Direct mail campaigns are reliable and trackable advertising sources designed to capture new leads and spread brand awareness. But in a growing landscape of digital marketing options, there are several reasons why law firms should still be using direct mail marketing.

Reasons Why Direct Mail is Still an Effective Legal Marketing Channel

Most everyone, businesses and individuals, has a mailbox and looks through all their mail. Direct mail reaches a diverse demographic of people in a targeted area, making direct mailers a useful advertising source for law firms.

Builds brand trust. Print media has proven to foster more trust among recipients than advertising over digital media.

High return on oinvestment. Direct mailing has one of the highest response rates with the lowest overall prices. Many potential clients prefer to be contacted via mailers because of its convenience, readability level, and the ability to have a tangible object to view. Studies have shown that people are more influenced to take action after receiving direct mailers. It is also an affordable way to reach a large population of people.

Less competition. There is less traffic in direct mailing, thereby decreasing the print mail competition. Direct mail has lost some popularity due to the ease of transitioning advertising into digital media channels. However, this has led to busier, more expensive, and more competitive digital spaces while resulting in open, less crowded direct mail channels.

There are advertising options. Direct mailers come in multiple forms including letters, postcards, brochures, and festive cards. This type of physical advertisement stands out, is more easily remembered, and tends to spark an emotional response. It also provides the opportunity to cater to your business advertising to the recipients who are going to most value the direct mailers.

Guaranteed it will be seen. It is all but certain that direct mailers get seen. Most people check and read their mail daily. Do not leave it up to a special algorithm to get your advertisements in front of potential clients. Direct mailers do end up in the hands of much of the targeted audience. Just under half of those viewers take action on the mailers they read, making it a great return on investment for direct mail campaigns.

Tactics for Law Firms to Create Powerful Direct Mail Campaigns

When you have decided that direct mail is the right choice, there are a few tricks to making it engaging.

Be loud and proud. Use the space to tell readers about the legal services you provide. Unlike digital media where character count is limited, print media provides for the opportunity to express more about your law firm to potential clients.

Personalize. Make your advertisements more personalized. Since direct mailing allows your law firm to target a particular demographic, this allows for the ability to cater to that audience. Get creative with design, promotional materials, and language. By choosing keywords and phrases that resonate with your audience, further build your law firm brand, gain trust, and ultimately client loyalty.

Branding, branding, branding. Be consistent with your branding. Make sure your mailers reflect the same branding as the firm logo and other ads the firm has used. Brand recognition builds recall and can help spread word-of-mouth referrals.

Plug your business. Use direct mailers to promote your digital media outlets too. Include your law firm’s website and social media pages to your direct mailers to take advantage of both worlds. These will lead your recipients to your firm’s landing pages containing even more information relating to your original mailer.

Call to action. So, the target audience receives your mailer, likes your messaging, and wants a consultation with your law firm – now what? Be sure to include a clear call to action on your direct mailers that walk your target audience through the next steps for hiring your firm. Make retention of your firm easier through calls to action that include a special code for a discount, texting options to schedule a consultation, or QR coding that links directly to your website scheduling tool.

How Direct Mailers Help Capture Leads into Your Law Firm Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is the term used for turning your leads into clients. Advertisements are meant to cast a broad net and then funnel the most interested potential client into a discussion about what your business can do to help them solve some problem or remedy an issue they have.

There are nonlinear stages, levels, and entrances to the funneling process, as there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. This means a bit of creativity is required at every step. Additionally, this process takes time, so be patient while it plays out.

Law Firm Direct Mailers Need to Grab Attention When Checking the Mail

Direct mail allows viewers a few seconds of attention when checking their mail, which is what advertising strives to achieve. The act of sifting through mail requires attention on the ‘To,’ ‘From,’ and ‘What.’ This allows a potential client to have a few seconds of undivided and undistracted advertising while checking the mail.

In fact, when viewing mail, people typically take the time to read and analyze the printed material to figure out why they were personally targeted. Contrastingly, on digital media platforms, most people have trained themselves to scroll past the ads or block out flashy images.

Direct mail captures client leads and is a proven advertising route where direct mailers help redirect readers to visit your law firm’s website, storefront, call the firm to schedule a consultation, or engage on social media. This affordable means of advertising is a steppingstone that will grow your law firm marketing funnel and better your chances to expand your client base.