsletter also gives you a legitimate reason to contact individuals, whether they be your clients, prospects or referral sources.

However, unlike other communication delivery methods, e-communication is the one place a law firm can actually see specific results ' from who received the communication, to whether that person actually viewed the e-mail or forwarded it on to someone else.

Use an e-Mail Campaign Service

One of the best investments you can make to improve your e-communication is to use an e-mail campaign service. The cost to sign up can be as little as $15 for one e-campaign, depending on the size of your firm's e-mail list. The features provided are terrific, including a wide choice of design templates and that all important tracking data. There are many e-campaign services to choose from ' among the most inexpensive are:

• VerticalResponse (requires no monthly commitment); www.verticalresponse.com.
• Constant Contact (requires a monthly minimum); www.constantcontact.com.
• Campaigner (also requires a monthly minimum); www.campaigner.com.

These particular programs are very easy to use and have good technical support. Additionally, no investment in design is necessary since most service providers have a wide variety of templates your firm can use and customize. The templates allow you to customize layout (columns or no columns), colors and font sizes, as well as the use of images such as a firm logo, attorney photo or other graphics. It can take less than an hour to get set-up and uploading an e-mail list can usually be done from Outlook or Excel.

But one of the greatest benefits of using these services over your own in-house e-mail program is that you are able to follow your readers. The tracking reports show you specifically who (the actual e-mail address) opened the e-mail, which e-mail bounced (bad address), who forwarded the e-mail (although you won't get to see to whom the e-mail was forwarded ' that technology does not yet exist), and if you provided links to information on your Web site or other Web links, you will see who clicked on those links. In addition to tracking the recipients of your e-newsletter, using an e-mail marketing service will give you piece of mind that your e-communication complies with anti-spam laws.

Create a Communication That Will Be Read

e-Communication can be a very versatile tool for influencing existing clients and developing new client relationships, if designed and written appropriately. To make sure you are creating an e-mail that will be read by those who receive it, consider these tips:

• Fit the tone. Make sure the article(s) can be understood and appreciated by the intended readers. If an e-communication is designed for referring lawyers, then it should be written for a lawyer. However, if the e-communication is intended for clients ' most of whom are business people or the general public ' then forget the legalese and write in a business tone.
• Keep it short. One to two pages (when printed) is a good rule of thumb to follow. Design the e-communication so that readers can easily scan the material. Use pull quotes (key points that are displayed in text boxes within the article) or highlighted text to draw readers to particular points or information you want them to see.
• Include information relevant to your clients' businesses or needs. Remember, content is king. The idea here is to not only include a brief article or two on trends or recently decided cases, but to successfully relate such information to how it affects an individual's, company's or industry's goals, needs or interests.
• Set a realistic production schedule. The number one reason e-communication projects fail is that production expectations are unrealistic. My advice: Commit to a publication schedule your firm can meet ' whether it is twice per year, quarterly or more frequently.

Of course when dealing with lawyer communication ' particularly marketing-related communication ' there is always the lawyer advertising element to be addressed. Carefully check the rules in all of the states in which lawyers in your firm are licensed to practice and use the appropriate disclaimers. In most states, lawyers are required to plainly label marketing communication as “advertising,” so it would be advisable to include the appropriate compliance language at the end of your e-communication. Of special importance: Make sure you are thoroughly compliant with any relevant opt-out legislation before sending any e-communication.

Finally, it is important to copyright your e-communication. Although some of the information may be cited or otherwise obtained from other sources, it is important to discourage the unauthorized use of the firm's original article material, especially by competitors.